The Songs in Our Hearts: A Young Adult Romance(33)

“Did you see Paranormal Activity?” Micah asked, his smirk still in place.

“Are you kidding me? I was a kid when that came out. Of course not.”

“Oh, my God, Halloween night: you, me and Paranormal Activity. Okay?”

“No!” I chucked a pillow at him playfully.

“It could be worse.” Micah caught the pillow. “I could haul you to a haunted house.”

“Over my dead body!”

“Chicken.” Micah laughed. “I can only imagine the trouble Josh must give you.”

“Oh, he’s the worst. Once, at an amusement park, Josh told me a story about someone dying on a haunted house ride. He said the guy fell out of the buggy and was run over by the oncoming one, squirting blood everywhere. Apparently, the haunted house has been haunted ever since. I totally freaked out and refused to get on.”

“You’re too gullible,” Micah said. “There’s no way anyone got run over by a buggy in a haunted house ride, let alone died. We’ll have to go to that amusement park someday, and I’ll drag you on it.”

“Like hell you will.”

That only caused Micah to laugh harder. He leaned back, letting out a few more chuckles as we focused our attention back to the TV screen. In no time at all, The Breakfast Club came to an end and we heard my dad’s heavy footsteps coming through the front door. I stood, stretching as I went to turn off the movie.

“Supper!” I heard my mom call from the kitchen.

I was surprised to see Josh at the table. I hadn’t heard him come back from the creek with his friends. My dad was sitting down, gazing at the pile of mail and the first few pages of the newspaper. He adjusted his reading glasses and paid no attention to Micah or me. My mom had set the table with paper plates, and the boxes of pizza were stacked in the middle.

Josh was the first to dig in, and Micah followed. I was grabbing a piece when my dad lowered the newspaper and looked at me.

“How was your day, honey?” He helped himself to a slice after me.

“It was all right. How was yours?” I enjoyed listening to my dad talk about his day. There were times I didn’t understand the car parts he’d reference, but he didn’t mind explaining them to me.

“Busy. Hard. Work,” he replied, biting into his pizza. This meant he had a normal day. “And you must be Micah?” Dad looked at him.

“Yes, sir.” Micah lowered his piece of pizza to his plate.

“How is the project going?”

“It’s going well, thanks,” Micah replied. “We got the screenplay written…and uh…next we’re going to build a few sets and start filming.”

“Build sets, huh?” Dad smiled. “You’re actually going to get Charlie to pick up a hammer?”

“I can pick up a hammer,” I asserted.

“Took you forever to learn the difference between a Phillips and a flathead,” Josh guffawed.

“Actually, my friends are going to help us out. I’ll probably make Charlie paint or something.” Micah smiled at me.

“That sounds like some great teamwork,” Josh hinted, glancing between the two of us, amused. I was tempted to throw a pepperoni at him.

“How’s Jackie O?” I countered. Two could play this game.

“What about her?” Josh’s grin disappeared. His eyes dared me to continue in front of Dad.

“I know you wanted to ask her to—”

“I changed my mind,” Josh snapped. “I asked someone else to Homecoming.”

“Oh, you’re going to Homecoming?” Mom looked delighted, her smile lighting up the room.

I looked at Josh. No Jackie O? Had he really given up so easily? I wanted to ask him if he was really going to let Brent Pierce win, but I knew it was a conversation for another place and time. Josh was private about his crush around our parents. I didn’t blame him for feeling weird about it in front of them.

“Maybe,” Josh mumbled to our mom.

“You just said you asked someone to Homecoming, so you must be going,” Dad commented. Josh only shrugged.

Mom changed the subject after an awkward silence, and discussed her day at work with my dad. When my parents were done eating, they headed into the living room to watch the World News.

“What happened to Jackie O and you?” I whispered across the table to Josh.

“She’s going with Brent. I don’t stand a chance.” Josh sighed. “Just let it go, Charlie. I have.”

“Did you really ask someone else?”

“Yes, I actually did.” Josh stood up and began to clear the dinner table.

“Who?!” I demanded, following him to the trash can.

“No one you know.”

“How is that possible? This is too small of a town to not know someone,” I argued.

“It doesn’t matter, Charlie. I doubt I’ll even go,” Josh explained.

“Then why bother asking someone? That doesn’t make sense.” I placed the leftover slices of pizza into a large plastic Ziploc bag while Josh washed his hands. He didn’t answer me, only wiped his wet hands on his jeans and started toward the door.

“Josh!”

He disappeared upstairs and into his room.

Micah came up beside me.