The New Girl Next Door

Chapter 7

Kaylie’s POV

I sigh as I plop myself down into my chair after dropping the last box into my room that was in my car. The movers brought in all my furniture that was in the truck, I’m so glad I didn’t have to bring those things upstairs.

Jake is sitting on the ground breathing heavily. I think he tired himself out when he tried showing off, by carrying multiple big boxes at once. I pass him a water bottle and he thanks me with a smile.

“Hey, you hungry?” Please say yes because I am starving. He nods, thank God. “Good! Is there a McDonalds around here?”

“You sure you don’t want to unpack all these boxes first? I don’t mind helping you with that.”

“I have a feeling you are saying that because you have ulterior motives,” I respond giving him a look like I know he is up to something.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“I don’t know, maybe you want to get a look at my bras.”

He places his hand on his chest and opens his mouth trying to look offended. “I’m offended you think so poorly of me.”

I squint my eyes at him before motioning to the box next to him. “They’re in the box next to you.”

Like I expected, he rushes over to the box and quickly opens it. Only to be disappointed by a box filled with books.

“That was mean!” he pouts while crossing his arms over his chest.

I roll my eyes. “The box was clearly labeled ‘Books.’ Not my fault you’re too stupid to read the box first.”

He looks at me surprised before he starts laughing. “Okay, fine we can go get food, but you’re paying for being mean.” He gets up and I follow him out my room, as we head outside.

“That’s fine, I was going to offer to pay anyway to say thanks. Also,” I look at him with puppy dog eyes, “can you drive? I hate driving. Plus, I don’t know where I am going.”

“Sure.”

“We can take my car. I have a full tank and I don’t want to make you waste your gas.” I pass him my keys and make my way over to the passenger side.

I laugh as Jake struggles to get into my car. “God damn, Kaylie. How short are you?”

“You do realize, you’re like a foot taller than me. You should have known that you needed to adjust the seat first.”

Jake groans as he adjusts the seat so he can finally get into the car. Once he is settled, he pulls out of the driveway and heads to the restaurant.

I grab my phone and open my Spotify app. The song “Whiskey Glasses” by Morgan Wallen starts playing through my car speakers.

He turns down the radio and asks, “Doesn’t your guest, who is me, get to control the music?”

“Actually, in my car, the rule is whoever is in the passenger seat gets to control it. And since I’m in the passenger seat, I get to choose the music,” I reply with a smile.

He rolls his eyes and begs, “Fine. Do you have anything else besides country?”

“Yes, my Disney playlist. So, your options are Disney or country.”

Jake grumbles, “Country it is.”

I turn the radio back up and start singing along, while I place my feet on the dashboard. Jake immediately swats at my legs saying, “Hey, put those down.”

“It’s my car.”

“I know, but if we get into an accident you are going to get seriously injured.”

I do what he says, but that little action makes my heart flutter slightly. Toby only cared when I put my feet up because I was getting his dash dirty. But here is a guy I met just a few hours ago telling me to put my feet down because he is worried about me getting hurt.

I ignore the little butterflies I am feeling and go back to singing and dancing along to the song playing. We pull up to a red light and I notice he is watching me with a smile on his face. “What?” I ask.

He chuckles, “You really don’t care what other people think of you, do you?”

“I try to. And don’t act like you don’t like my music. I saw you mouthing the words to ‘Before He Cheats.”

He blushes and shakes his head, knowing that he got caught. He looks really cute when he blushes, and the sunlight is making his hazel eyes glisten. Kaylie, stop thinking like that. You know his type. You have been with his type. But yet, he was worried about me getting hurt. I don’t know what to think about him right now.

We pull into McDonald’s and walk in together. “Do you want anything specific?” I ask him.

Jake shrugs, “I’ll take a cheeseburger.”

I order two cheeseburgers, a large fry for us to share, and two drinks. I pass him his cup and he fills it before finding us a table while I wait for our food. Once the food is ready, I grab the tray and start heading to find him when I hear this God-awful screeching, “Jakey!” I’m assuming one of his friends found him. When I walk up to the table there is a tall blonde stroking his arm with a brunette with super curly hair and tan skin standing next to her.

I quietly say excuse me while I scooch past them to sit across from Jake. The blonde glares at me slightly before returning her attention back to Jake. “Babe, I didn’t know you had a younger sister.” Her valley girl voice and the fact she is pretending I’m a child irks me.

I shove a few fries in my mouth and say, “I’m his neighbor.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet babe, you’re taking the girl you’re babysitting out for food.” Jake becomes visibly annoyed as she starts running her fingers through his hair.

Now it’s my turn to be the valley girl. “No, I’m Kaylie. I’m seventeen and will be starting my senior year in the fall with you guys. Isn’t that so exciting!” I say while twirling a piece of my hair. Jake chokes a little bit on his pop before covering his mouth to hide his laughter. I bat my eyelashes at her and her friend. I watch the blonde get upset as if she is threatened by me. Doesn’t bother me, so I go back to eating my food.

