Charley nods, taking a step back and putting what feels like a mile of distance between us. “Well, I should probably get to bed.”
“Yeah, it’s late.” I take a step back too, immediately missing her closeness and how her scent surrounded me. “Guess I should too.”
We don’t move for several seconds, our eyes focused on one another, before Charley finally breathes a quiet, “Goodnight, Graham,” and walks past me toward the hallway.
“Night.”
Once she’s gone, I place my hands flat on the counter and let my head hang between my shoulders, heaving a sigh.
Friends.
That’s what we are. Charley and I arefriends, and I fucking hate the way that sounds.
13
Graham, Then
Sunny: Meet me in the field once this is over?
A smile tugs on the corner of my mouth as I glance up, finding Charley across the room. She’s surrounded by my sisters and a few other friends, not looking in my direction, but the twitch to her lip tells me she knows my eyes are on her. In a short black sundress and a pair of combat boots, with her black hair cascading down her back in loose waves, Charley is a dream. She’s breathtaking, and as she laughs at whatever her friends are saying, I can’t look away.
Me: We continuing the celebration over there, just the two of us?
Her eighteenth birthday was a few days ago, so my sisters threw her a party at our house today. It’s been going on for a few hours, but I got home not that long ago from work. I scored a part-time summer job working in the kitchen at the old diner near the high school. I’m not doing a whole lot of cooking, mostly on fry duty, but it’s been fun…kind of.
Sunny: Yup, and I know of a perfect way we could do that… ;)
Heat blooms low in my stomach as I reread the message, wondering if Charley means what I think she does. I lift my gaze again, this time finding her already looking at me, and the smirk she’s wearing and the flirty glint in her eyes tell me all I need to know.
Me: Oh, really? Do tell, Sunny, I’m dying to know.
My pulse quickens as I wait for her response to come through. It’s been a few months since the first time we kissed—myfirst kiss—and we’ve been secretly seeing each other ever since. A couple of nights a week when I’m not working, we’ll meet in the field or I’ll sneak into her room through her bedroom window. We’ll talk, listen to music, drink a little bit sometimes, and fool around. After secretly pining over Charley for years now, all of this still feels so surreal. Last week, we were in her room late at night, kissing and dry humping, and it started to go further than that when she unbuttoned my pants, but then her dad woke up and we heard him in the hall so I had to leave quickly.
Ever since then, I’ve been dying to do more with her, and I know she wants to too because it was her who made the move to open my pants, but we haven’t yet. Mostly because she’s been pretty busy with my sisters and getting ready to go off to college, and I’ve been working as much as I can before football practice starts and I have to quit.
The phone vibrates in my hand, and it feels like an aphrodisiac, with the way my body responds.
Sunny: I think you know what I want to do. Maybe come…prepared.
Fuck yeah!
It’s happening.
Charley and I are having sex. Tonight.
Me: I’ll be there…
Having spent the afternoon in a hot kitchen, sweating my ass off, I decide to duck away from the party and take a shower. It’ll kill the time too, because now I’m antsy as hell for everyone to leave. In the bathroom, I clean up the scruff on my face, then decide to do a little trimming below the waist before hopping in the shower. My stomach is full of butterflies, and if I’m being honest with myself, I’m kind of nervous too. This will be my first time, and even though we’ve never explicitly discussed it, I have a feeling this isn’t hers, so I’m worried about being bad at it, or not living up to whatever expectations she may have.
My junior year starts soon, and I’m probably one of the only guys still a virgin in the grade, and the fact that I’m one of the star football players makes it more embarrassing. It’s not that I’ve never had the opportunity to hook up with girls, I just…I don’t know, haven’t wanted to. I think maybe I was holding out, subconsciously, in hopes of doing it with Charley for my first time. That always felt more like a pipe dream until recently, but now that it’s happening, I feel like I could throw up from the nerves rushing through my system.
Once I’m out of the shower, I take my time getting dressed, deciding on a simple pair of jeans and a band tee, not wanting to look like I over thought it, even though I did. Then I run some gel through my hair and get it how I like it. By the time I’m done with all that, I’ve successfully killed about an hour, but given the fact that I haven’t heard anyone in the house, I’m guessing the party isn’t over yet.
Meandering downstairs, I grab a Gatorade from the fridge before popping outback to steal one of the burgers my stepdad grilled earlier, catching Charley’s eye as I do. She walks over inconspicuously, eating a few chips out of the bowl on the table beside me.
“Did you get all cleaned up just for me?” she asks, her icy-blue eyes dragging down my frame before coming back to my face.
“Maybe I did.” A smirk slides into place as I hold her gaze.
