by Amy McClung
We sat on the couch and he reached out and ran his thumb along my cheek, “You are so beautiful,” he said and I looked down as my cheeks redden, he lifted my chin so that our eyes made contact again and he leaned forward and began kissing me and I didn’t stop it, nor did I want to. I lay back on the couch and he gently lay on top of me not breaking the kiss. His body is like stone to the touch but it felt as though he was floating above me. If it weren’t for the passion I felt from his kisses I wouldn’t even know he was lying on me. Then we heard the key in the door and both jumped up, my parents were home. Great. My dad walked in and looked surprised, “Hey Princess, who is your friend?” Without hesitating I said, “This is Quinn, my…boyfriend. He stopped by to check on me since I wasn’t in school today.” It was obvious that introducing him as my boyfriend was a bit shocking to Quinn and my father. Although, Quinn seemed happily surprised with the revelation and that was a good thing. He stood up and went straight to my father and firmly shook his hand, “You have an amazing daughter, sir.” My dad smiled and said, “That I do, son. Sit down please.” He and Quinn sat and started small talk while I went and started dinner.
They were laughing and getting along great from what I could tell eavesdropping in the kitchen. My mom came home just as I was finishing dinner and after she met Quinn she came running in to get the scoop from me and talk about what a “hottie” he was. That was a weird conversation for me. My mom was acting like a teenage girl gushing with her BFF over the star quarterback, creepy. Dinner went well and my parents were not embarrassing believe it or not. Quinn wooed them; in fact he completely won them over. He could propose to me right now and they would probably jump for joy. Ugh, why do I keep thinking about things like that, I know there is no normal future for me and Quinn, for me and anyone. While I was clearing the table, Quinn asked my parents for permission to take a walk with me. Of course they said yes and exchanged looks of disbelief and joy that he asked. My mom came over and took the remaining dishes from me and then gave me a big grin and a girlie squeak of joy. It’s sad when you are more mature than your mother, geez.
Quinn and I stepped outside, it was a clear night and you could see a million stars, he took my hand as we started to walk. I wanted to forget the last couple of days had ever happened but I knew we had to talk about it in the long run so I went ahead and opened the subject, “I’m not mad at you about Mitchell, I never was. I understand that you didn’t do it because you wanted to, you did it because you lost control for a brief second, but it could have been worse.” He didn’t say anything so I continued, “All I heard that day, in my head, was that Jackie was in trouble. Something good came out of it though. You telling me that gave me the strength to tell her what I was and she accepted it. I couldn’t believe how well she took it. The truth about Mitchell was harder for her though. I am not sure why, maybe because Vampires are supposedly always evil whereas werewolves change once a month, as she has always heard that is. Or maybe it was just that she learned one right after the other and it was too much to take. I tried to explain to her how it really was and I finally got through and luckily she and Mitchell are better than ever.” I stopped when I realized I was rambling and he hadn’t said a word. He looked at me, “Why did you stop?” ”I don’t want to bore you with my ramblings” I laughed as I said this and he told me that was nonsense, he loved to hear me talk. What a load. I laughed at that notion. It bothered me a bit that he didn’t respond about what I said but I gave him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he was choosing his words. Perhaps he just needs time to…think it over.
While we were walking a thought came into my head. “Is Will still staying at your house?” Quinn seemed a bit uncomfortable when he admitted, “No, that day that I found you at the park, I kicked him out and he hasn’t been back since. I think he is sneaking into the school at night and sleeping there. Don’t be mad, I just didn’t want him around. It was too hard to look at him. The two of you have this bond, the whole werewolf thing.” His face dropped and his voice got really serious, “I owe you so much more than just an apology Parker. The things I said to you…the part about not caring about you…I just feel…I feel horrible about it. From the moment it came out of my mouth I wanted to take it back. I was just hurt and thought that you didn’t care and that it wouldn’t matter what I said anyway. Then I looked at your expression after I said it, you were heartbroken and it was all over your face and it broke my heart to see that look of pain and know I was the source of it. Then Mitchell told me what happened later and I…well there are no words to express how sorry I am. You do understand that none of what I said had any meaning behind it. It was all a lie that day.”
