True Love and Magic Tricks (7 page)

“
Ouch,” I say through my
giggles.

“
Okay, so you trust me? I
won’t slice you.”

“
I trust
you
. It’s me I’m not too
sure of.”

He laughs. “You’ll be fine.” A shaky
hand touches my ribs. “Suck in here.” Light pressure moves me flat
against the side of the box. His eyes stay locked with mine. And my
heart continues to pound and pound and I can’t seem to breathe, or
hear, or move, or blink, or think, or do much of
anything.

Nate grins a shy grin, drops his hand
from my waist and pushes on the door, but it doesn’t budge. “Oh,
shit.” He pushes again. Then again. Then I help him and nothing.
“Shit, shit, shit.”

“
Is this part of the
trick?” I tease, hoping joking will take away the tension flying
around us.

“
Ha ha.” He tries to step
back, but gets my toes. A hiss slips through my teeth, and he says,
“Whoops,” and then he tries to scoot away, but his leg goes into
mine, then his arm hits my boob, and even in the dark I see him go
red. He spurts out apologies while I try to control my
laughter.

“
Okay, I’m gonna get my
phone,” I tell him. “If I hit any body parts in the process, I’m
sorry.”

He holds extra still while I slither
my hand to my back pocket. My chest presses against his, my face a
little in his neck, and I not-so-subtly take a deep inhale of his
cologne.

Once I get my phone in front of my
face, I send a text out to Lexie, thankful I asked for her number
this morning during gym, and doubly thankful that she gave it to
me.

Nate’s kidnapped me in a
magic box! Locked us both in and now we can’t get out. Help is
needed… but honestly, take your time because he’s like, inches from
my face again ;)

I tuck the phone in my front pocket
and flick my gaze up. Nate’s laughter is gone, and he
gulps.

“
Um… so you… noticed what
happened last night, too?”

I want to smack my forehead. Of course
he could see what I was typing.

“
Yeah.”

“
Oh. Okay.”

Oh gosh. “I’m sorry. Please don’t get
weird on me. I wasn’t thinking when I sent that text. Just like,
joking or something. Forget it.”

“
Why?”

“
Why what?”

“
Why forget it? I want to
know.”

“
Want to know
what?”

He gulps again. “If you… like having
me inches from your face.”

My heart should go out for
the track team. I can’t seem to get my mouth to form the answer,
even though it’s right there on my tongue. Nate licks his lips,
settles his hand above my head against the box again. We’re trapped
in here. So freaking close. And what if I say
heck yes
I want his lips that close
to mine, and he goes, “Sorry, but you’re just too wild or too ditsy
or too whatever for me. But thanks anyway.” Holy
mortifying.

“
Kaylee?”

“
Yeah?” I croak like my
throat is giving birth to a deranged frog.

“
I like you.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, reach out, and
pinch.

“
Ow,” he says, rubbing the
leg that’s pressed with mine.

“
Sorry.” I laugh. “I
thought that was me.”

“
Why would you pinch
yourself?” he says through a chuckle.

“
Because I really like you.
And I just wanted to make sure I heard you right, or if I’d run out
of oxygen and passed out and started dreaming—”

Warm, moist lips graze my mouth and
stop me mid-sentence. Breath catches in my throat, and Nate’s
forehead comes down on mine while his mouth retreats.

“
Sorry, I—”

What? No sorries. That was the most
amazing kiss I’ve had… and it was only like, half a
second.

I yank on the back of his head,
stumbling a bit because it’s dark and I have no aim, but our lips
mesh into a groove. Fire scorches my neck and cheeks, and my heart
gets its workout. His hands tentatively touch my waist, and I slide
my arms around his neck, pressing my chest flat against his. He’s
warm like summer in California, and he kisses like his whole soul
is wrapped up in his lips, and he’s sharing it with me.

It’s better than I imagined—and I
imagined it a lot. Tucked away in a corner at school. On the track
during gym class. In his car. On the street by my house. In a fancy
restaurant. During dance class. In the cafeteria. Everywhere,
really. But not a single one of those fantasies measure up to the
actual real life thing—trapped inside a magic box right after he
said the words “I like you.”

I really hope Lexie takes the long way
here.

Chapter 8

I’m happy Kaylee pinched
me because if she didn’t I’d also think this was a dream. Her lips
are like two perfect cushions pressing against mine. And her
tongue.
My. God
.
The things she’s doing must be illegal in some
countries.

We can’t possibly get any closer, but
I feel the need to try so I shift toward her. My elbow goes right
into her boob. Her lips leave mine, the cutest squeal comes from
her throat, and her neck is mere centimeters from my mouth, so I
close the gap and trail a path along her skin.

Her hands tighten on my shoulders and
instead of a squeal, a moan tumbles out. I run my fingers up the
back of her head and pull her lips back to mine.

I hear noise outside, but I ignore it.
All I care about is Kaylee and how she’s making me feel. How much
I’ve wanted this and how I never thought a girl like her would go
for a guy like me. I’d be a fool to let go now.

The darkness fades and light consumes
me. What is this girl doing to me?

“
I knew it! You owe me five
bucks,” Lexie’s words penetrate my happy circle. “And uh guys, can
you stop making out now? You have an audience if you haven’t
noticed.”

