#MeantToBe: A #BestFriendsForever Companion Novel, page 10
But I nodded. “That’s correct.”
She shrieked, causing everyone else to glance our way for an instant before turning back to whatever they were doing.
Heather winked in my direction with a sly smile, but I pretended not to see it.
“If I were a betting man, and I’m not,” I began, which made Brooklyn laugh, “I would bet that you’ll at least slide by with a B, B-plus, if you remember to simplify those fractions.”
Her gaze went back to her paper. “Yeah, I always forget to do that. But I think I’ve got this.”
“You do,” I said.
She checked her phone, showing me the time. “Wow, it’s getting late, huh? What time do you get to go home?”
“About thirty minutes,” I replied.
Just then, someone else came in, a guy with a backpack hung over his shoulder. He looked like he needed help, but Heather was busy with someone else.
Matt, of course, had walked off to get coffee just a few seconds ago. He’d probably seen him approaching the entrance.
Brooklyn turned around and spotted him too. “I should get going. I’m starving anyway. Have you had dinner yet?” she asked, gathering her stuff.
I waved at the guy, and he made his way over.
“Not yet,” I said.
She put on her backpack. “I have a paper to work on anyway. How about I wait for you?”
This guy, who wore a cap backward, took a seat in front of me and began getting out his stuff.
I looked back at Brooklyn. “Uh, yeah, that sounds good. This shouldn’t take too long.”
She smiled. “Cool, I’ll be over there.”
I tore my eyes away from her as she took a seat at another table.
Then I watched Matt come back with a mug of coffee and sit back down to work on his dissertation.
Jerk.
I turned back to the guy in front of me. “Hey, man, what can I help you with?”
He looked like a freshman too, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Chem 1100?” He turned his book towards me.
“My favorite,” I said kind of sarcastically, and I caught Brooklyn smiling in my direction when she was supposed to be writing.
A short while later, I got baseball hat guy up to speed on solving chemical equations.
“Thanks, man,” he said, giving me one last wave.
I waved back and turned to Brooklyn.
She shut her laptop, and I walked over to her table, glancing at my phone.
Matt had just left a few minutes ago and told Heather and me to lock up.
Technically, I still had a few minutes on the clock, not to mention helping Heather close up. She stood up from her table, where was still helping some girl out with history, and came toward me. “Hey, you can go if you want. I can lock up. No problem."
I looked at her and then Brooklyn. Brooklyn was already packing her stuff. I really wanted to leave with her, but I’d feel like a jerk if I left Heather here on her own.
“What if somebody else comes in?” I asked her.
”I doubt it,” she said. “It's been slow all day. Anyway, you can make it up to me during finals week.” She was already on her way back to her table. "Go ahead. You guys have a good night." She gave us one last smile.
Before I could put up a fight, she had her back to me.
I turned back at Brooklyn. She shrugged.
"Let's go, I guess,” I told her. I grabbed my stuff, we waved goodbye to Heather, and we began walking towards the dining hall.
It was less than a ten-minute walk. A strong breeze blew across our path, making Brooklyn's long hair sway in the wind. I liked the way she tried to move it out of her face to no avail.
Our eyes met for a second, and her smile faltered. She glanced away, and so did I.
We finally made it to the dining hall, a little odd tension still in the air.
But we both must have been pretty hungry because we filled up our plates with pizza, salad, and even some ice cream.
The dining hall emptied not long after we arrived, especially since it had turned dark out and it was starting to get chilly.
A couple of guys still in gym shorts and sweaty shirts walked past us.
I stared down at my three slices of pizza and made a mental note to start hitting the gym before I developed a belly.
Brooklyn and I found some seats over by a window, although the sun was just about done setting.
"So do you usually have dinner with Shelley?" I asked.
She nodded. "Most nights. Except when she has club meetings and stuff like that. She's really involved on campus, so sometimes she'll have dinner with some of her other friends. Or I'll join them."
She shrugged and dug into her food. I did the same, and we kept talking like that.
Before we knew it, our empty trays are set aside and we were talking about what high school was like for each of us and even middle school.
I laughed. “You really tried out for football?" I asked. She had to be kidding. "You do not have the right build for that," I joked.
She brought her hands to her temples. "I must've looked so dumb. I had no idea how to play. All the teachers thought I was so special or something because I was the first girl to ever try out, but I only did it because my best friend dared me to.”
I shook my head, still grinning and trying to picture her as an eighth grader.
She leaned forward. “What about you? What's the most embarrassing thing you ever did?" she asked, cocking a brow at me.
"I don't know,” I replied lamely. I thought about that question for a second, then I remembered something good. “I did fall asleep in class once. After a math test. I got done in about, I don't know, ten minutes. The rest of the class was taking forever, and I was tired. I just remember I couldn't keep my eyes open. The next thing I knew, I heard a bunch of people laughing, and I woke up. And I swear there was slobber all over my test. I hadn't even turned it in yet." I finished, but Brooklyn was already laughing, and from her facial expression, kind of grossed out. I was too. "What?" I asked. "I was in sixth grade."
