Sometimes

Chapter seventeen

They were sitting on opposite ends of the room when Cassie pushed me into the lounge.  Leanne had a magazine propped up against her knees, her feet on the chair, and Sonny was texting.  They both looked up when Cassie coughed to signal our arrival. 

    “Uh, hi,” I said, trying to keep my eyes on Leanne, though they kept straying to where Sonny was now watching me, hovering on the threshold.  “Can I have a word?”

Leanne dropped the magazine to the carpet and sat up straight, moving her feet to the floor.  “What’s up?”

I suddenly couldn’t find my words, knowing that Sonny was looking at me with his lovely brown eyes.  “Uh.  Where’s the rest of you?”  I dug my nails into my palm, knowing I sounded stupid. “I mean, where are Roz and Warren?  And Aiden?”

Leanne smiled and beckoned me into the room.  Cassie pushed past me, heading right for the seat next to Sonny. 

    “I’m Cassie, Harriet’s best friend.”  She stopped right at his feet, almost standing on his toes, and offered him a bright smile.  “Harriet talks about you all the time.”

The only thing stopping me from running back up the stairs, was the warm smile that Sonny was giving me.  It was almost as if he liked knowing that I spoke about him to Cassie.  I felt myself blush anyway as I slipped into my dad’s favourite arm chair.

    “Aiden’s in the kitchen,” Leanne said, frowning over at Cassie who was still giving Sonny a freakishly friendly grin.  “And Roz and Warren had to go home to look after their brother.”

    “It takes both of them?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation going so Cassie didn’t have an excuse to embarrass me again.

    “This is Warren and Roz we’re talking about,” Leanne replied with a laugh.  “They’re about as organised as a pair of headless chickens.”

I nodded.  “I suppose.”  I quickly glanced over to see that Cassie’s smile was a lot less scary but now she seemed to be interrogating Sonny about something.  I felt suddenly sick.  “Uh, excuse me a minute.”

I got up from the chair so fast I bumped into the coffee table, almost sending my mum’s favourite lamp to the floor.  I steadied it with my hand before slipping from the room. I thought about darting up the stairs to the haven of my bedroom, but I knew that it was too dangerous to leave Cassie alone with Sonny for long, so I headed to the kitchen instead. 

    Aiden was just finishing up making some lunch when I dived through the door, my palms sweating and my pulse rocketing.  He turned to look at me as he returned the butter and the ham to the fridge.

   “You look flustered,” he said, regarding me with raised eyebrows.

I nodded.  “Cassie is just about single handedly blowing the whole Sonny thing.” I jerked a thumb towards the lounge.  “It looks like she’s giving him the third degree in there.”  I wanted to hit my head against the cupboard for need of a distraction.

    “I thought she was trying to help you?” he asked, moving to sit down at the breakfast bar so he could eat his sandwich.  I watched his every move, wondering why he could be so relaxed when Cassie was in the other room, irritating the socks off of Sonny.  The guy she was supposed to be helping me get a date with.

    “She is,” I replied.  “But she’s gone in too strong like she usually does.”

    “She is a bit intense,” Aiden agreed, chewing on his food.  “She scares me sometimes.”

I couldn’t even laugh at his admission.  It felt like someone was strangling me and I was finding it hard to breath all of a sudden.  I could never, ever, face Sonny again if Cassie told him about my crush.  Not when I was suddenly unsure whether he liked me at all in that way or not.