The Boy Next Door

I looked at Matt's watch, to check the time. 4:45. I only had forty-five minutes until my mom would come home. Forty-five minutes left with Matt.

"Okay. I dare you to... knock on Melvin's door, tell him you love him, kiss him for ten seconds, and then say you've wanted to do that since you heard him recite the first fifty digits of pi." Matt grinned devilishly.

"Hell no!" I screamed. "I might get some sort of nerd infection!" Melvin is the nerdiest guy I've ever met. I'm not usually mean like that, but the kid has problems.

"Sydney, don't be mean." He scolded. "Now, do it."

"I don't think so." I shook my head in disgust.

"I triple dog dare you." I raised an eyebrow at him. "You heard me. Now go." He shooed me across the street towards Melvin's house.

I got up and groaned. Why did I have to insist that we play truth or dare? More importantly, why was I stupid enough to pick dare? I got to the front door and knocked. I could feel Matt staring from a distance. After this, he was definitely going to suffer a long, painful death.

Melvin opened the door and looked at me, puzzled. "Hi Sydney. I haven't spoken to you in ages. Why the sudden appearance?" He spoke all nostrily and proper. Gosh, I hope he's mouth washed recently.

"Oh, nothing really. I just-" I paused, not really knowing what to do.

"I was watching a Star Trek marathon, so could you make this fast?" He asked.

"Melvin, I love you!" I declared. Then I grabbed his face and kissed him. I could hear Matt laughing in the background. Melvin was shocked at first but then he eased into it. He was about to open his mouth, when I pulled away. No way in hell was he going to get his tongue anywhere near me.

Melvin looked at me and smiled. "That was better than when I met Yoda at the Stars Wars convention last summer!" He announced.

"I've wanted to do that ever since heard you recite the first 50 digits of pi." I mumbled.

He ran a hand through his hair, trying to act cool. "You know, I'm wearing my glow in the dark briefs. You can come inside and I'll show them to you if you want." He winked.

"Yeah, as fun as that sounds... I have to go... um... anywhere but here." I turned to walk away. "Have fun with your marathon."

"My door is always open!" He yelled at me.

I got back to Matt's front yard and he was still laughing hysterically. "Ugh. I need to wash my mouth out." I wiped my lips.

"That... was... so... funny" He managed to tell me, between laughs.

"I'd sleep with one eye open, if I were you, because I am going to kill you." I warned.

"I bet that was his first kiss. Now he will never forget you." He teased.

"Shut up.' I growled.

"He probably won't get another one of those for years. Every day he's going to think about your lips." He mocked.

"I'm going to get you back. You just-" I stopped.

An old, red, Chevy truck turned down our street. In the passenger seat was Sophie and she was glaring daggers at me. I pulled Matt into a hug and smirked at her.

"If this is you getting me back, we need to work on your threats." He hugged me back, pulling me closer to him. His back was facing away from the street, so he couldn't see anything.

The truck pulled up to the curb and exactly when then engine stopped, I yelled, "I love you, Matt!" To distract him.

"I love you too, Sydney." He said even louder and pulled me even closer. He just made my plan work so much better.

"What is going on here?" Sophie snarled. She stood up straight, putting her hands on her hips. She had a white strip going across her nose. Seriously? I didn't even touch her nose.

Matt turned around, looking dumbfounded. "Sophie I-"

"Why were you hugging her? And what's all this 'I love you' crap?" She snapped.

"I think the more important question is; what the hell is on your nose?" I beamed. Matt gave me a disapproving look.

"My brother was looking at it and he thinks I should wear this as a precaution. He's in med school." She said matter-of-factly. "Matty-kins, look what she did to me." She ran to Matt. "Can you kiss it and make it better?" She asked. I wanted to puke. It was cute when he did it to me, but with Sophie, it was just gross.

"And who would your brother be?" Right after I said that, a figure got out of the driver's seat of the truck.

