“That’s great!” Alexis said, and she leaned in toward me for a hug.
“Yeah, it is, but,” I said, frowning, “he said he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to see me.”
“Yet,” Alexis said, and I grinned at her.
“Yet,” I repeated.
“Until then,” Alexis said, smiling, “let’s get some sleep.”
I laughed. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
Chapter Six
* Home Depot…*
The Home Depot was packed, and I had absolutely no idea what the hell we were looking for. It had been two weeks since I’d gotten the text from Payton, and since I started working at the Fun Fair. I got my first check last night, and today, Alexis, Todd, and I were spending our hard earned money.
“What the hell is a footer?” I asked, and Alexis snorted. She was the brains of this operation, and I was really just there to hand out the cash.
“It’s one of those things that you’re walking on,” Todd said, and snorted.
I laughed, too, and Alexis shook her head. “Really, I should have been the one with the penis.”
Todd guffawed, and a few people from the electrical aisle looked over at us. Todd waved. “Sorry.”
The people just shook their heads and continued looking at their boring supplies. We, on the other hand, were having a good time.
“So, what all do we need to get started?” I asked, hoping that we’d have enough money for the plans that I had for the fort.
“Well, we need to get the initial structure figured out… I was thinking we’d get the 4x4’s today along with some Quickcrete and some bracing.”
It was all Greek to me, so I nodded. “Sounds good.”
Alexis laughed and led us down multiple aisles, having “Todd the Muscles” put the supplies onto a long cart, and before we knew it, we were paying for the purchases with my debit card, and Todd was getting everything loaded into my Dad’s old pickup. There wasn’t that much there, as lumber cost a lot of money, but it was a start, and that’s all I needed to make me feel a little bit better.
Payton
I hadn’t been home since Mom made my favorite meal, and that was a few weeks ago. I sighed as I pulled into the driveway, hoping that my folks wouldn’t be too mad that I pretty much ignored them since the peace offering.
When I parked my truck, however, Mom came running out of the house, and with a grin on her face. “Baby!”
I smiled and got out. “Mom.”
“I’m so glad that you’ve been trying to fix things…”
I looked at Mom and had no idea what she’d been talking about. “Come again?”
“The fort,” she said, and then wiped at her eyes. “I saw today, what you’ve been doing.”
I felt like my throat was closing up. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, honey, I know you’re trying to keep it a secret, but you don’t have to keep it from me, I’m your mom. You can talk to me about it.”
I looked toward the field and saw Keri’s Dad’s truck near the tree. Our very messed up, tree. My jaw clenched, and my fists balled at my sides.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m going to find out.”
Mom’s eyes widened, and she looked visibly upset. “No, Payton, just leave it alone.”
I could hear the panic in my mom’s voice, and I was sad that I’d put it there in the first place. “I’m not going to do anything stupid. I just…I need to find out what’s going on.”
“You haven’t been out there?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“And, you didn’t know about this?” Mom asked, waiting for my response.
“No.”
“Then I’ll call the police. That’s our land.”
I looked at my mom just then and realized something. She’d been on her own since December, too. Not only did I behave like an idiot, but I put her in the middle of this thing with Dad and I. “I’m really sorry about December, Mom.”
Mom looked at me just then, and fell apart.
Hours later, after dinner, when I figured everyone would be out of the field, I headed toward my old favorite spot. And, of course, as luck would have it, I saw her.
“What are you doing?” I asked, feeling more confident this time than the last.
“Hey!” Keri said, and turned toward me. She had a grin on her face that, almost immediately, turned down. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, fuming. “What’s wrong is, you won’t leave me alone. You’re everywhere.”
Keri swallowed, and hurriedly shook her head. “No, it’s not like that.”
“It’s exactly like that. Am I not going to be able to go home until you go back to Ohio?”
Keri sighed and her shoulders slumped. “I hope you will, I mean, you can. I meant what I said on the phone the other night, Pay, I’m going to make this right.”
“By doing what?” I asked, and knew already what she was going to say.
“By rebuilding our fort.”
I looked at the ground and saw the 4x4’s surrounded by concrete. “Who did this?” I quirked my eyebrow to the right and put my hand on my hip.
“I did; well, me, and Alexis and Todd.”
Impressed, I looked around. “They’re here?”
Keri nodded with a smile. “Yeah, they wanted to help.”
“And you didn’t think to, I don’t know, tell me?”
Keri shrugged. “Well, I planned to make it a surprise.”
“What did you think would happen, Keri?”
Keri’s eyes widened. “Well, I thought I’d ask you to come here, and then you’d see the fort that I built, and then you’d know how much…”
“How much, what?”
“How much I love you.”
Before I knew what was happening, I was already moving toward her, and she toward me. I had her in my arms, feeling her skin against my own, and it felt good.
So good.
“Fuck…”
“I know,” Keri moaned.
