Fearless (The Swift Series) (3 page)

                “Don’t you mean, Bat Mobile?” I crossed my arms.

                “Beetle Mobile,” he corrected and I rolled my eyes.
“Just get in the car,” he was still holding the door open, “I’m getting tired
of being a gentleman.”

                “Is that what you were doing?” I pretended to be
dumb. “I thought you were airing out your car.”

                He gave out an exasperated groan, “Why are you so
difficult?”

                “Why are you in such a hurry?” I countered.

                “Me? In a hurry?” he had a confused expression that
confused me because I wasn’t sure if he was genuinely confused or not. “You
obviously don’t know how this whole skipping school things works, do you? The
point is to take your time and do whatever you want.”

                “So why don’t we walk?” I suggested. “Unless you
have somewhere to be.”

                Stephen closed the door, “Okay, let’s walk. But I’m
warning you; it’s pretty far.”

                “What is?” I asked.

                “Downtown,” he answered. “Where all the cool people
are.”

                Stephen and I walked for a long time until we got to
the part of Montrose Court that looked more like a normal city. I figured that
my dad’s office was somewhere in this area. I wondered why my father opted for
a small house far away from his workplace instead of an apartment nearer by.
Maybe it was because, in Orainville, we lived in an apartment.

                Anyway, as Stephen showed me where everything was, I
started feeling a little sad. It had been a long time since anything around me
even remotely reminded me of Marrick, and now I was thinking about the way I’d
ended things with Sarah and that made me sad.

                At about lunchtime we stopped at a diner which Stephen
claimed to have the best burgers in the city. I preferred my mother’s. She was
pretty much a stay-at-home mom, so she had a lot of free time on her hands. It
was almost as if she was good at everything. Or maybe she was just the smartest
person I’d ever known.

                As we were walking back to Vroncourt, Stephen and I
argued about who was the better singer: John Lennon or Paul McCartney. He was
for Lennon and I was for McCartney. There were a lot of times where we would
get extremely off-topic because one of us would reference a song, then it led
to a story or a fond memory or an interesting anecdote and those led to other
things and it would take a while before either of us remembered what we were
talking about in the first place.

                Stephen insisted on giving me a ride home and we
agreed to return each other’s clothes once they’d been properly laundered… I
insisted mine be disinfected, too. As a joke, of course.

                I’d been in Montrose for a little over two weeks
now, and this was by far the best day I’d had.

“Hey Stephen, I could give you fifty reasons why I should be the one
you choose…”

1.
      
I like you.

Okay. You drive me crazy, but you’re crazy
fun, too. But I’ll never admit this to your face. And, yeah, just because a
girl likes you doesn’t mean you should like her back, but that sure puts me
above anyone who doesn’t like you. After all, you don’t really strike me as a
person who makes random bets.

I don’t even know when it hit me, but when
it did it hit me like a wrecking ball.

2.
      
You like me.

You’ve said this several times. You kissed
me once. Tried to kiss me another time. You wanted to watch me undress. You
sure have a funny way of showing it, but you like me.

3.
      
We have lunch every day.

And I don’t mean school days. You have
literally taken me out to lunch every Saturday and Sunday for the past four
weeks. You’ve also sat with me and Abigail every lunch time at our table even
if we basically insult you the whole time. That must speak of your
determination and our familiarity.

4.
      
We both love The Beatles.

I especially love Paul. You especially
love John.

5.
      
My disdain for the students of Vroncourt is matched only by your
disdain for the students of Vroncourt.

It might also be matched by their disdain
for me and the girls’ love of you.

6.
      
As you said yourself, I don’t fall all over you the way so many
other girls do.

Abigail really wasn’t kidding when she
said you were kind of a stud around here. I’ve literally seen about ten
different girls ask you out. Some of them have asked twice. Thrice.

7.
      
I’ve probably suffered ten times the amount of milkshakes to my face
for being so close to you, but it hasn’t deterred me in any way.

You’re always there to help clean up the
mess. You even bring me extra shirts just so I won’t get into trouble.

8.
      
You still have my polo and tie. You even wore them to school once,
despite how tight it was, just to mock me.

The girls were especially attracted to you
that day. I guess they liked the whole tight shirt look on you.

9.
      
I still have your Beatles shirt, and, while I’m very ashamed to admit
this, I hug it every night.

I’m not intending to return it, either. It
looks better on me, anyway. And I still have some of your other polos. I
sometimes wear them to school in place of my own. You’re the only one who
notices, and we laugh about it.

10.
  
We both love pranking Abigail.

I mean, I love her but I also love her
reactions. I especially liked the one where we put a bunch of jumpy springs in
her locker and she got so startled the moment she opened her locker.

11.
  
You don’t have a mind for mean jokes the way the students of
Vroncourt do. No foul play. Just fun. I like.

12.
  
You drive me home every day even if Vroncourt is just five minutes
away from my house by walking.

