Page 33 of The Boy I Once Loved

I roll my eyes and smile. “Okay, okay, don’t get big-headed, but Dyl, you’re a catch. You’re thoughtful and caring and well you aren’t bad to look at.” I pause and gesture with my finger at his body. “I mean, you’ve got all that going on, the abs and the muscles.”

He grins wider. He is loving this. “You think my body’s hot El?”

"Oh, come on. You know you have a good body. I mean, look at you. You're really lean and you have a really sexy smile, it likely melts panties within an instant."

He smiles wider as he lifts the bottom of his t-shirt up. “You mean this hot body?”

Now he is being an arrogant arse, and I need to bring him down a peg or two. I grab the cushion beside me and launch it at his head. “Okay, now time to knock that big head off your shoulders.” The cushion whacks him on the head, and he laughs as he grabs it off me and hurls it back at me. He springs forward and grabbing my arms pins me on my back.

“Give up Ella umbrella.” He leans in and rubs his stubble all over my face.

“Ah, that prickles,” I protest.

He chuckles above me as he continues to rub his face on mine. He stops with his assault and he stills, his eyes on mine and my breath gets stuck in my throat. “We should get going.”

I nod, unable to string a sentence together. My emotions were all over the place. The way he has spoken about that girl is all the things that I wished he would say and feel about me. My heart aches knowing that there is a girl out there who has his heart. I am a fool to think that three years away from here has erased the way I feel about my best friend. Those feelings haven't gone away, in fact, they are getting harder to ignore. He stands up and grabs my hands and pulls me up with him, keeping me steady until I had my crutches under me. We are both quiet during the very short car ride back to his house. I can't help wondering if he is thinking about her.

I sniff when we enter the house and moan. “Oh wow, what is that smell?”

"Hey, Ella. We are having macaroni and cheese for dinner. I hope you are hungry?"

"Famished," I tell her, grinning. Dylan's mum is a great cook, and I loved coming over as a kid and having tea here. "Wait!" I shout to her before she heads back into the kitchen. "Can you help me later, with showering and getting changed?"

Dylan frowns, kicking his shoes off. “I can do it.”

“Oh, I bet you can,” Stacey says wagging her finger at her son, “but remember Kay has trusted me to look after Ella. So yes, I will help you.”

Dylan rolls his eyes. “Sure, mum.” He comes up behind me and slides his hands around my waist and nuzzles my neck. “Come on, let’s go make out.”

I blush bright red, and I want the floor to swallow me whole. "Dylan quit joking around," I hiss. His mum just smiles and she shakes her head at both of us before she exits the room.

As soon as she has left, I turn in Dylan’s arms and shove him.

“What the fuck was that?”

He shrugs his shoulders and laughs. “Oh, come on. I was just joking around.”

I put one hand on my hip and frown. “It’s not funny, Dylan.”

“So? Who cares?” He bats away my comment with his hand.

“I do!” I insist, glaring at him.

He sighs. “You know my mum and yours have always hoped we’d end up together.”

I snort. “Like we’d ever end up together, I mean that would be a disaster, right?”

He nods with a frown and clears his throat. "Come on. Let's get our homework out of the way, then we can pretend to make out."

“Funny fucker,” I say, slapping his back as we head through to the lounge.

Dylan is sitting up against his headboard whilst I lie on my tummy finishing my homework. His phone rings and he answers it on the second ring. "Hey." He pauses, listening to whoever is on the line. "Yeah, I think we'll pass. You know what Freya's like, she's full-on. Okay, I'll ask her." He lowers the phone. "You want to go to Freya's?"

I pull my face and shake my head firmly.

“Nah, she doesn’t want to go either. I’m not interested in eager pussy, Luc. You have it if you think it’s so good.” He puts the phone down and sighs. “I’m sick of homework, let’s do something fun.”

“Like?” I twirl my pen around in my hand as I stare at my English book.

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