Love Is Hell

Garrett.

I sat next to John and Nick Santino from Halvo’s band on the floor as we screwed around, playing video games and eating popcorn and talking shit in front of the tv.

“So Pat, when’s your girlfriend getting here?” Joel Kanitz asked from his seat on an armchair in Halvo’s basement.

“She’s not my girlfriend yet,” Pat said, which made my mind jump to Lina, even though they were talking about Courtney.

It was six-thirty, and she still hadn’t shown up yet. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care if she came or not. I just liked being around her. Was that such a crime?

“I’ve heard her best friend is goddamn firecracker, man. What’s her name?” Nick asked.

“Who, Pat’s almost girlfriend or her best friend?” John asked, tilting his head back to take a drink of his beer.

“Her best friend.”

“Lina Hawkins. And, let me tell you, whoever told you she was a firecracker has it right.”

“Don’t get any ideas though, Garrett and her have a thing for each other,” Pat interjected. I saw Jared grin out of the corner of my eye.

“You do?”

I shrugged. “I have no clue if she likes me or not. We’re friends,” I said, wishing I could say more. That was the truth, though. Lina Hawkins was a firecracker -whatever the hell that was- and she was out of my league.

“Garrett, don’t play stupid. Lina totally wants you!” John said, laughing at his own words. He was probably laughing at how totally and completely wrong he was.

Pat started to say something, but was interrupted by the doorbell ringing.

“Hey, I bet that’s the girls!” Halvo said as he hopped up and ran to the front door, out of sight.

My pulse sped up as I heard more voices entering the house -voices who were, in fact, recognizable as Lina and Courtney.

“Pat, your girlfriend’s here!” Halvo said as the three of them entered the basement, where we all sat.

“What about Lina? Whose girlfriend is she?” Jared asked, grinning. I saw Lina blush.

“I’m Eric’s girlfriend; didn’t you guys know?” the girl said, smirking as she playfully wrapped an arm around Halvo.

Eric rolled his eyes and said, “Guys, this is Lina Hawkins,” and gestured to Lina. “And this is Courtney West,” he added, gesturing to the other girl. The two of them waved as the guys who didn’t know them introduced themselves all at once. Courtney walked over to Pat and sat down on the floor next to him, but Lina stayed by Halvo’s side. I had to admit, I’d gotten the tiniest bit jealous when she put her arm around Eric, even though I knew they were only friends.

I saw Lina looking around the room, and her hazel eyes finally landed on me. She smiled a little and walked my way, as Halvo returned to his seat and un-paused his video game.

She walked in between John and I and sat down on the couch I was leaning against, directly behind me.

“Aren’t ya gonna say hi, Nickelsen?” she whispered in my ear. I turned my head to the side to look at her. She was leaning forward and smirking.

“Hi, Carolina,” I said, smirking right back at her. She stuck her tongue out at me for using her full name.

“Hey, I’m Nick,” the red-head said, holding his hand out towards Lina. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Oh, really? Like what?” she asked, shaking his hand.

“I’ve heard you’re pretty cozy with my friend Garrett, here,” he said, and I really, really wanted to do two things: hit Nick, and run away.

Doing neither, I looked back at Lina and rolled my eyes.

I figured Lina would deny it in a clever manner -because that’s what Lina did: remain stoic while sounding like a smartass- but instead, what she did almost shocked me.

She reached forward and set her arm over my shoulder, her forearm on my shoulder and her tiny fingers on my collarbone. “Yeah, Gare and I are pretty cozy,” she said.

I met her eyes, and they were full of laughter. She was messing with us.

I started laughing in sync with her, and it felt like we were sharing a secret joke.

____________________________________________________________________

-Lina.

I sat on the couch next to Halvo, behind Garrett and a red-haired boy named Nick. Garrett and Nick were currently absorbed in their competitive, gory video game, which involved zombies -shocker, right?

Courtney and I were the only girls in the room. I didn’t mind, but it was almost funny to see how all the guys acted with each other. At one point they’d be joking about looking at nudes on the internet, and the next moment they’d be ready to punch each other over a bag of chips.

I sighed and stretched out on the couch, putting my feet in Halvo’s lap.

He looked at me, gave me the are-you-kidding-me look, then grinned devilishly.

Before I could grasp what he was about to do, Halvo grabbed both of my feet and started tickling my sock feet.

Me -being the ticklish bitch I am- burst out into giggles, which made every pair of eyes in the room turn to look at me.

“Halvo! Stop...tickling...me!” I said, barely able to get the words out because of how hard I was uncontrollably laughing.

“Ah, you’ve discovered her weakness,” Courtney said.

“Help! Someone...help me!” I said, giggling hysterically.

Suddenly another pair of hands attached themselves to my sides and began tickling me, too, making me erupt into another fit of giggles. I writhed, trying to get free for a good five minutes solid until I was being lifted up off the couch, which effectively tore me away from the ticklers.

I tried catching my breath as the arms set me down, and I saw Garrett’s face.

He grinned at me. I didn’t want to smile back because my cheeks hurt from laughing, but I did anyways.

“Am I your knight in shining armor?” he asked. I heard laughter from the guys nearby. I felt lightheaded from all the laughing I’d done.