“I…”
“I love you, Payton,” Keri said once again. I knew she couldn’t possibly mean it, but I was so tired of turning her away. I’d wanted her for so long, and she was here. Here where it should have happened nearly eight months ago.
I kissed her, and felt her tongue move along with my own, and I licked her lips, and she licked mine. My hands moved up her sides, and then pulled up on her shirt, and before we knew it, the shirt had come off, and she and I were in the field.
I kissed up and down her neck, and then up to her ear and took her lobe in my mouth. I sucked gently, as my hands moved up her back and to her bra.
She moaned, and then her hands were at my shirt, taking the hem up and over, and I helped her remove it the rest of the way. My hands went back to her bra, unsnapped the enclosure, then slowly moved my hands back around to cup her breasts, and to remove the bra the rest of the way. We were breathing hard now, and I was oh so ready.
I looked into her eyes.
Her beautiful blue eyes, and I froze. “I love you, too,” I said, softly, and then I moved my mouth down her neck.
Keri’s back arched, and I continued my trek, using my tongue and hands until her nipples were hard and in tight beads. I sucked on her left breast first as my hand continued to move down to the button at the top of her shorts.
Keri sighed and closed her eyes, pleading for me to give her more. It was something that I’d been waiting for for a very long time. I unclasped the button, and my fingers made their way in-between her legs.
She was wet.
She was ready for me.
I put my head back and groaned as I felt her torso move against my hand. I put my lips back onto her nipple and sucked hard. Her hands, that were previously in my hair, moved down to my zipper. And then it was down, and she was grabbing ahold of me.
“Oh my God,” I moaned, and felt as if I’d burst. This was the first time Keri had ever… I closed my eyes, a
nd licked at her breast and then moved to the other. Each time she stroked up, my tongue did the same to her nipple. She was wild.
“Payton, please,” she begged, and I stopped and looked up into her eyes. “Please?”
I closed my eyes and hurriedly removed my boxers and jeans, and she took her shorts down the rest of the way, along with her underwear. I quickly searched my jean’s pocket for my wallet, and took out the lone condom that was still in the back. “You’re sure you want this?”
Keri nodded and put her arms around me, and her tongue touched my lips. That’s all I needed.
I hurriedly shucked the wrapper, and glided the condom down my shaft, and then I flipped her onto her back.
She smiled up at me. “The grass.”
I shook my head. “Sorry about this… Maybe…”
“No, it’s… perfect.”
I bent down to kiss her once more, then shoved my way into her, but not before feeling something else.
Keri’s eyes were wide when I looked into them and realized what I had done.
Mitch was right; she wasn’t lying.
Keri put her hands around me, and like the dog that I was, I continued moving until I was spent, and nearly forgot about what I had done.
What the hell was I going to do now?
I moved slowly away from her, and flopped onto my back. I just breathed, and chanced a look at her. She was staring at me. I swallowed. “Hi.”
She smiled softly. “Hi.”
“You okay?”
She nodded. “You?”
I shook my head. “What?”
“You, you know…was it…?” Her face fell just then, and I knew that she knew I wasn’t a virgin before tonight. She closed her eyes for a quick second, and tried to recover. “I mean, was I okay?”
“Don’t do that,” I said, feeling like a real prick.
“Do what?” she asked, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think she was telling the truth. But I knew better. I knew Keri better than anyone.
“Pretend with me. I’m sorry I was so rough.”
Keri nodded, and a few tears escaped. “It wasn’t that bad, I mean, I liked it.”
I scoffed. “Don’t lie to me, Keri.”
“I’m not, I wasn’t…”
“I was with Patti last month,” I blurted out, and I watched as her bottom lip trembled. “I thought…”
Keri sat up and grabbed her bra from behind her head and started to put it back on. “I know.”
“I swear to God if I thought there was a chance for you and…”
“It’s okay. I mean, it’s no big deal, right?”
“Damn it, Keri, I know it’s a big deal.” I took the condom off and wrapped it up in the old foil, and then reached for my boxers.
“Then why her?” she asked, panicked.
“You know why,” I said, and took a deep breath.
“You thought I was with him?”
“Yeah,” I said, feeling just as horrible as I did that night.
“I went back to his house, and thought that maybe I could have something with him.”
I closed my eyes, not wanting to hear any of it. I couldn’t imagine it; didn’t want to imagine it. “Please, don’t.”
“I have to. I thought, here’s this guy, and he knows a lot about the stuff that I like, the stuff that I think’s important.”
“Keri—”
“And I, well, he and his girlfriend just broke up, and I wanted to just be friends with you. Not because I didn’t care about you, but because it was so hard being so far away. I wanted…I needed you there. And I know that’s not your fault, Payton.” Keri had tears streaming down her cheeks now. She reached for her shirt, and then her shorts, and soon she was fully dressed.
“And, I thought I could do it. I thought I could be with someone else because I needed to have something… I don’t know, normal, something different. I wanted to experience college.”
My jaw tightened, and I tried not to hear what she was saying. “And?”