"That's pretty disgusting,” she said. “Was the drool all over your paper?"
I smiled sheepishly. “There was a pretty significant spot on the test. Let's just say I had to rewrite some answers before turning it in."
That made her laugh even harder.
And I laughed just watching her laugh. I liked her laugh. I liked the way Brooklyn’s eyes crinkled at the corners and the way she threw her head back just a little bit.
I was pretty sure I was staring at her like a puppy again, but I was glad when we continued talking and making jokes like we’d been doing so forever.
Eventually, though, Brooklyn looked at her phone. "Wow, it's eleven o'clock already? I have a seven o'clock class in the morning. I should probably get going."
"Me too," I said, standing up with her. "I have an assignment due at midnight."
We stood up, put away our trays, and headed back to our dorms together.
The air was chilly, and even though Brooklyn had on a jacket, she hugged herself as we walked.
"Well, at least we’re walking that ice cream off,” Brooklyn said. "I ate way too much.”
"You know what they say about the freshman fifteen,” I teased.
“It’s gonna become the freshman fifty if I don't stop eating like that,” Brooklyn said with a smile.
I smiled back at her, not even really hearing what she’d just said. Just kind of mesmerized.
Then we talked about what classes we were taking next semester. Which ones we wanted to take anyway. Registration wasn’t open yet.
I listened to see if there were any common classes between us, but not really. I was still wondering when I’d get see her next semester, if at all.
Eventually, we made it back to her dorm, and I walked her up to the entrance. Just as we stopped, both of us seemed to realize at the exact same moment that this was where we had kissed just a couple of weeks ago.
We were entirely alone, and it was that perfect temperature where you just wanted to be close to somebody, feel their warmth against you.
My gaze on her, I took a step towards Brooklyn, just a small one, and she did the same.
Our eyes met, and I wondered if either of us had the guts to do something, to do what was going through each of our minds.
My heart pounded. Brooklyn's face was inches away from mine, and her hair was in her face again, thanks to a cool fall breeze.
I gently pushed it back behind her ear, and let my hand touch her cheek.
Her mouth fell open just a little, her breath hitching.
“Is this okay?" I uttered.
She gave the slightest nod but kept her gaze down.
I wanted to kiss her more than anything.
I want to kiss her and wrap my arms around her. But the way she wouldn’t quite meet my eyes, I got the feeling that it wasn’t the right moment.
After ending her relationship of over two years with her ex, it was easy to understand why.
And I didn’t want to kiss her if she still wasn’t over him.
I just wanted her to know, though, that I was there for her, and that I cared about her.
A lot.
So instead, I hugged her tight. When she buried her face in my chest, a part of me wondered where she’d been all this time. She fit perfectly in between my arms.
We stayed like that for a minute before we slowly pulled back.
I looked down at her, she looked up at me, and we both smiled.
I brushed her hair out of her face one more time. “Thanks for having dinner with me.”
"Thanks for the company," she replied.
We said good night, and she walked inside.
The entire walk back to my dorm and up the stairs, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. About how much I wanted to kiss her.
But whatever happened between us, I hoped that Brooklyn figured out what she was going through.
Whether she was ready for something new or not, she was the kind of girl worth waiting for.
Eighteen
Brooklyn
Another thing I loved about Shelley was that I could just happen to mention to her that I was running short on cash, and a few days later, she had a babysitting job for me.
One of her friends from a volunteer club she participated in knew a family in town whose nanny had just quit, and they needed somebody quick.
So she had recommended me and given them my number. Within a couple of days, I was already working for said family.
The Millers had two sweet kids, a boy and a girl, both in elementary school. I watched them after school most days. I helped them do their homework, I fed them dinner, and then I put them to bed, complete with a bedtime story.
And when they ask what time mom and dad were going to be home, I gave them a big smile and told them soon.
I felt kind of bad for them because their parents were always working, but I tried to do fun things with them and keep them busy.
We stayed up late reading together, or I let them have extra TV time even when their mom constantly reminded me to limit screen time to thirty minutes a day.
One day, I asked Amanda casually, ”Do your mom and dad always work this late?”
She stared at Arthur on the TV. “Sometimes on the weekends too, but they promised they would take us to Disney World again,” she replied.
My heart sank at her words, and I gave her an extra tight hug.
“You’re lot nicer than our last nanny,” Carter said. "She was old and she smelled and she was really strict."
I smiled and gave him a hug too. After they were both finally in bed, I got out my own homework and started working on that.
The Millers wouldn’t be home for another hour or two, so I had plenty of time to get ahead on assignments. I thought about how when I was with Ethan I always felt like I had no time to do my homework, but now it felt like I had more free time than I knew what to do with, even with this babysitting job.
