by Zoe Hart
“The winner of this debate is Bessemer Bay High School.”
Sabine and I smiled. We didn’t jump up and celebrate the way most sports did. No one was going to dump champagne over our heads. That would’ve been frowned upon. Debate was controlled, subdued even. If we started dancing and cheering, we would’ve looked like fools.
Instead, we stood and hugged each member of our team, even though Sabine and I had been the only ones to debate today. The rest of the team helped us prepare and as they say, there is no I in team. If one of us got the credit then all of us would. At least publicly.
Then we crossed the stage to shake the hands of our opponents which, let me just say, had come ill-prepared.
Once we were done with the formalities, Sabine and I climbed off the stage to meet up with Levi.
“Congratulations,” he said with a huge smile, meaning it for the both of us but he only leaned down and kissed me. It was quick given our location but I swooned just the same.
“Thank you,” I told him.
Levi was tall, or at least taller than me. He was just a hair over six feet, he’d told me when we first started dating and I had asked. While I was tiny in comparison at a good five feet three inches. He had muscles where I just didn’t, where I didn’t know muscles existed. I wasn’t as thin as a lot of the girls in my school either which didn’t help the muscle thing. I was what my mother called curvy but Levi insisted that curvy was his favorite.
I always thought it was because I had bigger than average boobs, to be honest. Not that he liked me because of my boobs but that those were the reason he liked curvy.
“So,” he said, sliding his arm around my shoulders. “I’ll be picking you up for prom at seven.”
“Yes.” We’d discussed these plans to death already because Sabine and I had been the ones to make them and neither of us wanted our dates to forget. “But use the door this time.” I hip-checked him though for me it was my hip against his thigh. “No window in a tux.”
His chuckle was deep and covered my skin like a warm blanket.
Levi had been sneaking in my bedroom window for over a year now, even before we were having sex. He’d come in and we’d watch a movie or just lay on my bed with me in his arms and talk until the early hours of the morning.
My parents would’ve kicked him out if they’d known. His parents didn’t seem to care what time he came out though I had a strict curfew. Sometimes that meant he had to leave a party earlier than he normally would’ve to get me home.
“Baby, I wouldn’t sneak in your room before that prom. That’s for after.”
Sabine snorted beside me as I slapped his arm.
“I’m going to go,” Sabine said before I could get anything out. “Before this gets really uncomfortable for me.”
I leaned over to hug her. “I’ll text you later.”
She glanced from me to Levi then back and said, “Sure you will.”
Being my best friend meant that she didn’t care if my boyfriend made innuendos because he was full of them. She was used to it and knew that I loved him. He loved me back which was all she needed to know. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t give us a hard time about it.
“Why do you say stuff like that when other people are around?” I asked as we got to his car. An apple red Nova that his dad had helped him fix-up. They did everything and the car was amazing. Almost looked brand new now. It also held a lot of great memories for us.
“She doesn’t care.” He started the car after we had our seatbelts on then put the car in drive to pull out of his spot.
Levi would’ve insisted on giving me a ride home if it hadn’t already been implied. He’d been driving me to and from school since we started dating at the end of junior year even though I had my own car. Mom’s old one which was not nearly as sexy as Levi’s. A Honda couldn’t compare to a Nova. Even if the green color complimented my hazel eyes so well.
My dad had said that was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard about a car, but I had to disagree.
“Maybe I care.”
“Do you?” He glanced at me then back to the road.
I clenched my jaw and thought about it.
No. I didn’t care. Sabine knew when we started having sex. I called her the minute I was home because she was my best friend and that was something you told your best friend. She’d asked me so many questions about it but her biggest concern was whether Levi had been nice to me after.
He had been. He’d held me for as long as he could before his parents were supposed to be home. I was a virgin then be he wasn’t.
Levi didn’t pull into the driveway when he got to my house. He seldom ever did, preferring to stop along the curb out front. If we were in the driveway, we’d be under some watchful eyes, assuming my parents were home. And that meant our time would’ve been limited.
Out here at the curb, we could take as long as we liked. Yeah, they could still see his car from the front window but they couldn’t see into the car and they had this idea that their teenaged daughter, though now eighteen, couldn’t possibly have sex in her boyfriend’s car if it was on the street.
What would the neighbors have thought?
The joke was on them because that had happened more than once.
It was dark and we were under the shadow of the trees. No one could’ve seen us and we didn’t get completely naked. Just the important parts. Which meant it would’ve just looked like we were kissing unless they watched us for a while.
Take that, Mom and Dad. Where there was a desire for a teenager to have sex, they will find the way.
And yes, that was one of my points in a debate about the need for more than abstinence-only sex ed in high school.
“Can we talk for a minute?” he asked as he picked up a lock of my chestnut brown hair.
“Absolutely.” I hadn’t been in a rush to go anywhere anyhow. After turning in my seat to see him better, I asked, “What’s up? You’ve got your tux rented right? It’ll be too late if you don’t.”
He chuckled again. “Yeah. I’ve got it. Don’t worry about that. Prom is going to be awesome.”