It was difficult to hear that moment rehashed but it meant a lot to me that he was explaining himself. “I’m not going to lie to you, the things you said did hurt tremendously,” a look of misery came over his face and he dropped his eyes from mine. I lifted his chin till his eyes met mine, “I accept your apology and I know that you didn’t mean it now. I’m not upset anymore, I promise.” He took my hand, kissed it and smiled and then said, “Speaking of mad, it is getting late, I should get you back home while your parents still like me.” He walked me back to the house and the light was still on in the living room, guess my parents were waiting up for me. He did the gentlemanly thing and kissed my cheek and told me goodnight.
Chapter Nine
“Parker, sweetie, can you come downstairs please,” my mom called from the living room. I hung up the phone. I had been telling Jackie about Quinn meeting my parents. I ran downstairs and my parents were sitting looking very serious on the couch. Uh-oh, this can’t be good. “What’s up?” I asked. They motioned for me to sit down, this is probably going to be a lecture about the limitations I have now that I have a boyfriend. I hope it doesn’t turn into an embarrassing sex-ed talk.
“Princess,” my dad began, “my job is requiring me to go to a conference next week, and we will be gone for close to two weeks. It is in Seattle, Washington so your mom and I are going to use this as a chance to take a long vacation together. We were going to ask you to go, but after meeting Quinn and the fact that you are in school at the moment, we think you probably would rather stay here.” I agreed of course, I mean a vacation would be nice but Seattle? It rains there like 24/7 so no big loss. He continued, “That being said, we need to lay some ground rules about the house and what goes on here while we are gone.” I cringed, Oh great, here comes the sex talk, I was hoping I avoided that. “I know what you are going to say dad, and don’t worry, I will not have overnight visits with Quinn or throw any wild parties or do anything crazy like that.” I said. He smiled and said, “I trust you Princess, you are about to turn 18 and you will officially be an adult, plus you have always been more mature than most teenage girls. Quinn seems like a fine upstanding young man. We do not mind if he comes over, and if it makes you feel better for someone to stay with you…” What? My parents are going to allow me to have a boy spend the night! “…you could have Jackie spend the week,” he finished. That makes more sense, for a second there I really thought Quinn had won them over entirely! “Cool dad, I think I will have Jackie stay, girl time would be nice.” I replied.
My parents went on about different rules that I had to follow and told me I had to check in with them every night. When I was excused I went up to my room and called Jackie back. I told her the good news and she was so excited, we were going to have a good old fashioned sleepover, no boys allowed. Well, ok, so the boys would probably be here some, I’m a teenage girl after all, can’t follow all the rules, all the time! Besides, they said no boys could sleep over, but didn’t say that they couldn’t hang with us.
At school the next day, I was standing at my locker when Quinn grabbed me from behind and playfully bit my neck. I squealed and then laughed as I turned around to face him. I couldn’t wait to tell him about my parents and when I did he got a sly look on his face. He was disappointed when I told him not to get any ideas of sleeping over and fi
lled him in on their rules, but he understood. He kissed me and said, “Don’t move” and then turned and reached into his locker, he put his hand behind his back and shut the locker. “Happy Birthday Parker,” he said as he brought his hand around to the front and he had a small box in it. “How did you know?” I said, elated, as I took the box from him. “Jackie told me the other day. I was wondering why you hadn’t mentioned it actually.” I shrugged my shoulders, “truthfully I forgot, it’s never really been that important to me. It’s just another day really” He put his arms around my waist, “Well it’s a very important day to me, so get used to celebrating it from now on, now open your present!” he said eagerly.
