“I can’t believe you guys did that!” I laughed from the couch in our living room.

“Well, we were kind of tipsy when we came up with the idea,” Trevor explained. “Okay, maybe we were full out drunk,” he then admitted.

I took a sip of my soda.

“I’m glad we decided to continue the project at your house,” the boy commented.

“But we didn’t do much work,” I protested, looking at our notebooks; we hadn’t opened them for hours.

Once we came to my house, we’d spend a total of forty minutes studying. Then we’d decided to take a break and ordered pizza. Now, three hours and a movie and a half later, we were joking around and sharing stories. It was Trevor who took the biggest part in the talking as most of the time I sat at home with a book in my lap and let’s face it: that wasn’t much of a story.

“I should probably get home,” he sighed once he checked the time on his phone.

“Yeah, mom and Maggie are going to be back from their shopping spree any time now and the later is never going to let me hear the end of it if she sees you here.” Seeing him frown, I went on: “Just sisters teasing each other.”

“Maggie doesn’t usually sound very sisterly to me…”

He waited to see if I’d contradict him but doing that would mean I’d have to lie to his face so I kept quiet.

“I know a great place to study without being interrupted,” he stated, taking his notebook and heading for the front door. “Maybe we could go there tomorrow?”

“Where is that?”

“So you’re up for it?” I nodded. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.” He walked out and shouted “Good night, Ape!” then jogged to his house.

I have a date with Trevor! I giggled in my mind, too giddy to be peeved by him calling me Ape again. I have a date… a study date, I corrected myself. Now, April, don’t let this get into your head! It’s a study date, nothing more. S-T-U-D-Y, study.

“What’s with the goofy grin?” Maggie’s voice burst my bubble.

“Never mind that!” Mom butted in. “Why are there so many dishes in the sink?”

Oh-oh!

I haven’t cleaned up after Trevor and I.

“I had pizza and put the dish in the sink but I got hungry and ate again in another dish,” I replied and surprised myself how plausible that sounded. I didn’t have much practice with lies; that was Maggie’s thing.

“Maybe you should cut down on the pizza,” my sister suggested, giving me a meaningful look.

“Get the dishes cleaned; Maggie and I have things to do.”

“Like what?”

“I bought her some new outfits and I want her to try them on again just in case she no longer wants them and I have to return them tomorrow.”

“But… I got homework to do,” I attempted to protest. What really peeved me was how Maggie never got to do any chores.

“You shouldn’t have made such a mess then,” my mom concluded. “Now hurry up with the dishes so you can get to your homework.”

She headed upstairs and my sister followed but not before grinning at me and mouthing the word “loser.”

Reluctantly, I made my way to the kitchen. But doing chores tonight was not as boring as it usually was for me. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I kept on replaying in my head the time I’d spent with Trevor today.

It was just studying together, I kept repeating to myself but to no avail.

I was completely head over heels for him.

I’d been completely had over heels for him ever since I first saw him. That boy got my heart on day one and I had no idea how he did that. He just had that certain indescribable something that I wanted, no! That I needed every day, all the time. It was completely irrational…

But love often is that way.

I dropped the plate.

Love?

What was I thinking about?

I could not be in love with Trevor. He was a bad boy, a player. I’d barely spoken to him and it was never me who gathered up the courage to start the conversation. It was always him who approached me…

Wait a minute?

Why was he approaching me?

Even though he usually did it to joke around with me he was never rude and spiteful like Maggie. And today we actually had fun. We talked, laughed and just hung together as if we were old friends.

I started picking up the pieces from the broken plate. I knew I better do it before mom saw them or I’d get an earful. After I was done with making sure the kitchen was tidy even according to my mother’s standards, I headed to my room. I flung myself on my bed, trying to convince myself that I was overreacting: just because I thought of the word love while I was dreaming of Trevor did not mean I was in love with him.

My phone buzzed and I frowned seeing I’d gotten a message from an unknown number.

Took you long enough to get upstairs.

Before I could panic that some random person was stalking me, I got another one:

This is Trevor, by the way.

How, when and from where had he gotten my phone number?