“Yeah, sure,” I answer as he packs his drumsticks back away in his music bag. “I’ll see if I can work on a few lyrics for that last piece before you get back.”
Sam, Corey, and Gaz wave as they head out and I go to grab the notepad and pen back up from the floor. I’ve really gotta get a few words down. The sooner we can get a few songs together, the sooner we can try and get ourselves into a few bars and clubs to perform.
Me and the guys have literally only played together twice, this being the second time. I used to be in a band with Neil and Rye, but seeing as though they’ve decided to take some time out from studying, so they can travel later in the year together, I’m having to start out afresh.
Just last week I held auditions for a drummer, guitarist, and bass player. Luckily, I think I managed to get the best guys from our music class on board. We play mainly indie rock and I write my own material. I play the guitar some of the time, though mainly stick with the mic.
My plans are simple. Get the band going and start gigging around the city, then when we get really good, play further afield. My mom and dad have already said they think that I’m wasting my time on music, but I disagree. They’ve always said that I’ve been a disappointment to them because I opted to study music over law, or whatever it was they had in mind for me the last time we actually sat down for dinner together. As you can probably figure out, we’re not exactly a close family. We never really have been. I think I actually talk to my aunt and uncle in Florida more than I do my own parents.
“Knock, knock.”
I immediately look over to the garage door the guy’s left half open when I hear her voice. “Holly?” Slowly standing up from my seat, I place the pen and notepad back down and cautiously walk over to her.
She takes a small step inside and smiles, “Um … are you busy?”
I shake my head and run my hand through my hair as I near her. She looks uncertain about something. But then, I’m not totally sure why she’s even come here, “What’s up?” Shit. Why are my hands getting all sweaty?
She glances fully around the room before her eyes land back on me, and she’s fiddling with the zipper on her jacket as she takes a step in my direction.
We stand in an uncomfortable silence for at least twenty seconds, “Do you want a soda or somethi—?” Before I get a chance to finish asking, she’s already stepped forward, and in the next instant, I feel her lips on mine.
Is this for real?
She’s pressing her mouth hard against mine and clutching onto my cheeks firmly with her fingers. Before I even have a chance to reciprocate, she steps back and inhales a sharp breath. Her eyes have widened, and she’s watching me with what looks to be anxiety filling her eyes.
“Huh …” I clear my throat as she continues to stare at me. “What was that for?” I ask, not knowing what else to do or say. I lift my hand up to my mouth and touch where her lips were on mine. She completely caught me off guard just now.
“You’re really sweet,” her voice is shaky as she answers me. “Instead of asking me to go and change, you changed where we went on our date instead, and you didn’t cancel your plans with me so you could go to the gig in Seattle, or …”
“You kissed me because you think I’m sweet?”
She nods and begins to fiddle with her zipper again, “Yeah.” Her cheeks are turning a deep shade of pink, and I notice that she keeps breaking her eye contact with me.
“Y’know, there was this one time when I rescued some kids kitten from a tree,” I say, my voice purposely a little deeper now and I take a step closer to her. “I didn’t use a ladder or anything. Yeah. Completely unaided.” I add in more of a hoarse whisper, running my fingers lightly through the soft tendrils of the blonde hair that’s hanging down by the side of her face. “Some would say that was a sweet thing to do …”
She smiles and finally the uncomfortable atmosphere that was surrounding us begins to subside, “Don’t push it.”
“It was worth a shot!” I laugh lightly and shrug my shoulders. “I’m gonna go grab a soda. You want one?”
She shakes her head and steps towards the garage doorway, “No, I’d better get going. Rachael’s waiting in the car.”
I nod and place my hands in my pants pockets, “Right.”
“Right,” she echoes my word, and I notice her taking another deep breath. “Um … Brandon?” I hear her call after me as I make my way towards the steps that lead up to the main part of the house.
“Yeah?” I turn around when I’m midway up the stairs.
“If the offer still stands … um … I mean, do you wanna maybe go out some time … with me?” The nervousness in her voice is evident.
Whoa! Did Holly just ask me to go on a date with her? Well, I’ll be damned. Since she’s the reason for my lack of sleep and the pissed mood I’ve been in ever since I dropped her home last night, I take a couple of moments before answering her. “Yeah …” I say, and shrug my shoulders casually. “Maybe …” And without saying anything else, I head into the house and close the main door behind me.
Happy Anniversary
Brandon
Two Months Later
“Happy Anniversary!” I say as soon the front door opens up, and I see her standing on the other side. “Shit, I’ve missed you.” Practically diving forward over the threshold, I drop the gift that I bought for her on the hallway table to the right. Grabbing a hold of her waist, I pull her up to me as close as I possibly can, instantaneously smashing my lips onto hers. Fine, so it has only been a few days since we last saw each other. But, that’s three days way too fucking long as far as I’m concerned.
I feel her smiling against my mouth, but from the way her hands are placed flat against my chest, I can sense that she’s trying to pull away from me. I throw her a questioning look and notice her cheeks turning a slight shade of crimson, “It’s our two month anniversary tomorrow, Brandon,” she answers my unasked question, and begins to shake her head while jokingly face palming herself.
