Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye

Author:Kevin van Whye [van Whye, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2020-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

16

After school, I’m sitting in my bedroom at my desk, staring at the blinking cursor. It mocks me and my failure. I’ve been trying to fix this ending for the last hour. I sigh, get up, and throw myself face-first onto my bed. The words are just not coming. They’re being held hostage somewhere in my brain, and I don’t even know where to begin to rescue them.

My phone buzzes with a text. I pull it from charge and roll over to read the message. It’s from Kelly.

What are you doing?

I was trying to write.

Write what? he asks.

My sample for Henning. I don’t want to miss the new deadline.

Maybe you need inspiration, Bryson says. He sends a waving emoji. And a minute later a picture comes through. It’s a selfie of him making a funny face. Hello, my name is Muse. I am at your service, the caption reads.

Haha. You must be bored. What are you doing?

I am incredibly bored. Crystal’s friends are over, so I don’t have much to do.

I sit up. Bryson and I need to talk. I’m currently home alone. If this isn’t a sign, then I don’t know what is. Do you want to come over?

For the first time in my life, I invite a boy I like over. I don’t count that time I invited Colby Matthews over under the guise of wanting to show him my superhero action figure collection. Colby Matthews had been really into superheroes, and so I, too, had shown an interest in them. That visit was an awkward disaster and I refuse to have history repeat itself. This time I will not suggest we play any sort of game that may result in a broken window.

I look around my room and see it through Bryson’s eyes. My room is a mess. I rush to pick up all the old—and new—clothes strewn across the floor. I try my best to neaten my desk, which is always littered with notebooks filled with half-baked ideas and scenes that need to be developed more. The pages of my sample mock me as I shut my computer.

I’m in the bathroom styling my hair in a way that will look natural and cool, and not at all overthought, when Bryson rings the doorbell. My heart pounds in my chest as I race down the stairs. When I reach the door, I pause and take a calming breath. What we started to discuss yesterday plays over and over in my head. Will we finish what we started? Will we confirm what is real and what is not between us?

I open the door and find a grinning Bryson. He’s wearing shorts, a golf shirt, and designer sneakers. I look down at my own outfit. I’m wearing a blue shirt with the word UNIFORM in bold across the front, brown shorts, and black socks. I changed just after inviting him over. I look somewhat semidecent, I think.

“Hey, come in,” I say. “How’s your sister doing?”

“Fine. A bit bruised and blue.

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