Chapter 2
Phil woke up the next morning pretty early. He wanted to say goodbye to Keely before she left for Alabama. The past few weeks, all he had been thinking about was maybe to tell Keely how he felt about her before she went away, but now, since he met Carlee, he wasn't sure of what he should do. When he was around Carlee, he felt all warm and fuzzy inside. He wanted to get to know her so bad. He had a crush on her, even though he didn't quite exactly know her yet. But he wanted to, and he would.
He stumbled down the stairs in his PJ's (boxer shorts and a t-shirt). His father was out hanging with his new buddy, Carlee's dad. His mom had to run to the food store and brought Pim along with her (even though Pim made such a fuss not to go). He noticed that they had gotten mail and went to retrieve it from the mailbox, forgetting he was in his boxers. He walked down the walkway and reached the mailbox. Then he spotted Carlee walking towards his house. She was smiling. Her hair was braided into 2 braids, one on each side, and she wore a denim skirt and purple halter top. She looked outstanding! Phil was in awe. She looked at Phil, obviously in shock, too.
"Hi Phil," she said. Phil smiled. He noticed the strange look that she was giving him and he looked down at what he was wearing.
"Oh my gosh!" he said. He was so embarrassed! "I...um...I...really have to go!" And he ran into the house and up to his room. He quickly put on some clothes and when he came downstairs, Carlee was standing in the hallway.
"Good, your dressed now," she giggled. Phil blushed. "I was wondering if you wanted to hang out today?"
"Sure!" Then Phil remembered saying goodbye to Keely. "Well, actually, my friend is going away to Alabama this summer, and I promised her I'd say goodbye before she left."
"Oh, ok. Then I'll just talk to you later?" She seemed a little hurt.
"Hm...why don't you come with me? I want you to meet her!" Carlee seemed to perk up.
"Are you sure? I don't want to be a pain," she said.
"Oh, no way! It's totally fine! I want you to!" He smiled to let her know that he meant it. She looked happy. Then they walked out the door and began to walk towards Keely's house.
"Does she know?" Carlee asked Phil quietly.
"Know what?" he asked.
"Where we're from?"
"Oh, yeah. And she wouldn't tell anyone. She's my best friend!" Then Phil wished he hadn't said that. He noticed Carlee's happy expression sink. "Well, one of them." She looked at him with big eyes. But she kept walking and turned away. Phil figured it was best to change the subject.
"So was that your little brother yesterday?" She nodded.
"Yeah, Troy is such a pain sometimes," she told him. "It's almost like we aren't even related. He's like a little devil and I'm...not." They laughed. Then they reached Keely's house. Phil rang the doorbell. They waited and there was no answer.
"Hm, that's strange. She wasn't leaving until 4." He looked at his watch. It was about one thirty. "And she wouldn't be at the airport already. Maybe I should try around the back," he suggested to himself as they walked to the backyard. He spotted Keely sitting there, at the picnic table in her backyard. She was all alone, too. He held the gate open for Carlee and Keely noticed they were there. She came running over to them.
"Hi," she said. She seemed a little curious as to why Carlee was with Phil.
"Hey," he said. "Keely, this is Carlee, and Carlee, this is Keely." Both girls just looked at each other for a moment. Then Carlee stuck out her hand for Keely to shake it. Keely shook it quickly, then crossed her arms.
"Well, I came to say goodbye," Phil said.
"Bye," Keely said back. Phil gave her a quick hug.
"Have fun in Alabama and write to me."
"I will," Keely promised. Then she said goodbye to Carlee, and Phil and Carlee left.
"How long is she staying for?" Carlee asked curiously.
"All summer," he stated sadly. He would miss Keely a lot, but in a way he was glad. Now he had more time to spend with Carlee. He smiled to himself. Carlee noticed it.
"I thought you said she was your best friend?"
"I did," Phil replied.
"Then why are you smiling when she's leaving for the whole summer?" she asked. Phil was unsure whether to 'let the cat out of the box' (meaning give her a hint that he likes her).
"Because now I have more time to spend with you." She seemed shocked at the reply. Then she smiled. He loved her smile. He smiled back.
When they got back to Phil's house, they went up to Phil's room to hang out.
"Do you miss home?" Carlee asked.