I pull away from Kaylee and blink my
eyes open. Lexie and Ryan stand across from us. Lexie’s hands rest
on her hips. Her purple painted nails, drumming against her jeans.
Ryan nods at me with that smirk of his, and I know in his head he’s
saying “Yeah boy!”

Kaylee doesn’t skip a beat, untangling
our limbs and jumping out. “Lexie, I told you to take your time,”
she says and tosses a messy braid over her shoulder.

Lexie shakes her head. “You texted me
over an hour ago. I had to wait for Ryan to pick me up and he was
helping Pop-pop with a tranny.”

Kaylee turns her head toward me with a
giant blush and damn if that doesn’t just set me ablaze
again.

Ryan motions for me to step out, and I
hope to god things are all cool in the crotch region. The last
thing I want is Kaylee to see me at full mast. I step out and shove
my hands in my pockets pulling the material away from my body.
“Thanks for rescuing us,” I say.

“
By the looks of things you
didn’t need any rescuing,” Ryan says, and smacks my back then
dangles his hand in disgust. “Dude, you’re sweating.”

“
Things got a little hot in
there,” Kaylee says, and bounces up to kiss my cheek.

“
Yeah. It was…It was hot.
No air flow.”

“
I’m sure that’s all it
was,” Ryan says.

“
We’re going to the movies
tomorrow if you guys want to come.” Lexie says.

Kaylee bites her lip and fidgets with
her hands. Her hair has come loose from her braids and is sticking
up. The pieces that aren’t sticking up are matted to her forehead,
yet she still is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever
seen.

We’ve been out before. But now that
we’ve kissed I want to make it official. A girl like Kaylee
deserves a real date.

“
Only if Kaylee agrees to
go,” I say, walking over to her and tucking a few of her golden
strands behind her ear.

Her eyes widen, and she looks up at me
through her long lashes. “Of…of course.”

“
Great. It’s a date
then.”

“
A date?” she all but
squeals.

I smile. “A date.”

“
Oh. Oh! I have to go.”
Kaylee grabs Lexie’s hand and yanks her out the door.

“
What the—” Lexie’s words
are lost in the hallway as Ryan and I just stare at each
other.

“
What just happened?” I ask
completely dumbfounded, the taste of Kaylee’s strawberry gloss
still on my lips.

“
Chicks man. They’re just
weird,” Ryan says, and we both plop down on my bed, shaking our
heads.

“
Ry?” Lex sticks her head
back in the room and Ryan and I both look up.

“
Yeah Lex?” Ryan
says.

Before Lexie says anything Kaylee runs
back in, kisses me on the cheek and sputters, “Rain check on the
movie tonight,” then disappears again.

“
We need a ride to Kaylee’s
house,” Lexie says.

“
Is everything okay?” I
ask, afraid Kaylee realized who she just agreed to a date with and
bolted.

“
Perfect. Kaylee just has
to get home for dinner. And apparently we have a lot of planning to
do too. Um. Yeah. Girl stuff. I mean did you see her nails? Ow
Kaylee!” Lex’s head goes back into the hallway, but we can still
hear her words. “What? Have you looked at them? All chips.” Lex’s
head pops back into the doorway. “Ready?”

Ryan rolls his eyes and hops up from
the bed. “Catch you later, dude.”

“
We’ll pick you up tomorrow
at seven,” Lexie says, and disappears again.

I’m totally cool until I hear the
front door shut, and the thoughts of tomorrow fill my mind. I’m
going on a date. With Kaylee. What the heck am I thinking? I don’t
know how to go on a date. Not like I never had a date before, it’s
just none of those girls were my dream girl. Don’t get me wrong
they were all awesome in their own way, just not Kaylee.

Everything about her is
over the top and perfect and this date needs to be exactly that. I
need help. I sit down at my desk and pull up Skype on my
laptop.
Please be there.

“
What’s going on?” Nick
says as his face pops on the screen. It’s six in the evening, and
he has no shirt on. Which means he’s either getting ready to head
out or a girl is sleeping on his bed. I hope it’s not the latter.
The last time that happened, it got a little awkward when the girl
woke up and flashed me.

“
You alone?” I
ask.

“
Yup.” Nick was always a
man of many words.

“
So I kind of need your
advice.”

“
Did you get the
herps?”

“
What? No. Nothing like
that. I have a date.”

Nick’s dark eyebrow rises. “Okay?
You’ve been out with girls before. You open the door for her. Don’t
offer to pay right away just in case she’s a feminist. Feel her out
before you go in for the goodnight kiss. What else do you need to
know?”

“
This girl’s different. I
want to…you know. Wow her.”

“
Little bro’s got it bad,
huh? Oh snap. This is the girl I had to call for you, isn’t
it?”

“
I called her.”

“
I hit the button. And be
real. You never would have. Okay, this is what you do. Girls like
flowers. Go pick some up at the Stop and Go. You’re not wearing
that are you?”

I look down at my button up and
suspenders. “The date’s tomorrow so no. But I was going to wear
something similar and add a bow tie.”

“
Seriously where did you
come from?”

“
Look Joan Rivers, my
fashion choice is the least of my worries.”

“
If you say so. Okay so
here is what you’re going to do…”

Chapter 9