It was a guy, that looked to be in his early twenties. He was the spitting image of Sophie, only in male form and older.

"That would be me, Joel." He walked to me and shook my hand. "And you are?" He smiled. I couldn't help but to blush. Male Sophie was kind of cute.

"Sydney." I said, shyly. Then I remembered that he's on the enemy's side. "You must hate Sophie too. Why else would you make her wear some stupid band aid thing?" I heard Sophie gasp.

Joel chuckled. "As funny as that is, I really do think she needs to wear it. You got her pretty bad." I smiled. Even her brother thought I could take her. "Impressive for a girl your size. I find that very attractive." My blush got even bigger.

"She's a slut Joel. Your to good for her." Sophie yelled. Matt didn't say anything. My heart started to hurt. He didn't even defend me. "Plus, I heard that you have a boyfriend, Sydney."

"Boyfriend? Sydney, why didn't you tell me?" Matt looked upset.

"Derek just asked me out. He's not my boyfriend." I defended myself.

"You are going to go on a date with Derek?!" Matt yelled.

"I thought we already settled this." I frowned. "Remember, when you snook over to my house in the middle of the night and we-"

"You snook over to her house?" Sophie was pissed. I wasn't trying to get Matt in trouble, I just wanted to make Sophie jealous.

"No! Well, yes, but-" Matt sighed in frustration

"I thought I told you to stay away from my boyfriend." Sophie got all in my face.

"Why are you acting this way? You know Matt and I are just friends. We always have been and that's all we'll ever be." My voice cracked at the end. I was staring at Matt, when I said the last sentence. Our eyes had met and I still couldn't figure out what he was thinking.

I ran away, not knowing what else to do. I heard Sophie say something along the lines of "What a loser." and then Matt say "Just go home". My eyes started to water and I begged them to stop. I was not going to cry for the second time today.

I was one house away, when. "Sydney, wait up!" He grabbed my arm, but I shrugged him off. "Please stop running and let me talk to you." He begged.

I stopped and glared at him. "Oh, now you want to talk. Why weren't you talking when Sophie called me a slut? Why didn't you defend me? Joel was more on my side than you."

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He shut it and looked away. "You're not on my side, are you?" I asked, astonished.

"I told you, I'm not picking sides. It's just... you saw her coming. You hugged me and said I love you, just to make her jealous!" He started to raise his voice. "Very mature, Sydney. She's your friend and you just go and hurt her-"

"Hurt her? I didn't do shit! The only one getting hurt here, is me!" I retorted.

"How are you getting hurt?!" He looked confused.

"I'm getting hurt by you going all bipolar on me! One second your laughing and joking with me and then the next your yelling at me! It's like you can't decide whether you love me or you hate me!" I yelled.

"You're the one that ran away all upset! And you call me bipolar! And what was with all that 'that's all we'll ever be' shit? You made it sound like you were trying to say something else!" He accused.

"MAYBE I WAS TRYING TO TELL YOU THAT I LO-" I stopped myself from saying something that I wasn't ready for him to hear. "Just go home Matt. We need to calm down, before we say something that we'll regret later." I turned to walk away, but he stopped me, once again.

"You were going to say that you love me, weren't you?" He asked. I stopped breathing and my heart stopped beating. I froze. He came and stood in front of me. I looked down, so that my hair covered my face. "Were you?" He pried.

"No. Why would I do that? I'm crazy about Derek. And yeah, Sophie and I aren't really friends anymore, but you're still her boyfriend. Not to mention, we tried the couple thing. It wasn't for us, remember?" I tried so hard to sound convincing, but I doubt it worked.

He scoffed. "Are you sure?" He moved his face closer to mine.

He looked at my lips, then back at my eyes. My heart was going crazy and my stomach was doing all these back flips. He brought his face even closer. I could feel his breath on my lips. We were not even a centimeter away from kissing. I closed my eyes, praying for a kiss.