All I could think about at this moment is that he is making plans to celebrate my birthday in the future; he really does care about me. The gift was wrapped so perfectly in gold wrapping, inside it was a small velvet box, I slowly opened it and inside there was a ring. No, not THAT kind of ring, come on now! It was a claddagh ring, with an opal heart in the center. My ability to speak was gone, it was so beautiful and this was the first time I’d ever gotten jewelry from a man. Quinn reached in and picked up the ring, he took the box from me and then lifted my hand. My hand jerked back instinctively, “I can’t wear that, its silver!” He reached for my hand again and as he slid the ring onto my left ring finger, he said “its white gold silly,” and it was a perfect fit. “Do you like it? It’s a claddagh ring,” “An Irish ring that symbolizes love and friendship” we said at the same time. I just kept staring at it. “I…I love it. I have always wanted one since Angel gave one to Buffy,” he chuckled at my television reference, “and it has my birthstone in it, I’ve never seen one with a stone in it. Thank you…thank you so much.” I threw my arms around him and hugged his neck tightly, his arms lingered at my waist and he nestled his face in my neck. He started laughing, “Now that is the reaction I was hoping for. I am glad you like it.” Letting go of him I said, “Like it? I LOVE it, it is the perfect gift, and you even got white gold. That was so thoughtful.” He gave me a strange look and said, “Well, silver would not exactly be good for me either, I would prefer to hold your hand without feeling my skin burn.” Hmm, that is news to me, “So Vampires can’t touch silver either? I didn’t know that, does it make you sick?” He shook his head, “No, just burns our skin, I could show you if you want, it will heal it just takes longer than normal.” He started to reach for a trophy in a case nearby to prove his point and I quickly grabbed his arm, “That is really ok babe, don’t need to watch your skin sizzle, I believe you.” He nods in understanding and we headed to the lunchroom.
We joined Mitchell and Jackie in the cafeteria and started making plans for the next week. Jackie and I said we did want some girl time to do our nails, gossip and act goofy without having to impress boys for at least one night. All of a sudden Jackie screamed and grabbed my hand, “What is that! It’s stunning!” I blushed and looked at Quinn, “it’s from Quinn, for my birthday.” Jackie’s hand went to her mouth, “Sweetie I forgot that is today! I am so sorry! I have your gift at home and I will bring it to your house this weekend.” She came around the table and threw her arm around me as she kept squealing over the ring. The guys were just laughing at our how girly-girl we were at the moment. “Happy Birthday Parker,” Mitchell said. As he was saying it Will walked up, “it’s your birthday? I had no idea, Happy Birthday babe” he said and then he leaned down and kissed my cheek. If looks could kill, Quinn would have just murdered him on the spot. I placed my hand on his leg to steady him. He got the hint and did the best to smile, not his normal cute smile though, a forced one. “Thanks Will, please join us for lunch,” I said trying to be nice and ease the tension at the table. So Will sat down on the other side of me and we all tried to act normal but you could cut the tension with a knife. This awkwardness was my fault. I brought Will into our group and I am also the dummy that wasn’t paying attention and basically asked him to kiss me which, in turn, made everyone hate him.
Lunch was almost over and I couldn’t let things continue this way. “Ok, look guys, this is my fault. Will didn’t do anything wrong and he is my friend and I just want all of us to get along. And it’s my birthday so I get what I want, right. So, Will, next week my parents will be out of town and I’d like you to join us one night for movie and pizza night. What do you say?” Quinn looked at me astonished. Will replied “I’d love to, thanks Parker.” Will was grinning and looking straight at Quinn who was fuming. I really wish he would act more mature after all I just extended an olive branch to try and make sure he stays in the group and doesn’t end up alone in the woods again. Instead, he is acting like he just won a round over my boyfriend, and that is so not the case.
