Avalon

by Lana Davison

  Leo walked to his bedroom and changed into jeans and a fitted blue t.shirt, which showed off his silhouette nicely.

  Leo took my hand and we walked downstairs to the kitchen where Ryan was cooking pancakes.

  “I’ve made a stack of pancakes. I hope you like them.”

  “Oh yes, they’re one of my favourite breakfasts.”

  “Juice?” Leo asked

  “Yep, orange, apple, whatever you’ve got.”

  Leo took some oranges from the fridge, cut them in half, and squeezed the juice straight into a glass the same way I had squeezed a piece of lemon onto my fish. I had never seen anyone squeeze an orange like that straight into a glass with one squeeze of the hand.

  “Wow, you’re good at juicing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve never seen anyone squeeze oranges with their hands and make a jug of juice.”

  “Oh well, I’ve been doing it for years. I’ve had a lot of practice,” he said smiling at Ryan, as if sharing a private joke. I let it go.

  Leo handed me my juice and sat down next to me.

  ”Thank you,” I smiled.

  He leaned over and kissed my lips. “You’re very welcome.”

  I could see Ryan looking at us adoringly in the reflection of the kitchen window. He caught my gaze.

  “You two remind me of my wife and me.”

  “Where is your wife?” I asked not knowing much about him.

  “She died.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s OK. It was a few years ago. I wasn’t there when it happened.”

  “Do you mind me asking how?”

  “A car accident. It was instant.”

  “I’m so sorry.” I repeated.

  “You two kids remind me of my wife and me when we were together. She was the apple of my eye, much like you are to Leo. If you’ve got something you want to keep,” Ryan turned to Leo, “treat her right and hold onto her with everything you’ve got.”

  “I intend to.” Leo announced sincerely.

  We finished our food, helped clear up then walked back upstairs, so we could spend some more time alone again, knowing that the day would soon be over. We sat on his bed and flicked on the TV watching music videos. Leo got a deck of cards and I showed him how to play Gin Rummy. Finally, we crawled under the bed covers and perched on our sides talking.

  “What did you think about what Ryan said today, that we remind him of how he used to feel about his wife?” Leo asked.

  “I take it as a compliment. It’s very sad what happened.”

  “He wants to meet someone else, he wants a second chance.”

  “When do you think your parents will come?”

  “I don’t know if they will come. They expect me to return home in the holidays. Are you going anywhere for end of term?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “I’ll tell my parents about you. It’s impossible for me not to. Being away from you will be hard enough.”

  “Do you think your parents will like me?”

  “Yes, they will love you because I do.”

  We turned the music down to hear rain drops on the window panel. I snuggled up close to Leo and wrapped my arms around him and he held me in close tight up against his body. I wanted to stay where I was forever, I felt so secure in his embrace.

  “Hols, it’s my birthday in a few weekends. Do you want to come over and stay that weekend?”

  “Yes, I’d love to. I’ll speak to Sara about it. I’ll have to say I’m staying at Emily’s again.”

  I sat up and looked around Leo’s bedroom inquisitively.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “I am trying to think what I could possibly get you for your birthday.”

  “Nothing. Just you being here.”

  “Leo, I am going to buy you a present, so don’t go all ‘I don’t need anything’ on me.”

  He stroked a loose hair from my face, “It’s true Holly, don’t get me anything. I mean it, I don’t need anything.”

  “If you say so.” I raised my eyebrows. Of course I would buy him something, I just had to decide what.

  Leo kissed my forehead. “Holly, where I come from. I mean, you know, the Isle of Wight, well I was brought up to be with only one partner, and that person will be treated with absolute respect.”

  “Yes, I too have been brought up to respect the person I am with. I’m not sure I believe in one person forever for the rest of my life, but now that I’m with you my views are all messed up. I’m starting to think perhaps there is only one person for me, and that’s you.”

  “Holly, what I am saying is, that I have been brought up to marry the person I want to be with, or rather am supposed to be with. Someone I plan to have an intimate relationship with.”

  “Oh gosh, Leo. If you think like that it will take years and years before we go any further.”

  “No, it doesn’t have to be like that.”

  “Phew,” I said playfully skimming my brow with my hand for dramatic effect. I loved Leo and I would do anything for Leo, but we were both nearly seventeen, way too young to think about marriage.

  “One day I’ll make you mine.”

  “But I am yours.”

  “You know what I mean. One day I will marry you.”

  “You don’t have to put a ring on my finger to be with me forever. I know how I feel.”

  “It’s not about the ring. I want to make you my wife one day.”

  “You’re pretty confident aren’t you?” I said teasingly

  “Yes I am.” He playfully took me into his hold.

  “You win,” I giggled. “I’ll be yours and I will one day be your wife.”

  “I’m being serious,” he said as matter of a fact.

  “You might not feel this way in a few years.”

  He assertively kissed my mouth. “I will.”

  “I hope so.”

  “I know so. I know because there is nowhere I’d rather be than with you. I’ve been waiting for you, Holly, you make me feel alive.”

  “You always say the nicest things.” I said.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The next few weeks passed with the two of us counting down the days until Leo’s birthday weekend, when we could finally spend some more time alone together.

