Soaked

by Courtney Elliott

  “Do you not want to go?” I shrugged my shoulders and picked at a nonexistent string on my jeans.

  “I don’t know. It’s gonna be kind of lonely for me. Matt will be home by then, and I know she’s going to spend the whole night with him. I don’t really hang out with anyone outside of her. Except the girls on the track team, but I don’t think any of them were invited.”

  “I’ll be there.” I chanced a look over and he glanced my way in return. “So, you can just spend the night hanging out with me.” I smiled because that’s what I was hoping he would say.

  “You sure you wouldn’t mind?”

  “Have I given you any indication that I mind spending time with you?” I just smiled, causing him to grin in return. “Then, it’s settled. New Year’s Eve, you’re my date.”

  My heart swelled at his words. I couldn’t wait for New Year’s. It would be the longest ten days of my life.

  Fourteen

  “Can you pick up the balloons?” Katie asked while she spun in front of her mirror, making sure her new dress was free of any imperfections.

  “Yeah, sure, that’s no problem,” I called out from my spot on her bed. She walked over and picked up the clipboard listing every little detail of the big party that would be taking place that night.

  “Thank you. I feel like I have a million things to do and only five minutes to do them.” I felt bad for her. She had been planning this epic New Year’s Eve party for months, and I knew she wanted everything to go perfectly. Though, with the way she planned things, I didn’t see how it couldn’t.

  “What time is Matt getting in?” I asked, hoping to show her a little silver lining in the madness. She would finally be seeing Matt again after him being gone for almost a full two weeks.

  Katie turned to face me and just as expected, a large happy smile was spread across her face. “His plane lands in about an hour, and then he’s got to go home and change. He said he would come right over as soon as he’s done.”

  “Well that will be nice.”

  “Yeah, I miss him so freaking much. I never thought I would be one of those girlfriends that wanted their boyfriend around all the time, but I am. I hate it when we’re apart.” I smiled because I knew exactly what she meant.

  Even though West wasn’t technically my boyfriend, I hated it when he wasn’t around. I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket and I pulled it out as discreetly as possible. I smiled when I read over West’s message.

  West: I want to see you. Ditch Katie and come with me.

  I quickly texted back.

  Me: I’m helping her with the party. Not sure I can get away. Where would we go?

  West: Come with me and find out.

  Me: I can’t, we’re going over party plans.

  West: You mean the party that is happening in about five hours. The same one she already has all planned out.

  Me: There’s still a few things to go over.

  West: Like?

  Me: Balloons.

  West: …

  “So, who is he?” Katie asked bringing my focus away from my phone.

  “Who?”

  “The guy you keep texting. I’ve never seen you so attached to your phone before, and you were grinning the whole time you were staring at the screen. I know that look. So, who is he?”

  “No one.” Katie frowned.

  “I wasn’t born yesterday, Len. Come on, fess up.”

  “It’s nothing. We’re just friends.”

  “Oh my gosh, there is someone.”

  “No,” I said quickly.

  “Yes there is. You’re blushing like crazy right now.”

  “I am not.” Katie started laughing.

  “Can I meet him?”

  “What? No.” She looked hurt.

  “Why not?”

  “Because we’re not even dating. It’s really not a big deal. We just talk sometimes.”

  “Len, I saw your face,” she said as she walked over and sat down on her bed. “You really like this guy.” I didn’t deny it because I knew there wouldn’t be a point to it. She had already seen it. I looked down at my lap.

  “Okay, fine, I really like this guy.” Katie squealed her excitement.

  “Oh my gosh, that makes me so happy. You should invite him to come tonight.”

  “No,” I said as I looked back up and shook my head. “He can’t.”

  “Why?” I racked my brain for something, anything that sounded plausible.

  “He’s out of town.” Katie frowned.

  “That’s unfortunate.” Then she got back up and went back to her dress and I blew out a sigh of relief. “Well, I still want to meet him.” She turned to face me and clapped her hands together. “I know, when he gets back we can have a date night. You and him, and me with Matt. It will be so much fun.”

  “We’re not dating,” I reminded her. She kept going over how much fun our date night would be though. My phone buzzed and I looked down.

  West: Come on, Len. I really want to see you.

  I couldn’t resist. I sent him a response to meet me out front in ten minutes. Then I slipped my phone back into my pocket. “Hey, I’m gonna go ahead and go home.”

  “Already?”

  “Yeah, I still have to get dressed and then pick up balloons. I’ll be back before the party starts though.”

  “Don’t you need a ride?” I hadn’t thought about that. “I’m sure West could take you.”

  “Oh yeah, good idea. I’ll see if I can find him.”

  “Alright, well text me when you’re on your way back.” I turned to leave when she called out to me again. “And remember I need gold, silver, and black balloons. Like twenty of each.”

  “Got it.” I made my way down the stairs as quickly as I could and when I stepped outside, I saw West sitting in his truck waiting on me. He looked up when the doors opened, and the second his eyes fell on me, he smiled wide. I grinned back before I jogged down the steps and toward him. I opened up the door and climbed into the passenger seat.

