Chapter 4 Adventures In Chaperoning #4
“What? I’m his brother, not his dad. Why shouldn’t he live a little? Mom’s always breathing down his neck, treating him like a baby. He’s tired of it. A man needs some space, okay?”
“A man?” I toss the word back at him. “He’s fifteen, Wes.”
Weston rolls his eyes, about to retort, but I cut him off.
“And why are you stalking him if you’re not worried about him too?”
“Because,” Weston lowers his voice, leaning closer, “if he does get into some kind of trouble with Vivi, I’ll be the one who gets blamed.”
“For corrupting him?”
“Corruption is… a strong word.” Weston tips his head noncommittally. “I’d say more like… giving him ideas.”
“Somehow, that sounds worse.”
“Look. All we have to do is follow him around and stay out of sight. Supposedly he’s going to the movies with her afterwards, to see the new Star Wars. So we’ll follow them there and keep an eye out. Mom wants him back home by eleven, so it’s not like much can happen before then, right?”
I arch one eyebrow pointedly. “Depends on how many ideas you gave him.”
Weston sighs wearily, about done debating this topic with me. After a moment of contemplation, I decide to go easy on him. Whatever his reasons, it’s sweet of him to be concerned about his little brother. Even if the primary motivation is to avoid a tongue-lashing from his mother.
Perhaps it is invasive to stalk poor Henry on his very first date with a girl he likes. But Weston’s mother has a point—it can’t hurt to be too careful.
“Alright, fine,” I relent at last. “I’ll help you keep an eye on him. Are you sure he said he was going to see Star Wars?”
Weston nods.
I groan, tipping my head back. “I hate Star Wars.”
“I know.” He smirks, fidgeting with his straw wrapper. “But we don’t have to watch it the whole time… We could do other things.”
I roll my eyes, about to shut down his naughty insinuations, when—
“Hey, Wes.”
We both freeze and turn to look at Henry, who is suddenly right beside our table with his arms crossed over his chest and a suspicious look on his face.
Oh dear.
“Henry… Hey.” Weston laughs easily, leaning back in the booth seat. “What are the chances of this?”
Henry doesn’t buy his brother’s casual smile. “Are you following me?”
“What? No.”
“No, of course not,” I add with a shake of my head. “In fact, Weston didn’t even want to come here because he didn’t want you to feel awkward if you saw us. But I was really craving pizza, so he finally gave in.”
Weston nods in agreement, nudging my foot gently under the table in a way that says thank you.
“Oh.” Henry lowers his defenses, hands retreating to his pockets. “So what are you guys doing after this?”
“Uh, we were thinking of going to the—”
“Skating rink,” Weston cuts in before the words movie theater can slip off my tongue.
Henry’s eyebrows scrunch with confusion. “Skating? Since when do you skate?”
Weston shrugs. “Since… today. Tessa likes it, and I’ve never tried it, so…”
“You’re gonna fall on your ass so many times, man.” Henry shakes his head, looking amused by the prospect.
“Falling on my ass is one of my specialties,” Weston returns smugly, toasting Henry with his glass of Coke.
I just roll my eyes and smile indulgently. The charade seems to work, because moments later Henry says, “Well, you guys have fun. See you later, Wes.”
“See ya.”
With that, Henry returns to his table and his waiting girlfriend. Weston lets out a sigh as soon as he’s out of earshot.
“Told you not to look over at them.”
My mouth drops open. “Are you blaming me for getting us caught?”
“Well, you could’ve been a little more covert about it—”
“And you could’ve chosen to sit somewhere that wasn’t so visible.”
“Where else could we have sat?” Weston volleys back. “This place is tiny. There’s no way we could’ve stayed completely out of sight. Unless we ate in the parking lot.”
I sip my iced tea with righteous indignation. “You’re welcome, by the way. For covering up your reasons for coming here.”
“Thank you,” Weston says, a bit too late. “And you’re welcome for making up the story about going ice skating. Were you seriously going to tell him we were going to the movies?”
“I wasn’t going to say Star Wars.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Weston shakes his head. “He would’ve known. He still thinks I’m up to something; I can tell.”
I lift my eyebrows. “Oh? I guess you need to be more covert, then.”
WESTON
Tessa is always more beautiful when she’s pissed off at me.
As a matter of fact, I think that’s how I fell in love with her in the first place.
There’s nothing like the righteous fury of a pretty girl to knock you off your (proverbial) feet and make you forget you ever had any other goals in life except to make her smile.
Tessa has that glint of holy hellfire in her eyes right now as she sits across from me in the pizza place. We’ve dropped the subject of Henry, but she keeps stealing glances over at him and Vivi, and I keep kicking her foot under the table to make her stop.
