by Trio, L. M.
“Sounds good.” He sits on the edge of my bed, facing me. “Are you comfortable?” he asks. I nod. “Let me start with the night of the storm when we were together... We decided that it was better to keep things the way they were... and, if we hooked up every now and then, it would be cool, right?” I nod, recalling the deal we made. “Once I got home, my mom sensed there was something on my mind and we started to talk… I kind of told her about us, and...”
I cut him off. “Luke, told her what, exactly?”
He can tell by my expression that I’m mortified.
“Relax,” he says cheerfully. “I didn’t tell her all of it. I just told her I had feelings for you, more so than a friend. She thought I should talk to you about it.”
“So your mom knew all this time?” I ask, surprised.
Again, he smiles. “Yeah, pretty much, Mikey, too. Well, actually... Mikey knew since Fourth of July. Now, let me finish...… “
I interrupt again, mortified that all of these people were in on what I thought was our little secret. “Luke, go back to the beginning, what about the Fourth of July?”
For some reason he’s amused by this. “Okay, you’re going to think I’m an asshole, but... after Fourth of July, when I left... I couldn’t get that night out of my head. I was confused by what I was feeling, how we left things, you know... I had to talk to Mikey; I needed to clear my head before the tournament.” He laughs at this. “Being away from you made me realize that I wanted to be with only you that’s why I broke it off with Alexa and…” He pauses. “I sort of told her the reason.” Another pause. “And, that’s pretty much why she hates you.” Again he is kind of laughing as he relays this information.
I’m about to interrupt, but he stops me by leaning over and giving me a quick kiss. “Let me finish. Anyway, after I realized how much I cared about you, that was it for me. I just assumed that you would have ESP and know what I was thinking. When I came over to your house that night, you were with... what’s his name and I was crushed. In my mind, it was like you were cheating on me. That’s why I was so mad at you. After I finally realized that you had no idea what was going on in my mind, it made sense to me. It just took me a long time to figure it out and get over it.” He pauses, waiting for my response.
“Oh, my God; you are an ass. Do you realize how many times you threw the word ‘friend’ at me that night when you snuck in my window? Probably as many pitches as you throw in a game,” I say sarcastically. He laughs at my analogy “In my mind. YOU were making it clear where we stood. There were so many times I would replay that night over in my mind and get annoyed with myself for believing there was more to it than what it was. These last six months I’ve hooked up with this guy and that guy just hoping at least one of them would make me forg...”
“Yeah, tell me about it, I’ve noticed. You get around more than me,” he interrupts dryly.
“It’s not the same thing,” I shoot back playfully as I gave him a push.
“Well, I still don’t like to think about it, which is why I need to finish what I came here to say. Anyway, back to the night of the storm. I don’t know why I didn’t confess then that I wanted more than that. I was hoping you would want the same thing and I was waiting for you to tell me you felt the same way, but, you never did. So, here I am telling you... I want to be more than friends. I know I’m a piece of shit for laying this on you right now, especially since I just blew the last six months that I could have been spending with you. Most likely, I’m leaving in a few months, who knows where I’ll be... but I don’t care. I’m selfish. I want you all to myself. I don’t want you to be with anyone else. I’ve never ever felt this way about anyone before and I don’t want to hide it anymore... and I’m really, really hoping that you feel the same way. There, I said it.” He lets out a breath as he looks into my eyes, searching for an answer.
I freeze, I don’t respond. I can’t even breathe just yet. I’m trying to process everything he just said to me. Did I hear him right or did I imagine it? I sit there for what feels to be an eternity, staring at my comforter, trying to contemplate whether he really just said those words to me.
“Wow that sucks, J. Not quite the reaction I was hoping for.”
“Huh?” He breaks my train of thought.
“I said, not quite the reaction I was hoping for. Look, I know you think I’m an idiot, but just please give me a chance? At least think about it?” he pleads.
