After we all said our goodnights, Charlie and I headed to the bedroom. I was excited for just the two of us to exchange gifts in private, I was glad he thought of doing it this way. After the way I reacted to Noah’s wonderful gift, I felt like I needed to make it up to Charlie. Entering the room first, he sat down at the foot of the bed and watched me close the door. I slowly walked into the middle of the room and then stopped, his eyes never straying away from mine.
“Thanks for spending Christmas with me.” I said keeping my voice low.
“Our first Christmas babe, are you ready for your presents?” He asked, wagging his eye brows up and down. I giggled nodding my head, it was unbelievable how he made me do the most girlish things sometimes. “Come here beautiful girl.” I obeyed, walking to where he sat on the bed. He spread his legs wider so I could stand closer to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. His hands wrapped around to the back of my legs and they instantly felt like jelly just from that simple touch. He craned his neck up to look at me. Making his neck flex and show it off in such a sexy way, I instantly wanted to rub my lips across it. “I am kind of nervous to give you my gifts after seeing how much you liked Noah’s…and I didn’t even know how much you liked that book. I am your boyfriend, I am supposed to know those things about you, not him.” His words broke my heart a little, I totally understood why he would feel that way.
My lips touched his gently a few times before I spoke. “I do like the book, and I am sorry we haven’t shared everything about each other in the past four months, but just because Noah knew about that doesn’t take away anything from us and believe me, just because he knew one of my favorite books, doesn’t mean he knows me better than you do. I have shared so much of myself with you that it terrifies me sometimes just how much in love I am with you.”
He held me close, just looking into my eyes, then a smile lit up his face. “Present time.” He pulled me down on the bed to sit before he got up and dug through his backpack pulling out two items. Walking over to the fireplace, he turned it on and the flames made the room glow and shadows dance all around us. He joined me on the bed again and looked nervous.
“Charlie just being here with you is wonderful so stop stressing about my gifts because you have already made me very happy.” That seemed to relax him a little before he presented me with my gifts. The first was a small velvet box, and the other was an envelope, which immediately intrigued me. I opened the small box and lifted a necklace out. I eyed it. It was exactly like the one he had gotten me for my birthday but this one had a letter C instead of an A. I held it in my hand and looked at him. Without saying anything, his arms went to the back of my neck moving my hair away.
“So my thinking for this was that I could wear your A and you could wear my C,” as he unclasped my A necklace. I hadn’t taken it off since my birthday. I loved my necklace, it was the first piece of jewelry I had ever been given and he had hit the nail on the head. It was simple and beautiful, not too much fuss. He did know me better than anyone.
“Would that be okay my beautiful girl?”
I nodded my head, “yes, I love that idea, thank you so much.” He clasped his C necklace around my neck before fastening my A around his. It was a statement of his devotion, like he was branding us, we belonged to only each other and now everyone could see it.
He grabbed the envelope from the bed and handed it to me. “Now that I got the more serious gift out of the way, this one is more fun.” Giving me a wink and his best smile, I slowly opened it pulling out two concert tickets. My eyes got huge as I looked them over.
“You didn’t.”
“I did.”
“Charlie, I am so excited!” He had gotten us tickets to see my favorite band in concert this summer.
I attacked him, making him laugh. “So you think we will still be together this summer huh?”
He kissed my nose. “We will be my love, because I am never letting you go.” My stomach fluttered and all I could do was hope with all my heart that that was true.
“Don’t ever let me go.” I managed to get out before I crashed my lips to his. Pushing him down on the bed I quickly straddled him and kissed him eagerly, running my hands all over his torso. I wanted, no I needed to show him what I was feeling. We spent the rest of Christmas and well into the night doing just that and the last thought I had before I drifted off was that I didn’t even give him his gifts yet.
I WOKE up the next morning in a tangled mess of sheets and Charlie. I was burning up from all of it and needed to get out but still smiled at him, all cuddled up next to me. I tried to scoot away but his arms instantly constricted like a snake holding its prey captive.
“Charlie don’t, I have to use the bathroom really bad. Let me up.” He moaned his disagreement but allowed me up. After I used the bathroom and brushed my hair and teeth, I went back into the bedroom, finding Charlie still zonked out. He had rolled over onto his back but the sheet still covered his lower regions and his arm was behind his head. His naked upper body was on full display. I had been with him all night and yet seeing him lying there all manly and sexy, I just wanted him all over again. The light caught my A necklace and it glistened against his skin. Kneeling on the bed right next to him, I traced his facial features with my fingertips, running them from his forehead down his nose, to his lips and chin, before gently kissing his pink lips. He smiled and made a cute noise. “Good morning.” I said softly.
“Hmmm babe I wish we could wake up like this every morning.” Pulling me on top of him and running his hands up and down my backside.
“Guess what?” I said as I peppered kisses all over his face and neck.
“What?”