  “So I’m pretty sure Katie thinks I have a secret boyfriend now,” I told him as he pulled out of the circular driveway. He looked over at me with one brow tipped in question.

  “Really?” He asked. Then he just kind of chuckled to himself before turning his focus back to the road. I stared back at him for a second wondering if I really was about to ask him what I was considering asking. Then, I decided to just go for it.

  “So, can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “What exactly are we?” He glanced my way again with that same little questioning brow raise. “I mean, I know we’re friends obviously, but are we…” I hesitated. “…are we…more?” His expression didn’t give anything away as he looked back at me a second before he looked ahead again. My heart was racing in my chest while I waited for what he might say.

  A part of me thought we were obviously more. I mean he had kissed me more than once. He had asked me out, or at least I was pretty sure he had. Then there was everything he said. Would he really say all that if he wasn’t interested in something between us?

  Still, the fact that seconds continued to tick by without him responding was hard to ignore. Finally, he slowed the truck and pulled into a little run down looking rest stop not too far from his house. I was sure he was going to turn around and take me right back to Katie. Then he was going to pretend like we didn’t know each other and whatever had been happening between us would be over.

  I waited with bated breath as he put the truck in park and turned to face me. His face was still unreadable and it was driving me crazy. Then I saw the dimple, and suddenly I knew everything was still good between us.

  “What do you think we are?” he asked. I shrugged my shoulders as I looked back at him.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. I mean I know the obvious things like that we like each other, and we like spending time together. We kissed, and it was actually pretty freaking incredible. At least, it was for me. I also know that you’r
e in Houston and that means you’re really far away from me and I don’t really know how you feel about a long distance relationship. Then again, you might not even want a relationship period since technically I am still underage, even though I think that’s pretty dumb because in a few more months, I’ll be eighteen so that won’t even really matter anymore. I just…I like you…really like you, and I think you really like me too. So, yeah, a part of me thinks we’re way more than friends, but then this other part thinks that maybe you’re spending so much time with me because I’m the only girl around that isn’t your sister.” I couldn’t believe I had actually managed to say everything that had been on my mind since West had told me I would be his date to Katie’s New Year’s Eve party.

  When I finished rambling, West just kind of widened his eyes for a bit and said, ‘wow’. I hoped there would be more, and thankfully, he didn’t disappoint. He looked back at me before he took my hands in his and gently stroked the tops of them with his thumbs.

  “I like you Lennon, a lot, and I’ve told you that. A few times now.” I nodded my head slowly. “I’ve really enjoyed getting to hang out with you some lately. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know everything I can about you. I hope that you’ll keep letting me do that. I also hope that you’ll keep letting me kiss you, because I can honestly say that it was just as freaking incredible for me too.” That made a wide smile spread across my face.

  “I’ve thought about you every day that I’ve been in Houston, and I do mean every single day. I thought about what it would be like to actually date you. To have you at my games wearing a jersey with my name on it. I’ve thought about having a long distance relationship, which is something that I always said I would never do because they don’t work, but I thought about trying it with you.” I smiled wide and he reached up to cup my cheek with his hand. “Unfortunately, you are still seventeen, and being in an open relationship with you could potentially get me into trouble.” My smile fell, and he noticed.

  “Hey,” he said soothingly. “Please don’t be upset.”

  “I just don’t see how a few months can make that much of a difference,” I said. It seemed idiotic. Literally four months was the only thing keeping me apart from the one guy, the only guy, that I had ever actually wanted. It was beyond dumb.

  “This doesn’t change anything,” he said, and his expression showed that he really did mean that.

  “Okay,” I promised. He flashed me that dimpled grin.

  “So, you’ll still hang out with me tonight at Katie’s party?” I smiled back, though I was feeling a lot less enthusiastic about our ‘date’ then I was that morning.

  “Of course.” He grinned again.

  “Good, now for the fun stuff.” He started his truck back up and pulled out of the little parking lot we had been in. He drove us out by the lake to a spot that a lot of the local kids had dubbed, ‘The Cliffs’. It was basically just a hill that overlooked the lake. During the summer time, high schoolers were constantly up here camping out and doing various jumps off the thirty foot high cliffs into the lake below.

  In December though, we were the only vehicle around. West edged the truck all the way up the very edge of the cliffs and put it in park. Then he looked over at me with a large happy smile etched across his face.

  “What are we doing here?” I asked with my own smile. West reached behind us into the back and pulled up a lunchbox that looked like it had been put through the ringer. Then he pulled out two thermoses and passed me one. I pulled the cap off and inhaled the unmistakable scent of hot cocoa.

  West took a large sip of his and spit most back out. “Shit, that’s a lot hotter than I thought it would be. I made these like an hour ago.”

  “And you put them in a thermos. It keeps them hot.” He just shrugged and stared out ahead at the water. I did the same and the sight before me almost took my breath away. I had never really been up here before, and in that moment I regretted that more than anything else.

  The sun was beginning to set and the sky was bathed in gorgeous colors of purples and blues. It was breathtaking. I looked back at West, and he was watching me.

