Sweetly & Home Economically ✔

Parking & Third Base

~ Parking & Third Base ~

~¤°*°*°*°¤~

Since my car was fixed, I thought it was only fair for me to drive everyone to the park. Yvee sat up front with me and the boys squeezed into the backseats, which somehow led to Theo being squished in the middle.

I could see his scowling face in my rearview mirror and grinned at him when he looked up into it. He winked at me and his features softened, but it didn't last because he got jabbed by Eli's elbow and shoved by Jarod when they buckled their seatbelts.

"It's a short trip," I assured Theo, and the others too when his glare caused them to scootch closer to their doors and farther from him.

"Oh! Can we go get your guitar, Jarod?" Yvee twisted in her seat to flutter her lashes. "Please? I want to work on the song."

Jarod rolled his eyes, but he still agreed to do it, "Fine."

Eli asked, "Are you guys writing a song?"

Jarod gave a short laugh and said, "No, she's trying to learn a K-Pop song and she forces me to teach her."

"I don't force you! You just can't stand my poor pronunciation and have taken it upon yourself to correct me," Yvee smirked.

He slouched back into his seat, unable to deny the truth.

It was a simple detour, since Jarod lived so close to my house. When we pulled up to his place, he ran in and came back out a minute later with an acoustic guitar case. Yvette and I had bought him some stickers to cover the case when he got the guitar as a present from his parents, but he only ever used one of them. That was why there was a single Batman logo sticker on the front bottom corner of the black case.

I hadn't heard him play in a while due to how busy I was, so I was excited hear him again. He couldn't sing a note, but he was amazing with the stringed instrument. His playing paired nicely with Yvette's singing and even though he liked to complain, it was obvious to me how much he enjoyed it. Whenever he played without the accompaniment of her voice, he would look bored. Yet when they were together, he would strum with more enthusiasm. He would smile when she got a part right or hit a note perfectly, then he would laugh at her if she messed up the words.

I wondered if Yvette noticed anything other him laughing at her, but I was doubtful of it. She typically got mad at him for making fun of her and blamed it on him or she was too busy singing to see his soft smiles. I had a feeling we would be seeing some of that while we were at the park, so no matter what it was bound to be fun.

When we got to the park, we searched for a vacant picnic table where we could sit. The pond was on the other side of the park and so was the playground. Since there were a lot of people over there, we found a spot near the softball field where a few boys were playing a game. None of them looked familiar so I assumed they were from a neighboring high school. Some people were sitting around the area watching, but the only one near us was a girl about our age sitting against a tree.

Absorbed in the pages of a book, she was either oblivious or really good at ignoring the game and their distracting shouts and cheers. She spared us a glance when we sat down a few feet away. I smiled politely at her and hoped that we wouldn't bother her too much. Then Eli had to ruin it.

"A rare sighting of a gorgeous bookworm out of her habitat," Eli commented quietly. "It would be ungentlemanly not to introduce myself. Excuse me, friends."

Eli made his way over and sat down beside her, just the right amount of distance to not creep her out but still managing to be intimate. Then he smiled, showing off his adorable dimples. Her lips turned down at his unwanted presence.