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Pushing up from the table, I meander down the hallway to the living room. Pausing in the entryway, I look at Travis. I mean really look at him. His tall, lean body is perched on one side of the couch with the box of pizza in his lap. His wavy brown hair, that’s always in his face, is hiding the most gorgeous light brown, amber eyes I’ve ever seen. Wearing ripped jeans that sit low on his hips, and a plain white tee, I swear, he looks every bit the bad boy my father accuses him of being. Maybe in some ways he is, but to me, he’s just the impossibly sweet boy next door that makes my heart beat just a little too quickly.
With a sigh, I stride over to the couch and hop over the back, landing on the cushion beside him.
“So, what did your pops want?”
Stealing a slice of pizza from the pizza box, I bring the cold slice to my lips and close my eyes. Cold pizza, breakfast of champions. Well ok, maybe not champions, but teenage stoners all over the world? Yes.
“To tell me that my Uncle Evan is coming to stay here. Damn near 18 years old and apparently he doesn’t think I’m capable of taking care of myself,” I snort.
“Damn, I don’t think I’ve seen him around here since what, middle school?”
I nod my head and swallow a half chewed bite of pizza too quickly and cough before responding.
“Yeah, mom never liked him. The last time I saw him around they had some huge argument in the dining room and she threw him out. I don’t even know him all that well. This is all such bullshit. It’ll basically be like living with a stranger.”
“Eh, maybe it won’t be so bad. He still works at the courthouse?”
“Yeah, I think so, head prosecutor, at least last I heard,” I shrug.
“Then maybe he’ll never be around.”
The rational side of my brain is saying that Travis is probably right, but the other side of my brain? Well, it just kicked itself into overdrive. Mom was the warmest, kindest person I’ve ever known. For her not to like someone, especially her own flesh and blood, there has to be more than what meets the eye. Something is buried beneath the surface, and if mom didn’t like him, didn’t want him around… then I’m not sure that I do either.
“I dunno, I don’t wanna talk about it anymore.”
“Come on,” he stands up, sets the pizza box on the couch, and grabs my hand, pulling me to my feet.
“What are we doing?”
“Getting your mind off of shit,” he winks.
My hair whips in the wind as Travis cruises down the deserted, back roads of Lakeview. Resting my face against his back, I wrap my arms tighter around his waist, digging my fingertips into the warm flesh of his stomach. His motorcycle speeds past the trees and open fields, and all I see is a blur of blue sky and green tree lines. Smiling, I inhale the sweet smell of wildflowers intermingled with the earthy scent of oak lingering in the air.
Turning down a narrow, gravel road, he slows down, weaving down the path through the woods, and I know exactly where we are heading. Our spot at the lake. Our place. A little piece of paradise away from everyone and everything. Where we can just exist together.
Slowing down, he comes to a stop, and I hop off of the bike, brushing my shining pale yellow hair from my face.
“Come on Spence,” he climbs off the bike, grabs my hand and pulls me toward the lake.
Water ripples across the shoreline, the small waves climbing further and further up the sand, only to pull back, leaving a thin layer of foam in its wake. Dropping the folded up blanket on the ground, I kick my sneakers off and dig my toes into the cool sand.
“I didn’t bring a swimsuit,” I whine.
“So what?” he laughs, waggling his eyebrows at me and winking.
Pulling his t-shirt over his head, he drops it on the ground. As he kicks his sneakers off, he unbuckles his belt. I stare in awe at every inch of his skin as he slides his jeans down, stripping to nothing but his boxers, and my heart races a million miles a minute. Smirking, he turns and runs through the sand to the old docks. With a loud whoop, he cannonballs off the ledge into the lake and hits the water with a huge splash. I cringe just a little because I swear one day those crumbling old docks will just fall apart beneath one of us.
A smile tugs at the corners of my lips as I watch him swim to the surface. His wet hair dripping in his eyes.
“Come on! Get in!” he shouts playfully.
Ripping my t-shirt off, I quickly drop my jeans and kick them off to the side, as I run into the water in my bra and underwear, splashing water all around me. Dipping below the surface of the cold lake, I swim under water in his direction. When I come up for air, he’s so close, we are nearly touching.
“You need to stay off that dock nerd, it’s going to collapse soon!” I splash him in the face with water as I chastise him.
Grinning he splashes me back, and I have to bite back a smile of my own.
Travis hasn’t been himself lately. I thought maybe it was his own grief over my mom’s illness and death, but it’s something else entirely. Something is going on that he isn’t letting me in on. Moody and withdrawn, I’ve felt him slipping from my grasp like grains of sand falling between my fingers. Seeing this side of him today, the goofy boy that I love, it’s making my heart pound so loudly that I can barely hear the the cawing of the birds over the sound of my blood whooshing through my ears.
