Never Fall For You

-Jason-

I knew it. It was inevitable. Dinner at the Lawrence household meant nothing but trouble for me. Not because David and Heather weren’t good people; they were possibly the coolest adults I’d ever met. But because it was also inevitable that their eldest daughter would be there, probably against her will too. I didn’t want to see her. I mean, I knew I’d have to see her at school, eventually, but that wasn’t until Monday. I had two whole days to figure out what was going through my head, and why those strange feelings kept rising inside of me every time she touched me. And I could only pray that she was too drunk to remember what she’d said to me. Being near her now was going to be awkward enough.

“You gonna put that shirt all the way on, or are you just gonna wear it around your head without your arms in the sleeves.”

I snapped out of my thoughts, and looked at Tyler, who was staring at me, eyebrow raised.

“You’ve had it halfway on for the past ten minutes” he continued, turning towards the mirror to check himself out. “What’s wrong with you, anyway?”

I finished putting my dark blue shirt on, and scratched my head.

“Nah, dude. I’m fine” I lied. Truth is, I didn’t know what was wrong with me. That was the problem.

Tyler shrugged at me, checked himself in the mirror again, then followed me out the door.

Mom, Dad, Tyler and I walked across the street over to the Lawrence’s house. As soon as my parents stepped onto the porch, Heather swung the door open, excited to see my parents, and pulled my mom into a hug. It was the same thing every time; a lot of squealing, a lot of giggling, and a lot of acting like they hadn’t seen each other in months. After introductions were made between Tyler, Heather, and David, they invited us all in, stating that dinner would be ready in less than five minutes.

We all sat at the dinner table, women on one side, and men on the other. I don’t know if they planned it that way, what I did know was that I got stuck seated across from Kat, with Tyler on the other side of me. He kept staring at her, the entire time she ate her dinner, and I became overwhelmed with the sudden urge to smack him in the back of the head. But I couldn’t say much. I kept catching myself staring at Kat as well, to the point that Lydia made a face at me, and Tyler nudged my arm.

Get it together, man. Seriously.

I resorted to staring at my plate for the rest of the dinner, and that seemed to satisfy both Lydia and Tyler. I let out a loud sigh of relief when dinner was finally over, and we all headed to the living room so my parents and Kat’s parents could talk and drink.

“Hey, kids” David said, as we all piled into the living room. “We got the hot tub fixed, you guys want to go out there and start it up.”

Lydia was all over that idea, and ran upstairs to change immediately.

“I didn’t bring any trunks” I said. “And neither did Tyler.”

“Don’t be silly” Heather said. “You still have a pair here from last summer. And I’m sure David has an extra pair that you can borrow, Tyler. They might be a little big, but I think you make them work. Kat, will you go look, please?”

Kat reluctantly headed upstairs, then appeared a few minutes later with my old, worn out swim trunks that I’d forgotten I’d left behind, and another pair of new swim trunks with the tag still on them. Tyler and I headed to a spare bedroom, changed, then headed back downstairs, I with my shirt on, and him showing off the abs he’d supposedly been working on. I wasn’t that impressed.

We met Kat and Lydia back downstairs, in the enclosed back porch, where the hot tub was already bubbling to life, steam rising up in little puffs. Lydia was the first to pull her oversized t-shirt off, and exposed her lime green bikini, and I averted my eyes; she was like a little sister to me. Tyler hopped in after her, leaving Kat and I standing together, each a little reluctant to pull our covers off.

“Ladies first” I said, when she looked at me, expectantly.

She smirked. “Like you care” she said, then pulled her t-shirt off, and I could feel my eyes widen as I took her in.

Now let me make this clear; this is the very first time I’d ever seen Kat in a bikini. Kat’s the kind of the girl that would rather read a book, while everyone else was splashing around in a pool next to her. I knew she liked hot tubs, but theirs had been broken for years, and everyone was always too drunk to use the one at Hunter’s house.

But she was beautiful. Perfect, even. Thin, but not too thin. In shape, I guess would be the best way to put it, and it kind of surprised me, since she was known for being clumsy, not athletic.

I snapped out of my thoughts when Lydia suddenly cleared her throat loudly, and Kat made a face at me before stepping into the hot tub. I slowly got in after her, making sure to sit as far away from her as possible.

“So, Kat” Tyler said, suddenly, and she and I both looked up at him at the same time. “You’re really good in math, right?”

Kat shrugged. “I’m passing with a low A” she replied.

He smiled. “I’m not good at math.”

Lie. Math was Tyler’s strongest subject. Where was he going with this?

“And I was thinking that maybe you could tutor me, sometime?”

There it is.

Kat raised her eyebrow slightly. “There are a lot of smarter kids that could tutor you in math, Tyler” she replied flatly. “Kim Peterson, for example, is like a freaking math genius.”

Tyler shrugged. “Kim Peterson isn’t as cute as you” he answered, adding a smile.

Kat rolled her eyes, but a smile tugged at her lips, and what was that? Did I just see Kat Lawrence blush?

“It might cost you” she said, leaning back against the tub, and flipping over hair over her shoulder.

“Anything.”

She was thoughtful for a moment. “Fifty bucks. Every session” she answered, smirking.

He smiled widely, and leaned forward to look in her eyes. “Done” he said, and then they both smiled at each other.

And I couldn’t believe it, but it looked like Katherine Lawrence, the girl who’d sworn off boys since we were in elementary school, was actually falling for it.