Page 15 of The Other Half

It was the first time I had witnessed poverty up close with my own eyes, and it instantly made me feel very selfish. What must he think of me, having the nerve to complain about my life at all when he may not even have food to eat? I shudder wondering what that would be like. I’ve never had to worry about not eating, on the contrary, we eat at five star restaurants almost every week.

“Well, okay. I could help you?” He offers, a small grin pulling at his lips.

I nod, “I’d like that.”

I pull out the ingredients to make spaghetti and meat sauce. It’s my favorite, and one of the only things I know I can cook without screwing up. Neither of my parents enjoy cooking so they’ve never taught me how, I only know how to make a couple of basic meals thanks to Youtube.

He starts boiling water while I cut up an onion and brown the meat. I show him how to cut up the tomatoes for the sauce, and he carefully follows my directions.

“This is fun,” he says as he lifts himself to sit on top of the kitchen counter.

“What is?”

“This.” He points to me and then back to himself. “Us. Hanging out.”

My heart does a tiny backflip in my chest, but I ignore it. “You think so?”

“Don’t you?” He grins. “I haven’t had this much fun without the use of drugs or alcohol in…I don’t know. Years?”

I can’t contain the smile spreading across my lips. “I’m having fun too.”

The timer beeps and I turn off the stove, serving our food onto two plates. I hand him his plate and we both sit on top of the counter and eat. My parents would be horrified, for about a hundred different reasons.

“This is fucking delicious,” He says with his mouth full.

I giggle, “I’m glad I managed to make something edible. You helped.”

“No, really, you’re amazing.” He says in between bites. “At cooking, I mean.”

“Thanks,” I reply. I know he’s just being polite, it’s the most basic spaghetti recipe ever.

“And kind of just amazing in general, too.” He adds.

Now my heart’s doing twelve backflips in a row. Get a hold of yourself, Oakley.

After we finish our meal he insists on doing the dishes, which is a lot more gentlemanly than I expected. At this point I don’t know what to expect with him, he surprises me somehow at every turn.

“It’s getting pretty dark, I guess I better start heading home.” He says, and I feel my happiness deflate a little bit, but I don’t argue.

I walk him to the door and he pulls me in for a big, bear hug. This one tighter and longer than the one we previously shared. “I had a lot of fun tonight,” he mutters into my hair while my face is pressed into his chest.

“Me too,” I reply, but it’s muffled because he’s squeezing me so hard.

He pulls halfway out of the hug so that I can breathe again. “Sorry,” he laughs, and I swoon at how perfect his smile is. He tucks a strand of loose hair behind my ear and freezes like that for a second, still staring into my eyes.

“Let’s hang out again soon, Oakley.” He says warmly, still smiling. I’ve never seen him smile this much.

“I’d like that.”

Chapter 16

Oliver

I try to listen as my best friend Rodney tells me a dumb story about a party he went to last weekend. Something about a car getting stolen. It’s hard for me to focus, honestly. For the past twenty minutes I’ve been letting my eyes wander across the room to the side of Oakley’s head.

She’s sitting at a table with a bunch of other girls, but I notice she hardly ever says anything to any of them. She seems to just nod and laugh when it’s appropriate. I can tell she’s not really close to any of them. Part of me is tempted to ask her to sit with me instead. I hang out with her a lot at night now, but we don’t really talk much at school other than in art class. I kind of miss her whenever she isn’t around.

Today she’s wearing a blue, polkadot dress and white tennis shoes. Her hair is messy and wavy. I like when she wears dresses, her legs are so perfectly tan and taut. I think she should show them off more often.

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