Page 31 of Resurrection
By that evening, when I stepped out of my room to grab some water, the noise in the living room had calmed down. I heard Adri telling Ty that pizza was on the way.
"Grab some more soda, yeah?" my brother asked, and then a familiar slam of the screen door followed. When I peeked into the living room on my way to the kitchen, Adri was nowhere to be found.
The pizza must have lured him outside.
I dashed for the fridge, thinking maybe I could scrounge up something sweet and disappear without being noticed. I grabbed a bottle of water, then popped my head into the freezer compartment and fumbled through packages of meat and seafood, searching for ice cream. My mission was successful, but when I turned around, ready to take my leave, there was Ty.
He pointed at the fridge behind me. "I’m just getting us some drinks."
"Oh," I said, clutching my water and ice cream. "Okay."
He stood there like he was waiting for something.
"You moved in next door?" I asked, breaking the silence.
"Yeah," he said, leaning against the counter like he’d been living there forever. "You live here long?"
I nodded. "Since I was born."
"How old are you?"
"Fourteen. You?"
"Same." He smiled, and a tiny dimple appeared on his left cheek. "So I guess we're going to the same school, huh?"
"Probably," I said, handing him some napkins. He didn’t ask for them, but they seemed to be necessary to eat pizza.
"My mom thinks your brother's gonna babysit me or something," Ty supplied casually.
"He thinks he’s my babysitter too."
It was quiet for a moment, but not the awkward kind. More like we both had things to say but didn’t know where to start.
Then Adri yelled from the living room. "Pizza’s here! You grabbin’ those sodas, Strings?"
"Uh, yeah," he shouted back and then looked at me. "Want to join us?"
I hesitated, picturing the way Adri would glare if I interrupted their boys’ time. "Nah," I said. "You guys go ahead. See you around."
I slipped back into my room before he could see I was smiling at his nickname.
In the days leading up to the new school year, I kept spotting him from my bedroom window. I often found myself wondering if it was accidental or if I’d sought him out, sitting at my desk, craning my neck, staring at that sidewalk until he showed up.
He always took the same twenty steps between his porch and ours. Then he and Adri would plot their little escapades in our living room.
It was silly. I’d never really cared about boys before. Sure, my room was filled with posters of Chad Michael Murray. But Chad was a comfort man. A teenage crush. Something imaginary.
Tyler Brady next door was very much real.
On the first day of school, I saw him standing near the lockers as if waiting for me. He had on one of those graphic tees and his signature baggy jeans with worn out bottom hems that completely hid his Converse. A black hoodie was tied around his waist.
I saw a cluster of freshman girls I knew staring at him dreamily from acrossthe hallway, and my senses heightened. Like he was only mine, like he wasn’t something to share.
Stupid me.
I didn’t understand those feelings yet. No one really would at fourteen.
Instead, I simply went to my locker to drop off the books I didn’t need for first period.
