Page 26 of Don’t Love the Boy Next Door (Hotties Next Door #2)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Katie

“Hey, Katie,” Eric says as he opens the basement door, his guitar slung over his back.

“Hey,” I say, trying to sound cool and confident.

But I know I’m failing miserably. Just the sight of him sends my blood into frenzy.

His hair falls over his face perfectly , and his eyes are bright with so many positive emotions.

That’s one thing I really like about Eric—he always tries to be positive.

He’s standing so close I feel his body heat, and he smells so good.

“Cody hasn’t arrived yet,” he says.

“Oh.”

We stand there awkwardly.

“Do you want something to drink?” he asks as he leads me to the band room, where Ethan’s playing with his phone. He looks up at me and waves.

“Katie, drink?” Eric asks from where he stands at the snack table, holding up a can of Coke.

“Oh. Thanks.” I take it from him, my hand brushing his.

An electric jolt sparks through me. Phoenix would call it chemistry.

I don’t know if he felt it, because he smiles and chugs down his own Coke.

He doesn’t seem to be freaking out inside like I am.

Does that mean he doesn’t have a crush on me?

Because I’m pretty sure my best friend is putting all these thoughts in my head because she desperately wants me to be happy.

I know Eric doesn’t think about me like that. We’re just good friends.

“What?” he asks.

“What?”

“You were looking at me funny.”

My face grows so hot I might explode. Was I staring at him? “Nothing,” I quickly say. “Just thinking about…cats.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Cats?”

“Yeah. I was, um, thinking about adopting one.”

Oh my gosh, what am I saying? Adopting a cat? I don’t even like cats. I’m a dog person. Not that I could adopt any pets, anyway. Dad’s allergic to anything with fur.

“Oh,” he says with a confused expression. “That’s cool.”

I make an unintelligible sound and turn away, walking to the mic stand. More like fleeing. He probably thinks I’m the weirdest person on the planet.

I warm up as we wait for Cody. Eric eats some more from the snack table before tuning his guitar.

His eyes shift to me. I quickly look away, not wanting him to think I was staring again.

Ugh, Phoenix made me so confused about everything.

Now I can’t even look at him without dissecting every little thing he does.

Someone knocks on the door. Finally, Cody’s here.

“Great, let’s start,” Eric says as he stands in his place, holding his guitar carefully in his arms. He always treats it like it’s made of gold, which is so sweet.

Oh my gosh, there I go again.

“Remember, the concert is in two weeks,” he continues.

“I want to perform three originals. The first is the one we’ve been practicing.

I’m just about finished with the second, but I want to try it out and see if it fits our style.

It’s a little slower than what we normally do.

I think the audience will like it. It’s called “I’m Here But You Don’t See Me. ”

“Another love song?” Ethan asks with a raised brow.

His brother shrugs. “Love songs sell.”

He hands us each a copy of the song. I study the lyrics. It’s about a guy who has feelings for a girl, but she’s totally oblivious to how he feels. She just sees him as a friend, or maybe just an acquaintance.

That’s…a little weird. He can’t be talking about…?

Nah. I already established that he just sees me as his dorky friend who happens to roll down stage stairs every once in a while.

“Our first concert!” Eric says with eyes so bright they nearly blind me. “Let’s blow the roof off.”

Cody slams his drums. “Yeaaaaaahh!”

We start to play and it immediately takes off. Even though it’s a little different from what we normally play, it fits us perfectly. Eric’s right, I think the fans will love it.

I nod and grin to Eric as I sing the amazing lyrics, telling him he did a phenomenal job.

He returns the smile, his cheeks growing pink.

I don’t know what it is, but I feel…good.

Uplifted. Confident. Maybe it’s the song, but I’m not nervous or anxious anymore.

My heart flutters as I watch Eric play the guitar and sing backup.

I don’t watch anyone but him the entire time.

I guess…I guess maybe I do have a small crush on him.

Okay, maybe a big one. I didn’t want to admit it to myself because I was scared.

Liking someone is a really scary thing, especially because my heart is already broken.

