Page 15 of When October Starts

I nodded, holding out my pinky so she could hook hers with mine. She did. “Promise,” I told her, letting go of her pinky again.

“Tomorrow, same time?” I asked.

“Sure. Are you going somewhere?”

“Uh, yeah. I have to go visit my aunt on the other side of town. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I told her, then got on my bike and rode off.

I had no aunt living on that side of town, but I had a handsome man waiting for me in his apartment. Ezra invited me for dinner, and after texting each other all week long and not getting to hang out other than that Tuesday afternoon, he asked if I wanted to spend some time with him tonight.

I couldn’t say no, and although my excitement was going through the roof, there was a part of me deep inside my brain telling me that I shouldn’t go, and we would get caught sooner or later.

Ezra assured me that none of the other students knew where he lived, and that his friends wouldn’t go to his home unannounced.

Ten minutes later, I arrived at his apartment building and locked my bike next to the entrance. The door was open, so I walked up the stairs to get to his apartment. I knocked a few times, then looked down at my clothes and breathed in deeply to calm my nerves.

The door opened, and Ezra stood there in his loungewear. “Hey,” he greeted, and I smiled brightly at him.

“Hi,” I replied. I let my eyes wander down his body, then up to his face again where a smug grin appeared on his lips.

“Wanna come in? Or do you wanna keep staring at me?”

“I don’t mind either,” I told him, making him chuckle. He reached for my waist and pulled me inside, and after closing the door behind me, he leaned in to kiss my cheek.

“You’ve done a lot of that last week in school.”

“A lot of what?” I asked, wrapping my arms around his neck to keep him close.

“Staring. I thought I told you about keeping your eyes off me or else people will notice.”

“I haven’t been staring. I’ve been listening to what you were saying. Your last English lesson was very interesting, you know?”

Ezra gave me a skeptical look. “Don’t mess with me, Juno,” he muttered, but he didn’t sound as serious as he would’ve liked to.

“I’m not. I loved how you tried to make poetry fun. Takes a lot of balls to do that.”

He rolled his eyes and gave my ass a small slap. “I need to stuff that naughty mouth of yours with some food. Come on,” he grabbed my arms and pulled them off his shoulders, then he nodded to the kitchen where the table was already set.

I scrunched up my nose. “What?” he asked, looking at the table and then back at me. “Is this too much? I thought you wanted to have a nice date.”

“I did. But…I’m seventeen. I usually eat my dinner on the couch watching tv.”

Ezra puckered his lips, then quickly walked to the kitchen to grab both plates. “You should’ve told me. All this fancy date shit reminds me too much of Olivia.” He grinned and started to fill the plates with the food he prepared.

I walked over to him to see that he had cooked some chicken breasts with grilled potatoes and bell peppers as a side. “Looks and smells delicious,” I told him, then grabbed one of the plates while he filled the other.

“I’m a master-chef.”

I chuckled at his statement and grabbed the two glasses on the table to bring them over to the couch. “Let me be the judge of that.”

We got comfortable on the couch with our plates in our laps. Ezra turned on the tv and switched to his favorite show, which even I started to watch when I was home.

“I missed you last week,” I said, turning my head to look at him.

“We’ve seen each other all week at school, Juno,” he pointed out.

“I know. But we couldn’t really talk to each other. I missed us being close.”

“Who knew Miss Juniper could be such a romantic,” he teased, then leaned in to kiss my temple.

---