Levi ^^

Chapter 9

After Haley drives us home from the mall and I take a quick twenty minute break to recollect myself from my embarrassing breakdown, she leaves to the living room to go order some food. I insisted on Chinese but she pretended not to hear me and ordered pizza instead. And knowing how much I don't like Hawaiian pizza, that's exactly what she ordered.

"You know, I've never noticed that store before," she comments, lying down on one of the pillows we had thrown on the ground.

I give her a weird look while leaning my back against the sofa. "What do you mean?"

"The store you ran to at the mall. I've never seen it before," she says, staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Maybe you just haven't looked around that area," I reply carelessly, rearranging the blankets around me to keep myself warm. I have to leave a note for my mother telling her that our heater broke so she doesn't try adjusting it when she comes home later.

"No. Trust me, I've been through every single crack in that mall, I go there at least once a week! Most of the time I don't buy anything since I'm broke but that mall is like a second home to me. And yet that's the first time I've ever seen that store. Hell, I didn't even know there was a store that," she says, turning to face me.

"Does it matter," I ask, just as the doorbell rings.

Haley stands up to answer it while grabbing her wallet from the counter. "You're right. It's pretty dark around that area anyways so..." she trails off, going towards the door.

I keep scrolling through my social media before I hear Haley exclaim, "Levi?" He's here?

Pushing the twenty pounds of blankets away from me, I stand up and walk over to see Levi holding a large pizza box. Instead of looking surprised to see us like I expected him to, he just has a blank expression. The bored look in his eyes almost makes it seem like he's done this many times before. That can't be true though since he recently just moved here.

"Oh hey what are you guys doing here?" he asks, looking surprised. Or at least he tried to look surprised. He really needs to work on his acting skills because this is just a really sad attempt.

"What do you want?" I ask, slightly pushing Haley out of the way.

He gives me a fake confused look. "Um, maybe twenty-five fifteen for the food? Maybe a not so little tip since it's freezing outside and I'm out here delivering food?"

While Haley starts counting the money that we need to pay for the pizza, I just kept looking over at Levi. This is the first time I've seen him without sunglasses. He's still wearing dark clothes but this is the most skin he's shown since I've met him. Without his sunglasses blocking the view of his face, I can make out green eyes, pale skin and sharp facial features.

"Here you go, thanks Levi," Haley says, handing him the cash before taking the box from him. He gives us a nod before walking away. Even after Haley closes the door, I still continue staring at the spot where he was.

"You okay Braska?" she asks, giving me a concerned look.

I feel bad for making her worry so I give her a soft smile while rubbing my arm. "Nothing Hales."

She gives me a calculating look before her eyes light up. "Oh...OH! I get it now!" she exclaims, looking very excited. What's she talking about?

"What?"

"Now I get it. No wonder, it all makes sense now!" She keeps babbling on about her great big discovery until I finally get fed up and yell at her to tell me. Instead of reacting to my outburst, she just smirks at me. "Aw, my little baby Braska is finally growing up," she coos, rubbing my head like I'm some puppy who learned a new trick.

I give her a blank stare before clearing my throat. "Haley, what are you talking about?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"Well, it's kind of obvious that you have a crush on Levi," she states, opening the pizza box.

Wait what?

"W-what? What the...what made you think of that?" I exclaim, backing away from her. A crush on Levi? Seriously?

Okay I'll admit that he isn't ugly or as bad as I first made him out to be, but that doesn't mean I like him! I don't like him like that anyways. Actually, I don't even think I would consider Levi as a friend. He's more like a mutual acquaintance since he's closer to Lucas than he is to any of us. But what made Haley think I like him?

"Why do you think I like him?" I ask, walking closer to her.

She rolls her eyes and leans against the table counter. "Well when he first came to sit at our table, you implied that you wanted to date him-"

"By accident!"

She ignores me and continues talking. "Then you just 'magically' decide to be extra girly and buy cute clothes and makeup barely a day after meeting him-"

"Jason wanted toys-"

"Then you start panicking when you saw him at the door. Which I'm guessing is because you aren't dolled up or as dressed up as you would like. Don't worry Braska, even in Spongebob pajamas you still look pretty hot," Haley says with a wink, before taking out a slice of pizza and putting it on a paper plate.

I'm about to tell her off when I realize that I have no excuse to that. Maybe some of that was because I didn't want him to see me in my pajamas, but I don't like him! My panic is due to the fact that I'm pretty sure that he's somehow involved with my stalker but it's not like I could tell her that.

It's not that I don't trust Haley, I love her like a sister, but she's never had it as bad as me. She's so used to guys throwing themselves at her that even if I do tell her all these things that someone has been doing to me, she'll see it as a romantic gesture. She won't understand that these things don't happen to every girl.

Especially girls like me.

These things don't happen to girls like me.

"Let's just watch a movie," I mumble, hoping to distract her from whatever is on her mind. She starts humming and practically skips over to her bag to find a movie to watch.

"Wanna watch Captain America?" she asks, holding up the DVD. Does she really need to ask that?

A few minutes later, we're sitting comfortably on the floor with the movie playing on the TV. It's times like this where I can pretend that everything is okay. I can pretend like I'm a normal girl hanging out with my best friend with nothing to worry about.

***

"Braska...Braska..." I turn around from my bed to see Haley poking the side of my rib. I raise an eyebrow at her while sitting up and rubbing my eyes.

"What is it Hales?" I ask, putting my glasses on so I can see her clearly.

