Page 28 of Never Forever
She won’t be there, I told myself the whole drive over. There’s no way.
Except…there she was. Standing under the overhang of the bandshell.
The rain was coming down so hard, I could barely see her, but she was there. It was like time had stopped.
The nights were still cool in early June and the rain made it cooler, so she wore a big hoodie that hung so far down over her hips, it looked like she had nothing on underneath.
Get a grip, I told my dick.
When I pulled into the area beside the bandshell, she lifted her hand to shield her eyes from my headlights. I quickly turned them off.
I parked and ran through the rain to meet her under the overhang.
“It’s cats and dogs,” I laughed, shaking out my hair. “How long-”
She kissed me. Up on her tiptoes, she pressed her cool, closed lips to mine. She leaned back before I could even register the kiss.
My first fucking kiss.
“What…” was the brilliance that came out of my mouth.
“I wanted to do that all last summer,” she said in a rush. “I was standing here waiting for you and telling myself if you actually showed up, I’d do it.”
“You thought I wouldn’t show up?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged, and I got the sense she wasn’t nearly as confident as she seemed. “Sometimes people don’t show up.”
“I’ll show up,” I said. “I’ll always show up.”
It was a vow. A serious one.
I won’t leave. That would be the most solemn vow I could make her.
I’ll never do what your dad did to you. What my mom did to me. I will show up. I will not leave. I will stay.
“Okay,” she said with a shaky smile, and all I wanted in the world was to see her smile full of her regular joy. Her giant emotions. Her sparkle.
“I missed you,” I said, and it felt like a confession. “This past year-”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “It’s over and I’m staying. I already told Mom and she…it doesn’t matter. We don’t have to talk about any of it. We can just be here now.”
“Okay,” I said. “Then let’s just be here. Now.”
“What will we do?” she asked with a look in her eye that made me crazed.
I put my hand at her waist and pulled her close to me. Her eyes went wide.
“I’m going to kiss you,” I told her. I didn’t know who this version of me was. Bold and confident. It was the guy I wanted to be. The kind of guy who would be with a girl like Carrie Piedmont.
“Yeah?” she asked, the sparkle coming in full force.
“A lot. I’m going to kiss you a lot. Is that okay?”
“Yes, Matt. That’s okay.”
She threw her arms around my neck and I thought, as I pressed my lips to hers, that I could spend the rest of my life making sure she sparkled.
Carrie