"Erica. Erica, come on. You have to get up. You're going to be late." The voice of my twin and only sibling greeted me.
"No… I don't want to get up." I grumbled into my pillow.
I heard my brother chuckle. "Come on sis. It's our first day of school and our senior year. You have to be excited."
"Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever you say." He grabbed my feet like he was ready to pull me off of my bed. "I'm up, I'm up!" I said sitting up and rubbing my eyes tiredly. "Just give me a minute. I'll be down soon."
"Okay sis. But if you're not downstairs in twenty minutes, we're leaving without you."
"We…?" I started to ask, but Brian was already gone.
I slowly got out of my queen size bed and made my way to the bathroom adjoining my room to my brothers. Knowing I didn't have a lot of time, I hurriedly got into the shower and let the hot water relax my muscles. Once done, I got out, dressing in my favorite pair of low rise jeans and an old football tee shirt of my brothers that he had grown out of once he hit that growth spurt that made him the six foot five person that he was today. I quickly combed through my hair and blow-dried it putting it into a high ponytail.
I made my way downstairs and hearing voices coming from the kitchen, I made my way there. Walking in I found my brother and his best friend, Hayden, laughing about who knows what. They looked over at me when I came into the room.
"Hey hot stuff, glad to see you got home okay." The whole hot stuff comment was something Hayden and I had going on. We had always kept this playful banter going on between us.
I was a little confused though. "Home okay from where sexy? I was home all weekend."
"You mean you don't remember last night? I'm hurt babe. It was all I could think about when you left. I couldn't forget you lying in my bed, calling out my name." Hayden winked at me and my brother rolled his eyes.
When Hayden and I had started this little banter, Brian and been really mad not knowing it was all pretend. He had thought Hayden and I were going out behind his back. It had taken a lot to persuade him otherwise.
"Yeah well, I guess it just wasn't as good as I'm used to. What's the point in remembering?" Haha yeah, used to. Even with the talk between me and Hayden, none of it was true. I was a virgin and planned on staying that way until I got married. If anyone will wait that long for me.
"But baby, that's not what you were saying last night when you kept asking for more." He sidled up behind me; put his arms around me pulling me close. Then I felt something on my neck. Are those his lips? Yes those most definitely were. Hayden had never gone this far before. We had this sort of no contact thing going on. All of a sudden his arms and lips were gone and I swung around.
My brother had pulled Hayden off of me and had a very serious look on his face. "I let you guys mess around with each other and I don't say anything because I know it won't ever go anywhere. But you need to keep your hands off my sister. Now let's go or we're going to be late." He walked out of the room and I heard the front door open and close. Hayden and I looked at each other and we walked out together to the driveway.
Hayden got into the passenger seat of my brothers small truck and I went to go get into my car. Where's my car? I looked all around thinking maybe I had parked on the street or something but my car was nowhere to be found. I looked back at my brother when I heard the sound of him laughing.
"Mom took your car to work. Hers was totaled, remember? You're supposed to ride with us for the next couple of months until she can get a new one." Why didn't I remember all of this?
"Oh." I made my way slowly over to his truck. Hold on. Brian's truck only has two seats. "Where am I supposed to sit?" I looked in past Hayden to the small area in between the two boys. I could sit there if it wasn't for the console sitting there. "You know what. I'll just call Brooke and ask her to come pick me up. You guys go ahead. I'll meet you at the school."
My brother wouldn't leave until after he knew I had a ride for sure. I called Brooke's phone and hung up after it reached her voice mail.
"Brooke's not answering. She probably forgot to charge her phone again. I'll just call someone else."
Brian's voice but in before I could open my phone again. "Erica, just sit in the bed of the truck or something. I'd have you sit up here but the consoles in the way. It's not that far to school. You'd be fine in the back. I'll go slowly."
"I am not going to bounce around in the bed of your truck. We've tried that before and I can never find something to hold on too. I'm not heavy enough to stay still. Just let me keep calling someone. If I'm late, I'm late."
Hayden got out of the truck and started walking to the bed. "What are you doing?" I asked him.
"I'll sit in the back. You sit up front with your brother." He climbed into the back.
He can't do that. "When I said I wouldn't sit in the back, it doesn't mean you have to. I would sit back there but I can never find something to hold onto. Sit up front. I'll find a ride."