I’m still processing. I don’t even realize that I haven’t responded to what he just said to me. Of course I want to be with him, doesn’t he know that? I finally manage to snap myself out of it.
“I’m sorry. I’m just trying to process all of this, but, Luke, I feel exactly the same way about you.” I slowly lean towards him until my lips softly brush upon his, sending chills throughout my whole body.
He kicks off his sneaks and slides beside me, pulling me into his arms. “This is going to be great, JJ. I promise. Not a bad way to start the New Year. What do you think?” he asks enthusiastically.
I roll to his side so that I’m facing him. “I agree. Definitely awesome,” I say as I snuggle closer to his body, resting my head on his chest. “This just feels right,” I whisper. I feel his lips softly kiss the top of my head as he holds me tightly in his arms; his hands softly stroking my hair and back.
Chapter 25(Jesse)
“JJ... Jess…JJ… I think David’s home.”
Ah, the warmth of his body next to mine, the sound of his voice whispering softly in my ear and the feel of his hands on my waist… What a dream… Pleasssse, do not wake me up! Then I focus on what is being said in this dream. David’s home. Not a dream... Panic.
“Oh my God! What!?” I jump up, brushing my hair out of my face. “What do you mean? What time is it?” I ask nervously as I push him.
He is laughing at me. “I don’t know. It’s early. I guess we fell asleep. I heard the car door. What should I do?” He looks amused as he continues to lie calmly in my bed with his arms crossed behind his head, watching me freak out.
“For one, stop laughing. You’ve got to get the hell out of here! He likes you and all, but not if he finds you in his daughter’s bed,” I yell, as I continue pushing him out of it.
“How?” he asks, hardly able to get the words out. “I’m not making it out of the window in time; there’s no way.” He’s standing between the door and the closet, looking at me for answers, with a gigantic, nervous grin on his face.
As I hear the footsteps in the hallway growing closer, I shove his sneakers in his hands, while pushing him towards my closet. “Get in! Don’t come out until I tell you and stop laughing; it’s not funny!” Trying to hold back the grin that is now forming on my face as well. I jump back in bed and pull the covers up over my head, hiding the still present grin. Within seconds, I hear the creaking sound of my door opening. I freeze. Again, the same creaking sound when it closes. I wait a few seconds, giving him time to make his way down the hall. I tiptoe over to the door, then in my best sleepy voice, “Dad, was that you?” I peek out from my door.
“Yeah, Sweetie. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. Go back to bed; I’m going to catch a few more hours myself. We’ll talk later,” he answers.
“Okay, just wanted to make sure.” The good thing about living in an old house with creaking floors is that you can pretty much tell where everyone is at all times. I listen for the sounds of the floorboards creaking on the stairs before I close my door and lock it, just in case, and then I walk over to the closet to open the door.
“Wow. That was close.” He’s grinning as he stumbles out.
“Yeah, it was.” I giggle back.
“I guess I better get going then.” It is more of a question.
“Well, he did just go up to bed... better make sure he’s asleep first before you leave.” At this point I am wide awake and I need a little confirmation that everything we talked about last night wasn’t a dream.
“Sounds good to me,” he says as he w
alks over to me.
I stop him. “Wait, I have to brush my teeth first; I’ll be right back,” I joke as I walk into the bathroom.
“Well, now I’m going to have to brush mine. Do you have an extra toothbrush, if not, would you let me use yours?” he teases.
“Yes and no. Yes, I have an extra and no, you can’t use mine.” After all, I do have my limits. As cute as he is, I will not share my toothbrush. I toss him an extra as I come out of the bathroom.
“Really? You wouldn’t let me use your toothbrush?” I nod. “Yet, you don’t seem to mind me sticking my tongue in your mouth and swapping spit?” He is playing with me as he walks into the bathroom.
“That’s different,” I call out.
“I would let you use mine,” he mumbles back.
“I wouldn’t want to use yours,” I reply.
He’s laughing as he walks back in the room towards me. “So, I guess I should make sure I have an extra for you when you stay at my house?” His arms wrap around me as he gently pushes me back into the bed.
