Heartthrobs Don’t Date Wallflowers (Texting the Boyband)

Chapter 21

twenty-one

Sneaking into Zach’s room sounded a whole lot easier than it actually was. When I found myself sitting on my windowsill with one leg stretched toward the roof of his garage, I realized I’d underestimated the whole thing. From the view inside my room, the roof seemed so close, but now that I was actually hovering over it, the space looked way more intimidating than I was expecting.

Maybe if I somehow got a running start…?

Nope. I pushed that thought away as soon as it came in. The only thing worse than falling off Zach’s roof would be the mortifying trip to the ER where I’d have to explain how I broke my arm trying to sneak into my boyfriend’s room without having to go downstairs.

Clearly, that plan was out.

I climbed back inside and ran downstairs. But there was still one more way I could sneak into his room. Sure, most sane people would probably give up now and just go knock on his front door, but I was committed to this whole sneaking around thing at this point. And luckily, the boys were terrible at putting stuff away, so I knew there was a ladder leading up to the roof of their garage that I could use.

The bad news of this was that I was terrified of heights and I somehow didn’t think that through until I was on the second highest rung.

Oops.

But I was willing to make sacrifices for love—not to mention that going back down would be so much worse than making it up those last couple steps to the roof—and I got up there in one piece.

Practically having a panic attack, but in one piece.

Look at the bright side of things and all that.

Once I finally stopped wheezing like I’d just run a marathon, I crawled across the roof to Zach’s window, which was only a couple of feet up. I peeked inside, trying to keep my head low so he wouldn’t notice me yet. I spotted him, slouched on his bed with his guitar, totally lost in whatever he was playing. I hung back for a second, just taking it in—his fingers moving effortlessly over the strings, his head tilted down, that little frown of concentration.

But after a minute, my legs started cramping up like they were plotting against me. I shifted, trying not to topple over, and decided that staying like this was not going to be a good long term decision so I stood up. I didn’t want to totally scare him by appearing in his room when he clearly hadn’t noticed me yet so I said, “Hey you” as I swung one leg over the window ledge.

Maybe not the best decision.

Zach jumped, his guitar nearly flying off his lap, which scared me, and instead movie-star landing I’d imagined, I ended up in a very unglamorous heap on his floor.

For a second, we both just stared—him looking like he was about to have a heart attack, me sprawled out like I’d forgotten how to use any of my limbs.

“Ivy?”

I groaned. “Well, that could have gone better.”

Zach appeared above me, with his hands in his pockets and an indulgent look on his face. He looked good from this angle. Maybe I should tell him so he could get some photos done like that.

Okay, no. That would probably look weird on an advertising campaign.

“What are you doing?” He asked. He held a hand out and I took it. Before I could even think about properly planting my feet or the floor or warning him that I was probably too heavy for him to pull up, he practically lifted me onto my feet. “We have a front door, you know.”

“I thought it would be more fun to be sneaky,” I said. I leaned against his desk, trying to look casual, like falling into his room was all part of the plan. “So… surprise?”

Zach took a step closer, his hands sliding around my waist as he pulled me closer. “I have to say, you know how to make an entrance.”

“An entrance,” I repeated with a nod. “Not a graceful one, but I do make myself known.”

His lips met mine, soft and warm, and I forgot all about the ridiculous roof plan. I lost myself in the moment, in the feeling of his arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer. The kiss deepened, slow and sweet, until it was just us, the rest of the world forgotten.

Well, until the world rudely decided to remind us it existed—with a knock on Zach’s door. We both froze.

“Zach?” I recognized it as Finn’s voice, even muffled as it was through the door. “You in there, man?”

We hadn’t really talked about what our plans were as far as telling the boys about us. They obviously knew about Zach’s confession at the concert, but I didn’t think he’d told the boys yet. It wasn’t necessarily that we were hiding it… except it totally was like that.

“Ivy…” Zach whispered. His hand slid up to gently cover my mouth. “Don’t. Make. A. Sound.”

I nodded, trying to hold back my nervous laughter. This was so ridiculous.

“Yeah, I’m here,” Zach called out, his voice steady and even. Out of the two of us, he would definitely make the better spy. “What’s up?”

“Are you coming to lunch? We’re ordering pizza.”

“In a bit. I’m busy.”

“Doing what?”

“Homework,” Zach said, without missing a beat.

There was a pause. “Okay, well… don’t take too long. ”

Zach waited a full thirty seconds before he let his hand drop away from my mouth and the second he did, I started laughing.

“See, this is why I had to cover your mouth,” he said. That only made me laugh harder. “You really need to work on your sneaking skills.

“Hey, I thought I did pretty well with the whole climbing-through-a-window thing!”

“You fell through my window.”

“Details.”

Zach leaned down to kiss me again, his lips soft and gentle, pulling me into that same comforting warmth I’d gotten lost in earlier. I hooked my arms around his neck, deepening the kiss just as he shifted his hands to my waist, tugging me closer. I could’ve stayed like that for hours, soaking up every second of this moment, but the universe, again, had other plans, as there was another knock on the door.

Can’t a girl kiss her boyfriend in peace?

The doorknob jiggled and my heart leapt into my throat. This was not how I wanted on being introduced to the band as Zach’s girlfriend. The good news was, Zach must have locked the door because it didn’t open. The bad news was that there was another knock, this time louder.

And in my moment of panic, I did what any self-respecting teen girl would do: I dove under his bed.

Okay, maybe not my best plan because it became immediately obvious that Zach didn’t vacuum under here enough. But I was stuck here, because Zach was already opening the door and I wasn’t looking to explain to someone why I was coming out from under his bed.

“Finn wants you downstairs.” That was Jude’s voice. I wasn’t sure if it was the best-case or worst-case scenario that the boy at the door was the only other person in this house who knew who I was.

“I’ll be down in a minute,” Zach replied. I guess I’d chosen the worst possible time to sneak over here. I hoped Jude would accept that and leave like Finn had, but my heart sunk as I heard footsteps coming inside. “Don’t?—”

“I was instructed not to come down without you,” Jude said jovially. His shoes came into view, not two feet from my face. If Jude looked down—just one glance under the bed—he’d see me.

No, he’d probably hear my heart hammering at this point.

“Why does Finn want me downstairs so badly?” Zach groaned.

“Oh, you know Finn. Wants us to have family meals and all that.”

“I…” Zach sounded like he was floundering. I wished I could tell him to just go down and that I’d figure it out, but obviously I couldn’t do that without tipping Jude off to me being here. He must have read my mind though, because he sighed and said, “Okay, come on, let’s go.”

“You go. I’ll catch up.”

“I’m not leaving you alone in my room.”

“Why? You don’t trust me?”

“Is that even a question? ”

“Fine,” Jude said. He took a couple steps back, his feet just barely in my line of vision. Please leave, please leave . I tried to take a deep breath to keep myself calm, but that made me breathe in a bunch of dust and I was sure I was going to sneeze—and there was no way Jude wouldn’t hear that. “There’s just one thing I need to do first.”

No, leave now, please, I begged mentally.

Zach groaned. “Jude, I?—”

Jude dropped to his knees and looked under the bed—right at me.