Chapter 4

"Hey Lezlee!" I hear a familiar voice call out.

I turned around and just as I suspected it was
Brian pulling up beside me in his topless red Jeep YJ
with Jess and Nick in the back.

"Want a ride little lady? Or do you not talk to
strangers?" Brian asked while putting on a really
good southern accent.
I laughed.

"Well, I supposed I could make an exception just
this once!" I replied.

"Yee haw!" Brian yelled as I got in the jeep.

We drove out of the parking lot and onto the main road.
It was great. My four best friends and I just driving
along, wind blowing our in hair. It seemed like I had
no worries.

"Hey guess what Lezlee was telling me yesterday in the
kitchen!" Nick said with a smirk on his face.

"That she wanted to play another game of basketball
tonight," said Jessie as she cut Nick off and gave
him a glare.

"Cool! How about 8:00?" Bri asked.

"Sure," I said completely caught off guard by Nick's
remark.

"How about your house E?" Jessie asked me.

"Fine with me!" I replied just as Brian pulled
up in front of Jessie's house.

Jess and I got out and proceeded to walk up the
front side walk but not before Jess and Brian kissed
goodbye.

Nick looked at me and stuck his finger in his mouth and
made a gagging noise as I laughed at him.

"Carter, grow up!" Jessie said as she hit him with
her daytimer.

We waved goodbye and then Jess and I ran upstairs to
her room with a box of popsicles under our arm.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"It's so hot..." I whined.

"Why didn't we take the car?" Jessie asked me.

"Because we live one block away from each other!" I
told her as I smiled and rolled my eyes.

"Ahhh! Don't remind me of the distance!" Jess said as
she wiped her forehead.

Within seconds we were at my house, only to find Davy
playing Ninja Turtles on the front lawn with Aaron,
Nick's younger brother who was the same age as
Hannah and Lucas who were also out there too.

The four stopped playing when we walked up, at least
long enough for Davy to come and give me a hug
and give Jess one too.

But as quickly as they had stopped, they were
back at it. Ninja kicking each other pretending they
were Splinter and the Ninja turtles themselves.

Jessie and I walked in the front door where
I found a note attached to the stair rail in big purple letters.
It read:

Lezlee,
I've gone out with Dad,
can you watch your sister's and brother?
Angie was watching them but now that you're home
she'll be going out.
Thanks a bunch,
xo
Mom

I groaned at the thought that my plans
for the evening were now shot.

"Hey, it's okay!" said Jess as she read the note
over my shoulder, "We can watch the little anklebiters."

"Uh...basketball," I reminded her.

"So, the guys are coming here. No biggie," she said
as she pulled her blond hair up into a pony tail.

"All right, well let's get changed, the guys
are gonna be here any minute." I said, and with
that we both ran up the stairs to change.

Jessie grabbed her bag and threw on her
Roxy Quicksilver Hawaiian print floral shorts and
her cropped bathing suit top. I put on my Nike sports
bra and my denim shorts and stuck my Southpark hat on my head.

"Lookin snazzy!" Jess said as she ran her fingers
through her curly hair which was up in a pony tail.

I smiled and brushed my hair with my left hand and
put on a bit of mascara with my right hand. After a
few quick minutes we were ready yo go.

"I wonder when the boys will get here?" Jess
asked. Just then I heard Brian yell into the house.

"Speak of the devil," I said and ran down the stairs.

Jessie came right behind me sliding down the
banister and flew into Kevin who was standing at the
bottom of the stairs.

"Hi Kev! haven't seen you in a while!" I said.

"Hey Lezlee!" Kevin said, "How's it been?"

"Great, and you?"

"Really good, I've been busy moving my stuff into
the new house."

"Where is it again?" I asked.

"Not even 2 minutes up the road!"

"Awesome!"

"OK, ok, ok! Enough chit chat, let's play some
hoops!" AJ said as he grabbed my hand and led me
outside.

I rummaged around in the garage until I found our
ball and threw it out the door to Brian who shot
a 2-pointer.

"Here!" Kev yelled as Nick gathered up the ball.

"Kev!" I yelled as he passed it to me and I sunk it.

"Oooh! Good one!" AJ complimented me.

I looked over at Jess who saw the whole
thing and gave me a big thumbs up.

After half an hour of playing and arguing, we
decided to go into the back yard so we could get a
drink and eat some cookies.

"Hey, I'll help you!" AJ told me as we headed up the
patio stairs and onto the deck.

"Sure," I replied as I shot Jes and
Nick a really confused look.

I couldn't figure out why AJ was being so
overlyfriendly all of a sudden.

The two of us went
inside as fixed up a plate of cookies,
left-over brownies and kool-aid.

I stood and watched AJ as he stood in front
of my fridge looking for something.

His hair was dyed red and geled and it
looked so good on him and of course he looked
great in his Phat farm tee and his black Nike shorts.

I couldn't keep my eyes off of him and he noticed.

AJ shot me a sideways glance and then shut the
fridge door quickly.

"Well, cookies and brownies should be enough,"
he said.

"Uh yeah..." I replied. I could feel my
cheeks burning up.

"Well I guess we better take these out.." AJ said his
voice trailing off as we both inched in towards the
plate.

Our hands brushed each others and we both looked up.

His dark chocolate brown eyes looked into mine and
we slowly turned towards each other. Inch by inch,
we leaned in towards each other and I closed my eyes.

The two of us were so close that I could
feel his warm breath on my lips.

"LUCAS HIT ME!" Davy wailed as he came
running into the kitchen.

I could have throttled him. "He..he....what?"
I asked completely startled.

"Lucas hit me!" Davy said.

"Uh, I'll go talk to them," AJ volunteered.

I nodded and gathered up the tray of food
and the tray of drinks and balanced the two on my
hands and went outside to where the hungry bunch
were waiting.

"PJ, get over her now!" I whispered. Jess came over.

"What?" she asked me looking really confused.

"AJ and I almost kissed but Davy came in!"

"NO way!"

"Yes! In the kitchen! I can't believe it!"

"Neither!"

"I can't believe it!" "I know...neither can I you dolt!"

"Look, not a word to anyone! I don't think AJ's
going to tell anyone either."

"Kay, I'll be quiet." Jess replied.

The two of us smiled, she gave me a hug and then we
went back to the boys who had already managed
to devour the whole plate of brownies and cookies
and were working on finsihing off the Kool-aid.

"Mmmm Mmmm Better!" Brian said as he wiped
off his mouth with his sleeve.

"I'm still hot!" Kev said looking at Nick and
Brian mischeviously.

"Me too!" Nick said as he inched closer to me.

"Oh no you don't!" I said as I knew exactly
what his intent was.

"BRIAN!" Jessie shrieked as she went head
first into the pool.

"NO!" I yelled but it was too late. I was drenched.

"Cowabunga!" Brian yelled as he jumped in. Nick and
Kevin were now wrestling on the deck and
Kevin had managed to throw him in. AJ had now
come out of the house from settling the issue
between Davy and Lucas and was promptly thrown
into the water by Kevin too.

Finally Kev jumped in and we were all
laughing and playing around.

I stayed on the side and watched AJ swim in the cool,
blue water, his muscles covered in water beads
and his hair hanging around his face. It was all I
could do to not swim over to him and grab onto him. And hold him
forever...like there was no one around...

Index

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