Hooked (21 page)

    
I asked mom Friday before school if I could sleep over at Cara’s house on Saturday and she said it was fine.  Friday took so long to be over.  I’m talking about time actually stopping at one point.
  We didn’t do much at school and everyone was
making big plans for homecoming.  With all of these things coming up, our excitement level was beyond measure.  I was ready for everything, but mostly spending time with Cash.
 

    
“They’ve already started talking about the camp out
,
” Jess said at our lunch
table.

     “What camp out?”  Cash asked from the other side of me.

     “Every homecoming after the game and dance, there’s a big camp out in the middle of a field just outside of town.” 

    
Cash nuzzles my neck and whispers, “
I can’t even think that far ahead.  I’m just ready for tomorrow night at Cara’s. 
I can’t wait to sleep beside you all night.”  I push him away in a playful way.

     “
Pssh
, who said I’d sleep beside you?”

     “Umm, I did.  You’re my girlfriend and that’s the way it is
,
”
h
e said smiling.

     It was the first time he had called me his girlfriend
in front
of anyone
with the exception of the all most fight at the movies.
  It gave me butterflies and sounded so good coming from him.

     “Okay, sounds good to me.  I have a tent
,
but you’ll have to put it together because I have no idea how that thing works
,
”
I said as we were all getting up to go to class.

CHAPTER 11

     After school, I invited Cash over for dinner and a movie.  He was hesitant at first
,
but I told him I had already asked my parents and they wanted him to.  At six o’clock
,
the doorbell rang.  I was still in my room getting ready.  Well, I only had on gym shorts and a
T-shirt
,
but I did make sure my hair was
brushed
and I had on a little makeup. 

    
Eli yelled from downstairs that he would get it.  “Hey man, how’s it goin
g
?”
Eli asked as he opened the door.

     “Good man, you staying for dinner?”  Cash asked as he came inside.

     “Yeah, but then I’m going over to stay at B
en’s
.  He got the new Tour of Duty
,
so were
gonna
break it in.”

     “Cool, I’ve got the first one
.  M
aybe I could bring it over sometime.”

     “Yeah man, whenever.”

     “Umm, I don’t think so!”  I said coming into the living
room.

     “Why
,
MAD
? 
Gonna
show your true colors?”  Eli said taunting me.

     “Eli,
you’re
so immature and the reason is because I don’t like those video games.  I’m not any good at them and to be honest, their pointless
,
” I said stating my argument.

     “Hey, you know what I just thought of…if you and Cash get married, you’ll still be MAD!” he said as he ran off laughing. 

     “Oh
,
no you don’t!”  I yelled running after him until an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back. 

    
Cash was laughing at our banter and said, “Chill
,
Millie, he’s just joking with you.”

     “Ugh, he’s such a jerk sometimes
,
” I said as I lead Cash into the kitchen where my parents were.  “Hey guys, Cash is here.”

     “He
llo,
Cash, how are you?” my mom said always being polite.

     “I’m great, thanks.” 

    
Cash looked at my dad and my
dad
greeted
him.  Good, I
thought
,
my
dad is going to be nice and this will be fine.  We went back in the living
room to watch TV until supper was ready.  We both sat on the couch and I turned on the TV. 

    
“How’s your mom?”  I asked a little
hesitant
.

     “Millie, she’s fine, she just drinks,” he said rolling his eyes letting me know he didn’t want to talk about it.

     “I want to meet her
,
Cash.”

     “Alright, soon
,
okay?”

     “Okay.” 

    
I feel kind of bad for pressuring him
,
but I want to get to know her.  After
about
thirty
minutes, mom comes in and tells us
that supper
ready.  Mom made my favorite meal tonight. 
She made us pot roast
with potatoes and carrots, salad and homemade rolls.  It smelled so good.
 

    
“Do you like pot roast
,
Cash?” my mom asked making conversation.

     “Well, I’m sure I will
.
I
t smells great.” 

    
I turn to look at him.  “You’ve never had pot roast?”

     “No
,
” he said simply. 

