Tongue Tied *UNDERGOING EDITING*

6. Progress

Ariel's POV

"No, Ariel. No, that's not OK."

Oh, um, OK.

"Luke, you don't get it-" I start, but he interrupts me. "I get it, Ariel. You really don't like me. Its quite obvious. But I'm not letting you do this project alone. Whether you like it or not, I'm helping. So please, just let me, OK?" he insists.

This boy is really getting on my nerves.

"Fine. Do what you want. But leave me out of it." I say. He turns on his heel, but not before yelling "So should we drive to your house in my car?", which only makes me groan and bury my face in my crossed arms.

Class starts with Ms. Brooks talking to us about our project, telling us how we should already have a book in mind and that we should start working on ideas for our book cover. Too soon, its the end of the school day, and I'm faced with the fact that Luke Mason is coming over to my house this afternoon to work on a project neither of us really want to do. I stand in the parking lot, waiting for him. After about a half an hour, I start to turn and walk home when a black Ford truck pulls up in front of me, nearly running me over.

I peer in through the tinted glass window and see none other than Luke. I roll my eyes and walk around the car to the passenger seat. "You could have killed me!" I shout. "Yeah, or worse, dented my car." he says in a mock worried tone. I roll my eyes again and climb inside. The car is actually pretty neat for a teenage boys car. No trash lining the front windshield, no leftover snacks lying around the floor, and a cinnamon apple air freshener dangles from the rearview mirror. "Nice car." I say, adjusting the seat belt.

"Yeah that was a condition my parents gave me when I first got the car. 'Keep it clean, or walk to school.'" he says as we pull out of the school parking lot. "So, how do we get to your house?" he asks, never taking his eyes off the road. "Um, turn right here, and then just drive for a little before turning left, then right, then left, then left, then right about a half a mile and-" I start rambling random directions before he catches on. "Alright, that's enough sass from you, babe." he says. "That's for almost running me over with your car." I say with a triumphant smile. "And don't call me babe." I add as an after thought.

We pull up in front of my house and Luke puts the truck in park and then turns it off. "Oh great, my brother's home." I mutter under my breath. "What, do you not like your brother or something?" Luke asks. "No, I love my brother. Its just that I'm not sure he'll like you." I say, and climb out of the car, swinging the door shut and tossing my bag over my shoulder. "Well, we'll find out." I hear Luke breathe, and suddenly I'm worried. Cameron is going to kill Luke for how he's behaved towards me, and then kill me for bringing him home. But its only for the project, I remind myself. Its only for the project.

"Cameron?" I yell, and my voice echoes through the house. "In the kitchen!" he yells. I distract myself by wondering what concoction he's baking now. I walk into the kitchen, Luke trailing nervously behind. This feels so weird. Luke Mason is in my house. My eyes widen at the thought that he'll be seeing everything in my bedroom. I probably should have cleaned. And dusted. And set off a nuclear bomb to clear the mess. "I have a guest, Cam." I say. Cameron is sitting at the kitchen counter with a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other. He turns to me when I utter "guest," and then he smiles. "Who is this?" he asks, and I know what he's thinking. First he'll be nice because he thinks I've brought home a boy I like, but then he'll go into over-protective brother mode.

"This-" I say, keeping all eye contact on Cam, "-is Luke." I try to mouth to Cam 'Don't do anything stupid." but he doesn't see it. He stands up, making sure Luke sees that Cameron is way taller than him. "Oh. Luke. So this is the jerk who said he could never be interested in you?" he asks, stepping slowly towards us. "Cameron, everything's fine, OK?" I assure him. He looks at me, then at Luke, and then steps back. "Alright. Why is he here?" Cameron asks, crossing his arms. "We have to work on our project. But I need to clean up my room real quick, so if you could just keep him company, that would be great." I say, and dart up to my room, leaving the both of them in that awkward situation.

Please don't kill him, Cameron. Please don't kill him. I plead with myself as I scurry around my room picking up stray bra's and underwear and other clothes that are lying around on my floor. I take down a few of my posters and then quickly make my bed. I spray a few squirts of my perfume before taking in the full view. Good enough. I say to myself before running back downstairs. "We'll be up in my room if you need anything." I say, relieved that Luke is still standing and breathing when I arrive back downstairs. "Don't do anything stupid, and be safe!" Cameron yells once were halfway upstairs. "Ew." I mutter as I run back up to my room. "Hey! You know you wouldn't mind this." he says, trailing his hands down his abdomen. "Shut up." I say and then open the door to my room.

"Nice." I hear him say as he walks in. "Huh?" I ask. "I just meant that its...nice, I guess. Whatever." he says and sits down on my bed. "Thanks. OK, we need to get started on the project. We've both finished the book, so I guess we can start on the book cover? I think I have some poster-board in my closet." I say. I open the doors, feeling eyes on me the whole time. I ignore the feeling and fish out the poster-board that for sure was in the way back of my closet. "Ok here it is." I say setting it down on the ground. Luke sits down next to the paper as I look around my room for my copy of the book and some pencils, both colored and regular.

We collaborate on ideas for about an hour. "Were making good progress." Luke says after a while. He reaches for the colored pencils to shade in a part of the cover at the same time that I reach for a regular pencil to finish drawing Boo Radley's house. Our fingers brush together, causing the both of us to look up at each other. "Sorry." Luke coughs out and retracts his hand back. "Its OK." I say awkwardly and grab the pencil. He makes sure that I don't go back in for another one before taking a colored pencil for himself.

We continue to work in silence, but soon enough, Luke starts asking me questions, and vice versa. "Where's the nicest place you've ever been?" I ask. "Bermuda. Two weeks with my parents, even though they were incredibly annoying, it was still a great trip." he says, and I dare to ask why. "I got laid." he laughs and I smack him with a pencil case before laughing as well. I'm so relaxed and comfortable that my mother's voice startles me. "Ariel! Dinner!" she calls up the stairs. She and dad must've just gotten home. I look at the clock and see that its 6:30. My parents have been home for an hour? "What time do you have to go home?" I ask Luke. "Oh, I never talked about that with my parents. I guess I should be heading home, its getting late." he says and starts to stand up.

I don't know what happened, maybe something in my brain flip-flopped and caused me to not be able to think straight for a few seconds, but I reach out and gently grab his hand. Holy crap. "You can stay for dinner, if you want." I say. He looks into my eyes while half kneeling half standing for a little before I pull my hand away. That was way too much and I scold myself for touching him again. But his eyes look...genuine? Almost surprised that I had touched him. "I'll call my parents." he says and then walks out of my room. What just happened?

Oh, I know.

I just invited Luke Mason to my house for dinner.

This should be interesting.