“Well, you should know, I’m Natalie and I’m Jake’s girl,” she says trying to assert her dominance over me.

“Good to know,” I reply while taking a bite of my cheeseburger.

She mouths ‘ew’ before flipping her hair and walking away.

Jake is staring at me wide-eyed. I smirk and ask, “So, friend of yours?”

He scratches the back of his neck. “Uh, not really. I just hooked up with Natalie a few times and now she won’t leave alone.”

I sip on my drink and grin. “Well, that’s what you get for sleeping with someone who is crazy.”

He sighs, “She wasn’t crazy at first. She was very understanding that is was just sex.”

“Duh! They’re never crazy in the beginning. And of course, she agreed to just hooking up with you, because secretly she was hoping she could change you, try to tame the ‘bad boy’ as you will.” I take a big bite of my burger and laugh. He rolls his eyes before going back to his burger.

The two of us continue eating and talk about random stuff. I don’t know why but it is so easy to talk with him. Many guys get a little put off by how can I say this, how crude I am sometimes, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Actually, he finds it funny.

Once we are done, we head back to my house. I decided to be nice and let him play his music. We sit in a comfortable silence during the ride, allowing the music to fill it. Halfway through the ride, he put his hand on my knee. I don’t know if he realized he did this, but either way, it sent a small shiver down my spine. Toby used to do that all the time when we were driving around town, but I never had that kind of reaction.

We pull into my driveway, and I get out of the car. I head over to the driver’s side to get my keys back from Jake before heading inside to finish unpacking. However, when I get there, he is leaning up against my car smirking.

I approach, a little confused, and ask, “Can I have my keys?”

He places my keys partially into his front pocket and replies, “You have to give me a kiss.”

I stand my ground. “Not happening.”

He drops his shoulders and pulls out my keys from his pocket. “Okay, here.”

I take the keys wearily. “Really, that’s it.”

He shrugs, “It was worth a shot. Not going to pressure you.”

I stand there a little surprised. I was expecting him to put up more of a fight. Why did I want him to put up more of a fight? Do I want to kiss him? I know I shouldn’t with everything that has happened, but he seems different than the guys at my last high school. Frankly, he was worried about me getting injured in a hypothetical accident. The old Kaylie would have played his game, but now I hesitate. I just wish I could go back to not worrying about everything so much and just be more carefree again. Maybe I can right now. He doesn’t know about my past or what happened to me. Is it really that big of a deal if I kiss him? It’s just a kiss, and honestly, it has been so long since someone kissed me.

I move to stand in front of him, between his legs. His eyes widen as he asks, “What are you doing?”

I bite my lip and put the keys back into his front pocket. “Trying to get my keys back.”

He looks at my lips and leans down slightly. “You don’t have to do this, you know.” I can’t help but smile when he says that.

“I know,” I say getting on my tippy toes and wrapping my arms around his neck while his wrap around my waist.

When our lips touch, I feel shockwaves down my body. It’s like one of those movie scenes when the couple kisses and fireworks go off.

I pull away, slightly embarrassed because I just kissed him. I was expecting him to say something, but he didn’t. He just stares at me with his eyes slightly darker than they were before. His arms are still wrapped around me and neither one of us tries to move. I bite my lip and my cheeks heat up, thinking if I should have done that.

But when he breaks eye contact to stare at my lips his tongue darts in and out to lick his own. That is when I realized I shouldn’t be embarrassed. I want to kiss him again. There was something about that first kiss, even though it was quick and soft, it felt different. Before I could go back in for another, he was crashing his lips against mine. I let out a small whimper from impact. He slowly moves his hands to my ass and pushes me harder against him. As he does this, he lets out a small groan.

Jake traces my bottom lip with his tongue before biting down on it slightly, asking for permission to enter. I part my lips and he slides his tongue into my mouth and massages it against mine. The two of us then get into a pretty heated make-out session up against my car.

I move one of my hands up and start running my fingers through his hair, slightly tugging on it and he lets out a throaty growl. He moves his hands from my ass, and they find their way under the back of my shirt. His fingers trail down my back and I moan into his lips because his touch sends tingles down my spine. What is going on? Why does this guy have such an effect on me? Is it because it has been so long, and he is the first guy to not see me as an object that he can touch whenever he wants?

I can feel him getting more excited by the minute and I decide this is probably a good time to stop. I bite down on his lower lip and tug on it slightly before pulling away.

Both of us are breathing heavily. I haven’t gone down from my tippy toes yet, so our faces are still really close.

“Why’d you pull away?” he asks.

“I think it’s time I go in and finish unpacking,” I say while playing with my lip.

“If you don’t stop biting your lip, I’m going to kiss you again.”

I beat him to it and smash my lips against his really quick. He lets out a small moan and I smile against his lips. I then pull away and walk towards my front door without looking back. As I grab the handle, I look over my shoulder and watch him. He shakes his head and runs his fingers through his hair as if he is thinking about something. I turn back around and head inside to unpack more.