    
I know my face looked sad
,
but I didn’t want him to think
I
f
elt sorry for him so I said, “Well,
you’re
going to love my mom’s.  It’s my favorite.
”
 

    
I could tell he felt a little uncomfortable
,
but he kept his face neutral.  I smiled to reassure him.  We talked over dinner, Eli actually wasn’t a brat for once, but I had a feeling that had more to do with wanting to go to B
en
’s than to make a good impression.  My mom was asking Cash questions about his old
school and where he grew up.  I actually found out a lot about him.  He played football and baseball at his old school.  I didn’t ask him why he didn’t try out here.  It was weird
,
because his body looked athletic
,
but his personality didn’t seem like he would care that much.  In a lot of ways
,
he seemed older than me.  Like he had lived more and I guess he had. 

    
My dad made conversations about Cash working at the garage.  Cash told him he liked it and it helped with his mom
,
so it was good.  They also had a
long conversation about Cash’s
C
am
a
ro
.  My dad
,
of course
,
had to compare and I think he ended up being very impressed with Cash
,
although he would never admit it at this point.

     “Is it okay if we go upstairs and watch a movie now?”

     “Sure
,
Mil
.
D
ad and I will clean up here.”

     “Thanks mom,” I said leading Cash to my room.

     “Yeah, it was really good.  Thanks for having me over.”

     “You are welcome
,
Cash.  You are welcome to come back anytime
.
I
t was nice talking to you.”

    
“
Keep the door open!” my dad yelled from the kitchen.

    
“We will dad,
”
I said rolling my eyes. 
“
Come on Cash, you can pick the movie.”

     We ended up going to Eli’s room so he could pick a movie.  He looked at my collection and told me they were too girly.  He ended up picking Die Hard f
ro
m Eli’s book shelf and we headed into my room.

     “You do realize that this doesn’t count as me picking for the next date, right?”

     “Umm, yeah it does.  I said you could pick the next movie since I picked the last one.”

      “No, I said that I was going to pick the next date
,
but you invited me over here
,
so that doesn’t count.”

     I pout
ed
my lips for him.  “Oh, did you not want to come over here?”

     “No, I didn’t mean that,
never mind
.  This can be considered both of our turns, ok
ay
?”  He actually looked worried. 

    
I definitely like
this
,
because it seems I have a lot of say in what we do.  When we get to my bedroom
,
Cash walks around and looks at
everything
.  He goes over to my desk and looks at my papers.  Then, he goes over to my bed a looks at my
bulletin
board that hangs above my headboard. 

    
“You have a lot of pictures of you and your friends.”

     “Yeah, we’ve had some good times.”

     “This
one’s
cool of you and the basketball team in front of the
A
rch in St. Louis.”

     “We had an all-star tournament there.  It was really cool to play with everyone and meet new people from all around.”

    
“
Who’s
this?”
H
e put his hand on a picture I had taken over the summer with a guy in my class named Brad.

     “That’s me and Brad Harrison.  We went to a party together over the summer.”

     “He looks like a douche.”

     “No, he doesn’t.”

     “Whatever.”

     “He’s actually really nice
,
Cash.”

     “I’ll bet.”

     “You don’t have to be a jerk.”

     He looked at me for a long time.  After a couple of minutes
,
he walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me.  “I’m sorry, I was being a jerk.  I’m sure he was nice to you.  I just don’t want to see you in pictures with other guys.  I want you to make your memories with me.”

     “Well,
”
I said as I walked over to my phone,
“
let’s take some pictures of us.”  I giggled as I thought about us being silly. 

    
I went over to him and stood in front of him.  I stuck out my left arm as far as I could and took a picture.  When I brought it back to look at it, it only showed the top of my head
and part of his shoulder
.  He laughed at me.

     “Give me that
,
Shorty
.” 

    
He took the
camera
and with his longer arm took the pictures.  I looked at them
afterwards
. I absolutely loved them.  I couldn’t wait to print them off.  The first one
,
was me standing in front of Cash with his chin resting
on my shoulder, the second one
,
he had his arm wrapped around me and was kissing me on the cheek, and the last one
,
we decided to make silly faces.  It was my favorite because it
showed lightness
about Cash.  He seemed happy.  I was looking at my phone when I heard Cash say my name.  I turned to face him and he took a picture of me with his phone.