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Chapter 4
Julianna
“Damn, she must not be in here. The one day she plays hooky,” I hear my uncle mutter, and I pull back from the kiss. Brody and I stare at each other, listening to the sounds of his feet retreating toward the back door. Finally, we hear the slam of the theater doors, and the silence surrounds us again. We still don't pull away from each other.
“Initially, I only did that to keep you quiet… actually, that’s a lie. I've wanted to do that for years,” I breathe out. Oh my God, I can’t believe I just admitted that to the guy I have been in love with forever.
“Really? I’ve wanted to do that since the second grade,” he tells me honestly, with a smirk playing on his wet lips. They are gleaming from our kiss, and the only thing I want to do is lean back in and taste him again, but before I can, he pulls away.
“Come on, looks like you need an escape for the day since you are, after all, playing hooky,” he says, mimicking my uncle's words and holding out his hand for me. I smile, taking his extended hand and letting him sneak me out of the school.
“We can ride around for a while and then get lunch. Then you can tell me exactly what you did this time to make your uncle want to track you down.” I laugh nervously at telling him what I wrote on the lockers of those cheerleading bitches. The only good one on that godforsaken team is Bailey. She’s nice to everyone, and recently I’ve seen her saddled up with Brody’s friend Alec. They make a cute couple. Still, it pisses me off with the rest of the cheer team bitches.
I caught half of them ganging up on Birkley, trying to take her instrument case and throw it over the school steps. They told her how big of a band geek she was and that no one looked her way twice as soon as they got a good look at her “metal mouth.”
I snapped and ran straight to the art room, then went to their lockers with sweet, sweet justice in mind. But maybe he’ll forget about it by lunchtime. Brody drags me down the row of seats, breaking me free of my thoughts and the school until we make it to the door.
Brody peaks his head out the side door, and when he doesn’t see anyone, he pulls me out, and we rush down the halls. We make it to the very last hallway, but my uncle is at the very end of it.
“Shit,” Brody says before yanking me in between a wall and a locker. There isn’t much room to even breathe. I can feel every inch of Brody pressed against me. Every. Inch.
My body responds immediately. I’ve never given guys a second glance in all of my eighteen years, only Brody. No one ever lived up to him or even just the thought of him, so I focused entirely on theater. I don’t regret that fact either. Theater is my life. I love everything about it, and while I would have loved to be on the Broadway stage one day, it's just not in the cards for me. Not with my mother being sick and everything else about my life. That's okay, though. I know I will have no regrets. With Brody holding me tight and sneaking me around, my future feels like it’s shifting. Changing into something completely different, unexpected, but one where I get to spend the rest of my life with him.
“Okay, I think he turned back toward his office and took the left hallway. If we make a run for it now, we should be able to get to my bike without a problem,” he says right before he takes my hand again, and we’re racing out the door and straight toward his bike.
“Your motorcycle? We can take my car,” I say, pointing to my dodge neon.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe it. Is Julianna Davis afraid of something?” he teases me. That just won’t do, nope.
“Oh, don’t you dare put that out into the universe. Someone could hear you, then what would happen to my street cred?” I say, lifting my nose in the air and walking straight over to his bike. Then I realize my mistake. I look at his bike with complete confusion, and I hear him chuckle behind me.
“Do I get on first, or do you? Where's your helmet? What helmet am I going to wear?” I have more questions, but before I can keep spitting them out at him, one right after the other, he pulls me into his arms and kisses me until I forget everything, even my name.
“I’ll hop on first, then help you on,” he says, doing just that and holding a hand out to me. I take it and throw one leg over the side. I take one last look back at the school and then shriek when Brody starts the bike, kicks it into gear, and takes off.
The feeling this is giving me is so freeing. I can't hear anything, I can't see anything, but I can feel everything. Brody looks over his shoulder at me, grabs his sunglasses from the front of his shirt, and hands them to me. I place them on my face and instantly feel much better. This is amazing, the best feeling in the world. It feels like I’m actually living for the first time since getting the news about my mother. I squeeze Brady’s middle a little bit tighter as those thoughts come racing back, but I’m not ready for this moment to end. Brody grabs my hand and interlocks our fingers, showing me the support I need.
And just like that, we ride throughout town, forgetting all about school, about the trouble behind us, about my mom being sick, about my dreams changing. I haven’t felt this light in so long. I just want to cry. Letting the wind take away that ever-increasing weight on my shoulders was precisely what I needed all along. I had no idea that this was what I needed. Actually, what I needed all this time was Brody. I won’t put all my worries and struggles on his shoulders, even though I know he could carry them all with how massive they are.
This is my cross to bear. These are my worries and fears, and I will learn to control them one day. For right now, I’ll just enjoy the freedom Brody gives me. When he eventually leaves this town behind, I’ll be right there supporting and still loving him. I may have only talked to this man for the first time yesterday, but that doesn’t change how I feel. How I’ve felt since we were little kids. I’ve spent all these years watching him, observing him, falling in love with him and his huge heart over and over again.
I hate the thought of him leaving this town and me behind, but I also know he’s itching to get the hell out of here. Who wouldn’t? There’s nothing here for him. Nothing but bad memories and a town full of people who judge him for where he comes from and who they think he is. No, I can't blame him if that’s his choice.
Before I know it, we are pulling up to a dairy queen two towns over from ours. I haven't actually been here since I was a little girl.
“I figured ice cream and some food before I have to take you back for rehearsals,” he tells me, helping me off the bike.
“How do you know what time my rehearsals are?” I ask him, wondering how he knows anything about the upcoming show, really.
“Baby, I’ve spent years learning everything about you. That includes every minute I can and can’t spend with you.”
Yep, he’s got my heart, and he’s going to take it anywhere and everywhere he goes.