“Good,” I told him. “But don’t think I’m going crazy about it. It’s just the last big thing before graduation and you know there are tons of people we aren’t going to see again after graduation.”
“Not sad about that with all of them.”
Yeah me either.
“OK,” I said, running my hands over the black skirt that I was wearing. It was an incredibly unattractive outfit but standard uniform for debates. “So what is it?”
Levi shifted uncomfortably which made the hairs on my arms stand up. If he was uncomfortable then I probably didn’t want to hear what he had to say. I’d listen though. I loved Levi and whatever he had to say we’d deal with.
“You know I’ve been planning on going to State next year.”
“Yeah with me.”
He nodded. “Right.” His Adam’s apple strained against his skin when he swallowed. “I got a letter today and have been offered a full scholarship to Emerson.”
“In Boston?” I asked around the lump in my throat.
“Yeah.” He finally looked up at me and our gazes locked.
As my eyes filled, I cleared my throat. “Didn’t State offer you a full ride?”
“Pretty much.” He ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “But it’s not as good of a package and they don’t have the journalism school that Emerson does.”
“But it’s in Boston.”
“I know.”
“That’s forever away.” The sudden scratchiness in my throat made my voice crack.
“I know.”
He reached out to run the backs of his fingers down my cheek. I hadn’t started to cry but it was comforting, nonetheless. I wasn’t much of a crier but if something was going to make me the idea of not being with Levi next year, or for the next four years, would’ve been the thing to make me do it.
The silence in the car was almost deafening. My a
rms were heavy and there was a rightness in my chest. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.
We had plans that my parents hated because it meant us staying together. My parents tolerated me being with Levi as much as they could, given who they are, but he wasn’t what they would’ve chosen for me.
See, my parents were on the snobby side. Dad made money in real estate and Mom thought that meant I was supposed to marry someone that came from money. It was stupid. We weren’t royalty. Then dad started golfing with one of Michigan’s senators, then another, and a congressman that took Mom’s conceitedness to a whole new level.
While Levi’s parents worked totally normal jobs. They weren’t poor but they didn’t “have money” as people liked to say. Or as my mother liked to say. Levi might not have been what my parents wanted for me but they were what I wanted for myself and they didn’t get a say.
“OK.” I sniffed though no tears had fallen. “We’ll have to figure this out then right? State has a fantastic political science program. I have no idea what Emerson has to offer in that area but I’d bet it’s fantastic.” I wet my lips quickly. The heaviness in my chest sunk to my stomach and I wasn’t feeling so well right then. “I’m not sure my parents will pay for Boston though. They’ll see it as me chasing you. Changing all of my plans for you.”
“That’s what it would be and I don’t want you to do that.”
My heart faltered and began to throb. I didn’t think my heart had actually ever hurt like this before. “You don’t want me there?”
He shook his head and tightened his jaw. “Not what I said. You have a great plan at State. I don’t want you to upend everything just because my plans have changed. That’s not how we’re supposed to work.”
“OK.” He made sense after all. I took a deep breath to calm all of that anxiety now filling my body. “We’ll do it this way and we’ll just have to figure things out as we go. I can come there and you can come here. Of course, we’ll have holidays but we can schedule some weekends.”
“That’s going to get expensive.”
“We’ll make it work,” I said firmly. “We don’t have a choice.” That’s when another thought hit me like a mac truck. One that I didn’t even want to consider. “Unless… unless you don’t want to make it work. Is that what you’re saying?”
“No,” he said quickly. “Of course not. I love you, Everly. That’s not what this is about. I’m just trying to manage your expectations. I’ll do everything I can to get here to you whenever it’s possible but I’ll have to get a job there too.”
“I know.” I reached out and cupped his cheek. “Like I said we’ll make it work.”
“We’ll make it work.” He didn’t sound as convinced as I was.
Levi leaned across the center console while slipping his hand up the back of my neck the way he knew I loved. The move melted me.
“I love you, Everly,” he whispered after his forehead pressed against mine.
“I love you, too.”
Every time his lips touched mine it was like the first time. They were so soft yet knew exactly what they wanted.
Levi gave me butterflies every single time.
He coaxed my lips open. One of my favorite games with him was to pretend I wasn’t going to give in when he knew I was. If I ever really didn’t want to do something, he would’ve stopped but he knew my game and I wanted it every single time.
Twenty minutes later, me and my swollen lips got out of his care even though neither of us wanted me to. It had to be done.
I didn’t care that my parents liked to tell me that it wasn’t possible for me to really love Levi or that it was high school love. It felt real to me and I didn’t want to lose it.
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About the Author
Zoe Hart is the married mother of two pets: one cat and one dog, both rescues. She loves eating, hates cooking, and is the self-described queen of the Grub Hub app. Her idea of being outdoorsy is sipping wine on a patio. Her hobbies include torturing her husband and her readers. He's not complaining. If you need someone to listen when you're venting about relationship woes, Zoe is your girl...but she reserves all rights to write about it too.
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