"So, you're seriously not gonna tell me about your Thanksgiving?" I ask.
Zack doesn't stop playing with my hair, which is splayed across his chest.
"Nope. And that's because I already told you there's nothing to tell."
I lift my head off his chest and lean up on my elbow so my face is over his.
"You've been in a sour mood since you got back yesterday and you really expect me to believe that? How dumb do you think I am?"
Zack stares at me deadpan for a few seconds before he replies. "On a scale of 1-10, I'd say eleven."
He laughs as I slap hard at his chest. "Hey! Take that back."
"I'd rather not."
He's good at changing the subject. Really good.
Feigning annoyance, I try to push away from his chest but he tightens an arm around me.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"Away from you." I mutter. "You're so annoying."
"You could try to move if you want." He smirks, placing a kiss on my forehead.
That soothes the hurt I'm feeling at the moment, but that's not what I want right now.
I heave a sigh.
"Hey..." He takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger. "Look at me. There's nothing to worry about, okay? I'm fine as long as I'm with you."
"That's not enough." I say to him, shaking my head.
Zack flips us so he's hovering over me. He looks at me with so much adoration in his eyes. I know what he's trying to do, and it's working. I'm getting turned on.
His face comes even closer to mine in an attempt to kiss me. I let him kiss me. Once. Twice. But once his hand slips under my top, I pull away.
I'm not going to let him distract me.
"Zack..."
Zack sighs, pinching his eyes shut and opening them again.
"I'm such an asshole."
A smile spreads across my face as I cup his cheek with my hand. "Not gonna argue with you on that one."
He chuckles, then gets off the bed.
"Come on. Get dressed."
"I'm... already dressed. What are you talking about?"
"We're going to watch a meteor shower and we have a two hour drive to make." He walks towards the window.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
I can't help the grin that spreads across my face. Zack rolls his eyes and attempts to climb the window pane.
"You came in through the door."
He shrugs. "Yeah, but this way's quicker. I'll go start the car."
Twenty minutes later, I'm hurrying down the stairs in a black hoodie and a pair of jeans.
"Going out with Zack, huh?" Mom says the moment I enter the living room.
"How did you..."
"He was here just now. He said you might not come back tonight."
My lips form an 'O', but no sound comes out, because I was not even aware of that.
"He said that?"
Mom quirks an amused brow. "You know, there's a box of condoms in my bathroom. Maybe you could just..."
"Oh my God, mom, stop!" I use my hands to cover my ears because no normal child wants to hear her parents talking about sex.
I hear mom's roaring laughter as I walk through the door, hurrying down the porch towards Zack's car.
"Why do girls take so much time getting dressed?" He asks the moment I slip into the car.
I lean over the console to kiss him. "Because we're girls. Boys don't care about how they look."
"Yeah?" His hand moves to the nape of my neck as he kisses me again. "Well, you shouldn't either. You always look amazing in whatever you wear."
I feel heat creep up my neck. Zack makes my insides melt whenever he compliments me. I don't think I'll ever get used to it.
"You know I love you, right?" Zack's voice brings me out of my trance and takes me into another trance.
His hand is in my hair, massaging, soothing. It's getting me turned on. Zack doesn't let me reply because his lips are on mine. He's nibbling, sucking, licking. It's all sensual.
I want to cross over the console and be so much closer to him, but I don't. Because I know who's in charge right this moment.
"I can't wait to finally have you." His voice is a husky whisper against my lips. And then he's pulling away from me.
No. Don't stop. Don't ever stop.
Zack's last words keep echoing in my mind even as he drives off.
I can't wait to finally have you.
I can't wait either. All we've been doing is foreplay, and it's been fucking amazing. And I've been ready for a while now, but Zack never seems to want to take it further. It's either that or a call from Audrey interrupts us.
Speaking of...
"How's she?"
Zack glances at me with furrowed eyebrows, and then I realize that I haven't mentioned her.
"Who?"
"Audrey. She's been calling you a lot lately."
And you go to her everytime.
"Oh, um, yeah. She's..." Zack sighs. "She's trying, and I'm doing the best I can to always be there for her...but it's like we're taking one step forward and three steps back." He swallows before he gets the last part out. "I hate not knowing what to do about it."
Oh yeah? Well I hate the fact that you were dragged into her mess.
I should feel horrible, but I don't. Because it's very difficult to trust people like her.
"Maybe it's time to get her fucking parents here so they can see what she's going through and get her a fucking therapist or something." I'm unable to keep the venom out of my voice.
"It's not that simple."
"You know what I think? I think it's fucking simple. She just has you wrapped around her pinky finger. I don't understand why you can't see past all her bullshit."
Zack's jaw ticks, but he doesn't look at me, he just looks on at the road.
And his silence makes me feel even worse.
"And now you're gonna make me look stupid, aren't you." I say, folding my arms across my chest. "Whatever. I'm used to it anyway."
I notice Zack glance at me and then I hear him sigh. "We don't have to argue about every single thing."
There it is.
He drops his right hand on the console and opens his palm. I know what he wants me to do.
And I almost don't do it, but I can't just leave him hanging.
So I drop my hand and he interlaces our fingers together, then takes both our hands towards his face and kisses the back of mine.
It makes me feel all warm and mushy inside.
