Page 75 of Falling for Autumn Again

And lastly—just to get the girl’s blood boiling—I putter around my room, moving things here and there, all while singing show tunes from the movieChitty Chitty Bang Bang. We sang 'Toot Sweets' in tenth-grade choir class and Autumn had detention every week for skipping out. She hated that song with a passion and would rather spend an hour a day with Principal Brown than sing or listen to it.

If anything is going to drag her out of that closet—it’s this.

I start into the second chorus when the sliding door to my closet comes skidding open, only to hit the opposite wall and pop closed again.

The girl does not disappoint.

She skates the sliding door open once more, and with eyes as wide as a crazed koala, Autumn comes crawling out on her hands and knees. She stumbles to her feet, breathless. She points one threatening finger my way. “How long have you known?”

I smirk. “Since I grabbed my pants from the hamper. You’re not very good at hiding, Green.”

“Well,” she says, brushing back the long chestnut lock that’s flipped into her face. “Joke’s on you, lloveDiet Coke now.” She storms past me and out of the room.

I scramble to keep up. “Autumn. Whoa. Hold up.”

She pauses at the front, her hand on the doorknob.

“Aren’t you staying for dinner? I sent you that invite and thought maybe—”

“Maybe I’d stay for some fruity Poppy’s pizza.Ick.” She shakes her head. “Wait,” she says, rotating her glare my way once more, though it’s more confused than angry. “You sent me an invite?”

“Yeah. With the necklace.”

“So, itisfrom you?” she says. I can’t believe she didn’t know. Even if I hadn’t left her a note at the bottom of the box, she should have known it came from me. Or has she started confessing her unhealthy obsession with Harry to the rest of the world?

Autumn straightens up and crosses her arms. “Joke’s on you again. I haven’t listened to Harry Styles in almost ten years.”

Lie.

“Autumn, we need to talk. You can’t kiss me one day and hate me the next. It doesn’t work like that. Clearly, we have some things to work through.”

“All I need is for you to keep your lips and your hands and your minty fresh breath to yourself. And then we’ll be fine.” With that, she swings open the front exit.

She’s out the door, past the pizza boy walking up with my overloaded pineapple pizza and two Diet Cokes, and over to her place in seconds.

Great. That’s got to be some kind of record—how fast can Ezra Bennett get rid of a girl? Ten point two seconds.

I pay the pizza guy, pick off every single piece of pineapple, and muster up my courage. There’s one thing Autumn hatesmore than any other. One that she can’t stay quiet about. One she’ll have to share her opinion on. Of course, I’m basing all of this on ten-year-old facts.

With two Diet Cokes beneath my arm, my non-pineapple pizza in one hand, and my phone in the other, I lightly kick on the bottom of her door to knock.

Phillip stares back at me from my cell. “What am I doing again?”

“Just stating your honest opinion. That’s all I need.”

“And that will get your girl to talk to you?” He breathes out through his nose, doubt and skepticism in every word. “I’ve never heard of a girl so in love that she refuses to talk to the guy.”

“Well, there’s a first for everything,” I say and give the door one more kick.

“Are you sure she still loves you?”

“Nope. But I gotta try.”

"Because you love her?" Phil says, needing to state the obvious. He has to have all the facts laid out. Or possibly he's saying,I told you so.

“Yep,” I say, just as Autumn opens up the door. “I do.”

“What are you doing here?” She’s in a different shirt and her damp hair is pulled back at the nape of her neck in a hair tie. She’s got one hand on her hip and her glare isn’t lacking. No, it’s award-winning.

---