Page 46 of Fall From Grace

“Everything?” I covered my mouth and repeated. My face was so warm.

“I guess not everything… I haven’t tried anal.”

“Noah,” I gasped and he laughed. This was painfully embarrassing for some reason. “I don’t think I’d ever want to dothat,” I told him honestly.

“I was waiting for you to say that.”

“Well.” I smiled and gripped my phone. “Did you make her feel good?”

“You should know better than anyone that I’m all about making her feel good… don’t ya, Grace? After all, you were the first girl I ever gave an orgasm to.” I felt his words between my thighs. I pressed them together. This was the first time we were bringing up the events that happened before he was taken by social services. At the same time, my heart hurt because I wanted those things with Noah. “What’s wrong? You’ve gone all quiet on me,” he whispered, his words almost seemed sad.

“I hate it, Noah,” I couldn’t stop myself. “I thought I’d be—that you’d be—”

“I know,” his faint voice soothed and broke me all at once. “When I contacted your mom the second time, I didn’t know what we’d go back to, I made the choice to do things, I thought that you would make the same choices, hell, I was terrified that you would forget about the trashy boy that was your best friend.”

“I could never forget you, Noah.”

Silence.

He finally said, “Even after all this time, nothing’s changed, has it? To me, you’re my best friend.” He paused. “You’re still everything.”

I sunk my head into my pillows to stifle the tears. “You’re my best friend too, Noah. Always.”

23

Grace age 16

Noah age 17

I want her to come to me. I want to wrap my arms around her and strip her bare, just being able to hold her will be enough, but I can’t do those things because of the fear that I’d only push her away since she’s with Dustin. I’m in her life as a friend, but that’s definitely not where I want to stay.

How do I seduce my best friend into leaving her boyfriend without hurting my relationship with her?

N.P.

Dustin ignored me all week and there were rumors circulating around Monday that I cheated on him, which probably came from his mouth. Not that I cared as long as it didn’t give me trouble with the other girls on the cheer squad, I couldn’t be too sure about some of them. I also checked our schedule to see if the boys would be playing against Noah’s team again, and we were, next month.

I didn’t visit Noah’s dad this week. I didn’t get to talk to Noah much either between school, practice, and two ball games we cheered this week. It was the same for him plus he worked at the garage and had weightlifting.

I scheduled my driver’s test for the next week and got Mom’s okay to go out with Noah this weekend, neither of us told Dad about it either.

I left Gus in the house when I slipped outside to wait on Noah to pick me up. Mom and Dad were in the kitchen cooking and I didn’t know where Mom told him I was going. I just wasn’t ready to let him know that Noah was back in my life.

I put on a bit of makeup despite telling myself not to. I couldn’t help it, I’d been looking forward to seeing him again all week. I was wearing a pair of jeans and a lowcut shirt that revealed what my mama gave me. I had on a thin gray jacket and boots. My brown hair was down and straightened.

And when I saw his Jeep coming, I ran through the yard and out in front of him before he could even stop. So much for playing it cool. He looked like he was laughing as I darted around his Jeep and climbed in. “You don’t even give a person time to stop,” he told me, his eyes roving over me. “You look good, Priss, real good.”

I raked my eyes over him the same way he had me. He had on a pair of light colored jeans with a plain black t-shirt that hugged his wide frame. He smelled good too, likereallygood. Whatever cologne he was wearing had me wanting to crawl over onto his lap. His smile, though, that was my favorite. He had a dimple when he smiled but only on one side. “You look good and smell good too,” I told him and looked ahead to keep from feeling put on the spot.

He started driving and I found myself staring at his arms, and chest, and well,everything.I looked up, feeling sneaky for checking him out for so long. “So, what are we doing?” He never told me over the phone, he just said he’d think of something.

He tilted his head back and smirked at me. “I seem to recall a promise I made, to always take you on an adventure.” I smiled at the memory and he turned his attention back to the road.

“Just what kind of adventure are we talking about here?” I asked him.

He gave me a devious grin before moving his hand to the back seat. When he brought his hand back up front, he held a flashlight that he shined in my face before turning it back off. “A spooky one.” He laughed mechanically.

I stared ahead and leaned back into my seat and said, “Oh, dear God.”