Accidental Crush Read online

  ACCIDENTAL CRUSH

  Adrienne Torrisi

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 2013 by Adrienne Torrisi.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

  Cover Design: M. ten Napel

  Editing: C&D Editing

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1 The Hospital

  Chapter 2: School

  Chapter 3: Visit

  Chapter 4: Detention

  Chapter 5: Big Secret

  Chapter 6: Homecoming Week

  Chapter 7: Game

  Chapter 8: The Dance

  Chapter 9: Things are Getting Interesting

  Chapter 10: More Rumors

  Chapter 11: The Wildcats Game

  Chapter 12: In an Instant

  Chapter 13: Unclear Future

  Chapter 14: Fresh Start

  Chapter 15: Next Steps

  Chapter 16: School

  Chapter 17: Getting Closer

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever been through or will go through high school with a secret crush.

  Chapter 1: Hospital

  There’s nothing worse than sitting in a hospital emergency room waiting to find out if someone you love is going to live or die.

  There’s such a huge difference between the two: LIVE and everything is great. DIE and everything in your entire life will change.

  So here I am, with my parents, pacing the white speckled, linoleum floor below with blinding, bright white, fluorescent lights above while trying not to be blinded by the overall brilliance all of that white created. There is enough white in this room to make anyone think they’ve already died—or wish they have at least. My brother is in surgery and I’m stuck just staring at the clock, which seems like it’s not moving at all.

  Overall, I’m pretty lucky. I have an amazing brother who is two years older than me and a much better person than I am. No, really; I’m not just saying that because he’s sick. Everyone in our small, pimple of a town loves him. I say pimple because it’s really tiny and really irritating; everyone knows everyone’s business and it’s filled with too many puss-like opinions. Anyway, if you were going to ask for any brother on earth, it would be my brother. He’s smart, funny, has a ton of friends and a really annoying girlfriend, Gretchen, who happens to be the co-captain of the cheerleading team; which is a fact that she never lets you forget. Speaking of, she just walked through the emergency room doors, or should I say, ran. She’s so dramatic.

  “Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, I got here as soon as I heard. How is he? Do they know what’s wrong? Is he going to be okay? I just heard he’s in surgery.” She then glances in my direction. “Oh, hi, Ashley.” She gives me a curt smile, making it clear that she is only acknowledging me because I am sitting here with my parents; she couldn’t care less how I’m actually doing.

  WOW! I thought things were bad ten minutes ago, but this is definitely worse. Who told her and why is she here? Now I have to listen to her constant babble while I stare at the clock that isn’t moving. Don’t get me wrong, Gretchen is a nice person and my brother really likes her—well, I guess, loves her—and I know she loves him. I know because I have to listen to her say it over and over and over again. She’s just too perfect and that gets on my nerves.

  She’s got the most perfectly straight, blonde hair. I swear she never has a piece out of place; it’s like she just walked off the cover of Seventeen Magazine every day. On game days, she always has it pulled back in a ridiculously oversized bow, but somehow it still looks flawless.

  I, on the other hand, have a perfect halo of frizz always hovering above my head. I hate curly hair and I have a ton of it. Ryan got lucky; he has straight hair thanks to my mom! It’s dark brown, exactly like mine, and he always wears it a little messy, thanks to styling mud. He has a habit of running his fingers through it, especially when he is nervous or angry. I'd give anything to see him do that right now.

  The electric doors open again and in walks one of my brother’s best friends, Todd. They’ve been best friends since pre-school and they have done everything together. He’s always at our house and has been for as long as I can remember. My parents love him and think of him as a second son.

  “Hey, Taylors? What’s going on?” Todd asks with a layer of nervousness he is clearly trying to hide. He is always extremely laid back; I’ve never seen him this anxious before.

  “Well, we don’t really know yet. They took him in for surgery and now we’ve been sitting here just waiting,” my dad answers in an extremely calm tone.

  How can he be calm? My insides feel as if they are eating themselves; my stomach is twisting so much. My dad is always calm in stressful situations, but if one of us gets a paper cut, forget it, he has a nervous breakdown at the sight of blood.

  Like the time Ryan and I got into a tug of war fight with the five-dollar bill my grandmother sent us. I said it was mine because I needed it more and he said it was his because he was older. Well, he let go and I was still pulling with my full force and I slammed the back of my head into the wall. Let’s just say there was some blood. My dad actually passed out and my mom had to drive us both to the hospital; I got stitches and my dad got tested to make sure he didn’t have a heart attack. I blame my grandmother for that one! I mean, really, who sends two kids one five-dollar bill?

  When I zone back in, my mom is explaining everything to my brother’s other best friend, Brian. I didn’t even hear or see him walk in because I am apparently that out of it. Brian, Todd and my brother have all been friends since pre-school, they’re known as the Three Musketeers. I know, our town isn’t very original.

  “All of a sudden, he was in a lot of pain and his stomach—well, his left side—really hurt, so I called Dr. Martin and he said we should bring him right to the emergency room. Now he’s in surgery. A nurse came out a little while ago and said Dr. Martin wanted to come out and speak to us, but he needed to get Ryan into surgery right away; and that he would update us as soon as he could. That’s it. That’s all we know.”

