Page 69 of Dreaming About the Boy Next Door

So freaking not funny.

“Okay!” My voice came in a loud, squeaky pitch. “This has been an awesome conversation. Reed, best of luck asking out Cindy. Rachel—” I grabbed her wrist without thinking twice, dragging her past her brother and toward her house. I avoided his eye contact as if my life depended on it. “Oh my God, did you have to say all that to him? Really?”

“Maybe your adorable little face will be all he needs to visualize to change his ways.” Once the door was shut between us, sealing off Reed from view, Rachel patted my cheek. “As long as he doesn’t develop feelings for you or anything. Then we’d have problems.”

She started up the staircase, assuming I’d follow her. I did, of course, but with one thought in my mind—we already had problems.

The past two days, my Babble submission box had been flooded with almost nothing other than homecoming proposals. It was tough to wade through them. It seemed that most of Brentwood High followed Reed’s example of waiting until the last minute to ask someone to the dance. Once I posted about Reed’s hoco-proposal—and shared the beautiful grin Cindy wore in the picture they’d snapped together—Tuesday alone had twelve proposals. By the end of the school day Wednesday, I had a total of nineteen.

This was going to be one heck of a compilation post.

The “cute proposals” coincided with “corny proposals,” and I’d seen many of those already. Like Landon Settler’s poster to his girlfriend “Let’s have a BALL at Homecoming” with little footballs all over the board. Someone else had a poster that read, “We’d make a Sweet couple at homecoming” with little candy bars taped to the surface.

It was corny, but here I was, wishing I’d get a corny proposal.

Then again, I only wanted one person to ask.

Josh was waiting for me by my locker at the end of the day Wednesday. He dug the toe of his cowboy into the tile grout, tracing the line, unaware of my approach. “Hey, stranger.”

Josh picked his head up, greeting me with a wave. “Hey, yourself. How are things?”

“Good. Busy.” I waved my cell phone a little. “Babble’s at its peak this week.”

“I know. I’ve been checking every day to see what the top voted outfits are.” He gestured down at his attire. “Is it wrong of me to keep my fingers crossed I made it for Country vs City Day?”

I smiled at his red plaid shirt underneath a pair of worn overalls. The cowboy boots poked out from underneath his tattered denim hem, showing signs of aging in the leather. I took a step back and opened up my camera app. “No need to cross your fingers when you know the editor in chief.”

Josh pointed his fingers at me as he posed, his dimple deepening as he beamed. “Brentwood won’t forget me now.”

“Joshua Geller’s name shall never be forgotten,” I said with dramatic flourish, causing both of us to laugh. But as I spun my combination lock, I looked at him seriously. “I’ll remember you after high school. I promise.”

“If it’s just one person, then I’m glad it’s you,” Josh said as he shifted from foot to foot, looking at me with his eyebrows raised. “Cindy took the car today. Would it be cool if I walked with you home? I mean, I know your rode your bike, but maybe you could—well, I mean—”

“I can walk beside it. It’ll be nice to have the company.”

Josh grinned again, a relieved, dimpled smile that made me remember how much I liked his awkwardness. I hadn’t really spoken to him since I’d gone to his house, and seeing him again caused Rachel’s words from lunch to bubble up in my head.

“Maisie, shouldn’t Ava ask Josh to homecoming?” Rachel had asked from my side, nudging her elbow into my ribs. “She needs to make a sign.”

“Do you want to ask Josh?” Maisie had questioned. “It’s totally okay if you want to go alone, you know. It’s not that big of a deal. Rachel’s going alone.”

Rachel had let out a disparaging sigh. “Thanks for the reminder.”

The truth was that I didn’t really care about going alone. I’d been going to dances alone almost my entire high school career. But there was only one pathetic reason the idea of a date appealed to me—during the slow songs, when everyone would be coupled off, I’d have someone to dance with.

Someone to distract me from a certain couple.

“So, you share your car with your sister, too?” I asked Josh as we made our way toward the bike rack, pulling out my padlock key. “Reed and Rachel have to share theirs, and Rachel absolutely hates it.”

“It’s the worst,” Josh agreed. “Plus, Cindy never fills the tank after she uses it, so it’s an extra pain.”

I made a soft sound under my breath, kicking a stone. “How long did you say you’ve been step siblings? Five years?”

“Yep. Our parents met on some online dating site.”

“My parents were high school sweethearts. That same old boring love story.”Except for them, it didn’t last. I left that part out.

We walked down the sidewalk away from the school, my bike chainclick-click-clickingas I walked alongside it. It created a barrier between Josh and me since he walked on the other side of it. Traffic was heavy as we made our way away from the school, and the steady hum of car after car passing us filled the gap in our conversation. I tilted my face up to the sun, the heat glowing on my skin enough to leave me feeling warm despite the slight breeze.

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