By the time our pizza arrives, Henry is already paying his tab, and Vivi is sneaking off for a pre-departure restroom break.
“Damn it, they’re gonna leave,” I mutter, tearing off a slice and devouring half of it in a single bite. “Hurry—we have to eat this fast so we can keep following them.”
Tessa rolls her eyes. “Don’t you think that’ll look a little suspicious? Us inhaling this pizza and chasing after them?”
I shrug. She has a point, I guess. Not that I would have a problem winning a pizza-eating contest against Tessa. But judging by the speed at which she takes her first bite, I can tell she wouldn’t be much competition. She’s too sophisticated for stuff like that.
“Besides,” she adds, sipping her iced tea, “you already said Henry’s taking Vivi to the movies. So we know exactly where they’ll be.”
I grunt. “Supposedly. But maybe Mom’s right—maybe that was just an excuse. Maybe they’re going to do something else.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, like…” So many different ways to finish that sentence, all of which would make Tessa cringe.
My suspicions are confirmed when I risk a glance at Henry and catch him checking Vivi out as she strides back to their table, all long legs and combat boots.
Those fishnet tights don’t leave much to the imagination—and by the way my little brother is looking at her, I can tell his imagination is running wild.
Not that I can blame him—my own imagination runs wild sometimes, with Tessa.
It can’t be helped. Especially in the summer when she’s wearing a swimsuit and slathering sunscreen over her smooth, bare legs.
Or when she stretches and her shirt rides up her waist, flashing a pair of freckles just above her bellybutton.
Once I tried to kiss those freckles and got a savage whack in the head.
“Look it up on your phone.”
I turn back to Tessa. “Look what up?”
“The time the movie starts. Duh.”
“Oh.” I pull my phone out of my pocket and pull up the showtimes at the Rockford Cinema. “Star Wars starts at eight o’clock.”
“And right now it’s seven thirty,” Tessa adds. “No doubt they’re heading to the theater next, and we’ll catch up with them. I don’t care if we miss half the movie, do you?”
I sigh, reaching for another slice of pizza. “That’s not the point. As soon as he walks out that door, I won’t know where he’s going.”
“Oh, stop it.” Tessa drops her unwanted crust onto my plate. “Henry’s a good boy. He won’t get into any trouble with Vivi. He probably won’t even work up the courage to kiss her.”
I grunt. “You wanna bet?”
“Sure. How much?”
My eyebrows jump. I wasn’t expecting her to take the offer seriously, but hell—why not? A wager always makes babysitting more fun. “How about… winner gets to choose the next place we go on a date. And it can be something the other person hates.”
Tessa takes a passive-aggressive bite of her pizza. “That’s not fair.”
“Why not?”
“Because I hate more things than you do.”
I laugh, shaking my head. “Well, maybe you just need to broaden your horizons.”
She narrows her eyes in a glare. “I won’t need to. Because I’m sure Henry will have a perfectly G-rated date and I’ll win this bet.”
I cut another glance across the pizza place and see Henry take Vivi’s hand as they walk out together.
“My money’s on PG-14.”
By the time we finish eating and pay the tab, it’s eight o’clock. Time is running out. We get back into my truck and drive to the cinema, and the whole way there, Tessa keeps telling me, “Slow down. We won’t get there any faster if you get pulled over for speeding.”
It takes a few laps around the parking lot to find an empty space, but we finally manage to grab one and ditch the truck. Tessa laughs as we dash across the parking lot, her breath clouding in the cold.
Once inside, we walk up to the ticket kiosk and ask for two tickets to Star Wars. The lady behind the plexiglass looks puzzled.
“That showing started twenty minutes ago,” she tells us. “There’s another one starting at nine—”
“That’s okay. We like walking in halfway through a movie,” I tell her with an irresistible smile. “Besides, my girlfriend hates Star Wars.”
Tessa elbows me in the side, but she’s grinning. The lady takes my money and slips me two tickets. I hand one to Tessa and say, “Candy?”
“We just ate.”
“How come you always say that? It’s not like candy is a meal.”
She rolls her beautiful eyes and goes along, following me to the concessions and criticizing all my choices.
It’s one of the many ways I know to hack her brain.
If I pick out some type of candy she hates, she’ll always step in and override my decision, choosing some type of candy she likes. It’s science.
After I’ve emptied my wallet on concessions, we go hunt down the screen playing Star Wars. Even outside the door, I can feel the rumbling sound effects of exploding spaceships. I stop Tessa before she can enter the theater.