“Yeah, I realize that, but I couldn’t wait any longer to taste you,” I step forward and grip her by the waist again, trailing kisses over her neck and tipping her back a little in my arms.
“Why? Is she wearing a new flavored lip gloss or something?” Shit. I close my eyes, inhale a deep breath, and then release Holly from my embrace. Now I know why she was pushing me away.
“Nice to see you, Brandon.” I wince as Holly peeks up at me through a lock of her hair. She’s resting her head on my chest and looking more than embarrassed. I know the feeling. I hadn’t realized her mom would be home from work so early.
I wince and look down to the ground before lifting my hand, gesturing a small wave as a hello, “Mrs. Grainger.”
“I didn’t know you were stopping by,” Holly’s voice draws my attention back over on her.
“If we’d have known we would have saved you some dinner,” Holly’s mom offers. “Where you appear to be so famished and all.” She adds with a slight smirk spreading over her face.
I clear my throat, throw them both an awkward smile, and scratch the back of my head, “Thanks, but I already ate.”
“Yes, my daughter’s neck by the looks of things …” she rubs Holly on the arm, and laughs lightly before making her way back through to the main living room.
“Whoops,” I cringe, and then close my eyes for a split second as the door is pushed fully closed from the other side. I look down when I hear another small laugh from my beautiful girlfriend. “So, I bought you something.” I pick the gift wrapped box up from the table.
“Let me guess. Is this the part where you tell me that you’re cancelling our plans again?” her smile has faded, and she holds my gaze as she asks. Shit. “I thought so.” She shakes her head while letting out a small sigh.
“I’m sorry, Holl’s.” I look down to the ground because I hate seeing the look of disappointment in her eyes when I cancel on her. Just recently it seems to have become a regular thing. She leans up and
places a feather light kiss on my right cheek. “We got a call earlier from one of the bars and they’ve offered us a gig for tomorrow night. It’s only an hour set, and we’ll be wrapped up by eight. Then, I’ll be all yours. I promise.”
Nodding, she turns, grabs her jacket from the hallway closet, and then heads back over to stand beside me, “Considering we won’t be spending the whole of our two month anniversary together, then I guess we should make the most of tonight.” I can see the warmth reentering those gorgeous emerald green eyes of hers and wonder what the hell I must’ve done in a previous life to deserve a woman like her.
“You’re not mad?” I ask, disbelieving that she can be so understanding, especially when I had to bail out on the dinner she and her parents invited me over for last night.
“No, I’m not mad,” she opens the living room door and tells her mom she’ll be home by midnight. “You do owe me a ton of ice-cream, though.” She links her arm with mine and steps forward to open the front door.
I pass her the gift box and she places it back down on the table. “You’re not gonna open it up?” My eyebrows furrow. Girls love presents, right?
“I’ll open it tomorrow,” she smiles and pulls the door closed behind us, resting her head back on my shoulder as we make our way towards my car. “Brandon?” Looking down at her and kissing her hair, she lifts her head and smiles. “I want extra choc chips.”
“You got it.”
***
I’ve been tapping the steering wheel ever since she went inside the grocery store. I can see her through the store window, chatting with some chick who’s working on the counter.
My smile is wide and no doubt the cheesiest you’ll ever witness in your life. Never had I once imagined that I’d be sitting here and waiting for my girlfriend to bring out some ice-cream so we can go stargazing together. Shit, and not only that, my girlfriend is Holly. Holly Grainger. The girl of my fucking dreams.
Who knew that the night she walked in on me and Heather in Tye’s bathroom would’ve led to this? Well, I wouldn’t have believed it in a million years. But, here I am, and you know what? Screw it, I’ll say it. I’ve fallen in love and it’s the best feeling in this entire fucking world.
I let her sweat for a couple of days after she came by my garage and kissed me. Well, what did you expect me to do? You’ve gotta keep a girl on her toes, right? We went for a walk, and it was then when I understood why she was hesitant to take me up on my offer of a second date. She judged me on the rumors flying around and wasn’t sure if we’d work. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this next part, I mean, it’s pretty personal. But, well, Holly’s never … y’know. She had her reservations about seeing how things would go between us. She thought I’d expect her to put out after a couple of days, but I assured her that that wasn’t the case. I’d wait my whole life for her to be ready if I had to. She’s special. Really special.
I check my watch and let out a deep breath. She’s been in there for over twenty minutes, at least, and she doesn’t look as though she’s ready to come back out just yet, either. I change the radio station a few times, and when I manage to find a song that I like, I rest my head against the back of the driver’s seat while keeping my eyes still solely on her.
Just lately, we haven’t spent a whole lot of time together. My band have been practicing pretty much non-stop, but I’m in no way gonna complain because all the hard work the guys and I have put in seems to finally be paying off. We’ve managed to secure ourselves our first gig tomorrow night. And, right afterwards, I plan on telling Holly that I’ve fallen in love with her.
To answer your question. No. No, I haven’t told her yet. I wanted to wait until the right time, and I think tomorrow would be a perfect time to tell her exactly how I feel about her.