“We got carried away last night and I never gave you your gift.” His eyes shot open and he smiled.
“Well get to it woman,” he said before slapping my butt, causing me to shriek. I got up off the bed and went to a small closet that held my stuff. I had brought it with me in the hopes he would be back before school started. I pulled out the large box and he shot from the bed throwing his underwear on. I had wrapped it but the shape of the box let him know right away what it was.
“Babe you got me a hockey stick?” He looked very excited. I didn’t know the first thing about hockey gear so I had taken Zach with me to help shop for it. He tore the paper off the box in record time and just starred at it. “I can’t believe you bought this stick.” I nodded, I didn’t know anything about the stick. The guy at the store had explained why this was the best stick out there and Zach agreed but for all I knew it was crap.
“Do you like it?” I asked feeling extremely anxious.
“Babe this stick is so awesome but it must have been expensive. You didn’t have to.”
I stopped him from going any further. “I wanted to.” He moved quickly from the box to me and again we were lost in each other well into the afternoon.
CHARLIE WAS leaving today to head back home to spend the rest of break with his mom, since he had ditched them all at Christmas to come here. I knew it was the right thing for him to do but that didn’t mean I liked it. I knew I was going to miss him and ringing in the New Year without him just felt wrong. I wanted Charlie in my life; I wanted to share every event together, whether it was big or small. I just wanted him with me all the time, I don’t think I will ever tire of him. Tess and I were going to stay at the hotel until school started back up so that meant Charlie and I were not going to see each other for at least five days. This would be the longest time we spent apart since we got together. That exact thought was running through my head when his strong arms wrapped around me from behind and he nuzzled into my neck.
“I need to get going babe.” I held his arms to me tighter and made a whiney noise. I felt him smile against my neck before he turned me around in his arms. “It’s only for a couple days, I have some serious son time to make up for.” He placed a kiss on my forehead while I looped my arms up and under his shoulders.
“Call me when you get there so I know
you made it home okay.” Turning my face into his chest I breathed him in. I was so far gone over him I felt obsessed sometimes. I pulled back slightly to look at him. His hand came to my necklace and touched it gently.
“I love you Ash.”
“I know, me too.” His eyes went from the necklace to mine and I could see he didn’t like my choice of words. That is what I used to tell him before when I couldn’t say the actual words to him and I know he didn’t like it but he let out a sigh and let it go. He put his backpack on and winked at me before walking out the door.
I was sitting on the couch eating a bowl of cereal and watching bad TV when Tess came out of her room.
“What time is it?” She asked groggily. She still had her pajamas on and her eye mask was on top of her head as she plopped down next to me.
‘It’s almost three in the afternoon you bum.” She shrugged her shoulders like she didn’t care. I went back into the kitchen taking my bowl to the sink and grabbing a water bottle. When I came back, Tess was gone again. I spent the next hour reading my Gatsby book. The next time Tess came out, she was a picture of perfection like always.
“You ready?” I didn’t look up from the pages.
“For what?”
“Let’s go walk around, get something to eat and shop, maybe catch a movie. We haven’t been out much since we got here, come on.” She was right Charlie had kept us in my bedroom mostly and the thought made me smile.
That’s how Tess and I spent the remainder of Christmas break. We shopped and saw way to many movies. We ate out almost every night and just hung out and talked. Noah stopped by once, just to say hi. He said he had a couple things to do in Portland. Other than that, it was just us girls. Charlie called me every night and texted throughout the day. He was doing exactly what he said he was going to do, just hanging with his mom. I got a little nervous thinking about the next time I would see Anna. I knew that Charlie leaving their yearly Christmas trip for me must have been hard and I probably wasn’t her favorite person right now.
I was surprised when Tess wanted to stay in the hotel room for New Year’s Eve. I figured she would want to drag me to every party in the city but ever since her break up with Zach, she hadn’t shown any interest in anyone else. I think she was really falling for Zach but he burned her and Tessa wasn’t the type of girl that got burned, she was usually the one doing the burning. So we sat on the floor drinking champagne and watching the count down. Charlie had called before the countdown started and we wished each other a happy New Year over the phone.
“Wish I could give you a New Year’s kiss,” he told me. I agreed wholeheartedly, it had been way to long since I felt his lips on mine and I was so done with being apart. Tess and I were heading back in the morning and I was so happy I could barely sleep that night.
We arrived back late in the evening. I had sent Charlie a text telling him I was back and that he could pick me up for school in the morning. Something he had been doing for the past two months. I didn’t get a text back that night and in the morning he wasn’t outside waiting for me. I thought it was a little odd, maybe his phone died or something, so I shook it off and walked to school with Tess. We were just approaching the building when Charlie came into my view. He was standing near his truck and my face immediately bloomed with a smile. That was until I got closer and saw who he was talking to. Jaimie. It was as if somebody flipped a switch, I went from being happy to see him, to so annoyed he didn’t answer my text or pick me up because he was too busy talking to her. He finally looked my way and his face lit up but his smile quickly changed to a scowl the minute he saw the annoyance on my face. We walked up to where he and Jaimie were standing, of course she gave me the stink eye right away but I ignored her. If she wanted to play this game I could play too. I grabbed Charlie’s sweater and pulled him inches away from my face.