13.
  
My sister likes you.

I might even say she has a little crush on
you, except that she has a boyfriend now, Mark. He’s alright. I know you’ll
beat him up for me if he ever breaks her heart.

14.
  
My father likes you.

15.
  
You and my father actually get along pretty well.

You were perfect at dinner that one night.
You insisted on staying, and so did my father. You insisted on cooking without
any help from any of us. How did you know my dad likes steak and mashed
potatoes?

16.
  
But, then again, it could be because my father suspects that you’re
gay and, therefore, aren’t a threat for possible cause of teen pregnancy.

It was probably the cooking. My dad is a
bit traditional .

17.
  
I’m tone deaf.

Or, at least, you say I am.

18.
  
You’re not.

You’re really not. You’re actually quite
good.

19.
  
I can play the piano.

I may not have an Asian family, but my mom
insisted I learn a musical instrument. I’m pretty okay.

20.
  
You can’t.

Not even to save your life.

21.
  
We could make a great musical duo.

You’ll sing and I’ll play.

22.
  
That one time we got detention because we broke into the music room
to play together was totally worth it.

I don’t understand why we couldn’t have
just waited for after school when nobody was around to do it. But I guess you
have a certain love of trouble that I’m dangerously attracted to. And maybe
you’re afraid of the dark.

23.
  
I don’t berate you about your poor study habits the way Abigail
does.

You’ll have to excuse her. She’s class
president.

24.
  
I inspire you to do better because you won’t accept that I’m just
smarter than you. :P

Seriously. Stop trying to compare our
exams. Just because you get higher than me on one or two exams doesn’t make you
a genius. But I appreciate your effort.

25.
  
We never argue.

26.
  
I mean, we argue all the time.

And we argue about anything and
everything, too. How many times has Abigail told us to shut up at lunch? How
many times have you gotten your phone confiscated in fifth period because class
time doesn’t stop us from being competitive? Me? Thrice.

27.
  
But we never “argue” argue.

28.
  
You never invade my privacy.

29.
  
I never invade yours.

30.
  
I call you every night and you wait four to five rings before
answering because you don’t want to seem too eager to pick up.

31.
  
You tell me the only reason you pick up four to five rings before
answering is because you don’t want to seem too eager because you don’t want me
to think you’re disinterested, either.

32.
  
Your parents love me.

When your parents came home that night you
practically begged me to help you babysit your baby brother they insisted I
stay for dinner. Your parents are really cool. But they seem to be under the
impression that you’re a good boy. Do they know you’re a perv?

33.
  
We’ve never put a label on what we have.

Except for that time Abigail questioned
why we always sit together when we’re always arguing and you said we had a
love-hate relationship and I said we had a LIKE-hate relationship. You focused
on the fact that I admitted to liking you. I should’ve known.

34.
  
We don’t intend to put a label on what we have.

35.
  
We’re both cool with that.

36.
  
But it would be nice.

37.
  
Not that I’m asking.

38.
  
I love Taylor Swift and you don’t mind.

In fact, you say you downloaded a USB full
of her songs just for me, but when we cut class to sit behind the bleachers to
listen to the songs you somehow are able to sing along to all of them.A closet
Taylor Swift fan, perhaps?

39.
  
She has a song called “Hey Stephen”.

And it perfectly describes how I feel
about you, and what you are to me.

40.
  
Maybe I’ll sing it to you sometime. Prepare your ear plugs.

41.
  
So, homecoming is coming up.

I know because you’ve been flooded with
potential dates every day for the past week. Sometimes the same girls ask you
again hoping you change your mind.

42.
  
You don’t have a date.

Yet.

43.
  
I don’t have a date.

Yet.

44.
  
Will

45.
  
You

46.
  
Be

47.
  
My

48.
  
Date?

Friend? Partner? Accompanier? Valet?
Bodyguard? Chauffer? Assistant? Secretary? Pooba? Whatever you want to call it.

49.
  
I mean, I don’t mind if you don’t want to be.

It’s just a stupid dance where… people…
dance and… whatever.

50.
  
But do you?

Because, if you don’t want to go, we could do something else;
something much cooler. But if you’re going and I’m going and we’re probably
going to hang out together why not go as each other’s dates? It’s not like
it’ll mean anything or anything.

                Okay, so I really like Stephen. We’re really good
friends even though we’re always in constant disagreement with each other. But
he’s really cool when he’s not being a pervert. And he likes to act like a bad
boy and a player but, deep down, he’s a sweetheart.

                Stephen and I met under very strange circumstances.
I didn’t like him at the time, but when I think back to our first kiss and the
way he held me tight… I fell for him, and I wanted to feel those things for him
again, but I also didn’t want him to think that I was all over him because it
was precisely my not being all over him that he liked about me. He liked that I
was difficult.

                Maybe that was how I should play it.

                That’s exactly how I was going to play it.