A Boyfriend? How About No.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Rocky leaned in close to me, his breath hot against my face, his lips just inches from my cheek as he peered into the paper I held in my hand.

I cleared my throat. "Here are the ground rules," I say, my eyes scanning my neat handwriting as we walked down the bustling narrow hallway.

"You wrote it down?" He groans, trashing to snatch the paper away from me.

"Yes," I say with a smile, rummaging in my bag for the rough draft. "I made two copies, one for you and one for me, sign here,"

I shove the papers into his fingers ans hand him a black ballpoint pen. He scans the paper, sighing as he signs it reluctantly. Rocky puts the crumpled piece of notebook paper to the light, trying to read the words.

"Your handwriting is barely readable in this one!" He whined. "Why can't I have the pretty one where you dotted all your i's with hearts and you wrote Mrs. Rocky Tyler all over the sides," he says with a grin.

"No I didn't!" I snatch the paper from him, my eyes darting across the page, my heart hammering in my chest.

Rocky laughs, winking at me when I look up and lock eyes with him. He offers me a lazy smirk. "Gotcha," he says, poking me in the ribs.

I frown. "Did I tell you that I hate you?" I muttered, smoothing down the wrinkles on the paper with my hands.

"Only three times today," he answers, swinging his arm across my shoulders as we dodge a couple making out, their bodies slammed against the lockers.

I play with one of my braids, running my fingers along the edges of it. I bite my lip, reminiscing about the times I would dream about marrying Rocky. When I was nine years old I would write my perfecting wedding and his name a thousand times on the page in my pink fur diaries with invisible ink.

I was so embarrassed the day Rocky caught me, doodling his name when we were playing hide and seek in his treehouse. I never dared to draw or write about him again after that.

"I can't believe you still remember that," I say, playfully shoving him in the shoulder.

Rocky shrugs. "I'm holding that over you until the day you die, he teased, sucking in his teeth. "Look who's already breaking one of the rules. Maybe you should reconsider rule number three,"

I could feel my cheeks getting warmth, they burned with hot fiery embarrassment and I scowled, glaring at him. I take a deep breath, gracefully steeping over a sticky spill of red energy drink can and keep moving through the crowd of students.

"How about for the both of us, we explain these new boundaries again so none of us gets confused?" I snapped.

"These feel a lot like rules," Rocky mutters under his breath. "And if this is what we have to worry about then that's the least of our problems,"

I straightened, licking my lips before I started reading. "Number one, we can't get physical in any way which means no touching of any kind," I say, a cough getting snagged in my dry throat.

Rocky glances at me, raising his left eyebrow. "Don't you think that's a little extreme?"

"Can you just let me get through the list before you ask anymore questions?" I snapped.

He puts his hands in the hair, chuckling before he caressing my cheek with his thumb. My breath hitches before I scowl, hitting him on the side of his head with my hand.

"Ow!" He whines, rubbing the back of his head. "Geez, I was just kidding Len,"

I cross my arms, narrowing my eyes at him. "Where you?"