“What are you thinking about?” Holly breaks me away from my thoughts. I didn’t even notice her leaving the store, never mind expect her to be sitting so close beside me now. She strokes he fingers through my hair, and the gleam in her eyes is telling me that the store must have had her favorite flavor. “Where do you want to go now?”
“I thought we could head a little out of town,” I answer. “There’s a quiet place a few miles away that would be perfect for what I have in mind.”
Her eyes widen some and she’s beginning to look worried, “Um … w-w-what do you have in mind, exactly?” she stutters and I know what she’s thinking. I laugh and lean forward, kissing her right on the lips as I turn the key and switch on the ignition.
“Well, I’d certainly like to know what you think I have in mind.” I say, pulling away just enough so I can look directly into her eyes. She moves back over in her seat and starts to gaze out of the passenger side window. “Relax, Holly. I’ve already told you we’ve got all the time in the world for that stuff. Just when you’re ready. I’ll wait however long it takes.”
She turns back to face me and I can already see her shoulders beginning to relax. She smiles and I reciprocate, before driving out from the parking lot and heading towards the I-5.
Holly
“Rachael, are you still awake?” I whisper and knock quietly on her bedroom door.
It has just turned eleven o’clock and I arrived home only a second ago. The ground floor was in complete darkness when we pulled up outside, so it’s likely my mom and dad are already asleep, and I don’t really want to wake them.
Brandon has just dropped me home. We spent most of the night kissing under the star filled sky, just outside of the city. It was amazing. He was amazing. And, this is why I need to speak with Rachael.
I need some advice.
It got … heated. When I say heated, I mean that it got to the point where I could have easily allowed things to have gone to the next level in our relationship. I’ve already admitted to him that I had my reservations when we first started dating, actually, before we started dating officially. He was used to getting anything he wanted, whenever he wanted it. Whereas I? I’ve never gone past making out with a guy before.
In fact, it was Brandon who’d stopped things from going too far tonight. His hands went a few places and mine roamed over his body, but before anything got out of control, he said it was time to head back home. He told me that he didn’t want anything serious to happen between us in the middle of nowhere. That he wanted to make my first time special. To make our first time together special. I know he meant every single word that he said to me as we laid together under the stars.
The door swings open, “Hey, what’s up?”
“Can I come in for a few minutes?” she opens the door up wider at my request, and I go to sit down in the window seat. She doesn’t look like I’ve just woken her, but she’s already dressed ready for bed. “It’s Brandon.”
“It usually is,” she says, taking a seat beside me and letting out a small giggle while rolling her eyes. “What did he do?”
I can talk to my big sister about anything. I know I can. “I think I’m ready for us to …” Maybe I can’t. I’ve never spoken to her about this subject before because I’ve never had any reason to. I’ve dated, but I’ve never been in a relationship like this before. Especially not with someone like Brandon.
“Okay,” she nods and smiles. “Have you and he spoken about it already? To be honest, I thought you guys may have already had sex.” She shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly.
“Not in so many words, no,” I begin, fiddling with my hands in my lap, “he said he’ll wait until I’m completely ready, and I think I am. It’s just … he’s been with other women and I have no experience. What if it turns out to be a complete disaster?”
“Holly, do you love him?” I nod in response. “Well, okay. You love him and I think that by now, every citizen in the whole of Olympia knows he’s crazy about you, so, why would it end up being anything else but perfect? Have you told him you love him?”
“Not yet. What if I don’t live up to other women he—?”
“Hold up right there, little sis,” she interrupts me
with a sternness in her tone. “We all have doubts but if you love each other, and you say you love him, right?” I nod again and turn my gaze out of the window. “Then it’ll be amazing. For the both of you. I never thought I’d say this about Brandon Taylor, but I think you’ve got yourself a pretty great guy there.”
I turn back to face her as she places her arm around me. Just as I’m about to ask her if mom and dad are using the cabin this weekend, my cell phone beeps. When I take it out of my purse and open the messages, I see Brandon’s name flashing on the screen.
Goodnight, beautiful X
My smile is wide from seeing his words on the screen, and my stomach feels as though it’s doing somersaults inside. I think I also just felt my heart skip a couple of beats.
“Yeah. You know what, Holly?” Rachel squeezes me tightly. “I think you guys will be just fine.”
Unreasonable
Holly
“Candles?”
“Already set out and the wine’s in the refrigerator,” Rachael answers when I walk back through to meet her in the hallway.
Rachael came into my room this morning and told me that our mom and dad are visiting my aunt and uncle in Seattle for the weekend. They left at six o’clock, and won’t be returning home until late tomorrow night, which means that the cabin will be unoccupied for the whole weekend. Butterflies are whirling around in the pit of my stomach at the thought of what’ll happen between me and Brandon tonight.
Last night he said that he’ll be all mine as soon as his gig finishes at eight. What he doesn’t know is that I’ll be all his, too.
I’m feeling nervous, excited, and if I’m to be completely honest, a little nauseous.
There was a message waiting for me on my cell phone when I first woke up this morning. It was from Brandon, telling me that he’ll be able to meet with me this afternoon for a couple of hours before he and the rest of the guys will need to head over to the bar and set up their music equipment.
Misguided Truths: Part One Page 4