Original publication date July 4, 2015
We both sit down on his little couch, and I decide I like the jazz playing on his little stereo.
“Want to watch a movie?” he asks casually, trying to dispel all the tense feelings after our first argument.
“I like the music; it’s nice,” I reply.
“Really?” he asks, sounding surprised. “Me too.”
We sit and enjoy the music as a woman sings about how a good man is hard to find. Graham keeps staring at me, similar to how he did that first night after we looked at the stars. I don’t know how he thinks I’m gorgeous like he said. I’m just ordinary. He’s the one with the gorgeous features, but I can’t look back at him right now.
His hand moves, and his fingertips gently push my chin in his direction before returning to my shoulder.
I giggle. “What?”
“It’s easier to stare at you when you’re not facing away from me,” he replies, confirming my wondering if he really was staring at me.
“It’s not polite to stare,” I say happily.
He sighs. “Then I guess I’m not being very polite.”
“You’re making me self-conscious.”
He tilts his head around and lightly kisses me once. “Oh well. That’s your problem.”
I let out a mock-scoffing noise, open my eyes, and smile at him. He smiles and kisses me again. This time, there’s a pleading note to his kiss. I have no honest idea what he’s pleading for, but for some reason, it makes me nervous. His other hand comes up to cup my cheek, and he tilts his head as his soft lips press into mine then pull back only to press into me again. His tongue teases me. Every time I think it’s going to stay put and let me participate, he moves it, frustrating me. A noise escapes me. He answers with a groan.
Too much! I pull back suddenly and open my eyes. He looks back at me, panting slightly, his lips parted.
“I should go,” I say, and he stops halfway towards me like he was about to kiss me again.
“Go where?” he asks in a breathy voice.
“Home.” I shrug like he should’ve known that. He sits down next to me. I’d not realized he’d moved while he kissed me.
“To your campsite?” he asks simply.
“Yes.”
He brings his lips in in a contemplative way, then he releases them to say, “I cannot simply go drop you off in the woods somewhere, wherever it is.”
He wants me to stay. I can see it in his eyes. Another battle of wills.
“But that’s where I live, it’s where I’ve lived for weeks,” I gently explain.
“Yeah, you did…until I found out about it.”
My face starts to fall as my mood sours. “Graham, don’t be this way.”
“What? Care about you? You don’t even have a cellphone should something happen to you.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re just like the rest of them.”
His head backs up. “The rest of them? Who?”
I make a waving motion with my hands. “My friends. Sade, Alex, Grayson… All trying to get me to stop living in a tent.”
“And what other options did they provide?” he asks, and I see him glare slightly. I somehow don’t think the glare is directed at me.
“Well, Sade didn’t offer, but both Grayson and Alex started up talking about spare rooms at their houses. I told them no, but they keep at it every chance they get.” I watch as Graham’s jaw starts clenching, and it makes me want to giggle.
“Friends,” I remind him and nudge him with my shoulder.
His expression softens into a grin, and he lets out a guilty laugh. “Sorry. It’s just… Well, guys asking you to move in with them. I’m not allowed to react?”
“This was before I even met you.”
“So, tell them you have a boyfriend now and to back the hell off about the move-in invites.”
“Graham!” I laugh. “Are you seriously jealous?”
“Yes!” he lets out with a laugh and starts tickling me. I squeal and try to fight him off, unable to keep from laughing.
While I laugh and he keeps tickling me, he says, “Because I don’t have the ‘spare bedroom’ option.” Then, his voice takes on an uber-seriousness to it, even as he still tickles me, as he asks, “Stay here tonight, Brielle.”
“Stop, stop, stop!” I beg, meaning everything from the tickling to what he just asked. “Wait. What did you just say?” I work on catching my breath and cautiously watching his hands, making sure he doesn’t start tickling me again.
His eyebrows go up in a super-cute way for a second before he says, “I can’t just drop you off in the middle of nowhere so that you can go spend the night in a tent. Why not just stay here?”
“No. That’s… No.” I shake my head, and his smile slides off his face.
“Then give me another option I can live with.”
“You can come see how nice my campsite is. It’s probably nowhere near as bad as you think,” I offer.
“If I do that, I’m staying because I will not leave you alone out there,” he promises. “Brielle, I’ll sleep on the couch if that’s what you need.”
