Chapter 21: Chapter 21

I got a visitor that evening before I could make up my mind about pulling Andre aside for a chat though. It was Aaron and he was curious to know why I decided to shut myself in for so long. He came with dinner, not school dinner. Apparently, Aaron is a bit of a cook. He made spaghetti with a minced meat pie. I didn’t know he had an oven in his room.

“I haven’t seen you all day and I thought you might be hungry.”

“Wow, how am going to eat all of that?” I laughed looking down at his hand loaded with all the good stuff.

“We could eat it together – if you let me in that is,” he said.

Suddenly realizing I had forgotten to invite him in I laughed and stepped back. He smelled so good like he just had a nice shower and washed his hair with something that smelled like kiwi shampoo. My hormones must be raging so I couldn’t help breathing him in. He smiled.

“Okay, that wasn’t weird at all.”

I blushed, embarrassed that he caught me. “I’m sorry,” I laughed. “Come in.” I went to the kitchen to bring plates and forks and he dished some food into them, cut into the pie and gave me a piece. It was delicious. Everything he cooked was so super delicious that my mouth watered the more I ate. He chuckled as he watched me wolf down the food.

“Easy, you might choke on it.”

“But it’s so good.” And honestly, besides the chocolate and some of the tea Andre brought I haven’t eaten anything all day. I hadn’t even realized I was hungry until Aaron came around with the food. “I never knew you could cook.”

He shrugged with a pleased smile. “There are a lot of things I can do that you don’t know about. Actually, that’s partially my fault since I used to be such a jackass.”

“Yeah, I’m not going to deny that. You did try to embarrass me in Junior class.”

He sighed. "I'm sorry about that. I was young and stupid. His gaze turned teasing. “Well try being the son of Zack Pratt and Lisa Thurman.”

“Must be hard,” I said sarcastically.

He laughed. “Alright, you can laugh at my expense. But it’s hard you know, being the son of Zack Pratt and Lisa Thurman and not letting it get into my head, come on if you were in my shoes your head would be bursting with pride."

I considered that. Seeing the children of popular actor and actress parents, kids of royal bloodline I guess I can see what he’s talking about. My dad works as a driver for Siobhan’s father’s company, mom is a struggling artist, if they were popular artists or if dad was a movie star with his good looks you bet your ass I’ll be the nastiest, proud kid in school.

“Yeah yeah,” I said in agreement with him. “Whatever so what brought the change?”

“Being Head boy. It changes a lot about you, you know? That idea of being responsible for something. Right now I’m responsible for the welfare of other students and the school at large, it changes one's perspective on things. During the summer break, I had a talk with myself and wondered what kind of Head boy I would make if I couldn’t keep my pride in check. Also, my dad was super proud of me and that was a first so..."

I couldn’t help staring at him in wonder. There truly was a lot that changed about him. He saw me staring and snapped out of his thoughts with a small smile. “I know that’s kinda uncool, Gideon said he didn’t think I was cool as before when I used to be a jackass and he wasn’t joking.”

“Gideon needs to have his head checked if he thinks being a jackass is what makes someone cool. You know what I think is cool, you. I’m glad you’re different. Honestly, I had a premonition that we might have a bit of the Head boy, Head girl history and I was prepared to knock your head in if you tried to force it on me.”

He laughed. “Whoops, glad I changed then. I can’t have my head knocked in.”

I laughed with him. It was kinda painful not gonna lie because every time I laughed it felt like someone turned a tap on in my vagina. I needed to get another bottle of water from my fridge but I was worried my new shorts would be stained and I am not dying for another episode of what happened this morning with Andre.

Then Aaron sobered and moved just a little bit closer. “Well, you’ve talked about how you thought I was an asshole but you haven’t said what you think about me now.”

I looked up from my now almost empty plate of spaghetti and caught his eyes. Did the room get hotter or is it Aaron?

In the dying light streaming through my window, his green eyes were a shade darker as he watched me closely. I’m not going to lie to you Aaron isn’t actually a bad-looking guy. Shewa used to have a crush on him and he and Siobhan once hooked up in our first year as  Class 1 seniors. (According to her there was nothing really intimate about it.)

But in the intimacy of my sitting room knowing that he has a crush on me, it made him even ten times hotter. His slight smile as he leaned a chin on his arm curved over the back of the sofa, the intense look of expectation in his eyes…it was a wonder I didn’t grab him for a kiss.

I licked my lips suddenly nervous. He put me in a hot spot with his question.

In a bid to lighten the mood, I feigned a disgruntled annoyance. “Well if you must know, I think you’ve gotten a lot better. This much.” I held my hand up and held my index finger and thumb close with just the slightest inch of space between them.

He smiled. “That much? Wow, I’m impressed.”

“You’re impressed with that? If you want me you have to do better than that.”

He reached for my hand. I almost peed my pants. “I will do better than that. Do you know what I think? I think I don’t deserve you and if I had a decent bone in me I won’t bother chasing you but I really like you, I always did but I was too big of a jerk to show it. I thought about you during the summer, that’s one of the reasons I had my sober reflection." He licked his lips. "Did I come on too heavy last night?"

I nodded, my breath shallow as I tried to show my heart on my sleeve. "Yeah."

"Look, I’m prepared to take things how ever slow you want and not just because of the whole Head boy and girl thing – although I’m beginning to think there might be some truth to that tradition -,” we laughed. “If you’ll let me in I’ll prove myself to you.”

It was a lot to take in. I am not used to being the first option when there’s Siobhan but here is a guy wanting me…for me and not because he couldn’t get Siobhan first. I didn’t want to show how nervous he made me so as usual I put on my goofy face, hoping he couldn’t feel my pulse beat in my wrist.

“Okay, Romeo, I’ll decide if you’re good enough for me. For now, I want another bottle of water.”

He grinned. “That’s easy.”

He got up and went to my kitchen leaving me staring at my hand wondering what changed. Did I become pretty overnight?