“That would be nice,” I say as I pull him in closer. I could stay like this forever; holding him, kissing him, listening to the sounds of his breathing as his lips brush the spot below my ear, and feeling his heart beating as fast as mine when his chest is pressed against me.
He looks into my eyes as he softly strokes the side of my face. “You’re so beautiful,” he says as he gently kisses my lips. I must have subconsciously rolled my eyes.
“Don’t roll your eyes, you know you are.”
“I don’t know if I’d go as far as beautiful, especially now,” I tease. I don’t see myself as beautiful. It’s kind of funny to me.
“Bullshit. Don’t give me that. You know guys are always staring at you. Half my friends have been trying to get me to hook you up with them,” he accuses me as if I should know this.
“I don’t know. I’ve never noticed.” I shrug. I was serious, I know guys ask about me, but I never really noticed anyone staring. “I guess I really only notice you,” I add.
“Well, I notice, but good answer.” He kisses me again. “So, are you ready to go public? I can’t wait.” He sounds a little too enthusiastic.
“Luke, I’m not great with a lot of attention on me,” I answer hesitantly.
“Well, babe, you should have thought about that before you said you wanted to be with me last night. There’s no taking it back now,” he jokes.
“What do you mean?” I ask, suddenly feeling panicked.
“I’m not gonna lie to you. It’s gonna suck for you sometimes. Sometimes, it feels as if I have no privacy, like everyone is always pulling at me, trying to work their way into my life. You know what I mean?” he asks as he slightly cocks his head to the side to look at me. Luke is in serious mode now, which is making me nervous.
“I’m not sure.”
“Baseball; it’s pretty big, JJ. You haven’t seen what it’s like once the season starts. There will be people around constantly... And a lot of crazy people, willing to do crazy stuff to get our attention.” His expression tells me he isn’t joking, but trying to be truthful.
“By people do you mean, girls?”
“Some.” I’m silent. I’ve heard about Luke’s reputation with girls.
“So what are you saying?”
“That there is gonna have to be a lot of trust between us. I need you to trust me. I need you to talk to me about everything. People are going to be jealous of you. They’re gonna try and get in the middle of us. Not just Alexa. There are a lot of Alexa’s out there. Look, I’m not tryin’ to scare you away. I just want you to know fully what you’re getting into. If I didn’t think you could handle it, I would have never told you how I felt about you. You’re different than anyone I have ever been with. That’s why I want to be with you and only you.”
“Luke, you’re making me very nervous.”
“You’re not gonna bail on me, are you?”
“Not if you don’t give me a reason to.”
“I’d never, ever do anything that would hurt you. That I promise. I’m so happy that we are together right now, I can’t even tell you.”
“Me, too, but this is something that you could’ve brought up before last night,” I say, smiling.
“Yeah, right; and what? Risk you turning me down. No way. Now that I know how you feel about me, there’s no escaping me.” He pulls me into a bear hug, squeezing me. “We’re gonna be great, I promise,” he says, taking on a serious note. “You know what I’m nervous as hell about?”
“What?”
“David. He’s gonna flip out. He’s not gonna want his little girl with someone like me.”
“That’s not true. You know how he feels about you.”
“Yeah, well, that was when he thought we were just friends. He probably won’t feel the same way about leavin’ us alone so much.” He smirks.
“Like now,” I joke as he takes me in his arms and kisses me.
After another hour of kissing, we figure we better not push our luck. We don’t want to get caught before I have a chance to talk to my dad. I’m positive he is still sleeping, so I walk Luke to the door, instead of making him climb out the window. The cold air comes blowing in once I open the front door, reminding me that I only have on a tank top and shorts. Luke steps onto the porch and wraps his arms tightly around me to warm me and kiss me goodbye. It isn’t till I open my eyes that I see Mrs. O’Leary, our nosey neighbor, who lives right next door to Luke and who is about a hundred years old, staring right at us.