  The weekend before my ‘weekend stay with Emily’, I returned home and Sara took the opportunity to discuss boys. She asked lots of questions about Leo and I couldn’t say enough about how wonderful and amazing he was. For some reason I was happy to share my feelings about Leo to the whole world. I told Sara, Leo and I had already discussed a future together vaguely. She knew I was getting serious about him but I told her we had not been intimate, and that was more down to Leo than to me. She seemed pleased by this and told me to tread carefully. She said there were lots of fish in the sea and, while I know this is true, I also knew Leo was the fish for me.

  ******

  I ran back to my dorm and quickly packed up my small wheelie bag and left my room..

  “Hello again,” I said, meeting Leo outside and kissing him quickly on the mouth.

  “You look stunning,” he winked.

  I was only wearing a pair of jeans, t.shirt and jacket. “This old thing.” I said twirling around.

  “Yes, in that old thing,” he agreed. We walked to the Range Rover, where Ryan was waiting for us.

  Leo opened the door for me and waited for me to get inside. “I’m old enough to drive this,” Leo announced.

  “You will be tomorrow,” Ryan replied. “Nice to see you again, Holly.”

  “And you, Ryan.” I smiled.

  *****

  “Come with me” Leo said, taking my hand and leading me upstairs to his bedroom. He closed the door and planted a soft smouldering kiss on my lips. I kissed him back, this time adding more urgency, more passion. .

  We removed our tops and I stood in front of him with my bra and jeans on. I push my chest onto his and looked up at him
. I am at his mercy, ready to do anything for him, I wanted him so badly. Leo held one of his hands on the wall to balance and pulled me into his body with his free arm. He let go of his hand on the wall for a brief moment so that he could tuck my long hair behind my ear so he could lavishly kiss me from my ear to my mouth. When he got to my mouth I tilted my head back and let him kiss me around my throat. I was so turned on, I wanted it to go further, but would he let it?

  He pulled away “I thought we were going to wait,” he said.

  “That was your idea, not mine. Besides you started it.”

  “I can’t help myself when I am around you. Being with you at school all week and not really being able to get close enough to you drives me insane. I can’t help but let loose on you when we get a moment to ourselves,” he said smiling mischievously.

  “I feel the same way.”

  Leo looked at my body and used the back of his knuckles to move his hand down the outline of my bra. I watched as his hand hovered over my breasts. I moved my arm and began to unfasten my bra at the back.

  “Knock, knock.” Ryan hollered, rather than actually knocking. “I’m not coming in. I just wanted to tell you I’ve got something for you downstairs. Do you think you can come down for a minute?”

  Deflated by Ryan’s announcement, Leo tilted his head down and rested it on mine. “We’ll be down in a minute.” He tried to sound cheerful. We heard Ryan leave and I fastened my bra again. “That was close.”

  “Really close.” I lifted my eyebrows.

  “We can come back up as soon as we see what he wants.”

  I nodded.

  Ryan stood at the dining table with a card in his hand and then presented it to Leo. “This is for you, for your birthday. It’s from me.”

  Leo took the card, “You shouldn’t have. You didn’t need to give it to me now either. You could have given it to me tomorrow.”

  “Just open it,” Ryan said.

  Leo opened the envelope. It contained dinner reservations and movie tickets for two people for tonight. Leo held the restaurant voucher and movie tickets in his fingers and showed me. “Thanks, Ryan. It’s a great gift.”

  “I bought them for this evening as you won’t be able to use them tomorrow because I’ll be taking you back to school in the early evening.”

  “It really is a great gift, thank you,” Leo said, giving Ryan a man hug.

  “So you and Holly ought to get ready to go.”

  “We will,” Leo said and he ran his hand down my back and patted my bum playfully. “Come on, Holly, we better get ready.”

  I agreed and ran upstairs. “How much time do we have?” I asked, hoping we could finish what we had started.

  “We have no spare time. I think we are going to have to start getting ready now. Our reservation is at six and the movie starts at nine.”

  I looked at my watch, four thirty in the afternoon. Where had the time gone?

  We both showered; had I known we were going out for dinner, I might have been able to bring a better outfit. I did the best I could with what I had in my bag, I wore pair of high black heels which I paired with my skinny black jeans, black camisole and a fitted tailored black jacket. All in black. After much deliberation, I’m glad I decided to bring my heels, without them this whole outfit would fall apart.

  I brushed my hair and left it out to hang long down my back then put a touch of mascara on my eyes and applied a tiny bit of lipgloss. A brief look in the full length mirror in the spare room revealed how grown up I looked, I could easily pass for a woman in her twenties. I paced the room in my heels as if to attempt to break them in. I hoped my feet wouldn’t suffer as the evening went on.

  I left my room and knocked on Leo’s door and peered around the door. “It’s me.”

  He took my hand and pulled me in, “Wow, you look.... sensational.”

  I walked down the stairs holding onto the banister to help steady myself in the heels I was wearing, with Leo right behind me.

  Ryan was ready and waiting to take the two of us into town. “Right, I’ll drop you both into town, and then you can catch a taxi home. You know where the taxi rank is?” Ryan referred rather than questioned.