"This is our moment, okay? We shouldn't worry about anything. And I'm not trying to make you look stupid, you know how much I hate fighting with you. Unlike you."
I can't help the laughter that slips out. "That's not true. I don't like fighting with you either."
Zack rolls his eyes. "You start most of our fights, but yeah, I believe you." He turns slightly and gives me a quick wink.
"Hey!" I try to protest and he laughs.
I look outside the window to see that Zack has turned into a county road. It's deserted. Curvy.
"Another deserted road? If I didn't know you well, I'd say you're a kidnapper."
Zack chuckles. "Good thing you know me then."
And I'm not even done knowing you.
"How do you even find these places?" I ask.
The moment Zack's smile fades, that's when I realize that that was a question I should've never asked.
But I don't try to correct myself.
"You'd be surprised how far one can go just to be able to think."
I don't say anything else after that until Zack slows the car down as we arrive at a clearing.
We step out of the car and Zack heads to the back to get something from the trunk.
I look around. This place is peaceful, quiet, and has a lot of oxygen. No wonder he comes here to think. Alone.
It's a moonless night, and the sky is a blanket of stars. It's dark, and beautiful.
I get so carried away by the beauty of nature that I don't even hear the sound of footsteps coming towards me until I feel his arms warp around me from behind.
"Hey." Zack breathes into my hair, causing me to lean back into his hard chest.
"It's beautiful." I tell him.
"I know." He replies, chuckling.
Even if he hasn't opened up to me, I know that bringing me here, to a place he considers sacred, means something. It means we're getting there. Slowly but surely. So I tell him,
"Thank you. For bringing me here."
Zack exhales again, kisses the back of my head, and releases me.
When I turn around, he's unrolling a sleeping bag on the ground.
"Wow. We really are sleeping here, aren't we?"
"Not sure about the sleeping part," he brings out a thermos, "but we are gonna be here all night."
And I don't know why, but that gets me really excited.
"You brought coffee?" I ask, joining him on the bag.
"Yep. Figured it might help us stay up." He replies, taking the flask towards his lips for a sip. He hands it to me.
"This might work." I shrug as I do the same.
A little over thirty minutes later, we're lying in the sleeping bag, my head on his chest.
Zack had packed just one bag because he didn't want us to be separated.
We've been talking about random things, laughing, kissing and what not, and now, we're just enjoying the peace and quiet, only listening to the beat of each other's heart.
"It's almost time." He breathes.
"Where are we supposed to be looking?" I ask him, not taking my eyes away from the stars.
We unzip the bag a bit, and Zack takes my hand up.
"Point your finger."
He lines up the point of my finger with the three horizontal stars that make the belt of the hunter, Orion. Slowly moving my hand upward, he draws a line from the left star in the belt to the brownish reddish one at the top of the constellation.
"Keep going on and you'll find Gemini up there." He says.
Just as my finger reaches Zack's destination in the universe, a star shoots out from where I was just pointing.
"Whoa..." My voice is a whisper.
"I know." Zack whispers back. I turn to look at him, only to realise he's been staring at me this whole time.
"You're staring at me like we haven't been best friends for so long."
He rolls his eyes. "That was different. I couldn't stare at you the way I wanted because you would've considered me a creepy human."
The way he wanted? How long has Zack had feelings for me?
I want to keep my mouth shut and pay attention to what's happening up in the sky, but I can't, because I want to know.
"Can I ask you something?"
Zack exhales. "I know what you wanna ask, and I guess it's..." he gives me a smile, "about time I came clean."
A weight I didn't know was in my chest, has been lifted, because of his words. This is the best thing I've heard in a long time.
He turns so he's looking up at the skies again.
"Remember the first day we met? The day you moved in?"
I hesitate before I nod, because I don't remember anything at all. "I guess?"
"Of course you don't." He sighs. "Anyway, Chris and I are playing soccer in the yard, hoping that the new neighbors won't be old and annoying just like the former, when this minivan pulls up, and we're like, 'this has to be a family'. And then a guy comes out, then a lady.
"Your dad slides the back door open and is like, 'Come on, Princess', and I don't know what the princess says to him before he goes 'okay then, we'll be inside.'
"Chris is 13, and is like, 'she's probably shy. I don't like shy girls', and then we go back to our game."
Laughter slips out of my mouth. Sounds like something Chris would say.
Zack continues. "I keep looking back at the minivan, curious as fuck. Chris kicks the ball and it accidentally hits the van and all. Nothing breaks though, lucky for us. It's then she comes out of the car. This pretty dark haired girl. At that point, I can't even move, and I don't even know why."
My cheeks already hurt from smiling too much.
"She's just so... beautiful. But then, you pick the ball up, and you turn to face us, well, me. Chris ran away. I think you're going to come over or ask me to come get the ball, when all of a sudden, I see the ball coming at my head. I barely dodge it, and then you're like..."
"It's rude to stare. Stop it." I finish up for him. I can barely breathe with the way I'm laughing. Zack's laughing too. Maybe I don't remember the whole story, but I remember the first words I said to him.
"Damn, I was vicious." I heave.
Zack waits until I calm down, then he kisses me.
Damn. And I was already complaining about lack of oxygen.
"That was the day I fell in love with you."