Soaked

by Courtney Elliott

  “It’s just water Lennon. Do you really think I would do anything that might hurt you?” His expression softened, and my heart flipped. Then I stood up from my rock and took my shoes off one by one. He grinned triumphantly back at me.

  “I’m just putting my feet in,” I told him. Then I slowly made my way toward the water. He moved closer and took my hand in his to help me step down into the creek. I held onto him and he started pulling me deeper. “West.”

  “You’ve come this far Len, can’t give up on me now.” Then he threw that grin at me, and I was a goner. I let him take me to the middle of the creek where the water reached my hip. It was cold, but not that bad. I looked up and saw the black clouds swirling above us. More thunder rumbled. “See,” he said, his voice low and gravelly. I looked back down until our eyes met. “Not so bad is it?”

  His gaze flicked between my eyes and my lips and I swallowed hard. He started to lower his mouth down toward mine and my heart raced with anticipation of what was about to happen. I couldn’t believe West was about to kiss me.

  I closed my eyes and waited. Just as I braced myself for the first feel of his lips against mine, I was hit with a different kind of sensation against my skin. My eyes opened as the rain hit my cheeks and forehead. I quickly pulled back from West and ran toward the bank. I climbed out as the rain fell all around me.

  I looked back toward the water and saw West just standing there looking back at me with his brows furrowed together in confusion. “West, come on,” I called out to him. Then I turned and grabbed my shoes off the ground.

  That’s when I felt his hand grip my arm and spin me around. I didn’t have time to question him because his mouth had soon descended on mine. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

  West’s lips were soft against mine at first like he was testing things. Then he pressed harder. I dropped my shoes back to the ground as I reached my arms up and wrapped them around his neck. His hands found my hips as he continued to kiss me like he might never get another chance.

  The rain was still falling all around us, but I didn’t care in the slightest. I could have been in the middle of a tornado and it still wouldn’t have been enough to keep me from kissing him back with everything I had.

  I was still holding him against me, when he finally started to pull away. Reluctantly, I allowed it.

  I let my arms fall away from him as we both took a step back. Our breathing was still quick, and my heart was hammering wildly against my chest. We just stared at each other for what felt like ages before he finally grinned that West smile of his. Then we came together again.

  Our second kiss felt just as monumental as the first, but with an added intensity. I took his face in my hands and his arms snaked around my waist.

  I don’t know how long we kissed in those woods with the rain falling all over us. I do know that by the time I finally did make it back home, I was completely drenched from head to toe. Still, I had the widest smile on my face.

  I had just had my very first kiss.

  With West.

  Ten

  The next afternoon, I was busy lying on my bed, daydreaming about West and that amazing kiss when my phone buzzed from the spot next to me. I looked over but didn’t actually make any kind of effort to check it. That would require me to stop thinking about West, and I just wasn’t quite ready to do that yet. I turned my head back toward the ceiling and let out a sigh.

  A smile played on my lips as I thought of the way he had grabbed me. I’d always wanted to be kissed like that. He kissed me like he couldn’t fathom not having his lips on mine. The smile broke free just as my phone began ringing. I reached over and pressed accept without checking the name and held it up to my ear. Not surprisingly, Katie’s voice came through the line.

  “Finally!” She sounded mildly irritated and I had a feeling it was because I hadn’t responded to the six messages she had sent me that morning. At least I’m assuming all those pings were from her. No one else ever really bothers to message me. “I’ve been texting you all morning.”

  “Sorry, I was in the shower and then I was helping Mom with some stuff.” I wasn’t a fan of lying to my best friend, but I also knew that I couldn’t exactly tell her that I was ignoring her so I could think about her brother and his perfect lips.

  “Hello, Lennon, are you still there?” Katie called from her end.

  “Yeah.”

  “So, do I need to pick you up?” Crap. I had completely missed what I had apparently agreed to because I couldn’t seem to go thirty seconds without West popping into my head.

  “Uhh…” I started. “For?”

  “Gah, Len, were you listening to anything I was even saying just now? For the dinner tonight.” When I still didn’t respond, she elaborated and I knew her explanation had followed an eye roll without even having to see her. “With my dad.”

  I winced. I had completely forgotten about that. She had first told me about it several weeks back and I had promised to be there. Since then, I hadn’t given it much thought and now I was wishing more than anything that I could back out of it. I knew West would be there, and I wasn’t sure what would happen with that.

  After our kiss, we both went our separate ways without really saying about what it meant. As much as I would like to believe that it meant we were something now, I knew that wasn’t the case. It had only been a year since we’d last talked about why we couldn’t date and while I was a year older, I was still underage while he was going to be turning twenty in just a few more weeks.

  “So, do you need a ride?” Katie asked again.

  “Katie, look I don’t know if I can make it. Mom and Dad said something earlier about wanting to go out tonight. They were hoping that I could stay behind with Jameson.” I absolutely hated that I was lying to her again. It made me feel like the worst kind of friend.

  “Seriously?” She asked. Her voice sounded deflated, and it made me feel even guiltier.

