"Are we allowed to be over here?" I ask Lucas, who led us a little past the vineyard to this swing set.
"You think I'd take you somewhere that we weren't?" he says, but I pout at him.
"You really want me to answer that?"
He sits down on the swing and pushes it forward. "You have no faith in me, do you now?"
"You haven't really given me a choice to, have you now?" I ask in the same tone that he just gave me.
He ignores my question by chewing on his lip as he watches me stand there. "What's the matter, not going to sit? Scared of doing something fun, LilMillzzz?"
"I'm not scared," I state, crossing my arms.
"Then come join me," he challenges, and I drop my shoulders in defeat, making my way for the swing.
It doesn't take long for my pace to match his, and soon enough, we're swinging in tandem. I like seeing Lucas like this. Carefree. Innocent. Relaxed.
"Remember when you asked me if we were allowed to be here?" he asks before pointing ahead to a cottage-style house. "That's Cici's home. She owns this entire property."
"What's with the nickname? Why do you call her Cici?" I ask. I wanted to ever since I heard the nickname slip from his mouth.
"I couldn't pronounce 'Claudette' when I was younger, so she told me to call her C. Sounded a little boring, so I doubled the letter. CC."
"That's cute," I smile.
"Yeah. It kinda just stuck, I guess."
Lucas looks at me and it's hard not to feel what I feel when I'm around him. It's a feeling deep in emotion that it's almost impossible to explain. It represents everything that I'm not as a person. It's unsafe and unpredictable.
Something tells me that letting your guard down around someone like Lucas isn't smart because, sooner or later, he'll find a way to break the trust you once gave him.
"So...," he says, elongating the word as he continues to swing back and forth. "you're crushing on my baby brother, huh?"
"What?" I immediately remark, his question catching me off-guard.
"You and Teddy. I saw you guys last night at the party...," he pauses, "...kissing." I feel my cheeks turn warm as a slight feeling of embarrassment consumes my body. "You like him?"
"It was just a kiss," I say. I know that my words downplay the situation, but part of me doesn't want to go into detail with Lucas; to share that side of my emotions with him. It's not that I don't trust him, I shockingly do. It's that I don't want to trust him.
"Something tells me that a girl like you doesn't just kiss to kiss. A girl like you kisses because she feels."
"I keep telling you, Bennett, you don't know me."
He chuckles, but only for a few seconds, and then turns serious. "Then why don't you tell me something about yourself?"
I swipe my head and give him a smirk. "Nice try, but it's not going to be that easy."
"Fine. Let's make it fun then. Two truths and a lie."
I bring my swing to a stop, and he does the same. "No way," I say.
"C'mon, LilMillzzz," he chuckles, and the sound alone makes it hard for me to say no to him.
I squint my eyes at him and then ask, "What's in it for me?"
"You give me yours..."
"Yeah?"
"...I'll give you mine."
YOU ARE READING
The Bennett Boys
RomanceI was wrapping up my junior year of high school when my mom told me that we were moving. It was goodbye Cambridge, Massachusetts and hello Newport, Rhode Island. I knew that Newport was going to be nothing like Cambridge; I knew that I was going to...