"Guess what time it is?" she asks, with a mischievous smirk on her face.

I look at the clock beside my bed before turning around to glare at her. "2 am?"

"No," she says, grabbing her phone from beside her. "It's tumblr time!" she sings out, positioning herself so we could both view her phone easily.

I'm laying on my back while Haley mimics my position while holding her phone up above our faces. "Why are almost all the pictures you have on there have to do with couples and relationships?" I ask, blinking to try and adjust to the light from her phone.

"Because someday, when I get a boyfriend, I want him to scroll through and if he's smart, which he should be since I don't date idiots, he'll know that I secretly want to cuddle the shit out of him so he'll take the hint and invite me over for pizza and movies. Kind of like what we just did but less platonic," she says, making me chuckle at the serious expression she has on her face.

"You're pretty Hales, you'll get a boyfriend soon enough," I tell her, looking down at myself. She's so pretty and nice and talented. She's basically everything I wish to be.

"Don't be so hard on yourself Braska," she says, finally closing the app and putting her phone away.

I'm not in the mood to listen to one of her usual talks about how I'm just as pretty as her so I turn around to face the wall. "Goodnight Haley."

"Goodnight Nebraska."

***

"We're going on a trip, on our favorite rocket ship..."

What's going on?

I open one of my eyes to see Jason near my side of the bed, singing his heart out while holding a corn-dog. An arm is wrapped around my waist so I look down to see a hand with glittery pink fingertips on my stomach.

Rolling my eyes, I not-so-carefully lift the arm off me and throw it back away from me. Haley's arm hits her head causing her to jerk awake. "What just happened?" she asks, wiping some dry drool from the side of her mouth.

"You missed a spot," I tell her, grinning at the glare she gives me. She starts rubbing her eyes and running a hand through her frizzy hair. Since we've been best friends for as long as I can remember, we've each seen each other at our worst.

"You're going to the zoo today with your mom and brother right?" she asks, stretching her arms over her head.

I nod while watching Jason continue to dance around my room. "Yeah I think so."

Haley nods and licks her dry lips. "Okay cool. I'm just gonna take a quick shower and grab some of your mother's heavenly breakfast before I head on out," she says, getting up and walking towards my closet.

She grabs her outfit and stands still for a few seconds before shrugging. "Guess I'm going without a bra and underwear for now," she mutters, walking over to my bathroom and shutting the door.

I get up from my bed and pick up Jason before walking over to the kitchen. "How was your day at Adam's?" I ask, putting him down when we get to the table.

"Good. Lucas drop me home. People say he's not gonna be my friend for long because he's older than me. Is that true?" he asks, covering his ears and I smile at the action. Jason always tries to cover his ears when he thinks that he's going to hear something he doesn't want to.

"Are you kidding me? You and Adam are really good friends. I'm sure the age gap is nothing to worry about," I reply, sitting down and starting to eat the omelets on the table. "Where's Mom by the way?"

"Showering."

We continue eating silently when Haley appears in the doorway, dressed in one of my shorts and a plain green top. Her hair is damp but it doesn't look as frizzy as it did in the morning. A towel is wrapped around her neck to make sure that the water doesn't get to my shirt. "You have some explaining to do sister," she says, sitting down in the stool next to Jason.

I furrow my eyebrows at her and frown. "What do you mean?"

She takes two bites from her omelet and a sip of her water before replying. "You never told me you had a boyfriend," she says with a smirk. My mouth drops open in shock. What's she talking about? I think I know the answer but it's a scary thought. "And although I'm a little pissed you didn't tell me, I can understand if the reason is-"

"Haley I don't have a boyfriend," I interrupt. I forgot that Haley hasn't used my shower in months. And knowing her, she was probably looking around the cabinets for my lotion. And if she was looking around the drawers...

"Of course you do. Why else would I find an entire bouquet of roses in the bathroom, attached to this car with a heart?" she asks, handing over a card to me. I quickly snatch it from her and place it to the side. "Don't worry, I promise I didn't read it. The only crime I did was sniff the roses too much. Seriously, you have the most perfect guy ever!" she squeals.

Oh please no.

"You're going to be living every tumblr gif I've always wanted to live out," she says, dreamily staring into space. This girl has serious problems.

"Hales-"

"You have to introduce me so Lucas and I can do the bestfriend thing and threaten to burn his baby-maker if he hurts you," she says, pointing at me.

"Haley-"

"Now that you have a boyfriend, it's time to give you the talk. Before anything else, you have to remember the code," she says.

I stare at her blankly while messing with the corner of the note. "What code?"

"You know, no mom before prom?"

Oh.

"No love without a glove?"

You can stop now Haley.

"And if you are ready to bump the sheets, just remember that kissing is-"

"Who's ready to bump the sheets?" my mom asks, walking into the room. Haley covers her mouth and turns away from me while I look down at the table. I thought Haley looked away from embarrassment but from her moving shoulders I can tell that she's trying to hold down her laughter.

On the otherhand, I'm trying to keep my face from being as red as the tomatoes on the omelet that we were eating.

My mom looks around between us before pointing her finger at me accusingly. "Is my baby having sex at this age under my roof?"

"What's sex?" Jason asks, finally speaking. Haley busts out laughing while my mom continues giving me a warning look. Poor Jason is looking between the three of us with a confused face as he's slowly eating his breakfast.

Can this morning get any worse?

________________

There's nothing worse than feeling sick on the one day you're suppose to go to a party