“Ugh. Yes,” I said. “Thanks.” I looked around at where he’d set me down. We were at the foot of the stairs that led up to the kitchen in Halvo’s house.

“Do you want to go back in now? We can kick their asses, if you want to,” he said, causing me to smile.

“I’m too tired to kick anyone’s ass right now. You’ll just have to do it for me,” I said, standing up.

He nodded. “Consider me body guard for the night!” I followed him back to the area with couches where the guys were.

When they saw me, some of them started whistling. I flipped them the bird before walking up to Halvo, backhanding him on his head, and sitting down next to Garrett on the floor.

“Who was the other person who was tickling me?” I asked quietly. The guys had gone back to their game.

“John.”

“Oh, that figures.”

He nodded. “We’ll have to get revenge, later.”

I grinned. “Revenge is my middle name, Nickelsen.”


_____________________________________________________________________

-Garrett.

I was trying really hard to forget the sensation of holding Lina in my arms.

She was making it especially hard right now, with the way she sat next to me, her left arm pressed against my right. Tonight, I didn’t want to weird her out. I really, really, didn’t want to weird her out.

“Hey, we should play hide-and-seek!” Pat yelled as Jared and John finished their game on the tv.

The guys all thought it would be fun, but I knew all Pat wanted to do was get Courtney alone when he said, “Should we have partners?”

Some of the guys whined, but eventually we decided that since Halvo’s house wasn’t that big, partners would be funner.

“Lina, are you going to be my partner?” Halvo asked the dark-haired girl.

She shook her head fiercely and hooked her arm through mine, giving me the goddamn butterflies.

“You tickled me, Halvo! You can kiss my ass,” she said, grinning. “Garrett, you’ll be my partner, right?”

I nodded without even thinking about it.

“Not it!” Lina yelled, standing up and pulling me with her. She was followed by a myriad of voices claiming they weren’t “it”, until Nick and Joel were announced as the losers.

“We’re giving you two minutes to hide, now scram,” Nick said, and we went into a frenzy. Next to me, Lina was giggling.

“Come on, I know a good spot,” I said quietly, pulling her with me up the stairs. We walked silently through the quiet house, the only sounds voices of our friends.

When I reached the seldom used dining room, I whispered, “Careful, it’s dark. There’s a pantry in here that we can hide in.”

I felt Lina clutch onto the back of my t-shirt as we walked through complete darkness.

“Ow, shit,” she cursed. “Hit my toe on a chair. How are we going to find this pantry in pitch-black?”

“Wait, I have an idea,” I said, slipping my phone out of my pocket and using it’s light to guide us. “There! Come on, hurry,” I said as was quickly hid ourselves inside the pantry. Shelves of food towered above us as we sat down on the tile. I put my phone back in my pocket, leaving us in total darkness so we wouldn’t be caught. I felt high on adrenaline, even though we were playing a stupid kid game.

“Garrett, can I tell you something?” Lina whispered, her breath hot on my cheek. She sat with her leg and arm pressed respectively against mine.

“Course. What is it?”

“I’m scared of the dark, and,” she said, shivering, “it’s freezing in here.”

I put my arm around her, aiming to comfort her and warm her up. “Better?”

I felt her lean into me, and I smiled, thankful that she couldn’t see it in the dark. “Better. Thanks. Oh, and...” she said, her voice trailing off for a second. Then, I felt her lips on my cheek. “That’s for rescuing me when they were tickling me, earlier.”

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. Lina Hawkins had just kissed my cheek.

My face tingled from where her lips had touched it when I said, “Anytime, Lina.” I tried to keep my breathing steady, but I was sort of failing because I was still thinking of how the prettiest girl I had ever met had just kissed my cheek.

In the back of my mind, I knew it was probably nothing, but in that moment -the dark, just the two of us- I felt on top of the world.

______________________________________________________________________

-Lina.

Why had I just kissed his cheek? That wasn’t too weird of a thing to do, right? Plenty of people kissed their friends. I mean, I happened to think Garrett was a very cute friend... but that’s it.

I let out a tiny sigh, the sound of our breaths the only noise filling the dark pantry. We’d heard voices outside the pantry door, so we quit talking in order to not get caught.

Suddenly, the pantry door swung open and the room filled with light.

“Gotcha, bitches!” Nick the red-head yelled as he grinned, exposing Garrett and me. I saw another boy appear, one I hadn’t met yet. He had long blonde hair and a nose ring, like Garrett.

“Hey, I’m Joel,” he said, holding his hand down to me to help me up.

I grabbed it and said, “Hi. I’m Lina.”

He laughed a little as I stood up. “I know.”

Next to me, Garrett was standing. We started shuffling out of the dining room and into the kitchen.

Garrett and I squinted, our eyes not yet adjusted to the bright lights.

“Unfortunately for you, you two are the first people we found,” Joel said, grinning.

“Yeah, you should really talk less. It kind defeats the whole purpose of the game, you know,” Nick said.

I pointed to Garrett. “It was his fault!” I said innocently.

“Yeah, my fault my ass, Carolina!” he said, and I grinned, finally feeling at ease with the boy who had seen me at my worst. It felt relieving. Garrett and I were friends, and I was okay with that.