The Words to Define These Feelings

Paige's POV

“Hey, guys, the pizza place says they're only doing take-out tonight! Their driver is sick. So, since Paige is the one with the car, and I called the order in, she has to go get it!” Phoebe stuck her tongue out at me across the room and I rolled my eyes.

“Fine, but one of you needs to come with me,” I said, scanning the room.

“Nose goes!” Austin yelled in an entirely elementary school fashion. All of the guys in front of my immediately placed their index fingers on their noses, and then Caleb walked out from the kitchen.

“Haha, Caleb has to go!” Kent exclaimed, and Caleb looked confused.

“What?” He asked.

“They were doing nose-goes to see who has to come with me to pick up the pizzas. And I think you just lost on default,” I explained, and he shrugged.

“Okay, lets go then,” He said, following me out of the apartment. I led him out of the building to my car, and got into the drivers seat.

“Can I pick a CD?” He asked, eying my CD case on the floor.

“Sure,” I said, watching as he flipped through sleeve after sleeve of colorful discs. He finally settled on one, putting it in my CD player. Third Eye Blind came pouring out of my speakers, and I smiled at the boy next to me as I cranked the volume.

“Good choice,” I said as I began to bop up and down with the beat.

“I love Third Eye Blind,” He nodded, and the ten minute ride was full of us screaming along to “Semi-Charmed Life” at the top of our lungs. When we got to the pizza place and walked inside, they told us we still had to wait ten minutes until our food would be done.

“Hey, you got any quarters?” Caleb asked, and I pulled out my wallet confused.

“Yeah, a few, why?” I asked.

“Wanna race?” He pointed to a set of racing games in the corner, and I smiled.

“Only if you're ready to lose,” I said, following him quickly over to the machine. I put in my 75 cents and got ready to start.

“Ha, you think you can beat me?” He asked, turning to look at me.

“Not think, know,” I said matter-of-factly as the game began to count down at the starting line. The race started, and ten seconds in I heard Caleb mumbling a string of curses following a collision noise. My purple car jetted past him and zoomed to second place.

“Eat my dust Turman,” I said triumphantly.

“There are still more than two laps,” He replied, and I laughed at the determined look on his face. As the race continued, Caleb started to close the gap between our cars, but I weaved expertly around the obstacles on the course. Growing up with a little brother worked to my advantage in times like this.

“I'm going to pass you Paige,” He warned, as he slid into third place behind me.

“In your dreams,” I sing-songed, finish line in sight. Suddenly, Caleb reached over and yanked my wheel to the left, catching me completely off guard. My car went crashing into the wall and he sailed past me.

“Haha, sucker,” He smiled light-heartedly, but I wasn't about to let him get away with that. I grabbed his wheel and yanked with all my might, causing him to hit the wall too. He tried to yank his wheel back as the rest of the computer powered cars in the game flew by his.

“No way Turman. An eye for an eye,” I said, not ready to give up our power struggle. Then, I tried to jump back to my wheel so I could at least finish before him, but he caught onto my plan before I could do anything. He reached across and held my wheel in place, the computer finally ending the game with the two of us partially tangled and firmly holding the other's in place. I let go when the menu screen began to play and I realized they had been calling my name to let me know my order was ready. As we exited the restaurant, I turned back to look at Caleb.

“This isn't over Caleb. We're going to rematch on Mario Kart when I get home, and I'm going to beat you fair and square,” I said, unlocking my door.

“You're on,” He said, and I realized as we drove back to my apartment that I didn't feel so awkward around him anymore.