It wasn't easy for a girl who was falling in love for the first time to not see the boy she dreamed of everyday. But that was often the case with Tommy. He was unreachable. The only way she can get to him was through his friends, if she happened to bump into them. Tommy wasn't finished with his cabin just yet, and she was not patient enough to wait around without hearing for him. She got into these mood swings and lost her appetite, thinking that Tommy was busy with other things while she can hardly function without seeing him.
After almost another week, she was determined to find him. She got the direction from Kelly when she met her at Mrs. Cooper's store, and she went there alone. The cabin wasn't too far into the woods, but there was no other building close to it. She walked into the area surrounded by the tall trees, the further she went, the more distant the sound of people and their activities were and the more silent in gets. She doubted herself for a moment, but then she kept going to the point where she felt angry at Tommy for making her walk alone and spooked by every rustling leaves blown by the wind. To make things worst, it started raining.
She picked up her pace, and started to jog, she was soaking wet by the time she arrived at the cabin. Tommy was covering his materials with tarp, and was rained down himself. He wasn't wearing a shirt and his jeans was already wet.
"Tommy!" she called out and startled him.
"Charlie?? What are you doing here?" he went over to her and pulled her out of the rain. They took the stairs up to the cabin and rested on the veranda. "Are you out of your mind? Did you walk here by yourself?" he rummaged through for a piece of cloth or an old blanket to cover her.
"I was waiting for you for days, but you never showed."
"I told you, I wasn't done yet, I was going to come for you when it's done," he explained himself again.
"What is this, Tommy? Are we together? Or are we just seeing each other occasionally? You don't show up for days, and I don't even know how to reach you? I had to ask around and walked all the way here ... "
He kissed her mouth and pulled her close to him, "I miss you too," he said.
"No, I'm serious, Tommy, I thought we have something going on between us," she was frowning.
"I built this for you, Charlie, ... so you can find me here, so we can have a place to go ... I don't have a home, I have a dad who hates my guts, and I don't live with him ... you deserve more than an occasional visit or a swim in the lake, or a bonfire or whatever ... so I fix this for you," he looked at her, hoping she would understand. He sighed as he looked at the wet beautiful girl in front of her, demanding his attention.
"Why didn't you tell me that before?" her tone was lighter. He lifted his shoulders, pursed his lips, he didn't have an answer to it.
"I'm not asking you to build me a place or anything like that, I just wanted you to come see me everyday ... and kiss me," she walked over to him and kissed him.
He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her so tightly to him that a breath escaped her. He thanked his lucky stars to be wanted by this incredible girl who deserved so much more than what he was, she may thought simply of their relationship at the time, but he already knew in his heart, she was the girl he wanted to marry one day.
The wind was blowing hard, she started to shiver. He picked her up and carried her inside, "Let's get you inside, I just fixed the fireplace yesterday." It was pouring outside, he threw in some woods that he chopped earlier and lit the fire. He wiped himself with a towel and got another blanket for Charlie.
"What happened with you and your dad, Tommy?" she asked.
He never had to tell the story to anyone before, everyone had always kind of knew what happened and they never asked him anything about it. It was different when he had to explained how it all started with the day his brother drowned in the lake. He must have slipped from the cliff, hit his head hard before he fell into the water and drowned. Tommy dived in to pick him up as soon as it happened, it wasn't easy, he had to swim up for air three times before he finally found Teddy and pulled him out of the water. But it was too late, he was already gone. He carried his brother's body all the way back to his house by himself, only to be blamed for neglecting his brother and caused him to die.
His mother and father couldn't cope with the tragedy, they fought all the time. His mother found someone who would take her away from Bluebridge and decided she couldn't stay anymore. She couldn't deal with everything, and she left. She left Tommy her necklace with a note, "Please forgive me, I love you," and that was it. It was hard for Tommy to understand what love means when his mom left him that note. His dad was furious, he blamed Tommy for his mother's selfish decision. "She wouldn't take you because you reminded her of how her other kid had died ... and now I'm stuck here with you, you good for nothing boy!"
His hands were shaking, she could see tears started to fill up his eyes. She took his hands and held them tight. "That's when he started to beat me up, almost daily ... he hates me, I can see it in his eyes, how he wished I never existed," the tears finally fell, he tried to keep his cool and swallowed the pain.
"I'm glad you existed, Tommy, because you make me feel so happy," she rubbed the back of his hand on her cheek. "It was an accident, it wasn't your fault, I hope you realize that now," she added.
