Page 40 of Anytime I Want

“I have two hands, bro.” I hold out my free hand, and Nathan swats it away.

“I was talking about Julia,” he laughs.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to pretend. I get it. You miss me. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Julia, and you need your best friend back.” I stretch out my arms, walking toward him. Everyone starts laughing, and Nathan ducks under my arm, reaching out for Julia. He grabs her hand and threads it through his arm, pulling her towards the first room.

“Guess that’s what you get when you date a twin,” Josie says, standing next to me. I chuckle, and we all start toward the twins. Since paintballing, Josie has let up on the flirting and is a pretty cool girl. I narrow my eyes, thinking about who I could set her up with. Double dates. I am not ashamed to be one of those people, happily paired up and wanting everyone around me to be as lucky.

We make our way through absolutely disgusting rooms, all inspired by classic horror films. I see a bunch of friends fromschool and say hi to them. A few girls touch my arm, and I try to pull away without embarrassing anyone. No need to make enemies, but also, hands to yourself. Over the next thirty minutes, I get stopped by so many people that I end up a little behind the rest of the group. I enter a room with an appropriate amount of smoke to make it spooky and a little tense. Before I can look around and identify which movie this is from, I hear a loud clank and smoke starts billowing out of the machine in the corner. Pretty soon we can’t see more than maybe a foot in front of our faces, and the fire sprinklers start spraying everywhere. An alarm starts blaring, and the workers try to funnel people toward exits, which is hard because it's a literal maze. The water helps clear the smoke enough that I can locate Nathan, Julia, and the rest of our friends. They see me and wave me over. I’m almost to them when I hear a coed complaining to her boyfriend. “Why didn’t you tell me to bring an umbrella? Now I have to completely redo my hair. You need to take me home…” Her voice trails off as she keeps going toward the door, dragging some poor sap behind her.Umbrella.That word triggers something in my mind. Number fourteen: Kiss me in the rain. Not exactly what she meant but I think it’ll work. Plus, I want to kiss her. Wins all around. I grab Julia’s wrist, pulling her to a stop. She looks over her shoulder at me.

“Did you forget something?” Julia asks.

“No, but Nate, you’re gonna want to cover your eyes.” I grab her waist and pull her tight to my chest. I stroke her cheek for half a second, watching the fire start burning in her eyes. I let myself smile a small smile before leaning down and pressing my lips to hers. She wraps her arms around my neck and starts to play with my hair. I move both arms to her waist and lean back, picking her up off the ground. The water sprays all around us, and I can feel it dripping down both of our faces. I pull back after not as long as I’d like (but still probably longer than I should’vein public) and give her a smile. She looks at me, a slightly dazed look in her eye as a smile lifts her lips.

“Are they done?” Nathan says, his voice muffled. I glance toward him and see him actually covering his eyes. I grab Julia’s hand and walk towards Nathan, lean down and kiss his cheek.

“Dude. Wrong twin.” Nathan wipes at his cheek before stalking toward the entrance.

“What’s his deal?” Julia asks, glancing around.

“If I had to guess…” Chloe points towards Josie flirting with a guy wearing a Sun Hills High shirt. “That.”

“Wait. Is this a thing everyone knows?” I ask.

“Let’s discuss it outside, out of the ‘rain.’” Julia tugs me towards the door. I am pretty distracted, thinking about Nathan and Josie. Are they talking? Dating? Friends with benefits? I hate to admit that I have no idea what is going on with my best friend. I glance over my shoulder to see if Josie is coming out and bump into someone. She falls backward and I let go of Julia’s hand to catch her.

***

Julia

I stop walking when Graham lets go of my hand, and I look back to see an attractive college-aged girl in his arms. She is dressed as some kind of animal. I know this because she has a headband with ears, but there are no other hints. She looks gorgeous, really, and I glance down at my costume. Before she was in Graham’s arms, I was feeling pretty good about how I looked.

“J. Stop it. I know that look. You are rocking this witch look, and Graham has spent just as much time staring at you as he has looking at anything else,” Chloe says quietly. I shake my head, getting rid of those pesky comparison thoughts.Graham likesme. He has spent so much time doing The List. He kissed me like he was going off to war. That’s just a random girl, and he’s a good guy, helping her out.

“I’m so sorry for bumping into you. I get distracted when I’m around good looking girls.” Graham looks at me and winks. Animal Ears’ mouth turns up in an indulgent grin and she wobbles on her feet. I think Graham was talking about me, but Animal Ears certainly doesn’t know that. Graham tightens his grasp, and she takes the opportunity to put her hand on his chest and gently stroke it.Weird.

“You’re so hot,” she mumbles under her breath.

“Well, thank you. Always a good day when someone tells me I’m hot.” Graham lets out his most charming smile. “You good? Are you here with someone?”

He just gave me that amazing rain kiss, and now he’s flirting with a drunk coed? Seriously.Okay, to be fair, she might not be drunk, and maybe he isn’t really flirting.Benefit of the doubt, Julia. You want this to work.

“I don’t have to be here with someone if you don’t want me to.” She reaches up to touch his face, and an uncomfortable look crosses Graham’s face before he gently steps back from her, letting go of her waist.

“Nice of you to offer but I don’t think my girlfriend would like that very much.” He winks. Again. “Where are your friends?”

“Maybe he has a twitch?” Chloe says after the second wink.

I snort out a laugh, and Graham turns to see what I’m laughing about. He smiles a little, clearly confused, and then winks at me. Chloe and I start to laugh almost uncontrollably. Graham keeps looking between us and Animal Ears, clearly wanting to be in on the joke.

Another girl, dressed as some kind of animal, runs up to Graham, basically in tears. “Kyla! I am so glad I found you!” Shewraps her arms around Animal Ears, or Kyla, I guess, and starts to pull her toward the parking lot.

“Wait! Hot pirate!” Kyla reaches her arms toward Graham. Graham looks terrified for a second before masking his expression.

“Ky. That’s a kid. Gross. Walk away,” her friend says, literally dragging her around the waist.

Graham chuckles, rubbing his neck and walks towards us. “Well, that was awkward.”

“I don’t know; you seemed to enjoy it.” I gesture toward the car. “Come on, Chlo. Let’s wait in the car. There are some creepers around here.”

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