"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 realize that I'm a really cool mom, right? I'm not even sure if that's a good thing or not."
"It is a good thing," I say, rolling my eyes. "sometimes," I add as an afterthought.
"Anyway," Mom drawls. "You know I love you very much, but I wouldn't like you getting pregnant. Make sure you use a c—"
"Oh my God, Mom, stop!" I scoff, using 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 have to do much to look good. And I was talking to my mom."
"Yeah?" His hand moves to the nape of my neck as he kisses me again. "Well, you always look good 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 had is really heavy make out sessions and a bit of foreplay, but I'm ready to go all in with Zack. I think we've just been so distracted lately. Audrey calls at the most unexpected time.
Speaking of…
"How is she?"
Zack takes a quick glance at me, his brows furrowed in confusion.
"Who?" he asks.
"Your second girlfriend, Audrey," I say, rolling my eyes. "Isn't it weird to you that our names are so similar?"
Zack lets out a breath, frowning slightly. "She's not my girlfriend. That's you, you know that."
"Yeah, well." I shrug. "Her parents take her to the loony bin yet? Or, you know, a therapist?"
"Be nice, Aubrey," Zack says with a frown etched on his face. "She's really going through it."
I know that. I mean, she hasn't been to school in weeks, but still. I don't think it's healthy for her to be alone at home, or to even be alone with Zack. Why won't she just get help?
I have to bite my tongue literally to stop myself from saying those words out loud.
"My bad," I mutter instead.
Well, would you look at that? She already has Zack wrapped around her pinky finger.
Zack gives me another glance, reaching for my hand and, taking it in his larger ones, he brings our intertwined fingers to his lips and kisses my knuckles, all while paying attention to the road ahead of us.
"You don't have to overthink everything, munchkin, you know that, right?"
Munchkin. I honestly can't remember the last time he called me that and I'm fighting a smile.
"I'm not overthinking. Audrey just… makes me uncomfortable, I guess."
"It'll be over soon, I promise. But right now, we don't have to think about all that. It's just us."
I look outside the window to see that Zack has turned into an untarred, bumpy road with trees surrounding us.
"Another deserted road? If I didn't know any better, I'd start yelling for help. How do you even find all these places?"
Zack chuckles nervously. "Yeah, well…"
He doesn't say anything else and I watch the car slow 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, airy. And there's no other human here for miles. This is definitely another one of his thinking spots.
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 realize he's been staring at me this whole time.
I feel my face turn red. "What?"
Zack focuses his gaze on my lips. "I wanna kiss you so bad right now, you have no idea."
I bite my lips, knowing that he loves it when I do that. "Oh yeah? Quit talking and kiss me then."
Zack gives me a sly smile, leaning down towards my lips and I gently close my eyes, preparing myself.
Right as I feel his lips skim mine, his phone rings out.
I'm really hoping that he doesn't check to see who it is, but he does. And I try and fail to see the name that flashes across the screen before he takes it to his ear.
"Yeah?" he says to whoever is on the line.
It's really dark outside, so I can't see the expression on his face clearly, but when he says, "What?", his eyes darting to me, I feel my stomach drop.
Something's not right.
"Okay," he says tightly, getting up from the sleeping bag. "I'm on my way."
"What's wrong?" I ask as Zack pulls me up and envelopes me in his arms.
"I have to get to the hospital," he says softly. "Something happened to Audrey."