“Oh crap, look,” I whisper in his ear.
“Hey, Mrs. O’Leary, Happy New Year!” he yells over as he waves at her and she waves back as she picks her newspaper up off her driveway.
“You are such an idiot.” I smack him on the back of his head.
“Now you’re going to be known as the little floozy of Seascape Drive. She loves me, too,” he teases.
“Figures. Everybody loves you,” I answer sarcastically. “Good bye.” I lean in for one more quick kiss.
As he gets halfway across the street, he yells to me, “Thanks for last night!” loud enough for Mrs. O’Leary to hear as he gives me a wink. I shake my head at him as I watch him enter his house.
I try to fall back asleep, but I am too wound up, thinking about the night. Will my heart ever stop fluttering when I’m around him? I hope not. After about an hour, I give up on trying to fall back asleep. I decide to put on a pot of coffee and start breakfast.
“Hey, Sweetie, Happy New Year! What are you doing up so early?” my dad asks as he walks in the kitchen.
“Couldn’t sleep. How was your night?” I give him a peck on the cheek.
“Good. After the restaurant cleared out, the staff, along with other casino workers had our own party. It was actually a good time. I thought you were staying out? Was everything okay?”
“Great; we had an awesome time. We went to a party at this huge beach house. It was a lot of fun.” I have to ease my way into this. I pour us each a cup of coffee while he finishes making breakfast.
“Cool. Who all went?” he asks casually, sipping his coffee.
“Me, Cathy, Lori, Matt and Billy. De finally arrived late. They were delayed at the airport all day; they almost didn’t make it home... Luke met us there just as they were counting down till midnight. He and Mikey went to CJ’s earlier... But, Luke wanted to… be with me… for midnight.” I stare at him, hoping he gets what I am implying. Let me wait for his reaction... Am I going to have to spell it out? I can see him processing... Okay, I think he’s got it.
“So, what are you saying?” he asks. I get the feeling he kind of knows.
“I want to talk to you about that.” I get up to fix his plate. I have to keep busy while I blurt this out because I am suddenly nervous.
“Luke and I had a long talk last night about the way we feel about each other…” I glance over. He’s watching me as I fiddle around with the food. “It’s kind of been building up for a while, but
we both didn’t want to admit it because of our friendship.” Again I peek over, he’s nodding,
“Go on,” he says.
“Well, we realized we care for each other more than friends and we decided that we would like to start seeing each other.” I pause again, giving him time to process.
“Well, that’s great that you care for each other, I knew that already, but why not just stay friends? What’s the difference?” He seriously asks me that question!
“Dad! We are still friends. The difference is, for one, I don’t want him to see other girls and two, he doesn’t want me to see other guys! And besides that, friends don’t kiss each other! Please! It’s hard enough telling your dad stuff like this, don’t make it worse!” I snap at him while nervously laughing.
Thank God, he laughs, too. “Okay, calm down. You’ve got to understand, this is a little hard for me. It’s new to me. It’s hard for me to think of you two...”
“Then, don’t think!”
“JJ, I’m not as blind as you think I am. I can see the way you act around each other. I had a feeling it was only a matter of time before you both realized it. Only, I would have preferred for you to be at least thirty before you did,” he jokes.
“So, you’re okay with this? You like him, right Dad?”
“You know I do, but it’s still not easy for me to think of my little girl growing up. Give me a break, okay?”
Just then De texts me, Be right ovr. Jst got out of shwr. “That’s De, she’s coming over.” As we continue our breakfast I shift the conversation from me and Luke, back to the house where the New Year’s Eve party was held, while trying to get some details from my dad about his night.
“Hey, David, Happy New Year!” De says as she comes bouncing into the kitchen looking rather happy.
“Happy New Year, Hon.” He gets up to kiss her hello. “I’ll let you girls talk. I’m having a few friends stop by later. I figured I’d cook up some stuff, so if the boys want to stop by to eat, let them know,” my dad says as he heads into the other room.