I saw Brian checking the time from the corner of my eye. "Come on Erica, stop being stubborn, just get in. We're going to be late if we don't leave now."
I was not letting Hayden sit alone in the bed of my brother's truck. I put my backpack and purse in the passenger seat and closed the door. "Erica! Get in the truck!" My brother called from the driver's side.
"I am!" I hollered making my way to the back of the truck. I held out my arms towards Hayden. "Pull me up." He picked me up under my arms easily and lifted me in putting me next to him before shutting up the back. "Let's go Brian!" The roar of the truck sounded and we were on our way.
"You could have sat up front you know." Hayden said. I just shook my head trying not to slide across the bed when my brother turned. But it didn't work and I started moving across the back. Before I could get very far Hayden had grabbed me and wrapped his arm around me preventing me from going anywhere.
"You know, for being a member of the Johnson family, you sure are tiny." I was five foot four, while it seemed everyone else in my family was over six foot. Hayden was as well. He stood at a height of six foot seven; two inches taller than my giant of a brother.
"Yeah well there's nothing I can do about it. So get used to it." I leaned into his side, trying to get comfortable and trying not to move out of his grip so I wouldn't go flying.
"I am used to it. I'm just saying," He paused. "your cute tiny." The truck had stopped and Hayden was jumping over the side before I could respond back to his comment.
"Um, guys... Could you unlatch the back here? I can't get it from this side and I can't just jump over the side like Mr. Showoff over there." Hayden came walking back and unlatched it, then lifted me up and sat me on the ground in front of him.
"Come on sexy. Let's get to homeroom before the bell rings." Wrapping his arm around me he led me to the front entrance holding my backpack out of reach when I tried to grab it.
"Can I at least have my purse back, please?"
"Oh yeah, here you go." He quickly handed it to me before I could grab my backpack out of his now outstretched arm.
With one arm still wrapped around my shoulders and my backpack in the other we made it to the inside of the school. Whispers were heard from the freshman as we walked in. Everyone else just went on their own way not at all interested with the boy whose arm was around me. Everyone knew who Hayden Michael was from his spot on the baseball, football, and basketball team. He was sure to get a full ride to whatever school he wanted.
"Is Hayden going out with her?" I heard from one girl in the hallway.
I heard an upperclassman's reply. "No. Hayden's best friend is Erica's brother. Their always flirting with each other but both of them denies their feelings for the other. I for one, think they'd make the cutest couple and that they should just go out already. Everyone knows they really like each other but their too stubborn to say anything." I felt my face heat up. Just because we went back and forth at each other didn't mean we liked each other, did it?
I pulled my schedule out of my pocket as we were walking towards our homeroom class. Hayden and I had both had Mrs. Myers for the past three years as our homeroom teacher and it hadn't changed this year. "What do you have first period, beautiful?" Hayden asked before letting go of my shoulders and holding Mrs. Myers door open for me. We made our way in and grabbed some seats in the middle of the room side by side.
"Government with Mrs. Smith. What about you handsome?" I asked turning to the boy beside me.
"College algebra with Mr. Hansen." Hayden grabbed my schedule out of my hand and took a highlighter that was lying on the desk next to him. He started highlighting different classes on my paper.
"What in the world are you doing to my schedule Hayden?" I asked, seeing that he had highlighted seven of the nine classes on my paper.
He handed the paper back to me and said, "I highlighted all the classes you have to look forward to."
"Oh. Why? Are they good teachers?" I started looking over the list of classes on my schedule.
"I don't know. I've never had most of them. You have them to look forward to because I'm in them with you, baby doll." The bell indicating it was time to head to first period sounded. I got up and grabbed my purse and backpack off the desk. Before I could leave, Hayden leaned down and kissed my forehead before heading out of the room with a smirk on his face. "See you next period Erica." I stood there dazed for a second. Ever since that morning Hayden had been acting more touchy feely with me. Why the change all of a sudden?
Wow. I started a new story. I really shouldn't have since I have a few posted and not finished. But I do have an excuse for that. : ) Haha. My laptop died. : ( I had this story saved on my flashdrive. (Something I should have done with all of the rest). I do have this story completed so you don't have to worry about any writer's block coming out of me.
Anything But Ordinary is temporarily on hold until I get my laptop fixed long enough to get my files off of it.Definitely review this. I would really appreciate any comments you might have. ~Kelly