What a Boy Wants Read Online Free PDF Page B

so dumb. At this rate, I’d be painting nails with her any day now. Thank God, Jaden wasn’t here.
     
    Aspen’s eyes squished up as she looked at me. “Um, yeah. My best friend.” She leaned against the counter from the other side. “How’s it been today?” she asked them.
     
    They started blabbing about how busy it had been, but the place looked pretty dead to me. I stood back watching her talk to them and wondered why I hadn’t realized she had this whole other life outside of me. Not like I thought I was her life or anything, but it was always me, Woodstock, Jaden and Pris. We hung out together, partied together. Now there was a group of people who thought Woodstock was their little, “Rocky Mountain Girl,” and it kind of annoyed me. Which made me sound like an ass, but it was just because I cared about her. Them. I cared about them. I’d be the same way if it was Pris. They were my girls, and I just wanted to make sure no one would mess with them. As long as I knew these guys were cool, I’d be cool.
     
    See? Aren’t I a good friend?
     
    “Crap! DJ’s here. Get on the other side of the counter. You don’t have your uniform on.” One of her new friends rushed her away.
     
    I felt my lips curl up into a smile as Aspen ran back around the counter and stood next to me. I stood behind her and wrapped my arms around her shoulders with my chin resting on top of her head. It wasn’t unusual. I touched her like this a lot, but I felt her squirm a little bit, but then she leaned back into me and I relaxed, figuring I imagined it.
     
    “Hi, Rocky.” Some guy, I assumed it was DJ, said as he came inside. What the hell was it with the nickname? They acted like they’d known Aspen her whole life instead of a few weeks.
     
    “Hey, DJ. I just came in to check my schedule.” She stepped away from me.
     
    The red headed guy handed her a piece of paper. “Here, I have a copy right here. I’ve been busting my ass trying to fill in the holes. Trish quit with no notice, so we need to get someone else hired pretty quick.”
     
    The homing beacon inside me I usually used to find girls started beeping. I stepped forward and held out my hand. “Hi. I’m Aspen’s friend, Sebastian. I’d love to fill out an application.”
     
    Thirty minutes later I had my app filled out and had pretty much been promised the job. A pizza place definitely wasn’t my dream job, but it paid and Aspen worked there, so it couldn’t be that bad. We were almost to my house where she was going to get dressed and then head back to DJ’s. The cocky-smile guy had mentioned something about needing the evening off and Aspen had jumped at the opportunity to work for him.
     
    When she pulled into her driveway, I turned to her. “So. The people you work with? They’re cool?” I felt all proud of myself for wanting to protect my friend.
     
    “Yep. You’ll like them. Bradley’s a shift leader. He’s pretty kick back. Liz is a delivery driver, so she’s in and out a lot. Matt started about the same time as I did. You’ll like him. He reminds me of you, actually. I’ve gotten to know him pretty well.”
     
    I tried not to roll my eyes. “Pfft. He looked like a loser to me. All smiley, Mcsmilerson. I think you need to watch your back around him. I got a funny feeling about him.”
     
    “What? You talked to him for like two seconds. He’s a good guy. Real funny.” She poked me in the side. “Much like you, Bastian.” With that, she climbed out of the car. I pushed the door open and jogged over to her.
     
    “Wanna hang out Friday night? We can see what Pris and Jaden are up to.” The words tumbled out of my mouth without a thought.
     
    Aspen shrugged. “Sure. I get off at six, so we can do something after that. I gotta go though. I need to get into work.”
     
    Before she walked away, I grabbed her and hugged her, the whole time thinking I was being pretty damn cheesy right now. It wasn’t like we never hugged, but