I woke up unusually early on Saturday morning. I looked at my pile of homework and decided not to kid myself that any of it would get done before my date, so instead, I showered and went over to see Carlos.
James answered the door, sweaty from his morning kickboxing routine. Kendall was behinf him in the kitchen, tying his sneakers. I stepped inside.
"Just about to head out for a run," said James. "I don't think Carlos is up yet."
"Roped Kendall into it, I see." I flicked Kendall on the arm and tried to duck out of the way but he got me in a playful headlock and kissed my cheek.
"Hey now," he said, sounding offended. "I work out!" James and I both scoffed.
"You're blessed with good metabolism," James corrected him. While Kendall was distracted by James, I took the opportunity to elbow him in the side and wiggle free from his grasp. He gripped his side and let out a pained gasp but before he could get at me again, I waved goodbye and high-tailed it up the stairs to Carlos' room.
I burst in and bounced over to his bed.
"Wake up, sleepy head!"
Carlos groaned and rolled over to face me. I smiled obnoxiously in his face and kissed the tip of his nose before pushing my way onto the bed next to him. Grabbing the remote on his bedside table, I settled against the headboard, crossed my ankles and turned on VH1…..loudly. Carlos pulled his pillow out from under his head and instead wrapped it around the back of his head. I head a muffled voice from under the pillow earmuffs.
"What was that?" I giggled. He removed the pillow and looked groggily up at me.
"Are you for real right now, Lacey?"
"Yes, I sure am, Carlitos, but if you're gonna be rude, I'm not making breakfast." His eyebrows shot up and he took my hand in both of his.
"Oh, Spacey Lacey! Have I ever told you how perfect and wonderful and beautiful you are?" I laughed, deciding to let him continue to grovel.
"Not today you haven't."
"Well," he said, sitting up. "You are kinda awesome. Not gonna lie, you're, like, the best thing to ever happen to me." He really didn't sound like he was groveling anymore. "Besides being a great friend, you're honestly the most beautiful girl I know." His face was much too close to mine. Why couldn't I breathe? "Inside and out." He seemed out of breath as he finished and we stayed like that, his heavy exhalations hitting my lips and making them tingle for much longer than I was comfortable.
"OKAY!" I said, much more loudly than was necessary. "Pancakes and bacon coming right up." And with that, I jumped out of bed and all but fled from the room. When I reached the kitchen, I gripped the counter top with white knuckles until my breathing returned to normal.
"Hey, Lace," said Logan from the table, looking over his morning paper. I hadn't even noticed him sitting there. "You okay?"
"What? Oh. Oh, um, yeah. Yeah. I'm fine." I straightened up and smoothed the front of my shirt. "I'm about to make pancakes. You want some?"
"Sure!" he replied enthusiastically. My pancakes are something of a legend around here. He took a sip from his mug. "There's coffee in the pot if you want some."
"Oh, thank God." As I poured the coffee, my hands shook. Taking deep breaths, I tried to calm myself and for God's sake, stop repeating in my head what had almost just happened upstairs. And most importantly try to ignore the fact that I was so rattled. WHY was I so rattled because of it?
As the first pancakes were finishing cooking in the skillet, Carlos entered the kitchen pulling a purple vneck over head head. My breath caught in my throat as his chest and stomach disappeared beneath the fabric. This was stupid. I needed to control myself. I'm just hyped up on nerves, I lied to myself. He smiled, a bit red in the cheeks, and hopped up on the counter next to the stove. His legs swung off the counter as he took a sip of my coffee and sighed. I could feel him staring at me, even as he exchanged good mornings with Logan. His intense stare turned my cheeks red as if his eyes were actual flames.
Okay, this was ridiculous. Carlos was my best friend. I had to stop over thinking this. So I took a deep breath, mentally steadying myself and then looked right at him. I almost couldn't handle the heavy brown eyes that met mine. He was running me over like a train and oh, God, this had to stop. So I smiled and handed him a plate. He looked at it and when he looked back at me, the train was replaced with a merry-go-round. I breathed an inner sigh of relief. He was never allowed to look at me like that ever again.
"PANCAKE SPIDER!" he cheered. I had put two pancakes on top of each other in the middle of the plate and stuck eight pieces of bacon out, four on each side, so it looked like a tasty arachnid.
"Your favorite," I replied. He jumped off the counted and kissed me on the cheek before rushing to shoe Logan the edible creature. My fingers subconsciously came up to touch where he's kissed me. It was strangely numb. I shook my head, filled two more plates, and brought them to the table for Logan and I. Logan folded his paper and rolled his eyes at Carlos who was already halfway through his messy meal. I shrugged, and began cutting my pancakes.
"He really is seven years old sometimes."
When it came time to go over to Hunter's for the date, I got really nervous. I was fidgeting and tapping my feet and drumming my fingers in a dissonant rhythm against my thighs. Suddenly, Carlos' hand stilled my fingers against my leg.
"You're gonna be fine," he said. "Listen. I'm going to pck up Adrienne from work. How about I take your car, because, honestly, I don't think you should be driving right now. You'd probably get distracted, let's be honest." I laughed because he was totally right. "I'll drop you at Hunter's on the way."
"Have I ever told you how great you are?"
He smirked.
"Not today you haven't."