He opened another can of beer as soon as they got into the car. Hazel took one for herself and started drinking like she was dehydrated. They toasted their cans and he started driving.
“Why did you say Max was going to kill you?” she was curious.
He hesitated, her question reminded him that he had betrayed his best friend’s trust to stay away from his sister. But then his request was vague, he didn’t say they couldn’t have a friendly night out together.
He tilted his shoulder, “Because I just took you out of your house to buy some beers in the middle of the night.” He laughed softly, “You wouldn’t believe how protective he is of you if I told you.”
He glanced at her for a second. She was viciously finishing her first can and took another one.
“And if he knows that’s how you drink, he’ll be even more pissed off at me.”
“Really? Hmm …” she thought about it for a moment, “I never realized that’s how he is with me when I’m not around.”
Theo got quiet. He can hear Max’s voice in his head telling him that pursuing his sister was not a good idea. “You’ve always been the princess in the family, you can never do anything wrong … do you remember when we were at the lake house when we were kids and your parents specifically said that you were not allowed to jump into the lake because you haven’t learned how to swim yet?”
She laughed, “Oh yeah … I jumped anyway, almost drowned and you got me out all coughed up with water.”
“Yeah, and do you remember who they blamed it on?”
She was laughing even louder, “I’m sorry, I mean … I didn’t want to be left out, we went all the way there to be in the lake and everybody told me I couldn’t go in, it was annoying.”
“Max was yelling at me for being the one who was right beside you before you jumped, I didn’t even know you were going to do that, the next thing I knew you were under the water … do you know how scary that was? To see you jumped in and didn’t come out … it was like you disappeared, swallowed whole, God it gives me goosebumps just remembering that moment.”
She could see the hair on his arms stood up and then he rubbed it off.
“But you’re the one who came to me tonight, this is not my idea … so if anything goes wrong, it’s all your fault,” she teased him.
He smiled lightly, “You know? You’re right … we should stop.” The car was slowing down as he pulled over by the roadside.
“What? Are you serious? I’m kidding … keep driving, my mom’s gonna call soon.”
He rubbed his face with both hands, “I’m gonna be honest with you … this is my 8th beer and my eyes are getting blurry.” The car finally stopped near an empty park, the road was quiet and there was no one around.
“You’re joking, right? How are we going to get home?” she started to panic. “My mom’s gonna be calling to the house soon, she’ll freak out if I don’t answer.”
“I know I’m sorry, I should’ve thought about it before I drank all that beer at the store … I’m not gonna risk it, just call Lee and tell him to pick us up, just send him the location.”
“You’re not serious? We’re close … can’t you just drive slowly and get us home?”
He squinted his eyes and looked around, his head felt light he was sure he was at least half-drunk. “No … I don’t want to risk it, I might as well be dead if something happens to you, can you call Lee and get him to come over?”
She could, but she really didn’t want him to know she was out on a night stroll with Theo when she told him she couldn’t leave the house for Mischa’s birthday. She grunted, “I guess I could try … what are we going to do before he gets here? He’s at a birthday party, I doubt he can get here that soon.”
Theo had a playful smile on his face, he took another can of beer and opened it, “We can have a little party of our own.”
“Urgh … are you doing this on purpose to get back at me for that lake incident or something? Lee’s gonna be pissed if he knows I’m not home.”
Theo pushed his seat back and started sipping his beer, “Why?”
She told him about the invitation, he laughed. “It’s not funny,” she gave him a look.
“Oh my God … it’s that serious? Can I ask you something? Have you kissed him yet?” he was relaxed with his arm folded and his hand behind his head.
“What makes you think we have that kind of relationship?” she was being defensive.
“Well, I thought that’s why you were practicing that kiss with Jan for? To kiss him, right?”
“No … of course not, we were just fooling around, it was a silly game.”
“So you haven’t kissed him yet? Does that mean the only guy who has kissed you was …” he pointed to himself with a smirk on his face.
She slapped his arm, “Shut up … yeah and you need to wipe that smirk off your face, that’s not fair … you stole it from me.”
He was laughing in amusement, “You don’t know how flattered I am to be the first.”
She slapped him again a few times, she was flushed with embarrassment, “I can’t believe you’re laughing at me.”
Her smack was sharp on his chest, he dodged away but she kept hitting him all over, “Ouch you have quite a nasty slap there Mickey … I’m sorry, okay, I just … I couldn’t help it, you’re so adorable and cute and I couldn’t stop thinking about doing that the whole night I waited for you in Goldstone.”
He was telling the truth, and what he said had hit a spot in her that she stopped hitting him. She got quiet. A part of her wanted to believe him, another part was scared of it. “Well, you promised that it will never happen again, so it shouldn’t.”
He got quiet too. They looked at each other in silence for a moment. If she only knew how much he really wanted to kiss her again, but he couldn’t.
“Never say never,” he said in a low voice.
She clutched her phone in her hand, she felt the mood shifted in an instant and she didn’t know what to do.
“Maybe not now … but I can’t promise never … the only thing that stopping me right now is your brother’s face inside my head telling me how he will kill me if I try.”
She didn’t say anything. She surprised herself with her own reaction. This was the guy she had been crushing on since third grade, and he was indirectly telling her he wanted to be the one to kiss her but she just sat there in silence.
“And if you don’t call Lee to come rescue us soon … I’m not gonna promise I won’t try to kiss you again,” he laughed at his own joke, but they knew he wasn’t really joking.
She curved her lips and lean her head on the headrest, she threw a light punch on the side of his arm. She dialed Lee’s number, she didn’t want things to start happening either, it would be too complicated.