Chapter 20 - Analise

    "What's your favorite color?"

"Red," I answered amusedly, raising an eyebrow in Will's direction. "Please tell me why on earth you're asking me these stupid questions?"

"Just answer them," Will answered with an eye roll, writing something down in a notebook.

"Are you... studying me?"

He smirked a little, looking down at his notebook and back at me. "Maybe. For the test, you know. I really can't be bothered to remember it all."

"Next question," I snapped, rolling my eyes and taking a sip of my Sprite.

"Who's your favorite person in the whole world?"

"Drew," I answered easily, a smile taking residence on my face. "Definitely Drew."

"Why?"

"He's my brother, for one. And he took care of me when I had no one else."

"And your parents?"

I thought about the open ended question. Did I trust him enough to tell him? Something told me I did, that he wouldn't take the information and use it against me. He wasn't that type of person. "They were murdered when I was twelve. Drew was eighteen, so he quickly took on the parental role so I didn't have to go into the system. He didn't want to lose me."

Will smiled a small smile at me, nodding. "What happened to them?"

I shrugged, looking down at my lap. Truly, I didn't even know the answer myself. I knew they were murdered at the same time and they died by gunshot wounds - mom to the head, dad to the chest. Drew and I never found out who killed our parents, and we had tried for years. It was like whoever did it was a secret person or something, like from the FBI. That was a crazy thought, though.

Drew and I researched since their death and had only taken a break this year seeing as we weren't getting any answers. We even asked the gang, which my dad was a part of, but they closed up as soon as we brought it up and wouldn't even look into it. Part of me thought maybe it was someone from our gang, but it couldn't be; my dad was nothing but loyal to them.

"I don't really know. They were shot, that's all I know. How did your dad die?"

He looked down sadly, before meeting my eyes again. Sadness clouded his features, and I reached out to comfort him before retracting my hand hastily. What the hell was wrong with me?

"He died on the fourth of July. We were watching the fireworks together with our neighbors and when the neighbor tried to set off a bunch at once, it exploded and the metal shrapnel from it hit him and my dad. He survived, but he had a lot of brain damage. But my dad, who was standing right beside him got the brunt of the damage and it went straight to his chest and head. He was dead before the paramedics even got there."

Wow. I'd never even heard about someone dying by fireworks. The fourth of July must be hard for him. "So I take it you're not a fan of the holiday?"

He shook his head, shrugging a little bit. "I still celebrate it, I just cry a lot, especially when fireworks happen. But everyone sets off fireworks, I can't just ignore them."

"You're a pretty strong person, Rando."

He smiled. "So are you, Annie. Next question."

And he continued to ask me meaningless questions, at least to me, and occasionally jotted down something in his spiral bound notebook. I had no idea what he was writing, but when I asked, he wouldn't tell me so I shrugged it off. It had been four days since our almost-kiss and I still felt an air of awkwardness around him, but I'm sure that was just on my side. I just couldn't wrap my head around what had happened.

A lot of the guys in school would have killed to get the chance to kiss me, Analise, the unattainable, but not Will. Though I'm sure he wanted to kiss me, at least it looked like he wanted to kiss me, but he didn't. The fact that he didn't bothered me, for some unknown reason. Had I actually been looking forward to kissing Will?

No, that couldn't be it. I wanted to kiss someone special to me, someone I wanted to be with. I didn't want to be with Will. I don't think...

"You do that a lot," Will cut off my thinking, making my eyes snap to his.

"What?" I moodily asked, cracking my knuckles apprehensively.

"Space out."

"I do not," I mumbled, looking at a poster of Green Day on my wall.

"You do so. It's cute."

I felt myself blush and I wanted to punch myself in the face. Why the fuck was I blushing? What was wrong with me, acting like a... girl? I had to knock some sense into myself, and fast. This was what I deserved for interrupting my friend circle. A month ago, if you told me the guy from the bridge last summer was going to come into my life, I'd call you a fucking maniac and tell you to seek psychiatric help. But now it seemed I was the one needing it.

I put my hands over my cheeks to hide my blush from him embarrassedly. It's not like Will would make fun of me, he hadn't ever made fun of me before, even when he caught me belting Miley Cyrus the day after the play in my room when he dropped by to start his odd questioning. Yes, I liked Miley Cyrus, she is a queen.

I felt hands grab my wrists gently and I looked up to see Will staring at me with an emotion I couldn't quite place. He pulled on my wrists gently, placing them in front of me but not letting go. "Don't hide your blush, Annie. It's one of the many beautiful things about you."

That only made it worst and I cursed the heat rushing to my cheeks. Thankfully I was saved by the door slamming open to reveal Drew, his hair surprisingly combed and gelled back. He was wearing a nice pair of jeans I don't think I'd ever seen before - considering most of his jeans had grease and oil stains from work - and he was wearing a button-up collared shirt. He looked so nice.

"Don't you knock?" I asked irritatedly, raising a brow. "What if I was losing my innocence in here?"

Drew busted out laughing at that, clutching his stomach. Will joined in, and I glared at both guys, going back and forth between the two. After they were done, Drew said, "First of all, it's my house so I'll barge in if I want to. And second of all, you're far from innocent."

I gasped, offended. "How would you know?"

"People tell me things. How was Vince, by the way?"

