Page 45 of Crazy for this Girl

I roll my eyes against his rich boy attitude, even though he never flaunts it. His dad owns a successful business; I’m not sure what he’s into exactly because Cal doesn’t speak about him much, but he makes bank.

We get to the side of the house where neither of our parents can spy on us while Cal gives me this top-secret gift. Tall and old pine trees stand faithfully in throngs, blocking out the sun and making it cool against the rays as Cal stops.

“Alright, ready?” He turns around, and I bob my head. “You sure?”

“Cal…”

“Just don’t scream.”

“Why, are you going to propose to me?”

His lips lift. “Not yet.” My stomach flips again, but I’m desperate to ignore it.

Standing in front of him, all of him, is something new altogether. Cal grew muscles from the way his dark blue tee stretches across his chest and biceps. His shoulders are wider, and his face looks like it’s grown facial hair that he shaved. His lips are full, curved in not so much a boyish smile anymore but a manly, confident smirk.

“So, remember when I told you last year that I was going to look up Warped Tour?”

My eyes squint a tad. “Yeah…”

“Well, they’ll be here in August. In North Carolina. I scored us tickets and we’re—“ I leap at him, sheer enthusiasm shooting through me like lightning, and I just lost all function of what’s appropriate or not.

Cal lifts me up by the backs of my thighs and laughs with me, the pads of his fingers gently pressing into my flesh as I wrap my arms around his neck, squealing in delirium that I’m about to go to the best tour ever made by mankind with a million of my favorite bands.

I’m about to go to a concert with people my own age and not my dad’s generation with a group that has their songs playing on an Oldies station.

“I’m going to Warped Tour?!”

“Shhh!!” Cal chortles, spinning us around and walking closer to the secluded woods. “The point was to keep your mom from hearing us.”

“Please tell me you’re not teasing me,” I mutter into his neck, and I swear I feel him shutter underneath me before his fingers splay over the naked skin of my legs, sending a pulsing of need to just crash my lips against his.

What would he do?

I’ve always wondered that. If I was bold and courageous. If he’d stay true to his word about nothing ever changing between us if I decided to act impulsive and just do it.

Best friend warning. Best friend warning; he’s your best friend, Laynee.

“I’m for real,” he mutters next to my ear. The dip in his tone, the eminence of how much he’s adjusted into another year older of himself, makes me bite down on my lip. “We’re definitely going.”

“I’m so excited.”

“I couldn’t tell.”

“How did you do it?”

“That’s the cool thing about being a rich kid, Tone Deaf. Things are easily accessible to me.”

I inhale him shamelessly, like I’m just taking a normal intake of air before I sigh in sheer contentment. “You’re a brat.”

“Yeah…but this brat is taking you to Warp Tour.”

I pull myself from out of his neck because I’ve already been there for too long. The full intensity of his eyes peer up at me, and maybe I should’ve stayed there for a little longer.

They glisten in the sun, holding shards of melodious vibes that sink right into my core. He’s beautiful, perfect, and so making this hard to not fawn over him secretly like an idiot.

Unwrapping myself around him, because I really need to, he sets me on my feet, and I immediately start to fall to one knee. “Cal Harper, will you—“

“Yes.” He seizes my bicep and pulls me back up, flushing my chest with his. “Yes, I’ll marry the shit out of you.”

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