“He kissed me. He pushed me up against his apartment wall, and had his hands on me, and his lips pressed against mine, and all I could think was, there’s no zing. Nothing.”
“How’d he get your phone?”
Keri had an odd look on her face now, and she sighed. “Well, I had to go to the bathroom, because when I figured out that I didn’t want to kiss him anymore, I got upset and wanted to wash my face. He was nice about it, though. I told him that I thought I wanted to be with him, but I couldn’t.”
“Did he hurt you?”
Keri shook her head. “He hurt me when he texted you, but I swear to God I didn’t know anything about that. He did that when I was washing my face. I saw your text hours later about Patti’s party, and then I saw his to you, and your reply. It makes me sick just thinking about it. Everything.”
Keri was shaking now, and I felt just wretched. “Then what?”
“Then I tried calling you, and texting you, and you wouldn’t answer. And Mom, well she told me not to come home for Christmas, she said it wasn’t a good idea.”
I looked down at that last part and felt like my stomach would give out. Her own mother told her not to come home for Christmas. Her first Christmas without her own father.
“Keri, God, I’m so sorry. I…I don’t know what to say,” I said, and could feel the tears coming. I was a man now, and all I seemed to do lately was act like a fucking idiot. I swiped at my eyes and went to hug her, but I couldn’t. I was a dick of the highest order. I never gave her the chance to explain things, and then all this happened.
Patti happened.
Fuck.
“I’m assuming he’s out of the picture now?”
Keri scoffed. “The second I found out what he’d done, I was done with him. I’ve never wanted to physically harm someone so much in my entire life. I can’t tell you what my last few months has been like, Pay.”
“Me, either.”
I looked into Keri’s eyes and felt just horrible.
“You tried to kill yourself, Payton. What if… My God, what if that happened? What if I never got the chance to tell you how much you meant to me?”
How could she possibly still love me after everything? I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“And tonight?” she asked, looking at me. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and waited for my response. I didn’t know what to say.
“What do you mean?”
“What was it to you?”
I looked at her and didn’t say anything. She got up fast and brushed off her legs, errant pieces of grass were sticking to them and wriggled off when she stood. “Did it mean anything?”
“Of course,” I said, and then stood as well. “I…”
“Someday this will be right between us, Payton,” she said softly, and then wiped at her eyes.
I nodded, and then looked over at the pieces of wood sticking out of the ground.
Just then, my cellphone chirped, and I realized that I’d left it in the grass. Keri reached over and grabbed it, and handed it to me, but not before seeing the picture on the display. She closed her eyes.
“Patti’s calling for you.”
I took a deep breath and went to put the phone in my pocket.
“You’d better answer that,” Keri said.
“What do you want me to do, Keri? What can I…?”
“I just want, for once, for us to just be fine. This was a mistake, wasn’t it?”
I nodded, and could feel the phone now buzzing in my pocket. A voicemail. Great.
“Awesome. Well, I’ve got to get back before Todd and Alexis start looking for me.”
“We should talk about this,” I said, even though it was the last thing I wanted.
“No, I think we’re done here.”
Chapter Seven
* Fun Fair…*
I recovered from the whole “losing my virginity” thing. I don’t think I’d ever forget how it felt, to be that close to someone, that conn
ected to another person. It was special for me, even if it wasn’t special for him. I thought about it often since it happened—nearly a week ago, but couldn’t bring myself to tell Alexis or Todd about it.
They didn’t need to know.
They couldn’t tell, could they?
I mean, I felt like the entire world knew that Payton Taylor popped my cherry. I snorted, thinking how very dumb that particular thought was. I sat on the bench and waited for the billions and billions of screaming kids to come up to me and either hug me, sock me, or kick me. It was a shitty job, and yet, it was fun.
“I can’t believe you haven’t killed anyone yet,” Alexis said as she came and sat with me on the bench. She had her “Wench” costume on and she crossed her legs at her ankles. “I’m so damn beat.” She pulled her right foot up to her thigh and started to rub her toes. “Oh…”
I grinned. “How’s the job?”
“It sucks ass.”
I laughed. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“You should see Todd in there.” Alexis shook her head. “He’s wearing that damn eye patch and talking like Jack Sparrow.”
I grinned. “I knew he’d like the job.”
“He’s a natural, and of course all the kids love him.”
“I hear a couple of girls that work here like him, too.”
Alexis’s eyes narrowed. “I heard that, too. Well, they better watch out, because I will knock out anyone that tries to touch my man.”
I laughed. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You and Todd are pretty damn awesome.”
Alexis smiled and put her foot back down. “I think so, too.”
“Tell me something good,” I said, and looked at Alexis. She started to laugh and I shrugged. “What?”
“That stupid costume! I totally forgot you were wearing it.”
I laughed. “Yeah, it’s hard to remember that you’re talking to a five-foot-tall bird.”
“Shut up.”
“Seriously, tell me something good.”
Alexis quirked her brow. “How good?”
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