But will you STAY on the couch? “Graham, please. I’ve lived like this for weeks. I’ll be fine.”
“I already explained this, I think. That was before you met me, and I can’t, in all good conscience, let you go off alone into the woods, cellphone or no cellphone, which makes it even worse.” He swallows. “What about your sister?”
“Nyla? I can’t stand her. I told you that.”
“Right now, that doesn’t matter. It’s an option I can live with.” He lets out a huff. “Go ahead and get pissed off. Make your choice: here or your sister’s.”
I angrily get in the car with him, and we drive to Oasis Springs to my sister’s house. “It’s the middle of the night,” I complain.
Graham smiles at the road in front of him. “We could always go back to my place.” I sense him holding his breath, hoping I’ll agree.
I suddenly panic. “Don’t tell her you’re my boyfriend.”
Graham laughs. “As you said it, it’s the middle of the night. Doesn’t that look suspicious? Why don’t you want her to know I’m your boyfriend?”
“I don’t want her teasing me,” I quickly make up. “Just say you’re a friend, a concerned friend that wouldn’t listen to reason.”
“Reason being letting you go and live in a tent with no contact with the outside world. Sure, if that’s what you mean, I’m being unreasonable.” He kisses my hand to let me know he didn’t mean that in a mean way. He holds my hand as much as he can the entire ride over to her house.
He keeps stubbornly holding my hand as we walk up to her front door.
“Graham!” I whisper in a panic. He chuckles, lifts my hand to his mouth, and licks my palm.
“Okay,” he concedes, folds his arms, and leans against the house. He gestures to the front door. “Ring the doorbell…unless you want to go back to my place.” He grins at me, daring me. I can’t decide which is the dare and which is the one he really wants me to do. Well, I have a good idea.
“She’s not coming,” I say in an aggravated voice. If she doesn’t answer the door, Graham is going to insist I spend the night with him! I knock on the door again.
“This had better be important!” we hear growled through the door. I breathe a sigh of relief that Graham doesn’t miss.
Nyla answers the door, wearing her scrubs. She must’ve just gotten off work. “Brielle? What are you doing here?” She looks at Graham, sizing him up. “Who’s your friend?”
I watch my sister’s reaction to my boyfriend, entertained. Yeah, he’s hot.
Graham speaks up. “Hi, my name is Graham Taylor. I’m a friend of Brielle’s, a concerned friend.” I sense him giving me a look.
She looks from one of us to the other one back and forth for a second or two before she says, “A friend. Uh huh.” Her tone implies she doesn’t really believe it. Please don’t say anything about my age!I suddenly worry.
Graham pretends to be confused. “Yes. We met in the park about a week ago, and today, she told me of her living situation. Brielle?” He turns to me, indicating that I should ask Nyla for help.
“Could I stay here for a little while?” I ask, wanting to vomit after speaking the words. Maybe I could run away in a few days.
She turns to me. “I’ve never said you couldn’t. You’re the stubborn one that insists on living in that tent.”
I cut my eyes over to Graham to see him smiling happily. I’ll run away later. “Thank you,” I say simply, wanting to fuss her out but holding it in.
“You can go have the room I made up for you.” She gives me that snooty look like she knows I hate the way she decorates.
“Okay. Goodnight, Graham. Thanks, Nyla.” I walk stiffly into the house.
‘My’ room happens to be just on the other side of the wall from my sister and my boyfriend. Curious, I press my ear against the wall.
“So, you’re one of Brielle’s friends,” Nyla says in a happy voice. “Are you seeing anyone?”
WHAT?!
Graham clears his throat. “Yes. I have a gorgeous girlfriend with whom I am falling madly in love.” I can hear the laughing smile in his voice, and I sigh happily.
“Oh. Strange way to answer, but I guess good for you. If we could all be so lucky. Well, thank you for convincing my little sister to come to her senses and rejoin regular society.” There’s a pause, and I have to strain to hear Nyla’s next words. “If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you, you know where to find me.”
I want to claw my sister’s eyes out! What if Graham decides he wants her? She’s old enough for him! She looks a lot like me! No! I think desperately.
Graham clears his throat again. “Uh… Thanks. Take care of your little sister.”
I hear his car drive away before Nyla comes back into the house. She must’ve watched him drive off.
My sister has a crush on my boyfriend. Fabulous, I think sarcastically.
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