  “I promise to make it up to you. The next time your dad is in town, I’ll be there. Heck, I can even make dinner for him.”

  “He might not be my favorite person, but that doesn’t mean I want to kill him.” My mouth dropped open.

  “You did not just say that.” We both laughed and I knew that all was good with us. My smile fell. “I really am sorry that I can’t make it.”

  “That’s alright, next time.”

  “Definitely.”

  “Alright, well I’ll talk to you later. Bye Len.”

  “Bye Katie.” Then I hung up the phone. I thought that was the end of it. I thought I had successfully dodged a bullet. So, imagine my surprise when six thirty rolled around and there was a knock on my bedroom door. There was Katie, dressed in a lovely silver dress, looking every bit like the cat that just caught the canary.

  “Katie?” I asked. I stepped to the side and she came into my room. She spun to face me with a wry smile in place.

  “You are so busted.” I knew without having to ask what she was talking about. I could only imagine that since she was there, it meant she had come to plead her case to my parents about me going to her place for dinner.

  “I’m sorry,” I said simply. There was no point even trying to deny it.

  “You know I thought something was up on the phone. You sounded kind of weird.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said again. She looked sympathetic.

  “Why don’t you want to come over?” I shrugged my shoulders and tried to think of something that sounded remotely plausible.

  “I guess the idea of meeting your dad is a little weird for me,” I said. “You’ve just always made it known how much of a bad guy he is, and so I wasn’t all that thrilled about meeting him.”

  “He’s not that bad. Besides, he’s officially meeting Matt tonight so I doubt he’ll even say more than three words to you.” I raised my eyebrows in surprise as I looked back at her.

  “He’s meeting Matt?” I asked. She rolled her eyes.

  “West let it sl
ip when we were talking about where to go for dinner. I didn’t even know West knew I was dating anyone. So, anyway, he told Dad and now Dad is insisting on this whole family dinner thing.” I saw my window.

  “Well, then should I even really be there? I mean if this is like a family only kind of thing.” Katie looked at me skeptically.

  “Please, you know as well as I do that you might as well be my sister. Besides, I’m going to need someone there to make sure that I don’t go ballistic on Dad.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I know he’s going to do the whole ‘Dad Act’ tonight with Matt. He’s going to ask him a million questions to make it seem like he actually cares when I know he’s full of shit.” I gave a nod of my head and she looked me dead in the eye. “Please come Len. I really want you there.”

  She gave me her best sad puppy dog face and I couldn’t help but laugh. Then because I hated letting her down, I slowly nodded my head. She smiled happily before she pulled me into a hug and repeatedly thanked me. Then, it was time to rifle through my closet for something decent.

  I fidgeted with the thin straps of my dress for the billionth time as I walked up the steps of the Blake house. Katie looked over her shoulder at me and frowned. “Will you quit it? It’s not like you’re going to be seeing some guy you made out with. It’s just my dad.”

  I immediately tried to relax, but the urge to pick at myself was hard to resist. I knew in just a few more minutes, I would be face to face with West again. I wasn’t sure how he was going to react to me, and that made me insanely nervous. Was he going to make it obvious that we had kissed? Was he going to treat me the same way he always had? What if he completely ignored me?

  I followed Katie inside and we made our way toward the living area where I could hear several voices speaking quietly. We stepped into the room and Katie immediately abandoned me so she could go and sit with Matt. I scanned the room, but stopped when my eyes landed on West.

  He was sitting in the corner of the room and he was watching me with a lilt to his lips that let me know he was seconds away from flashing that special ‘West Smile’ of his.

  “You must be Lennon, I’ve heard a lot about you.” I turned my head in the direction of the voice that was speaking to me. I came face to face with a man that had to be a relative of West and Katie. He had that trademark smile of theirs, though it wasn’t nearly as warm and inviting.

  “Uh, yeah, hi.” I felt foolish. He came closer with his hand stretched out toward me and I shook it quickly.

  “I’m Everett. Katherine and Weston’s father.”

  “My name is Katie.” Mr. Blake turned toward her.

  “No. Your name is Katherine.” The air was thick with hostility and I wished badly for any excuse to get out of there.

  “Are you hungry?” West asked. I looked over at him again and nodded my head. He quickly stood up from him chair and made his way over to me. “We’ll be back.”

  As we were walking out of the room, I heard Mr. Blake ask Matt how long the two of them had been together. I didn’t envy him the attention he was about to receive.

  I followed West into the kitchen and listened while he went over the vast amount of food that had been prepared for the evening. Most of it was things to snack on while we waited for the main course to finish cooking. Once he had pointed everything out, he made himself a small plate and took a seat on one of the barstools.

  I wanted to ask him about the kiss, but I wasn’t sure how exactly to start. So, instead, I just watched him and hoped he would be the one to bring it up. He must have sensed me watching him, because he slowly looked up from his plate and stared back at me.

  He looked so handsome. He was wearing a light gray long sleeve shirt. Gray had always been one of my favorite colors on him. It seemed to make his eyes look even stormier than usual. He grinned and I felt my cheeks heat.

  “Something on your mind Lennon?” He asked, still smirking.