“I missed you,” I said, then I kissed him. He encircled me in his arms like he always did, not even caring there were people all around. A throat clearing stopped us and I looked Jaimie right in the eye and smiled. “Oh hey Jaimie, how are you? Did you have a good break?” Kill her with kindness I thought to myself but if looks could kill I would be the dead one, she looked so damn pissed at me and to be honest I reveled in it.
“I was actually just telling Charlie that he ruined everyone’s trip when he left the way he did. Anna was crushed and it was all your fault.”
“Jaimie that’s enough.” Charlie said sternly. I wasn’t sure if the bitch was telling the truth or if she was just trying to get to me.
“Well I am sorry you had a bad time Jaimie, was it because you couldn’t spend the whole time trying to get into my boyfriend’s pants?” She put her hand on her hip and glared at me.
“I don’t need to try, he comes willingly.” I immediately tensed. I wanted to punch her face in, but I couldn’t. That is exactly what she wanted, if I punched her, I would get kicked out of the dorms.
“Jaimie stop trying to piss her off because it’s pissing me off. I have warned you too many times about this kind of stuff.” He grabbed my hand and laced his fingers with mine. “Come on babe let’s get to class.” We walked away leaving her standing there with her arms crossed over her chest, still shooting daggers at me. Tess had been silent throughout the entire exchange until she finally spoke.
“That little girl has issues.” Yeah she did and when she was going to stop with the whole charade, I didn’t know. All I knew is that it was getting old.
The rest of the morning passed by uneventfully. Charlie tried to lighten my mood in between classes by tickling me or trying to be funny. I appreciated it but I just felt drained, the first day back and already dealing with drama. During lunch Noah, Tess and I sat together and Charlie was sitting a couple tables away with Zach, who spent almost the entire time sneaking glances at Tess I thought I saw Tess doing the same a few times, that was until the cheerleader he had cheated with came up and sat by him, kissing his cheek. Tess’s nostrils flared as she got up from the table abruptly.
“I hate cafeteria food, it makes me sick. See you guys later.” I contemplated following her but decided against it.
“Those two will never work it out you know.” Noah said before taking a huge bite of an apple.
“Oh yeah? You a dating guru now? Still think you can write that book?” He smiled his big smile while chewing.
“Think about it, they both want the spotlight too much, they are too similar, its opposites that attract,” he said winking at me. I Just shook my head, if that was true then Charlie and I were screwed from the get go.
There was about twenty minutes left for lunch when I went to the bathroom. After doing my business, I was just pulling up my jeans when I heard the door open and a couple girls walk in chatting.
“You guys it was amazing, we spent the whole break together.” I recognized the voice right away. Jaimie.
One of her minions gushed. “That is so awesome, was he like all romantic?”
“Oh you know how Charlie is with me, it’s like a fairytale.” My jaw tightened and my fists clenched at my sides as I listened to her spout her lies. I took a couple deep breaths trying to maintain my cool. I looked out of the crack in the stall to see her and two other girls I recognized from the hockey game. “And look what he gave me.” She said pulling something out from under her shirt for the other girls to see.
“It’s really pretty Jaimie but why would he give you an A necklace?” My heart was beating out of my chest and I started to get hot. That was my A necklace. How in the hell did she get a hold of it?
She rolled her heavy mascara coated eyes at them. “For my last name duh, for Ardusser.” The minions continued to question her obvious lie.
“But wouldn’t he get you a J for Jaimie; getting a letter for your last name is kind of weird I mean…” Jaimie interrupted her, “it is not weird okay, you’re just jealous.”
“But I thought he was dating that dorm girl, Ashton right?”
“Oh please she will n
ever be anything to him but an easy lay. I have his heart obviously.” They finally finished using the mirror and left the bathroom. I slumped down on the floor and attempted to calm myself down. I wasn’t going to let her make me cry, no way in hell would she get one tear from me. So instead of crying and letting my feelings out I kept them bottled inside and soon my sadness turned to anger and I knew just the person to focus my anger on. I left the bathroom and walked straight outside to his truck and sent him a text.
Me: Meet me outside by your truck we need to talk
Charlie: Ok, what’s wrong babe?
Me: Just come out
Few moments later the door swung open and out he comes with a concerned look on his face. “Ash, what happened?” He stepped forward to try and hold me but I moved back and away from him, putting my hand up to let him know I did not want to be held.
“How in the hell did she get it Charlie?”
“Get what? Who?”
Getting Out Page 19