Senior Week Fling

by Maggie Dallen

  “Hey,” he said, a small smile flickered and disappeared. I clung to that little glimmer of hope with all that I had.

  “Hi,” I sat down next to him, nervously perched on the edge of the bench. “Adam, I really want to explain about Ryan…”

  He held up a hand to stop me. “Don’t. Please don’t. I really don’t want to hear it.”

  I’d never heard him speak like that. Not to me, at least. I opened my mouth to talk but shut it again just as quickly. I had no idea what to say. We both watched the people file into the haunted house.

  When Adam finally spoke, his words took me completely by surprise. “Why don’t you ever go into the haunted house, Eve?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just don’t like it.”

  Why on earth were we talking about the haunted house right now?

  His laugh was humorless.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked. I had the uncomfortable sensation that I was walking on quicksand. I had no idea where this conversation was going and no idea how to make things right.

  “I was just sitting here thinking,” Adam said. “I was thinking about that summer when we were twelve and you ran out of the haunted house and I found you on the beach.”

  I waited for him to continue.

  “What about it?” I prompted.

  His quiet, somber attitude was starting to freak me out. I wanted him to crack a joke, make a sarcastic comment…do something to reassure me that we would be okay.

  “It occurred to me that you never once admitted that you were scared,” he said. “Even back then when you were shaking in terror, you wouldn’t admit to being scared. And still, to this day, you never admit it.”

  I stared at him blankly; my mind was struggling to follow his logic. “What…what are you talking about?” My voice was strangely hoarse.

  He wasn’t looking at me and I had that horrible feeling again that I was losing him. He was sitting right next to me but I felt like he was drifting away.

  “What does the haunted house have to do with anything?” I asked.

  He turned to face me. “Are you scared, Eve?”

  I blinked in surprise. Were we still talking about the haunted house? He didn’t give me a chance to answer.

  “Because I am.” His voice was quiet and his eyes were more serious than I had ever seen them.

  “Why are you scared?” I asked.

  For a minute I thought he wouldn’t respond. When he finally did, it was as though he’d shoved a poker through my heart. “I can’t be your friend anymore, Eve.”

  “What?” I gasped. Tears immediately filled my eyes. “What do you mean? I’m sorry, Adam. I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to kiss Ryan…it’s just that I was upset and he was there. But I sent him away, I swear. I told him it was over. Nothing happened between us. Well, there was a kiss but it didn’t mean anything and I know now that I don’t really love him, that I never loved him…”

  Adam placed one of his hands on mine to stop my rambling. “I can’t be your friend,” he continued as though I’d never spoken. “Because I want to be more than that.”

  My mouth fell open. “You…you what?”

  His eyes looked directly into mine. “I love you, Eve.”

  There was no oxygen in the air, it had all rushed to my head leaving me dizzy. My heart was beating double time. The sounds of the rides and the haunted house were coming from a million miles away. My body was weighless and I felt like I was drifting in space. Only the look in Adam’s eyes kept me tethered to the ground.

  Despite my body’s overwhelming reaction, my mind didn’t know how to respond. To say that the L-word took me by surprise was the understatement of the century. This was serious. This was not an emotion to toy with. Why was it happening so fast? I wanted to slow things down. To take a breath. To analyze what I was feeling.

  He took a deep breath. “I’m in love with you, Eve. I have been for ages but I didn’t know it. I was so stupid. So blind.”

  There was a pause and I knew it was my turn to talk. But I was scared. I was more than scared, I was terrified.

  “Are you sure?” I asked. “Maybe you’re….you’re confused.”

  He looked so sad that I wished I hadn’t opened my mouth.

  “I had hoped that maybe you’d come to realize that you love me too,” he said. “And when we kissed last night…when I kissed you…I just knew. And I thought maybe you felt it too.”

  He turned back so he was facing the haunted house again and I did the same. He looked strangely relaxed and at peace as though this sudden confession was a weight off of his shoulders. He had nothing more to say. Now it was up to me. The ball was in my court.

  “Adam, I don’t know what to say,” I breathed.