I looked down at my lap. He caught me. Vince was the only person from this town I had hooked up with and he just so happened to be in the gang, of course. He still tried calling me, trying to get me to go on a date with him, but I dodged his calls. He was cute, black hair, grey eyes and a cocky attitude, but I was merely interested in him for a one night stand, and he knew that. He was two years older than me and not my type of guy. I presume he told Drew in an attempt to get me to contact him. Fat chance, snitch. "Where are you going so dressed up?" I asked, hoping to take the attention off of me.

Drew grinned at us from my doorway, a real big genuine smile covering his whole face. His eyes were alight with joy. It kinda freaked me out. "Your big brother has a date, baby sis."

My eyes widened, as did Will's. Drew didn't do dating. It wasn't his thing, never had been and I thought it never would be. He was always one for hookups, for the most part, especially in high school. He was the popular kid every girl wanted, from what I heard. People still told me stories about him that carried on through the years, including Drew. He was a popular football player, best linebacker our school had ever seen, and he didn't really do girlfriends. He'd had a couple, but nothing totally serious. And he hadn't had a date in at least four years.

"Who put you up to this?"

He looked confused now, a frown replacing his smile. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, who put you up to this going on a date thing? Was it Quincy?"

Drew shook his head amusedly. "No Lise. I went to the bar after work the other night, and I met a girl there. She's beautiful, blonde hair, baby blue eyes, great smile, long legs and an ass that-"

"Okay!" I shouted, covering my ears. "Too much information, thank you. Next time, stop at great smile."

He smirked. "I could tell you all about how that night she bounced-"

I threw a pillow at him, cutting him off. "Get out! Go! Have a great date!"

He laughed loudly, heading away from my room. "Like a cowgirl!" He screamed, sounding near the front door. "She was my little cowgirl the other night!"

"God damn it," I mumbled to a smirking Will after hearing the front door slam shut. "It's official, I'm scarred for life now."

"You're overreacting a bit, Annie," Will told me, chuckling to himself.

"Overreacting? Overreacting!? I have images of a blonde girl bouncing on my brother Rando! I don't need these images!"

He laughed a little harder, his eyes crinkling. He looked cute when he laughed, I really liked it. 

What. Is. Wrong. With. Me?

The rest of the day Will and I talked a little more, getting to know each other. I learned his favorites, especially that his favorite movie was Hacksaw Ridge because we had that in common, and that he was an only child. I really couldn't imagine being an only child, since I've had Drew my whole life. Part of me always wanted a sister, too, but after meeting Raelynn's sister and seeing how sisters in movies are, I quickly realized I was probably blessed to not have one. Drew was my absolute best friend and I couldn't imagine not having him.

Will stayed well into the night, and about a half an hour after he left, Drew came in, trying to be quiet. I was sitting on the couch watching reruns of Dr. Who with my knees bent and under my chin. He came over, sitting next to me and draping a blanket over the two of us.

"How'd it go?" I asked, glancing over at him. He had a content smile on his face and it made me happy to see him so happy.

"It went amazing, actually. She's so down to earth, Lise."

"Tell me about her."

"Her name's Alisha. She's got a little brother and sister, so she's the oldest. We obviously have that in common. She's funny, she's smart as hell - graduated from college a couple years ago and she's a third grade teacher. She's just great."

I smiled at him. "I'm happy for you Drew." and I meant that. "But what about the gang?"

He had a determined look cross his face almost immediately. "I'm getting jumped out next week. I can't do this anymore, Lise. We don't need the money anymore and I want to finally be able to live my life. I want my own family one day."

The image of an older Drew with kids crossed my mind, and even though it was hard to imagine, I could. He absolutely loved kids.

"She does have a daughter," he told me cautiously. He looked afraid of my reaction. "She was married at twenty to her high school sweetheart and had her almost immediately after. Her husband died not even a whole year later, and she's just now moving on. She's twenty four like me, so her daughter's about to be four."

I looked at my feet. I had no idea why the thought hadn't crossed my mind, people Drew's age had kids all the time, but still it was unexpected. But who was I to judge him for that? It was his life, and his life only to live, and if this girl made him happy then I could be happy for him. "I hope it works out for you two. Have you met her daughter yet?"

He shook his head. "We don't want to rush things, we just met five days ago. She makes me happy so far, but I haven't even made it official yet, so it would be too soon to meet her daughter. She told me about her though."

"What are you waiting on then? Make it official!"

"We're not rushing things, I just told you," Drew said, flicking my forehead. "I might in another week or two, if things are still going good. She's coming over in a couple days for dinner, and I'd like you to be here so she can meet you."

Wow, he must really like her if he's asking me to meet her. I'd never met any of Drew's past girls, fling or otherwise. "So, you haven't met her daughter but she's meeting me?"

"It's a little different, Lise," He told me. "You're my baby sister, not my daughter. I want you guys to meet so she can come over more often."

I nodded, smiling at him. "Alright, I'd love to meet her then."

"What about you? Any boys?"

My mind flashed to Will, surprising the hell out of me. Why had I thought about Will? We were only friends, him and I would never have anything more than a really good friendship. "No."

"I think Will really likes you," Drew smiled to himself. "I like him, he's a good kid."

"Yeah, he's okay," I murmured, feeling my eyes droop. Sure, I'd played it down a tad, but Will and I really were just friends, nothing more. So why did I think of Will when he asked if there was anyone? He was definitely more than just okay. He was pretty amazing.

I soon drifted off to sleep, thoughts of Will racing through my mind. Maybe I did like him as more than a friend.