Page 62 of Bad Behavior

“No problem,” he says, ruffling my hair a little.

“Hey!” I say, scrunching my face and putting up a hand to fight him off.

“A-hem?” Karen reminds me impatiently.

Ash releases me, and I wave a hand at Karen. “This is my friend Karen.”

Ash just nods to her. “Hey.”

I peer around Ash. “Who is your friend?”

The dark haired guy looks at me quizzically. Ash shakes his head. “You know Jameson, Emma. He’s only been my best friend for over ten years.”

I squint at Jameson. “I do?”

Jameson comes to stand by Asher, his eyes crinkling with humor. “I’ve been around for a while. You were probably too little to remember a lot of it, though.”

I stare at Jameson, feeling a funny tickle in my stomach, like butterflies. “Oh.”

All across the building, an announcement comes over the tinny speakers. “Anyone that wants to play laser tag, please come to the laser tag arena now. Thank you.”

“Yessss,” Asher says, pointing his finger in Jameson’s face. “Now’s my chance to get you back for earlier.”

Jameson rolls his eyes. “Yeah, because playing for the third time will really help you beat me.”

“I’m expecting you to be tired,” Asher jokes.

Karen practically stomps on my foot. “We want to play!”

“Ow!” I say, rubbing my foot. Karen shoots me a death glare. “I mean… yeah. Can we?”

Asher chuckles. “Yeah, sure. Come on.”

Karen scuttles ahead, eager to catch up with Asher. I notice that Jameson drops back a little, and I match his slower pace. I surreptitiously glance at him through the corner of my eye. He’s really quite tall, with dark hair and dark eyes. He’s got very distinguished features, his cheekbones and jawline honed steel.

I notice for the first time that he has a certain heft to his build, a muscular sort of look to him that makes him seem sleek yet strong. I blush when I realize that this is what my mother’s secret stash of romances refer to as his muscular build.

It suddenly hits me in the face that all the well-thumbed descriptions of the heroes in my mother’s books… they all suddenly make sense, looking at him.

“Wanna do it together?” he asks, glancing at me.

I turn eight shades of red. “W-what?”

“Do you want to be on the same team?” He says the words very slowly, like I might be a little dumb or something.

“Oh! Uh… yes?” I say.

“Great.” He moves closer, swinging his arm around my shoulders. I almost faint the second his arm makes contact with my shoulders. “We should probably talk strategy…”

He smells so freaking good, I can’t even stand it. It makes my whole body tingly. I look up at him, openmouthed, as he starts talking about laser tag.

That is the moment that I know for sure that I am feeling my very first crush.

---