  “Wow, it came on that fast?” Brian asks. “I mean, we were just with him this afternoon at practice and he seemed fine. He did say his side hurt—now that I think about it—but we just thought it was from all the drills coach was making us run.”

  Brian is on the football team with my brother. He’s the quarterback and my brother is his best wide receiver. They both have been on the varsity team since they were freshman, which is sort of unheard of in our town. Our school has a history of having an incredible football team. We’ve won the State Championship five times in the last ten years, so Brian and Ryan are kind of legends already; it’s pretty ridiculous. They have this thing where they can almost read each other’s minds, Ryan always knows what Brian is thinking before he does. It makes them an incredibly strong team.

  Brian is a great guy, too, and my parents love him just as much as Todd. Brian is big into sports and my brother, Todd and Brian have played together in pretty much every sport since they were five; soccer, baseball, football, basketball. You name it, they’ve done it together.

  Todd is on the football team, too; he’s the kicker and he’s really good, but it’s not like he tries very hard
. His nickname at school is “God Todd” and I guess it’s pretty fitting because he’s basically good at everything; it all comes really naturally to him. He also plays the guitar, which he almost always has with him. Plus he has an amazing voice; speaking and singing. You would never guess it because he looks more like a star athlete than a member of the drama club, but he’s been the lead in the past few school plays.

  Everyone at school gave him a hard time until opening night, but he didn’t care. Once they saw him perform, the school drama club went from zeroes to heroes instantly. The next play had a line of people wanting to audition. Some of the cheerleaders even quit cheering to be in the play. Todd made everything he did look extremely easy; it’s really not fair.

  Not to mention, his hair is perfect. I wouldn’t say that about many people—other than Gretchen—but it really is. It’s a deep brown and it falls perfectly above his eyes and always has; even when he was twelve. He has movie star cheekbones and the most amazing blue eyes; they’re almost a greenish-blue, like the most perfectly clear blue water in the Caribbean. Whenever he turns his head, his hair moves and then falls perfectly back into place. It’s like controlled chaos; it’s always a little messy, but it works. The thing is, he’s so not the type of guy to try to make his hair look good, it just does.

  “Hey, kiddo. How are you doing?” Todd interrupts my thoughts. All of a sudden, I realize I’ve been staring at him for probably the last ten minutes. Okay, take a deep breath and try to act normal. Something feels different with Todd, but I’m not sure what.

  After what seems like an eternity, I finally think I can pull it together enough to sound natural. “I’m going insane. I just want to know what’s going on. I just want to know he’s okay.”

  “You know, if anyone can pull through this, he can. Whatever it is, I’m sure Ryan can handle it,” Todd says in his amazingly deep voice. “By the way, Sid wanted to come, but Mom and Dad wouldn’t let her since it’s pretty late. She wanted me to make sure you were okay, though. She said to text when you can, she’d be waiting by the phone.”

  Sidney is my very best friend in the entire world and she also happens to be Todd’s younger sister. We grew up together and have only grown closer as the years have gone by. Sid is the best. We became friends because our brothers were friends before we were old enough to even know what friends are. It’s funny how much Todd and my brother have in common. They both have sisters two years younger than them. They both have the true ‘first child syndrome’; the one where the first-born gets everything—looks, talent, great hair—while the younger sisters come out looking like their dads. Whatever, though, Sid really is my other half. She is the best listener I know and she is super funny; she can make me laugh even when I’m in the middle of a breakdown.

  “Thanks, Todd. I totally get it… it’s almost midnight on a school night. “

  “She said she’s not going to tell Shane.” Todd’s eyes lock with mine. For the first time, I can see the pain and fear in them. Shane is Sid’s and my other best friend.

  “I think that’s best.” I shut my eyes for a second and look down at the floor.

  Shane’s older brother, Roger, was a few years older than my brother and his friends. We all loved and looked up to him; he was like an older brother to all of us. He went away to college last year on a football scholarship. He had only been there a few weeks when he got into a really bad car accident and didn’t make it; he was killed on impact so he didn’t really have a chance.

  Anyway, Roger was the first person I thought of when Ryan was rushed into surgery. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to my brother; I can’t even imagine what Shane has been going through. So, I want to have all of the facts before I give him a reason to worry about anything else.

  Suddenly, we hear the electric slide of the doors opening, but this time they are the doors we’ve been waiting for; the doors that only doctors and nurses can enter through. The doors I have desperately wanted to know what is happening behind. My heart starts pounding in my chest and the room starts to spin. I grab Todd’s hand and squeeze it only because I need something to hold on to. I am trying to read Dr. Martin's expression as he starts talking, but I can't.

  “Well, first I want to tell you it was tough.” He seems to be stalling. “Ryan is...” He takes a deep breath and looks down at the floor. This can’t be good news, but either way, I just want to hear it. "...going to be fine."