  Tears were running down my cheeks but I didn’t know why. There were so many emotions going on that I couldn’t pick one to hold on to. I wished I had time, time to figure things out, to rationalize, to reason.

  But Adam was waiting and the longer I remained silent, the harder this was for him.

  That knowledge, that I was hurting him with my silence, brought me some semblance of clarity.

  I was staring at the haunted house too, thinking about what he had said. He had been right about the haunted house. I’d never admitted I was scared. I’d refused to admit it to him and barely even acknowledged it to myself. It suddenly became clear why Adam had brought it up now. Why it was so relevant to our current situation.

  I was doing the same thing with my feelings for Adam. I had known for a while that things were changing between us but I had refused to see it. I had refused to acknowledge the change in my emotions for one simple reason—I was scared.

  No, I was terrified.

  Admitting to myself that I had feelings for Adam would change everything. It would ruin the friendship that meant more to me than anything else in the world. I couldn’t bear to think of losing him so I avoided the emotions that had been there staring me in the face all along.

  “You’re right,” I whispered. Adam turned to look at me, his expression cautiously hopeful. “I am?”

  I nodded. “You’re right about everything. But mostly, you’re right about the fact that we can’t be friends.”

  I stopped talking as tears choked me. I took a deep breath and wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand.

  “What are you saying, Eve?”

  “I’m saying…I’m saying that I’m scared.”

  “Why are you scared?” Adam asked. He was trying to be patient but he was watching me anxiously.

  “I’m scared because….because I think I love you too,” I said.

  The sudden change in him was amazing. His face brightened and his eyes came alive as he pulled me into a bear hug that left me breathless.

  “You do?” he asked. He pushed me back so he could see my face. “You’re not just saying that to save our friendship are you? You’re not just trying to make me happy?”

  Now that the words were out there, now that I’d faced my fear, I felt the same peace I’d seen in Adam.

  I love him. I am in love or the first time in my life. I looked into Adam’s eyes. I was in love for the first and last time, I realized.

  Adam was still waiting for an answer. I laughed and shook my head decisively. Now that I’d spoken the words and faced my fears and my emotions it all seemed so clear…so simple. I was in love with my best friend.

  Adam was grinning now too. We sat there smiling at each other like idiots until he leaned over to kiss me.

  The kiss was breathtaking. It was electric. It was passionate and tender and sweet and heartbreakingly romantic. When we finally came up for air, he reached over to pull me onto his lap and I curled up against him, perfectly content and blissfully happy.

  He held me tightly in his arms and ran his fingers through my hair. His voice was low as he whispered in my ear. “So what do you think, Eve? Are you ready to go to the haunted house with me?”

  I pulled back laughing. �
��Not on your life,” I said. “But nice try.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Later, after a whole lot of kissing and whispering and giggling followed by more kissing, Adam and I finally made it to the bonfire.

  Despite the late hour, the party was still in full swing when we arrived hand in hand. The fire was still burning and crowds gathered close to its warmth.

  It was clear that everyone was still feeling nostalgic over the end of our high school careers. Adam and I couldn’t help but laugh as we passed drunk girls crying and hugging each other, former rivals confessing their deep admiration and respect, and unrequited lovers giving it one last shot.

  I spotted a very flirty Lindsay being fawned over by Chad Locke and some of his buddies. All signs of the lonely girl I’d seen eating ice cream by herself were gone and her perfect facade was firmly in place.

  She looked over and saw Adam and I walking hand in hand and I could have sworn I saw a genuine smile on Lindsay’s face. Maybe there was hope for us yet. Or maybe her grudge with me had been replaced with her fury with Ryan. Either way, I was cool with it.

  “We better tell Vic and Mark that we’re okay,” I said.

  “I’d say we’re better than okay,” Adam said as he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me in for a breathtaking kiss.

  I know I can speak for Adam when I say, the fact that our classmates were nearby and watching was the furthest thing from our minds at that moment.

  Our search hit numerous detours as we were stopped by classmates who wanted to share memories or express their love. It was a little bit nauseating, to be honest.

  Eventually we found Victoria and Mark. They stood a little ways apart from the crowd near the ocean’s edge. I saw Victoria shivering with her arms wrapped around herself, an unusually serious expression on her face.