I didn’t think I could ever be happy because my mom’s no longer with me, but I don’t want to be unhappy for the rest of my life.

Phoenix is right—my mom would want me to live my life to the fullest. If she were here right now, she’d tell me to embrace my feelings.

To not be afraid of them because putting yourself out there could be scary, but it also could be rewarding.

If you don’t risk anything, how will you ever gain?

Eric is such a good guy. I’m lucky to be his friend, his bandmate, and his costar. And maybe, just maybe, I could be so much more.

With that out in the open, I feel free. Unburdened. I take the mic and put everything I have into the song. It resonates with me. I, too, like someone who doesn’t know it, and it’s scary and exciting and nerve-wracking all mixed up in a tight ball. But I think I’m ready to take the plunge.

“That was awesome!” Eric says after Cody hits the last drum. “We totally smashed it. Keep it up, guys.”

“Love the song, bro.” Ethan fist bumps his brother. “This may take us to the top. Especially because of this one over here.” Ethan nudges me with his finger.

“What?” I ask.

“You sang it with so much feeling. And your voice was top-notch.”

“Agreed,” Cody says as he twirls the drum sticks. “You made a good call choosing her, Eric. I don’t think we’d be at this level without her.”

My face is so hot I need a cold bath. “Stop,” I say as I press my hands to my scorching cheeks. “I’m not that great.”

“It’s like Eric wrote those lyrics for you,” Cody says. “Like you get it. I can’t imagine anyone singing the song the way you did.”

My eyes flit to Eric. He gives me a warm smile.

“Oh shut up, everyone,” I mumble with a smile as I put the mic back in the stand.

“See you all tomorrow,” Eric says, swinging his guitar off his back and walking over to its case.

My heart pounds in my head. I was so confident while I sang the song, but now…?

No. I can do this. I want to be happy. I want to be strong. Throwing my chin up, I march over to Eric, but he suddenly turns around and I nearly ram into him.

“Katie, hey.”

“Hi.”

We’re quiet.

He clears his throat and opens his mouth to say something, but then he shuts it.

“Sorry for almost crashing into you,” I say. “I’m so clumsy.”

“You’re not clumsy.”

I give him a look. “You don’t have to be so nice to me. I’ve done some pretty clumsy things.”

He shrugs. “I think it’s cute.”

Cute? As in an adorable little kid or like…like an endearing potential girlfriend?

I shake that away and take a deep breath. “I’m not usually like that. At least not in front of normal people.”

His face clouds with confusion. “Normal?”

“Not that you’re not normal,” I quickly say. “I’m not the normal one.”

He looks even more confused.

“I mean, I normally am normal. Just not in front of guys I…like.”

He stares at me, his eyes growing wider and wider by the second. “What…?”

I lower my gaze to my shoes before slowly returning them to his face and putting on a brave smile. “I like you, Eric.”

His face washes over with relief and joy. “Really?”

I laugh nervously. “Yeah.”

“I like you, too.”

“You do?”

Now he laughs nervously. “Yeah. I just didn’t say anything to you earlier because…”

“Because I freaked out by our first kiss scene.”

He pushes some hair away from his face. “I just didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“You never make me uncomfortable,” I say.

He smiles in relief. “I’m glad to hear that.”

We both grin at each other and then stand there in awkward silence. Again.

Despite the weirdness, I feel good that I put myself out there. Empowered. If I was able to confront my crush, I can do anything, right?

The room is painfully quiet. When I look at Ethan and Cody, I find that neither of them has left yet.

Well, Cody is inches from the door. He must have been just out the door when he heard me confess my feelings to Eric.

They’re both watching us like we’re on TV.

Cody averts his gaze and opens the door while Ethan gives me thumbs up.

I turn back to Eric and give him another smile. “I love the new song.”

His face brightens even more, like I just made his day. “Thanks. It’s…” He rubs the back of his neck. “It’s based on real life. My real life, I mean.”

“You’re saying…?”

He nods. “Yeah. The girl is you.”