"What are you talking about? This is home. My dad has been trying to fix the time machine for a whole year. I don't think that he's actually ever going to fix it." He thought for a moment. "Which is now good, since you've moved in." Now he was really letting her know that he liked her. Phil thought about the future... In the future, he had a girlfriend, but not an actual girlfriend. Just he would talk to her in school and hang out once in a while, but then again that was 6th grade. He's never had a girlfriend that he actually kissed and hung out with all the time. He always thought that would be Keely. But now, he was having doubts. Now he wished it was Carlee. Even though he only knew her for a little while, he felt like he knew her all his life.
"Are you ok?" Carlee asked.
"Um...oh, yeah," Phil snapped out of his little day dream. "Wanna go get an ice cream?"
"Sure!"
They walked over to Lark the Ice Cream Shark's ice cream parlor. They sat down at a booth and the waiter came over.
"What'll it be?" he asked, meaning as to take their order.
"An ice cream shake. Two straws, please," Phil ordered for the both of them. Carlee liked how he knew that's what she was hoping for. She gave Phil a smile. They sat across from each other at the booth and the waiter place the shake in-between them, with one straw facing Phil, the other facing Carlee. Phil took a sip.
"Wow, this is really good," he said. "Try it."
Carlee leaned in to take a sip. Then Phil took another sip at the same time as her. He looked her in the eyes. Her big blue eyes were deep and beautiful. She gazed back into his brown ones. Carlee let go of the straw, but still stayed bent in towards the drink, and towards Phil. Then Phil did the same. They continued to look into each other's eyes for a moment. Then Carlee sat back. Phil got nervous and sat back, too.
"What was that?" Carlee asked.
"W-what was what?" Phil asked nervously. Carlee just looked at him.
"Nevermind," she said. She just looked away into the ice cream shoppe. Phil knew what she meant: the moment they almost kissed. Sure, Carlee liked Phil, but she thought they were moving too fast. They only met each other yesterday! They quickly finished up the shake, taking sips at different times. Phil wasn't even sure if Carlee liked him, but he knew one thing for sure: he definitely liked her.
They left the parlor and walked back to Phil's house. Again no one was home.
"What do you wanna do?" Phil asked. He suggested a few things such as play a board game, go somewhere, and skyacking. They decided on skyacking, and as Phil opened up his skyack, it began to rain.
"Looks like we better find something else to do," Carlee said laughing. Phil laughed with her. They decided on watching a movie. It was an older movie and a little boring, but they guessed it was better than nothing.
As the movie went on, they got kind of bored and decided to fool around. Carlee was making fun of Phil for his boxer incident earlier and they were both laughing so hard. Phil started tickling Carlee and she was laughing so hard that she was crying.
"Phil, stop it! I can't breathe!" She kept laughing as Phil kept tickling her.
"First you have to say your sorry!" Phil demanded, in a fun way of course.
"Fine! I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm SORRY!" Phil stopped tickling her. She was finally catching her breath.
"Thank you!" Phil said. Carlee still had tears running down her cheeks. She was still in fits of laughter. "Now whats so funny?" Phil asked. "I stopped tickling you!"
"Oh, I'm just still picturing you in your boxers!" She began to laugh again wildly. Phil tried to pretend he had a hurt look on his face. "Oh, I'm sorry Phil. Did I hurt the poor baby's feelings?" she asked jokingly as Phil shook his head 'yes'. "Awwh it's ok Philly Willy. I think you looked adorable in your rocket ship boxers." She smirked.
"They're not rocket ships!" Phil said. "They're pirate ships. And you really think I looked adorable?" He was serious about the adorable part. Carlee blushed and looked away. "Do you?" Phil asked again. Carlee's face was still pink, but she felt it growing into a deep shade of red. Phil noticed it and figured to drop the subject. "So...what do you want to do now?" he asked.
Carlee was thankful that the subject had changed and her face began to return to its normal color. "I don't care," she replied shyly. Then her cell phone rang. She answered it and it was her mother telling her to come home immediatly. "I've got to go," she told Phil. She stood up and walked to the door. As she twisted the doorknob, she turned to Phil and said, "Yeah, I really do think you looked adorable." Phil's heart rose. Then she left the house with a smile on her face.
