AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I fingered Leslie’s letter and then wadded it up and tossed it into the trash. “I’m good. Just needed to hear your voice.”
“And I needed to hear yours, so we’re even.”
“Yeah.” I took a bite of pizza bagel. “I love that about us.”
That was as close as I’d come to telling him I loved him. Maybe one day soon.
For now, just being on the phone with him was enough.
Chapter Sixteen
‡
The next Saturdayafternoon, after hours of distracted studying for upcoming midterms, it was time to head out.
Before I left, as I crammed some string cheese into my mouth so I would have the strength to make it to Kingston, I fielded a few questions from my parents about Daniel and the plans for the night.
“So, you’re happy with this new boy?” Mom asked. She was at the stove watching a can of soup heat, like she might burn it. Knowing her, she would find a way. “Actually happy?”
Dad sighed and rolled his eyes from the kitchen table where he was chewing on what looked like an over-microwaved Lean Cuisine.
Mom’s attitude toward Daniel had shifted after I’d spent the night with him at Bobby’s house. She was suspicious of him now. I could practically read it on her face whenever Daniel came up—which was every day. She thought he was just in it for sex. “Yes. I’m happy.”
“He’s nice?” She’d asked me this several times before.
“Super nice.”
Then came the next expected question, the one I’d been avoiding answering for a couple of weeks now, because the reasons behind why the answer wasn’t “today” were none of her business. “When can we meet him?”
“Soon.”
“When is ‘soon?’”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not a good answer.”
“No. It isn’t,” I said with a cheeky grin.
Alas, that wasn’t the end of Mom’s interrogation. I finished up the string cheese as my mother reminded me about safer sex, requested my wallet, checked inside for a condom, and handed it back to me after confirming its presence.
Deciding that was enough indulging her new overbearing-mother persona, I grabbed my bag. “I’m headed out. Don’t wait up. I might stay over at Daniel’s if the party goes late.”
The truth was, Iplannedto stay at Daniel’s. His enormous house was empty—well, empty ofpeople—and there were plenty of rooms I’d never seen, and lots of surfaces he might want to see me spread out on…
After two weeks of just phone calls, I was down for any and all of it.
“Be careful,” Mom called, as I kissed Dad’s temple. “Don’t drink and drive.”
“Don’t drink at all!” Dad amended. “You’re not twenty-one!”
With a sigh of relief, I stepped out the back door and walked around the house to my Volvo.
When I was on the interstate, driving toward Kingston, I popped in a new mixtape Daniel had mailed to me the week before. It’d come complete with a letter explaining why he’d chosen each song, how they made him think of me, or what they meant to him. To say I’d almost swooned was not an overstatement.
“The Whole of The Moon” by The Waterboys was the first song on the tape, and as the thrumming opening began, a helpless grin took over my face. I couldn’t wait to see him. I knew a number of our friends would already be there when I arrived, but just being in Daniel’s company, seeing his smile would be…so good. I felt like I could fly.
The nights were falling earlier now that we’d passed into September, but there was still plenty of evening left. Heading west into the blinding light of the falling sun, I almost didn’t notice the Easter-egg green Mercedes in my rearview mirror.