That makes me flush with elation. A part of me suspected it, but I guess I wasn’t ready to see it.

“So…I’m like your muse?” I joke.

He gazes into my eyes, and my heart skips a beat. “I think you are. You’ve inspired me to write the songs.”

“I have?”

“Yeah. I was having major writer’s block one night and then I heard you singing during Phoenix’s live stream.”

“Broadway night.”

“Exactly. I was so inspired by your voice that I broke through the writer’s block.”

Wow. I’ve never inspired anyone before. No, that’s not true, because many of Phoenix’s fans have told me I’ve inspired them, whether to pursue theater and acting or singing, or something else.

But I don’t know any of those people personally.

And they don’t know me well. It’s different with Eric, because he’s seen my good side and the bad. And he still feels inspired by me.

“I don’t know what to say,” I say with a nervous laugh.

“Don’t say anything. Just continue being you.”

We smile at each other. Just stand there smiling at each other. It’s like time has stopped and we have all the time in the world to soak each other in.

Until Ethan says, “You guys are so darn cute.”

Eric frowns at him, like he forgot about him for a second. “What are you still doing here?”

He grins. “This is finally happening. You guys have been crushing on each other forever.”

“I wouldn’t say forever,” I say the same time he says, “Has it been that obvious?”

“Yep,” he says with a chuckle. “It’s been very obvious. I think you two are the only ones who didn’t realize it.”

Eric and I look at each other. Then we laugh.

And then we stand there in awkward silence again.

“Um, it’s getting late. I think I should head home.”

“Watch out for traffic,” Eric says with a wink.

That makes me laugh. “I will.”

As soon as I’m outside, I rest my back against the wall and breathe. In and out, in and out. Oh my gosh. I can’t believe that just happened. I admitted to Eric that I like him. I don’t know where that courage came from, because I’ve been seriously lacking it the past couple of months.

My cheeks hurt from smiling. I can’t remember the last time I smiled this much. I do a small dance as I enter the house, then make my way up to my room. Phoenix is in the middle of live streaming.

“There’s my bestie now!” she says with a wave. “Come say hi to the viewers.”

I walk up to the desk and wave. “Hey, everyone! How are you all doing?”

“Ooh, Katie is in a good mood. I guess band practice went really well?”

“It was awesome. Hey, did you tell everyone about the concert?” I lean toward the camera. “The Rock E’s is having a concert next weekend. Information on where to buy tickets is on our website. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!”

Many of the viewers comment that they have already bought tickets and that they’re super excited. A few write that they’re running to buy them this second.

I feel Phoenix staring at me and I turn to her. “What?”

“Something’s different.”

I nod my head at the computer.

“Oh, sorry. Guys, looks like I’ll have to wrap up a little early tonight. I’ve got some digging to do. Have a great night, FireBirds.” She ends the stream and sits me down on the bed before settling down near me. “Okay, spill.”

“What?”

“I know something happened. Your face is, like, brighter than the sun.”

I rub my cheeks. “No, they’re not.”

“What did I tell you? There’s no hiding anything from me. So spill .”

“Okay,” I say as my heart beats with glee. “I told Eric I like him.”

She leaps off the bed. “ What ?”

“And he told me he likes me, too.”

“Double what !?” She plants herself back on the bed and throws her arms around me. “That’s awesome! See, I told you he likes you. I’m so proud of you for telling him how you feel. I told you good things will come if you open up.”

“I know. Thanks for everything, Phoenix.”

“Glad to be of service.” She pulls out of the hug and squeals. “Did he ask you to be his girlfriend?”

“Not yet.”

“So how did you guys leave things? Are you going to hang out? Go on a date?”

“Whoa.” I hold up my hands. “Slow down. We just admitted we like each other.”

“You’re right. Sorry. But I’m so excited. So happy for you. Ugh.” She flings her arms around me, squeezing me tightly to her chest. “I’m so, so happy, I think I’m gonna cry.”

“Thanks. I couldn’t do any of this without you, Phoenix. You really are the best friend anyone could ask for.”