  For a moment I thought she looked sick and I hurried to reach her side.

  But Adam put a hand on my arm to stop me. She wasn’t sick but upset. She and Mark appeared to be having an intense conversation. Or, at least, Victoria was. Mark was standing there silent as usual.

  I watched sweet, loveable Victoria pouring her heart out and my heart ached when I saw tears streaming down her cheeks.

  Adam and I shared looks of concern but knew there was nothing we could do to help. They, like us, would have to figure it out for themselves.

  I almost couldn’t take it anymore when Mark surprised us. Clearly he surprised Victoria as well because her eyes were wide with shock when he suddenly, yet gently, placed a hand over Victoria’s mouth to quiet her.

  When he removed it, she stood there looking shell-shocked but then Mark started talking. And talking. And talking.

  His face was animated and his arms and hands were gesturing wildly in a display unlike anything I’d ever seen from Mark.

  I watched Victoria’s face morph from shock, to surprise, to disbelief, to pure joy and figured that whatever Mark was saying, it was what she wanted to hear.

  My suspicions were confirmed when Mark’s big speech was cut short by Victoria launching herself into his arms and silencing him with a kiss. Mark wrapped his arms around her and pulled Victoria up into his arms. What followed was an act of PDA that was enough to make me blush.

  Adam’s whistled. “Wow.”

  “Yeah,” I breathed.

  “Maybe we should give the lovebirds a little privacy,” he said and he led me away to a secluded spot of our own closer to the fire.

  Basking in the warm glow of the bonfire, Adam and I watched our classmates party and joked around with those who came over to join us in our cozy little love nest.

  Later that night, when the fire was starting to burn out and the ocean breeze was becoming too cold to stand, Adam and I returned back to the beach house. We stopped short in the living room. There on the couch, Victoria and Mark lay fast asleep in each other’s arms. Adam and I tiptoed out of the room to the patio where we curled up on the sofa to look at the stars and listen to the waves crash against the shore.

  We talked until the sun came up.

  We were endlessly fascinated in hearing every detail of how and when the other figured out that they were in love. These conversations, of course, were frequently interrupted by long, spine-tingling, mind numbing kisses that left us temporarily speechless for long periods of time.

  When the sun was just starting to peek out over the water, Adam broke a long, comfortable silence with an uncharacteristically serious remark.

  “I’m going to miss you, you know.”

  I pulled back to look at his face. “What do you mean?”

  He brushed a lock of hair away from my face. “I’m going to miss having you as my best friend. No, I’m serious,” he said when I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know what I’d do without you and if things don’t work out between us…”

  “Adam!” I placed my hands on either side of his face, forcing him to look at me. “No matter what happens between us, I promise you I will always be your best friend.”

  His smile made my heart skip a beat. “And I promise,” he whispered in between kisses, “that no matter what happens, I will always be your best friend.”

  That was all the talking that took place for quite a while.

  * * *

  The next morning, Victoria pulled me aside while Mark and Adam were loading up the car and we caught each other up on the events of the night before.

  It turned out that Victoria had been totally off base in her reading of Mark’s actions on the night of the party. To make matters worse, he thought that her strange behavior the next morning was a clear sign that she had regretted her bold actions and had a change of heart. Being left alone at the bonfire had quickly brought everything to light.

  When Adam and I showed up at the bonfire, Mark was telling Victoria that he had had a crush on her since the day they met. It took a bit of convincing (Victoria had herself completely convinced that Mark was just feeling sorry for her) but eventually he got through to her and the rest, as they say, is history.

  You can imagine her excitement when I told her about me and Adam.

  It seems that she and Mark had predicted our happily ever after ending years before so our news came as less of a surprise than either of us had imagined. They teased us the entire way home about how long it took us to see what was right in front of our faces—as if they could talk!

  Victoria was quick to point out how right she had been that afternoon at the diner when she predicted that all four of us would find love.

  Senior Week had indeed turned out to be the beginning of what the four of us would always refer to as our Summer of Love—and Victoria never once let us forget that she had called it from the start.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

 

 

 
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