He moved a single step closer, his breath ragged as he thought frantically for what to say. “I didn’t want you to think that I just wanted to be tutored.”
I saved him the hassle of saying what was on his mind, “You wanted a friend. Female friend. I get it. You’d just moved here. You’ve got all the cheerleaders and even the nerds after you. You wanted…”
Before I could even finish talking, he pulled me close to his chest and kissed me gently. Something that took me aback.
My heart raced as Teresa’s words replayed in my mind. “Girl you’re blind cause that new boy? He’s into you!”
I wanted him to do it again, but he pulled back. It was a gentle kiss. An innocent one. And that’s when I realized as he looked into my eyes and his green eyes shone that it was a permission kiss. I’d heard about these ones. The type that guys go in gently to see if they have permission to do a lot more. It was cute that Abe was shy and I wondered for a split second if he was just as inexperienced as I was. Until he kissed me again and gently parted my mouth with his tongue.
My heart started to race as I leaned in closer, I was loving the direction of our kiss and no longer did I regret letting him in tonight. It was the complete opposite, it was turning out to be the best night of my life. One that I didn’t even think was possible. Abe was really into me and all my fears and insecurities that I had, before he climbed the tree seemed to disappear as he firmly sat on my bed. This time I was the one making the move, as I moved closer towards him, an open invitation to let him know that I wanted him.
He started to tease me as his tongue gently caressed the sides of my lips.
I smiled, enjoying it. As I started to moan, he drew my lips between his. He had full control, not only because he started kissing me, but he was more experienced than me. I wasn’t going to pretend that I’d done more than kiss John Cane in sixth grade. It was a golden opportunity and I wasn’t going to let it pass, but the excitement of knowing that this was going to happen and never thinking that it would made me smile as he drew me in closer.
“Vicki you up?”
Shit!
Mom!
I pulled away from him.
“She’s awake.” I whispered and wished that she’d gone out or even been asleep like I thought she was when he came up the tree. I felt comfort in the kiss, something that I craved right now.
It was as if he woke up from a trance as he said, “I better get down that tree.”
I gently kissed him again and then I didn’t care what was waiting for me on the other side of the door, now that I had my first kiss with the hot baseball player next door. Everything that I thought would go wrong the moment I came back home maybe would go right.
Chapter Two
“What’s taking you so long…you should have shot down that tree and we should have been on our way already” Teresa whispered loudly to me as I ran towards her. I knew what her beef was, we were going to the party of a lifetime, the first time that we’d ever been invited to Rex Brentwood’s house. He’d seen me with Abe a couple of times and maybe assumed that we were dating or something, cause the last day of junior year, he invited us. Me. I couldn’t believe it.
Rex was the popular guy and the rich one. His house had a pool, staff and shit like that. The kind of guy that didn’t hesitate to flash his money. His parents were old money. The type that nearly owned everything in town from the local bars, businesses and everything. His great granddaddy bought the land, his granddaddy (his words, not mine) built on it and his daddy profited from it. That’s the story in high school. His family’s name is on practically every business here. Kind of crazy. Our town’s small compared to most towns, but not so small that everyone knows everyone’s name.
“Shh,” I whispered back then she took my hand and we walked away from my house. I was still panting from jumping from my window to the tree next to my window to the ground. It was weird, I’d done it so many times that I thought it would be easier, not harder.
“I forgot my damn phone. I was trying to get back up!”
She laughed and her Afro puffs seemed to grow as she did it. “Girl, you’ve done gone and lost your mind. There’s no way that you’re going to get back up that tree. Besides, it looks as if your mom and Stuart are still up. I wouldn’t risk it.”
I sighed looking back at the house and avoiding her dark eyes staring at me.
“Yeah, it’s a bit weird. You know Mom’s a little robotic when it comes to her routine. And she’s always in bed by eleven.” I was trying to catch my breath as we walked to Ava’s house. “Last night, she was in bed by eight and then came to my room a couple of hours later.”
I wanted to say more, but I bit my tongue, I planned to tell both of them together. I’d hardly slept all night thinking about the moonlight and what it was like to kiss Abe in that moonlight in my bedroom, thinking about what it meant letting Teresa know that she was right. He was into me.
Teresa nodded and then passed me her soda. And then I remembered as I took a sip, why it was hard to get down from the tree. I’d eaten nervously all day, just thinking about the party we were now headed to. I didn’t even want to know how much weight I’d put on this year. It was a lot more than five pounds and the number one issue was soda. I was addicted to the stuff, and chocolate and cakes too. The list was endless.
“You going to tell me or are you going to finish my soda?” She grabbed my hand and took her soda back only to discover that it was nearly finished. So, I decided to tell the latter part of the story, the crappy part. The part that I hated talking about but seemed to repeat it over and over again, because ever since they got married, it had become the story of my life.
“Well at ten tonight, they went to bed and then all of a sudden, they were up and fighting. So, that’s why I got distracted. Trying to eavesdrop and get ready at the same time. Because we agreed eleven thirty and I thought – sure enough they’ll be in bed, but their fighting was different this time, it was kind of like mom wanted me to hear it. Usually she would keep it on the downlow, but she was screaming back.”
Teresa smiled, while putting a reassuring hand over my back.
“All couples fight. Nothing new. Nothing old. Look ever since they got married, you’ve been eating way too much and complaining all the time. What gives? It can’t be just because they’re fighting. There must be more to it.” She stopped in her tracks, “We’ve been friends a long time. You know that you can tell me anything.”
I sighed, thinking about the fact that Teresa was one of my best friends and I loved her honesty but on this occasion, I wished that she hadn’t said anything about my weight. We went shopping back in the spring and we were the same size. I went shopping with her today and she looked shocked when I bought something that was three sizes bigger than my normal size. In fact, I was kind of shocked myself. I knew that I’d put on weight but didn’t realize how much until today in the store. Then again, it shouldn’t have been a big shock, the choice of clothes have been decreasing every month. Before, I could decide to wear anything, but lately it had only been clothes which weren’t fitted, like my joggers and XXL shirts. Anything else, wasn’t even an option.