“AH-HA! What’s this you little THIEF?!”
“Aw! Come on, Zendaya! You have loads of these! Can’t I have this one?” Tom gave me his biggest puppy dog eyes. If he thinks this is going to work on me…he’s a hundred percent right. The British accent makes it even harder to resist.
“Why can’t yo ass buy your own? You tellin’ me Spider-man is poor? Huh? Huh?” I said taunting him by putting my face near his but he wasn’t pulling away and I immediately regretted that decision because I could feel my heartbeat double itself over ten times. I wonder if he could hear it…
Tom held on to the other end of the jacket so I couldn’t pull away and our faces were inches apart. “Come on, love…” he whispered sweetly.
“Why do you want it so bad?” I lifted up my head so our eyes wouldn’t meet because lord knows my knees are about to buckle if I stare any longer. This way, I’ll be staring down at him and he might just not notice how nervous I’m feeling being this close to him.
“Because it’s really pretty…”
He said it as if he wasn’t talking about the jacket at all. It’s as if he’s referring to…me.
I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks but luckily I don’t blush but still. His hand could easily sweep over there and feel that I’m warmer than usual. Then again, what are the odds of his hand touching my cheek? What is this? This isn’t…supposed to be romantic. Is it?
I pulled hard on the jacket and walked back a few feet. I need to get a grip because if I know myself is that I’m not very good at hiding my feelings and when I do try I end bro-zoning them.
“I know it’s pretty. That’s why you can’t have it. It’s mine!” I said as I playfully ran away. I had to shake away this tension that was building up regardless if Tom felt but I’m certain it was getting under my bones.
As I fled, Tom ran after me laughing and we started circling his small hotel room with Harrison being completely unbothered on his phone. He would simply lift his sock-covered feet up every time we passed him. I did the thing basketball players do where they trick you into thinking they were going right but they go left.
“You can’t get it!” I squealed.
“Watch me!”
Tom kept grabbing and grabbing for the jacket and he kept missing it. I raised it up high where he couldn’t reached it and he jumped higher and higher.
“HA! Shorty!”
“Shut up, Zendaya!”
I ran again towards the door and out the hallway. Tom and I kept laughing and it echoed.
“See ya sucka!”
“Come back here, Z!”
I crouched down and squeezed the jacket between my chest and knees and he was behind me grabbing it with his hands and I turned around. I put the jacket behind me and his hands were holding them there too. We were face to face, chest to chest, breathing in each other’s personal space.
I was aware of how his arms were around me and how his fingers were gently on mine. We caught each other’s eyes and I swear I could get lost in it if I would let myself. Our chests heaved heavily, catching our breaths and it was like waves on a beach. It was like getting out of the pool and still feeling the way the water pushed you, like you were still floating even hours after. I tipped my head a little forward and our noses brushed lightly on each other and our foreheads just barely touching. He looked at me with solemn eyes like they were trying to tell me a secret. What was it?
As time passed, and maybe they were only seconds, I felt our moment slip away and turn into something completely awkward. I let go of the jacket and stepped back. I was surprised to find a wall slam into my back.
“Oh! Are you okay?” Tom exclaimed. He was holding the jacket in one hand and touching my arm with the other.
“I’m fine!” I looked at him and there was his eyes again and the wrinkle at the corners. I looked down because I felt my heart trying to jump out my chest. “Uh…you can just uhm, borrow the jacket…man.” Shit. Z. The fuck with the bro-zoning!
“Oh! No! I was just teasing, Z! I only want it because it’s yours!” He laughed. I looked up at caught that boyish smile, the smile that made me fall for him for the first time. Damn, Tom. Do you have to be that cute?
“It’s fine! Like you said, I have lots of jackets like it. Just give it back…when you can.”
“I’m not so sure I would want to give it back.”
My heart was basically trying to jailbreak out of my chest at this point.
“You are a thief.” I said as I pushed his chest.