An hour later, I was finishing up my math homework when my phone buzzed.
My mind immediately went to Adam. He had my number but hadn’t texted me since the other night.
But instead of Adam, it was Ethan.
I paused for a second before I read it.
Ethan: Hey, can we talk?
Nineteen
Adam
I couldn’t stop thinking about Brooklyn, the way she’d nuzzled against me, and the smell of her hair.
Even though, I was supposed to be tutoring another girl in advanced calculus, it was almost impossible to focus. It didn’t help that this girl was completely clueless, even after I explained the same problem to her several times.
I didn’t know what else to do so I called Heather over, and she took over while I went over to a guy who’d just walked into the center.
Turned out he needed help with a 3000-level physics class, which I definitely hadn’t taken.
“One second,” I said as I got up and walked over to Matt. “Hey, Matt, this guy over here needs your help. Advanced physics,” I said.
I wasn’t surprised when he responded with a huge sigh, clearly annoyed that he had to get off his butt and actually do something. He closed his laptop, adjusted his glasses, and went over there.
Matt was a pretty big guy so right away the student looked intimidated. The bored look on Matt’s face certainly didn’t help.
I kinda felt sorry for him, but what could I do?
There were a couple of other tutors there so it was busy. With midterms happening that week, we were seeing twice the need for tutors, but for the moment, I was free. I went back to my table, happy for the time to study for my own exams.
Even if it was hard with the thought of Brooklyn inside my head.
I kept flickering my gaze toward the double doors, wondering if she might come in later, but it didn’t seem like she would.
It made sense considering she’d texted me the last couple of times she came in for tutoring, asking if I was here.
My thoughts went back to the last time I saw her. How we’d had dinner together and then walked home.
Yeah, it had just been the student dining hall, but still. It had been dinner together
What if she’d been waiting for me to message her?
I bit the inside of my lip as I realized that.
How could I be so dumb? That was probably it. Brooklyn could be waiting for me to actually ask her out, and here I was, wondering if she’d ever text me to ask if I was available for tutoring.
Then another voice in my head said no, that wasn’t it.
She’d just broken up with her long-time boyfriend. She wasn’t looking for anything serious, and definitely not with me.
But then I pushed that voice away. Twice something had happened or almost happened with us and that wound’t have been the case if she didn’t actually feel something for me.
After that, I decided I should probably stop arguing with myself and get back to studying for my history mid-term.
But not before I picked up my phone and started tapping out a text to her.
Adam: Hey, have you had dinner yet?
I liked the idea of that becoming our thing. And I really had volleyball to thank. First, it’d been going out to eat with the entire team. Then getting home together after.
But last time it had been only us. I liked that. A lot.
So I hit send with an idiotic smile on my face and tried to focus on my history notes again.
Over an hour later, my shift at the tutoring center was over, my studying was done and then some, and Brooklyn still hadn’t replied to my message.
I looked at my phone again, making sure once again that the message had actually sent. Yep. Delivered.
But no reply.
Maybe she was just busy. Maybe she had something going on with Shelley or something.
I gathered my stuff and headed out, waving to Heather and pretty much ignoring Matt, who made it a point to ignore everybody in the first place.
On my way home, I got an idea. I texted Shelley instead, asking her if she and Brooklyn had had dinner yet. My stomach growled, and I hoped I’d get a response this time. As pathetic as it was to text Shelley too, I hated having dinner alone more.
I could’ve probably texted Tommy to see what he was up to, but I preferred to see Brooklyn again.
My phone dinged with a new message.
Shelley: No, I’m at my dorm. I think Brooklyn is almost here. Why don't you come on over and we can walk to the dining hall together? :)
Good old Shelley. I knew I could count on her.
Within a few minutes, I was almost to their dorm building. I debated whether I should run up to my building and drop off my stuff, but I didn’t want to keep the girls waiting. It sounded like they were just about ready to go. So I began walking up to the dorm where Brooklyn and Shelley lived.
I shoot Shelley a text.
Adam: I’m here.
Shelley: On my way down!
Just as I was about to ask about Brooklyn, a familiar figure caught my eye.
Walking closer, I recognized her long wavy hair. Her back was to me, but I was pretty sure that was her jacket.
She turned a little, and that’s when I saw part of her face.
It was Brooklyn. And she was with someone.
I recognized him too.
Her ex.
I froze, wondering if it was really him.
Yep, that was his car parked in the fire lane.
Brooklyn stood pretty close to him, seeing as they were supposed to be broken up. His hand was in her hair.
He smiled down at her. Part of me wanted to go over there and punch him in the face. How dare he touch her?
But then she hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder, and it felt like Brooklyn herself had just stabbed me in the chest.
I flashed back to my last year of high school and how it’d felt to lose Sara.
Then I flashed to the kiss Brooklyn and I had shared not far from here after the rain had come pouring down on us.
Ethan bent down to kiss her. Brooklyn kissed him back.
