Page 53 of Parallel
All he has to do is use that low voice on me and I’m weak-kneed. I blow him a kiss and back away an inch. “This is my first homecoming. I’m not spending it being mauled in the back seat of your parents’Volvo.”
He closes the distance between us again. “You love being mauled in the back seat of my parents’Volvo.”
I do. I like it way, way too much. But it’s too early in the evening for me to be thinking about how badly I want him to do it again. “Come on,” I say, pulling him by the hand, forcing him to mingle and pour me a glass of punch, just because it’s so ridiculously old-fashioned. He’s a good sport about the whole thing, but after an hour he is itching toleave.
“We have to at least wait to see if you’re Homecoming King,” Ichide.
He glances away. “I won’t be. I told them to throw out any votes for me.” His eyes remain on the floor between us. “I just… Things are tense enough withoutthat.”
What he means is that they are tense with Ryan. Because ofme.
“Let’s dance,” he says, trying to distract me—something he accomplishes with ease, because no one alive is more distracting than Nick, whether we’re standing in the middle of a crowded gym or alone in the treehouse, though my mother’s now forbidden that lastbit.
He twines his fingers through mine and leads me onto the dance floor. Some sappy ballad is playing. “I don’t think we can swing dance to thisone.”
Our eyes meet. He tried to teach me to swing dance once, in the treehouse. It was one of the rare times we found ourselves alone, without any adults around. Needless to say, the lesson devolved quickly into something elseentirely.
“I’m not sure I got enough of a lesson to do it right,” I reply, wrapping my arms around his neck. Even in my heels, he towers over me. His face is boyish, but there’s nothing boyish about the rest of him. All his hours of training in the pool have left him with the ripped body of a grown man. I feel heat at the base of my spine, just picturing him climbing out of the water. I made a promise to my mother that I intend to keep, but it’s getting harder by the day for us both. Every time he kisses me, I want to climb him likescaffolding.
He leans toward my ear. “Remind me to give you another lessonsometime.”
I’m about to reply when he turns me, and I find myself looking directly at Ryan, who is watching us with that look on his face, the one he wears far too often of late. He’s here with Lisette Durand, a French exchange student almost every guy in the school wants to date, yet our eyes meet and his expression—already grim—turns into a scowl. Why can’t he just let thisgo?
“You okay?” Nick asks as Istiffen.
“Yeah,” I reply. “But I’m ready to leave whenever youare.”
“I’m ready now,” he says, pulling my hand. I’ve promised my mother we’ll wait until we’re out of high school to have sex, but when we are alone, it’s a struggle to remember that. And the look in his eyes right now says it’ll be extra hard to remembertonight.
We head toward the auditorium’s exit, but Ryan has beaten us there. He stands hand in hand with an irritated Lisette, blocking the door, legs spread like he’s ready for afight.
“Where are you going?” he asks Nick, never glancing at me once, because I no longer exist to him. Not the way I usedto.
Nick straightens and his chin goes up. “I don’t answer toyou.”
“No, but you answer to Mom and Dad,” Ryan says, his eyes shifting to me, “and you made them apromise.”
“I know that,” Nick growls. “And I don’t need a reminder fromyou.”
“Well, since we now know that keeping agreements is a struggle for you, I thought I’d better mention it.” Their mother told them they couldn’t ask me out until I turned sixteen, an agreement Nick broke when he kissed me that day in the woods. I was always going to choose Nick. But Ryan doesn’t seem to believeit.
“Get out of my way, Ry,” Nick says. He has a slow temper, but there’s steel in his voice when he’s on the cusp of losing it, and even Ryan knows not to mess with him when it’spresent.
“Don’t fucking forget,” Ryan says, as Lisette pulls himaway.
We go out to his car, but guilt weighs me down the entire way. I hate that I’m the reason things have gone wrong. I stand still by the passenger door, staring at thegym.
“Come on,” Nick whispers, the words coming so close I can feel them against my lips. “Let’s go before one of the teachers comes out here.” He smiles, leaning closer. Anticipation crests in my stomach, making mebreathless.
I am not normally the aggressor, but tonight, I am. I ignore his words and pull his mouth to mine, letting the slow sweep of my lips and my tongue do the work for me. I will make us both forget how much Ryan hates usnow.
23
NICK
Iam certain I won’t be able to fall asleep. Not with Quinn a few feet from me, presumably wearing next to nothing. I try to focus on anything other than her, lest she wake up to find me dry humping the mattress in my sleep, but I can’t seem to stop. I’m remembering her face after we left Grosbaum’s office, relaxed and happier than I’ve ever seen it. Remembering the moment she walked into the room for Darcy’s birthday party, looking so fucking ethereal she hardly seemedreal.
And then I’m thinking of the lake, and when I fall asleep that’s where I go. Quinn is in that red bikini, floating away on the Sunfish, shouting at me to come help her, panicked and laughing at the same time. I swim to her, pulling myself up, and her body presses to mine. She is taut and sun-warmed, and as our mouths join, I want to groan with the relief of it—decades, centuries of separation finally behind us. I pull her on top of me and she comes willingly, sliding against my skin. Her top is gone, though I don’t remember undressing her. My palms go to her breasts—how could I have forgotten how perfect they are?—and then to her nipples, pressing pebble-hard against my chest. She gasps then, and I lose that last ounce of restraint I was clingingto.