After lunch I kissed Quinn and asked him to go on to class without me, he was a bit hesitant at first but gave in and left. I grabbed Will’s arm and pulled him back to the table with me. “What’s up Harris?” he asked. He called me by my last name this time which was actually cool because that’s usually what ‘buddies’ do and it was much better than him calling me babe and making Quinn’s head explode. “Look Will, I need you to help me out here. I care about you and I want all of us to get along but it is hard to do that when you are exchanging smart looks with Quinn all the time and trying to mark territories. You need to meet me half way here and really try to get along with everyone…that includes Quinn.” Will sighed, “I’m sorry Parker. I will do my best but I can’t promise anything. Quinn doesn’t like me, and we won’t ever be best friends but I will try and be on my best behavior from now on. I don’t want to lose you as a friend so I will do this…for you, ok.” I smiled, “that is all I am asking, is for you to try, it means a lot to me that you are willing.” He grinned, “Well, willing is my first name, Will’s just a nickname.” I groaned at his lame joke and he leaned down and kissed my cheek lingering with his lips touching my face for a little longer than he probably should have. As I pulled away from him and turned to walk out of the lunchroom I saw Quinn standing there watching. Great, here it comes. My shoulders slumped, I did not have the energy to fight today, I walked up to him and said in a defeated tone, “I thought we were going to meet in class.” He looked over my shoulder at Will and then took my hand in his, “I just wanted to wait on you so we could walk together, hope that is ok.” And then, that smile, dang he knows how to get me.
At the end of the day, walking home was a bit awkward with Quinn. “I’m sorry about Will. I should have talked to you first. I just felt bad because he left his whole family and he has no one and I couldn’t let him lose a chance at four good friends over a stupid mistake,” I started rambling, again. Quinn stopped me just in time. Thank goodness, I was getting on my own nerves a little. “I’m not mad at you; I could have lived without him kissing you though…twice. But, that’s beside the point, I wanted to say that I thought what you did showed real grace and maturity. That’s one of the things I love most about you. You are different then most teenage girls.” I could not believe he used the L word again. “Quinn, you know you have used the L word more than once with me but we have never actually said it to each other, or even talked about it.” Ok so saying “the L word” lacked a bit in maturity, I’m new at this, sue me!
He stopped and turned to look at me, “Well you loved me from the moment you saw me at the cabin…or at least you were desperately hot for me.” A loud, “HA!” came out of my mouth and I doubled over in laughter in front of him slapping my legs. “Whew, that is a good one, I freaking hated you, you took my safe place and you were a smart as…” He interrupted me, “As I was saying…you wanted me…bad,” He laughed as I smacked his arm and he flinched back laughing at me some more. “Be serious, I think we should talk about how we feel so we know that we are both on the same page,” I told him as his laughter subsided. “I am being serious, Vampires have excellent senses and your hormones were raging that day that you hid on the side of my house,” His mouth turned up on one side in an adorable half grin that was really starting to irk m
e. Throwing my hands up in the air I turned and started walking off, “Forget it.”
Quinn reached out and grabbed my arm and lifted my left hand running his finger over my ring, “This is a claddagh ring, but it is a special kind, it’s called a Trinity Knot, which symbolizes infinite love, faith, loyalty and protection.” Wow, it was an even more romantic gift than I had initially realized. He dropped my hand and then cupped my face with both of his hands, “Parker Harris, You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. Everything about you draws me in, the way you have a slight lisp that makes your words sound so cute, the way you jump the gun and get so mad at me before I finish what I am saying,” my mouth turned up in a smirk at that comment, I do tend to get mad at him all the time, it’s a wonder he puts up with me. He was still listing the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me, “the way you feel so strongly for your friends and family and how protective you are of them. I love your smile, your generous heart, your laugh and the adorable way you ramble” I blushed and there was that sexy grin of his that seems to be reserved for me. “I love how you get embarrassed when I give you compliments…” He kissed my nose, “I love you.” Sigh, that was without a doubt the most romantic moment of my entire life. All these thoughts were racing in my head now. Above all I couldn’t believe I found someone so perfect. How did I get so lucky to find someone so sweet and so damn sexy too! Wait, why is his smile fading? Oh geez, I didn’t respond, big dummy. “Quinn Roberts, I love you more,” I stopped there and just grabbed and kissed him. Whew, nice save Parker. I think that made him happy because he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to him. Have I mentioned that he is a remarkable kisser? Wow.