  I don’t even hear what else he says, I only hear exactly what I want to hear; he’s going to be fine! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I look at Todd and realize we are still holding hands, my face immediately turns bright red and I quickly pull my hand away. Then I realize I have no idea what else Dr. Martin said. What am I, a complete idiot? “Wait, what happened?” I ask, as if I just missed the line that explained everything in the movie.

  Todd looks at me and smiles his perfectly crooked smile. It definitely is an are you crazy? kind of smile. “They had to take his appendix out—” Todd starts, but my dad cuts him off.

  “Dr. Martin said that, when Mom called, he thought it might be his appendix and it’s a good thing we came when we did because, when they did the scan, his appendix looked like it was about to burst so they had to rush him into surgery.”

  My mom jumps in, “He’s in recovery now. We can go see him one at a time as soon as he wakes up.” My Mom looks ten years younger than she did five minutes ago.

  ***

  When I finally get to see Ryan, I feel a little nervous; my stomach is full of butterflies. What am I going to see? How is he going to look? I kind of tip-toe into his room; I’m not sure why, I know he’s awake. To my relief, he looks just like he did four hours ago when we got to the emergency room except he isn’t doubled over in pain. He has a few tubes connected to him and one machine that won’t stop beeping that is monitoring his heart. He definitely seems groggy and maybe a little out of it, but he is my brother and he’s fine. Well, sort of.

  “Hey, Ash Bug. How are you?” he says in a strained voice. That’s so typical of my brother; he’s the one who has emergency surgery and he’s asking me how I am.

  “I’m good. I’m not the one that just got out of surgery, jerk! Don’t ever scare me like that again!”

  He laughs and then grabs his side in pain. “Don’t make me laugh.” He nudges my arm. “It hurts too bad. Now who’s the jerk?” He smiles at me as only my brother can That kind of smile that, no matter how mad you are at him, it automatically makes everything better.

  “No, really, how do you feel?”

  “I’ve been better, but I’m kind of glad I get to miss school tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure Mom and Dad will make me go… I bet if you died I could have stayed home.”

  “HA, very funny, glad you care so much.”

  “Guess who’s outside? He looks up, curious. “Mom and Dad didn’t tell you? Brian, Todd and Gretcheeeen.” Even though they’ve been dating for almost a year, I like to give him a hard time when it comes to Gretchen.

  “Really?” My brother seems genuinely surprised. That’s the other thing about him, he’s so modest. He truly has no idea how great he is or how much people really like him. I can’t help noticing, however, that he brightens a little more when I mention Gretchen’s name. I have no idea what he sees in her.

  “Yeah, and they all want to see you, but we can only come in one at a time. Everybody only gets five minutes; strict orders from Dr. Martin, so you know if he doesn’t kick them out, Mom will. She’s out there with the stopwatch feature on her iPhone running. I have no idea how she even knew that existed.”

  Ryan laughs and then immediately cringes in pain.

  “Sorry, I forgot.” My Mom peers into the room and taps her finger to her wrist. “Guess my time is up. Love you. See you tomorrow after school, jerk.”

  “Love you, too, jerk bug.”

  My brother has called me “bug” for as long as I can remember, it has sort of caught on at home, but th
ankfully, nowhere else.

  When I walk out of his room, Gretchen practically pushes me over to go in. I’m not sure why Todd and Brian let her go in next. Sometimes, ladies first is a pain. As she runs in, I hear her say, “Oh Ryan, I was so worried about you,” in her typical, overly-dramatic fashion. I just threw up a little.

  Chapter 2: School

  The next day at school—yup, I have to go—everyone is talking about my brother.

  “Did you hear about Ryan Taylor? He had surgery last night… poor Gretchen, she’s devastated.”

  WHAT? Poor Gretchen? What about poor Ryan? He’s the one who actually had surgery. I can’t help rolling my eyes as I listen to this ridiculous hallway conversation. Ryan gets to miss school and lie in bed all day and I have to go to school to hear about how difficult it’s been for Gretchen? I hate this conversation, but I want to hear more; so I pass my locker and trail a little behind them without looking too obvious.

  “I know, she was crying in homeroom this morning. I felt so bad for her. I think it was appendicitis or something, but she’s taking it pretty hard.”

  Suddenly, I slam into something hard. I’ve been so busy trying to hear what they are saying that I haven’t even been paying attention to where I’m going. Man, that hurts. I look up and instantly feel my cheeks getting warm. I keep thinking STOP to myself, but that only makes it worse. My entire face is getting warmer and brighter. Of all people, I just slammed into Todd!

  “Uhhh… Hi, Todd,” I say as I look up at him, he is at least a foot taller than me. I try to will the red away from my face again, yet there is still no luck.

  “Hey, kiddo. Next time you can just say hi. Haven’t you ever heard of personal space?” his smile says he is kidding. Wow, he has a firm chest; I’ve never really realized that underneath his tall lean build is a very firm chest. My heart starts to pound and my stomach starts to flutter. Wait, he’s still talking and I have no idea what he said. Great, now I look like an even bigger idiot. “Um, what?”