Page 25 of Honest With You

How am I supposed to resist him when he makes me smile like this from a simple text?

I do my best to shut my door as softly as I can. My plan is to take the long way and head straight past Stephen’s room, avoiding Reese’s door altogether. She has ears like a cat and will pounce on me when she hears me leaving the house at this hour.

But the sound of a chuckle has me gaping at the door across from mine. Stephen’s room.

His light is still on. I hear him talking on the phone with someone but his voice is too low for me to catch the conversation. Then he laughs again and I’m tempted to press my ear against the door so I can hear what’s making him laugh. I don’t know how long it's been since I've heard him laugh like that.

Reese is playing K-pop music, as usual, and I manage to tamp down the urge to knock on her door to tell her to go to sleep.

I quietly make my way down the stairs, carefully shifting my weight so I don’t alert my siblings that I'm leaving. I pass the living room and spot Yaya Ella watching one of her Filipino teleseryes. She turns to look at me when she hears the jingle of my keys and the front door opening. I place a forefinger on my lips, pursing my lips upward so she knows I’m pointing at the stairs. She simply grins at me and goes back to her show.

Jesse is leaning idly on his car, his legs crossed at the ankles, his hands in his pockets.

He reminds me of that Taylor Swift song about a boy who looks like James Dean who picks his girl up late at night.

I stop and stare at him long enough for him to look up and flash me his trademark smile.

This could very well end up in flames or paradise.

Itell myself not to fixate on the fact that she keeps fidgeting in her seat. Or how she can’t seem to take her eyes off of my profile for more than a few minutes.

She keeps looking at me and then catching herself, only to look back again.

I know she’s wondering what we’re doing or where we’re going.

Probably wondering why she’s even here, to be honest.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tease her. To say something inappropriate for our budding “friendship” if only to see her slender neck redden and her gorgeous cocoa eyes shift nervously.

But then she bites her lip as if fighting against a smile and I’m fumbling. I can't even form coherent thoughts let alone words or sentences.

We’ve been sitting in the car in silence for the last twenty minutes and I’m on edge because her scent is everywhere. I still can’t believe she’s here with me right now. She seems more like a dream, I conjured up from when I was thirteen.

If only adolescent me could see me now. I flip my turn signal on to exit from Highway 163 to 52. I spot the turn for Hidden Valley Road and make it just in time to catch her eye when I check my side mirror.

Unable to help myself, I wink at her, a toothy grin flashing across my face.

Her eyes widen slightly and I catch the moment they drift to my lips before she abruptly pulls away to look out the window, just as we make the turn to go up the hill to our destination.

The incline catches her off guard and Ava twists in her chair to look over her shoulder.

“We’re going up a mountain?”

I grin. Finally she says something. The silence was nearly deafening here.

“Technically yes, but it’s more of a hill, don’t you think?”

“Jesse.”

“Ava.”

She sighs in exasperation and pulls her phone out. My hand goes out to swipe it from her and I place it neatly next to mine in the console.

“No cheating. We’re almost there.”

She folds her arms tight across her chest and I strain to keep my eyes on the dark spiral road.

“How did you know I was going to look up our location?”

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