The Dating Debate (Dating Dilemma) by Chris Cannon

Author:Chris Cannon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Entangled; Crush; YA; YA romance; Teen; Teen romance, boy next door, Valentine's Day, nerd, book nerd, hoarder, family life, bad boy, opposites attract
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (Crush)
Published: 2018-01-08T16:00:00+00:00

Hanging out with Nina was easy, even comfortable. Maybe because she’d told me her family’s secrets, which made me realize all families have issues. I wanted to tell her the truth about my mom, but it didn’t seem like the right time.

And it’s not like I was pretending my family was perfect. She knew it was messed up. She just didn’t know my mom’s illness was psychological rather than physical.

When Nina joined me at my car, she was frowning.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Let’s talk on the way,” she said.

“Okay.” I started my Fusion, and we backed out of the driveway. I waited for her to start talking. At the first stop light we came to, I said, “Should I ask questions or do you need time to think?”

She slid lower in her seat. “Most of the time I can keep a lid on my anger and pretend everything is okay. Then my dad shows up and my self-control goes out the window. My mom can keep her cool around him. I can’t. Even though he’s gone and he probably won’t be back, my house doesn’t feel right anymore. Does that make sense?”

“You’re saying he’s like a skunk that stinks up your house with toxic anger-creating fumes?”

She laughed, which is what I’d been aiming for.

“Yes. Exactly like that.”

Nina seemed more her normal self at the restaurant. We talked about books and television shows we liked. Then the topic of school came up.

“It doesn’t make sense for both of us to drive when we’re going to the same place.” She sipped her coffee and waited for my response.

If I didn’t offer to give her a ride, she probably wouldn’t be interested in kissing me again. So even though it felt like I was being manipulated, I said, “We can ride together if you want.”

“Sure.” She beamed.

Maybe I was finally figuring this girlfriend thing out. Wait a minute. Why had I thought that? She wasn’t my girlfriend. We were just…wait…I had no idea what we were doing. We’d passed the friendship stage, I was sure of that…so I guess we were dating. It’s not like we were not-dating.

Nina pointed at my forehead. “Why are your eyebrows doing that?”

“Doing what?” I reached up to touch my face.

“They were squished together like you were irritated or in deep thought. Are you stressing out about giving me a ride to school?”

“No.” It was much bigger than that. “I was trying to remember if I needed to stop by the store on the way home.”

“I think you need to stock the shed with chocolate Pop-Tarts. The strawberry kind are good, but chocolate are my favorite.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

…

Nina and I fell into a comfortable pattern. I gave her a ride to school every morning and then she went off to her locker to hang out with Lisa while I met up with Charlie and Matt.

“How did you make this happen?” Matt asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I always see guys walking girls to their lockers and hanging out with them rather than hanging with their own friends,” Matt said.

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