The Songs in Our Hearts: A Young Adult Romance(23)

“That’s kind of a weird comparison,” Micah chuckled and shrugged.

I chucked the receipt back at him with a laugh of my own. Micah paused and stared at me for a moment. His eyes reminded me of warm, melted chocolate. My hands suddenly became sweaty and I didn’t know what to do. I was certain there were nervous butterflies in my stomach, flying around. Awkwardly, I took another sip of my almost-gone slushy and pulled my phone out of my pocket. We had already killed forty-five minutes.

“You’re actually really…” Micah started as he leaned closer. His voice was molten lava. “You’re really…”

I could almost imagine what he’d say next. Hot? Amazing? There was a small smile growing on his lips. My eyes dropped to stare at his lips. Was he going to try to…kiss me? Just as my gaze fluttered back to his, Micah stopped. There was a change in his expression. The smile slowly vanished and he eased away. As if he were dashing his thought away, he turned and began to play with the knobs on his stereo system.

“You’re really close to your curfew. I guess I should get you back home, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I agreed hesitantly and buckled my seatbelt again. I wondered what caused him to pull away. What would he have said to me if he kept going? This was starting to feel more and more like a date with each passing second. I darted a sideways glance at him, but he was concentrating on starting the car and getting out of the parking lot.

“We’ll have to do this again, when you have more time… The sky is so clear here; the stars are really easy to see. It might even be an excellent place to film something for our movie, too.”

“Yeah, good,” I said. A few minutes later, Micah pulled into my driveway and put the car in park.

“I guess I’ll see you in school tomorrow?”

My heart was beating hard. I was sure he could hear it.

“Have a good night,” he offered and bent forward across me to unlock my door. I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until he leaned back. His dark stare never left mine as I lifted my hand to the door.

“Bye, Micah.” My fingers searched for the handle until I found it and escaped into the cool night air. I closed the car door and didn’t look back at him. I could feel his eyes following me the whole time I walked to the front door. Relief only came once I slipped inside. I counted to five to give Micah time to pull out of the driveway, and flicked the outside light off. With a heavy sigh, I trudged up the stairs and walked to my room.

“Did you have fun?” Mom called after me.

Fun? Yeah, I guess. “Yeah!” I shouted over my shoulder as I shoved open my door. Safety. Just as I crawled back into bed, I noticed I had a text.





MICAH: U left ur slushy in my car



MICAH: I tried it and…





I grinned and tapped a response back.





CHARLIE: …And?



MICAH: U were right.





“Joy”

Ellie Goulding





IT WAS A LITTLE AWKWARD that morning, climbing onto the bus and seeing his face, the same face that had looked at me so nervously the night before. But as soon as I sat down beside him, Micah grinned and offered his earbud to me.

“More Bryan Adams?” I asked.

“Guess you’ll just have to listen.”

I put the earbud into place and waited as he turned on his phone. I recognized the melody as soon as it started.

“You like David Bowie?” I asked, taking the device out of his hand. I recognized the song from the movie Labyrinth. I didn’t know a single girl who has never heard “As The World Falls Down.” All of us at one point had dreamed of dancing with the Goblin King.

“Hell, who doesn’t?” Micah asked.

Somewhere between the stressful jumble of creating our movie for the English project, our argument, and the unusual night before, I had grown to appreciate that Micah and I could still laugh and joke. As the bus pulled into the high school parking lot, I handed him back his earpiece.

“You might just have to make me a mix of some of your music,” I suggested. “You know, educate me like you said you would last night.”

“I could,” Micah considered. “Once you hear everything of mine, you’ll have to make me a CD of yours. I might like it. Maybe.” His last word came out like a tease. Cocky. I smirked, though.

We reached first period together, only to be bombarded by Samantha Walters and her posse. She adjusted the books in her arms and flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder with a bored expression.

“So, I wanted to ask you both,” she began, popping a bubble of gum between her front teeth.

“I’m having a study session at my house for the entire English class. Maybe we can bounce ideas off of each other for our screenplays? We’re doing Wuthering Heights.”

Micah glanced at me to gauge my reaction, but I didn’t have one. Samantha snapped her gum again with a smug grin. I could tell she was just devouring the sight of the two of us together.

“That’s fine, I guess,” Micah told her. “We’d appreciate the added help.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” Samantha said, her best fake smile plastered on her face. “You’re so smart and creative. I bet you’ll have the best ideas there.” I watched as she winked at him and bit her bottom lip lightly, but enough to be suggestive. I wanted to gag.