He kissed her forehead, wiped his own tears and stop himself from crying. The pain was buried inside him, it was almost unreal until he told the story in his own words and listened to it. "That's why I'm leaving Bluebridge ... when I turn 21 I will be working in Goldstone, I have friends there who can get me jobs, who can introduce me to people in the industry ... I want to be an actor," it was the first time he ever mentioned that to anyone.
"Really?? I never knew anyone who wanted to be an actor before, that's great Tommy, ... 21 means next year?"
He turned to look at her, "You'll be off to college, and I'll be in Goldstone ... we'll come back after four years and ..." he couldn't bring himself to say it.
"And what?" she smiled.
He smiled too.
"That sounds like a good plan, Tommy," she climbed on his lap, facing him.
The fire from the fireplace flickered and reflected on her face, her cheek warm from the flame. She smiled at him, the beautiful broken boy that she slowly yet heavily fallen in love with. She threw the blanket that he wrapped around her on the floor, the rain water still dripping from the ends of her hair. She started unbuttoning her soaked dress.
"What are you doing?" he asked, watching her intently.
"Taking off my dress," her eyes was telling him everything he needed to know. "I want to be naked with you," she went on.
His heart skipped a beat, he was sure that he wanted it even more than her, "You know ... if we're naked together, we'd be doing a lot of other things too?" he wanted to make sure.
She bit her bottom lip with the most flirtatious smile he'd ever seen from her, she nodded. His heart was throbbing, "Are you sure?" he caressed her arm. She nodded again, she had never been so sure about anything before, she wanted him to be her first. He gently stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, he leaned forward to meet her lips and gave her a tender kiss. He let her finish unbuttoning her dress and took it off completely, he can see she was enjoying his bewilderment of her sweet seduction. Her heart was racing, she giggled to hide her nerves as she slowly unhooked her bra under his watch.
He was calm and collected, even though he was a wreck underneath his composure. He had never wanted to be with a girl as much as he wanted to be with her, so much, that he didn't have the guts to even touch her in the first place. But there she was, after all that she had learned about him, she wanted him too. He let out a long nervous breath, as she let her bra very slowly fell off the top of her body, she studied his face as he was looking at the most beautiful thing he had ever seen without a single thread covering her top.
He had a solemn expression, he wrapped his arms around her, he leaned his face on her chest and kissed the space just above her cleavage, "Oh, Charlie," his voice was muffled.
She ran her fingers through his hair, she was surprised by how comfortable she felt being naked with him, "Be gentle with me ... it's my first time," she said softly to his ear.
And that was the point where he took over, he kissed her neck and slowly made his way to her ear and her lips. He captured her breath as he slipped his tongue inside her mouth. His hands steady against her back, their chests pressed together, their tongues intercepted in a tug and pull of their kiss, he nipped on her bottom lip and broke away to find her overflown with desire.
He laid her on the floor and whispered in her ear, "I may hurt you a little, just tell me when to stop," he said. He captured a faint nod between her sighs, he stretched her arms up and slowly ran his hands all the way down to her panty and pulled them off. She shivered under his fingertips, and when he made his way back up with his gentle kisses, along her thighs, to her pelvis, up to her belly and trailed his way up with his tongue to her breasts, her skin erupted.
She reached out to her dress that was scattered to her left, she rummaged through it and pulled out a single pack of condom she stole from Mrs. Cooper's store before she came, they laughed at the thought. "I'm not done pleasing you yet," he said as he pushed aside the pack to where it was reachable. She giggled to his gentle bites on her ear and her neck. He wanted her first time to be as enjoyable as possible, but it was effortless for Tommy, he touched her in all the right ways, kissed her in all the right places and he moved her all in the perfect pace. She hardly even felt the pain. She was overwhelmed with how good he made her feel. All the stories she heard about 'a bad first' was a wonder to her. Tommy had given her an incredible first, she quivered under him, burst into pieces of desires, she fell even more deeply, if not, madly in love with him.
His world stopped for a moment when he saw her full nude body under him, flushed with passion, biting her little finger with a giggle because she was nervous waiting for him. Her eyes gazing at him with such longing and tenderness, with her every sigh, every moan, every kiss and every time she called out his name, he was free falling into something he had never experienced before in his life. She will be the death of him, and he was willingly letting her kill him in the most beautiful way there is. And that was the first time Thomas Raven made love.