  “No,” I said pretty unconvincingly. He quirked one brow up.

  “You sure?” I shook my head. “Looks like there’s something you might want to talk to me about.” He was teasing me. I stared back at him.

  “Nope, nothing at all.” He was still grinning. I couldn’t help it, I started grinning right back. Then I heard an aggravated groan just before Katie came into the kitchen. She grabbed a handful of chips and started eating while venting about how annoying she thought her dad was being. West gave me a look of pity before he slipped off the barstool and left me alone with his sister.

  Katie had been completely right about her father ignoring me the whole night. From the outside looking in, he played the part of a concerned father perfectly. All he seemed to be interested in was how Katie and West were both doing. He asked West all about life away at college. When he asked if he was seeing anyone special, I didn’t miss the way West looked directly at me before saying not really. I tried to avoid eye contact with him after that out of fear that one look at me would give away the fact that we had kissed the day before and I had been harboring a secret crush on him for the last four years.

  Once dinner had ended, Mr. Blake made his excuses before telling Matt and I both how much of a pleasure it had been to meet us. Then, he was gone.

  Matt decided to leave shortly after and Katie walked him outside while I made my way to a restroom. Just as I stepped back out into the hallway, I ran right into West. He motioned for me to go back into the bathroom. I raised my brow up in confusion so he gently pushed me back inside and closed the door behind us.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I wanted to talk to you, and this seemed like the only way to do that.”

  “In a bathroom?” He ignored my question in favor for one of his own.

  “Are you busy tomorrow?”

  “Uh…” I stammered. He’d successfully thrown me for a loop and I couldn’t seem to think straight. “Tomorrow?” He gave a small nod.

  “Yeah, I was thinking maybe we could do something.” I hesitated because I was trying to come up with actual words, but West must have taken my silence as a sign that I wasn’t interested. “We don’t have to if you don’t want. I just…”

  “Yes,” I said quickly. He stopped talking and looked back at me. “I mean, no, I’m not busy. I don’t have anything planned.” He gave me that smile.

  “Alright, I can pick you up at like noon then.” I’m pretty sure I nodded or something like that. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Okay.” Then to my surprise, he stepped forward and gave me a sweet kiss on the cheek. I had hoped for another real kiss from him, but I wasn’t going to complain.

  “By the way, you looked gorgeous tonight. Just thought I should tell you.”

  “Thank you,” I said after turning a few different shades of pink. He smiled before he turned and left the bathroom. I waited another few seconds before I walked out. I found Katie up in her room on her phone. I knew there was a good chance that she was texting Matt despite the fact that he had just left. They were oddly inseparable like that.

  So, I just walked over and sat down on the edge of her bed and thought about what my time with West the following day would be like.

  Eleven

  Despite the fact that I hadn’t fallen asleep until well after midnight the night before, I was up by seven the following morning. I was eager to see West and it was going to drive me crazy to wait the five hours I would have to before seeing him.

  I tried to keep my mind off the clock the whole morning. I went for a run and came home thinking I’d been out for nearly two hours only to find out it had barely been an hour and a half. So, I decided to catch up on some laundry. That took me a whole thirty minutes.

  I ate breakfast, took a shower, picked out and changed outfits three different times, cleaned my room, cleaned the family bathroom, folded clothes, and caught up on some reading. By the time I checked my watch again, I still had almost an hour before noon.

  “What’s going on
?” Mom asked after I had let out a frustrated groan when I saw the time. I looked over at her.

  “Nothing,” I tried to say as nonchalantly as possible. The last thing I needed was for her to find out I would be hanging out with West. I knew if that happened, she would call his mom, Katie would find out, and I would have a lot of explaining to do.

  “Lennon Christine Cooper,” Mom said in her best stern voice. I didn’t get middle named often, but it never failed to make an impression when I did. “You have been watching the clock all morning. Now, don’t lie to me. What is going on?”

  I tried to think of something, but my mind was blank. I had no choice. I took a seat next to her and lowered my voice to a whisper, which made no sense since the only other person in the house was Jameson and he was still asleep. Still, it didn’t hurt to be safe.

  “Okay, but you can’t say anything,” I told her. Her eyebrows rose in surprise. “I mean it, Mom. This cannot leave this house.”

  “Okay,” she said slowly. I closed my eyes because I thought that would somehow make it easier to say what I was about to.

  “West is coming to get me at noon.” She didn’t say anything and I slowly opened my eyes to see her reaction. She was watching me with an expression that told me she wasn’t getting what I just told her.

  “And? Since when is him picking you up to take you to see Katie newsworthy?” I stared back at her.

  “He’s not taking me to see Katie.” She still wasn’t giving me any kind of real reaction.

  “Okay. I don’t know why you’re acting so strange, Lennon. He’s just giving you a ride.” I knew I could have easily just left it at that. She wouldn’t know anything was different and I wouldn’t have to worry about word getting back to Katie. For some reason though, I wanted her to know. I think it’s because I was eager to have someone that I could talk to about it. Since, I obviously couldn’t go to Katie without making up a whole fake person, and I didn’t want to do that.