  “Do you remember when we watched the sunrise together at the cabin?” He asked. I nodded my head because I couldn’t seem to actually speak. “The look on your face that morning when you watched the sun come up over those mountains is one of my favorites of yours. You just looked so awed by it. Like you had never really seen anything quite like it before. That was the moment when I knew I was done for when it came to you. I already had a crush, but that was when I really started to want something I couldn’t have.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” Hadn’t he just said less than thirty minutes ago, that I was still too young?

  “I make a lot of decisions on the fly. Whether or not I’m going to cut class, what play I’m going to run, which severely pisses off my coach, and so many others that I can’t even name. Usually, I don’t regret any of them. I know though that if I let you get out of this truck today thinking that I meant what I said back there about you being too young, then I would regret it more than anything else in my life.”

  My heart began to race again. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came. Then I tried again. “What are you saying, West?”

  “I’m saying screw it. I’m saying I want to date you. I want you to be my girlfriend.”

  “How would that work?” I loved everything he was saying. I did, but he hadn’t exactly been wrong before. Four months might not have meant anything to us, but I knew others might not agree. I could think of two right off the bat. I wanted to kick myself for what I was about to say, but I also knew that as much as I hated it West had been right before. I was still seventeen. “West, we can’t.”

  “Yes, we can.”

  “No, my parents are still against me even seeing you. Do you honestly think they’re suddenly going to be okay with us dating?”

  “Then we don’t tell them. We don’t tell anyone. We keep it a secret.” I laughed out loud because there was no way he was being serious. His expression though said the opposite.

  “You’re not joking.” He shook his head and scooted closer to me. He took the thermos out of my hand and placed it in the cup holder and closed the last little remaining space between us.

  “It can work Lennon. We’ve been finding ways to hang out already, the only difference is I would be hanging out with my girlfriend.” I couldn’t lie, I really loved hearing him call me that.

  “What about when you leave in another week?” I asked. He looked unfazed by the question.

  “What about it?”

  “Well, what happens then?”

  “We stay together. I’m not messing around Lennon, I want you to be my girlfriend. I will call you every night, I will text you every morning. It will be just like it has been.” Then he grinned. “But better.”

  It might have been dumb, but I didn’t let myself think about that too much. Instead, I nodded my head and when West crashed his lips to mine in a happy, tender kiss, I kissed him back.

  Fifteen

  That night, I slipped into a sleek black spaghetti strap dress that I had bought earlier in the week. It was a little more daring than what I was used to, but it looked really good on me, and I knew it would get a positive reaction from West.

  My West.

  I couldn’t get used to it. Sure, it had only been three hours since I officially became his girlfriend, but it still felt so surreal. That was a title I had dreamed of since I was thirteen, and now it was finally mine.

  My phone buzzed on my nightstand and I walked over to check it. My stomach filled with familiar butterflies when I saw West’s code name on the screen.

  West: Can’t wait to see you tonight beautiful.

  I sent him back a little smiley face before putting my phone back into my purse and slinging it over my shoulder. Then I made my way to the living room where both of my parents were.

  Jameson saw me first. He immediately started calling
my name, and Mom looked up from her book. Dad glanced away from the TV, and then did a double take. I had a feeling he wasn’t going to be okay with my wardrobe choice, but I was hopeful that I could persuade him to let me keep it.

  “Oh Lennon, that’s beautiful,” Mom said before she stood and made her way over to get a closer look.

  “You don’t actually expect to leave the house like that do you?” Dad grumbled.

  “Harold,” Mom warned, but he just ignored her.

  “This is a high school party. With high school boys. I don’t want them seeing you like that and getting the wrong idea.”

  “Daddy, Mrs. Blake is going to be there. I’m sure she will make sure we all stay safe.”

  “West will be there too,” Mom added, surprising me. The last I knew, she still wasn’t okay with us being around each other. “He’ll keep an eye on her.” Dad grumbled again, but it was unintelligible. Usually, that meant he was coming around.

  “I promise to be careful, Daddy.” Then I tried my very best puppy dog eyes. I had never tried it before, but surprisingly, it worked. Dad muttered a ‘whatever’ before turning back to the TV.

  “Alright, let’s go before he changes his mind,” Mom said before leading the way to the front door. She grabbed her purse and keys while I grabbed the overnight bag I had packed earlier.

  The plan, or at least the plan we were telling everyone, was that after the party I would be staying the night with Katie. That was partially true, only Katie wouldn’t actually be there. Her idea was to wait until her Mom and West had fallen asleep, and then she would sneak out to go spend the night or at least a few hours of it with Matt. I was planning on using that opportunity to spend some time alone with West.

  Mom chatted about several things on the drive over to the Blake’s. She updated me on the book she had been reading all week and encouraged me to read it after her, though since it was a thriller, I probably wouldn’t. I didn’t usually read those since the ones I had tried to read in the past had all freaked me out too much. Then she talked about Jameson’s progress in therapy. His newest therapist seemed positive he could get him to at least say a few basic words. Mom and Dad didn’t seem all that enthusiastic, mainly because they had been promised that before only to have the same results. He was a nice guy though and Jameson absolutely adored him, so he would probably be around for a while.