  “Yes,” Leo said walking towards the Range Rover in the garage.

  “Call me if there’s a problem and I’ll pick you up.”

  “Will do.”

  We were in town in five minutes; the traffic lights stayed green all the way. Leo got out and opened my door and waited for me.

  “You are always doing nice things for me, like opening the door.”

  Leo nodded, “That’s because I want to.”

  “I like it, it makes me feel special.”

  “And that’s how I want you to feel, always,” he said taking my hand.

  There he goes again, being so confident in his words. He always knew the right thing to say to me and I loved him for it. In fact there was nothing about Leo I could fault, nothing.

  We walked a short distance to the restaurant, a small Greek taverna, and sat down at our reserved table by the window. The room’s ambience was perfect, dark brown walls with dimmed down lighters and candles, and soft easy listening jazz music played in the background making a romantic setting. The waiter handed each of us a menu and left us for a few minutes so we could read it. Leo and I ordered two cokes and a mezze to share.

  We looked outside the window and noticed an elderly couple walking towards the restaurant. They were holding hands and there was something special about them that caught our attention.

  “That will be us, one day,” Leo said.

  I smiled. It was hard to believe I would one day grow to be old but when I did, I wanted to be just like the couple approaching the restaurant.

  “What a nice gift from Ryan,” I commented.

  “Yeah it is. Ryan’s a good guy.”

  “I like him,” I complimented.

  “So when will I meet Sara and Stuart?”

  “Soon.” I lifted my eyebrows. “Sara will probably want me to herself next weekend, she likes to catch up on all my news and she’s already hinted on the two of us spending some girlie time together. That means we will probably both get manicures and pedicures, and go out for lunch. The weekend after that both you and I will need to study for our exams and then it’s term break. You could come over in the school holidays if you’re not going to spend all your time in the Isle of Wight.”

  “It will have to be after the holidays, I think I’ll be away for most of it, if not all.”

  “OK, so shall we say the first weekend after we return back to school?”

  “That should work.”

  “Do you think we are peculiar because we talk about being together forever? I mean you’re turning seventeen tomorrow and I’ll be seventeen in a couple of weeks?”

  “Yes it’s kind of weird. But if you know what you want, why wait, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Bon Appetite,” the waiter said bowing, having struggled to find space for our food on the small table.

  “Thank you,” Leo said.

  “It looks delicious.” I finished as the waiter left us to eat.

  “We can both serve up at the same time. There’s so much food here, I don’t know if we can get through it all,” I said as I began to plate up. “You know, Leo, you are such a gentlemen, you really are. I have never met anyone as polite as you.”

  “I was brought up like that.”

  “Well your parents did a fine job.”

  “I’ll tell them when I see them.”

  I couldn’t get any more food on my plate, I placed it back down in front of me. “Your turn.”

  Leo put some food on his plate and we began to eat discussing the taste of the food as we worked out what we did and didn’t like. I quite liked the taste of the dolmades; grape leaf parcels stuffed with rice, pine nuts, herbs and seasoning; with savoury warmth and a sourness at the same time, an unusual taste sensation for me.

  We finished up and Leo took c
are of the bill with the voucher Ryan had given him and then we walked through town to the cinema. I asked Leo to walk a little slower than our normal speed as I had not yet broken in my heels, but I was managing to walk in them quite well. Taking our seats in the theatre, Leo put my legs up on his knees, took off my shoes and massaged my heels.

  “That should make your feet feel better,” he whispered.

  Someone in the cinema made a hush noise, I don’t think they directed it at us, but nonetheless we remained silent for most of the movie. Towards the second half of the film I placed my legs in front of me on the floor and put my hand on the top of Leo’s thigh and rested it there, he did the same to me. Sometimes I would move my hand up and down his leg, as if trying to find a comfortable place to rest it. When I did this Leo would glance over at me, once he leaned into my ear and tucked my hair behind my ear so he could whisper, “If you do that one more time, I am going to have to take you outside and have my way.”

  “Well, why don’t you then?” I suggested.

  Leo stood up and pulled me along behind him. We walked down the row of seats apologising to everyone as we did so, until we made it outside. There was not a soul to be seen in the cinema corridors and Leo used the opportunity to pull me towards him using my belt. My hips slammed into his lower body, my chest met his, he took one hand and looked at my face for a brief moment and kissed me purposefully, prizing my mouth open, running his fingers through my hair, oh my if we weren’t in a cinema corridor..... my mind wondered, I couldn’t wait to get back to the house.

  Eager to get home, we made our way outside. The night sky was dark and I was cold in only my fitted jacket. Leo took his jacket off and put it around my shoulders and rubbed my arms. “Is that better?”

  “If I’m wearing this, you will be cold,” I said trying to take it off and give it back to him.

  He held one hand up. “I’m fine,” he assured me.

  Leo put his arm around my shoulders and we walked together towards the taxi rank with resolve, we wanted to get back to the house. We walked past the library, and some shops, and through a car park that led to the taxi rank. As we strolled through the car park, we noticed three men, play fighting with each other. I clocked them briefly but kept on walking as Leo led the way.