“
Oh, this is my jam,” I tell the girls as I drop another round of cups in the trash. I raise my hands in the air and start shaking my ass.
“
Go, Meggie, it’s your birthday,” Keesh sings, dancing along.
“
You girls are crazy.” Andi watches us with a big smile spread across her face. Her head is bobbing along, her orange tips swaying back and forth.
Steph shimmies toward me. She and Keesh sandwich me, getting freaky, and playfully bumping against me. “Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet, Andi,” Steph tells her.
We dance just a few seconds longer before we crack up so much we can’t stop laughing and it’s hard to breathe. “Back to work, girls,” I say.
“
Until another good song comes on,” Keesh says. “Dang, we need to go to another party. I wanna dance.”
“
Sounds good. Maybe we’ll catch something this weekend,” I say. “Wanna party with us, Andi?”
Her eyes perk up. “Dude, that would be awesome, but, you know, I’ve gotta check my calendar.” She pauses for a second before she giggles out loud, making us laugh again.
“
Stephanie, I’m going to leave. Can I give you a ride home?” Dominic says, peeking his head in the doorway.
The room goes silent as our eyes focus on Steph. She starts to blush, and her smile widens. Of course, she wants to go home with him. They’ve been stealing glances at each other all night.
“
Yeah, I’d like that,” she tells him. “Just give me a minute. Let me finish in here.”
“
We’re good, Steph. We got it. You go.” Keesh takes a cup from her hand and pushes her forward. She gives each of us a hug and moves toward Dominic. As they walk away, I can’t help but feel a sense of giddiness when he places his hand on her shoulder. If anyone is meant to be, it’s them. There’s no reason for them to be apart. He’s going to school here. He still lives at home, not over four hundred miles away.
“
Good for them,” Keesh says, grinning.
“
Dude, what about the single ladies thing?” Andi asks.
“
Oh, that was just some stupid pact we made. It’s not written in stone. If Steph wants to get back together with Dominic, she should.” I smile, thinking about the possibility.
“
Well, that’s good to know,” Travis says, smirking at me with a brow raised.
“
It sure is,” Alex agrees, standing right next to him.
My eyes practically bug out of my head as my eyes flicker back and forth to each of them.
Keesh chuckles. “Oh shit,” she mutters as she walks past me with a trash bag.
“
Hey, what’s up? You leaving?” Josh asks, smacking Travis on the shoulder.
“
Yeah,” he says. “You ladies ready to go?”
I look at Alex who winks at me with that sexy grin of his.
“
Um, actually, Alex is going to take me home.”
Travis’s nostrils flare for a split second. He runs a hand through his messy hair and turns to Andi. “You want me to take you home? I’m taking Keesh.”
“
Dude, I’d love that,” she squeals.
He shakes his head with a quick laugh. “Dude, let’s go.”
My belly does somersaults when I get in Alex’s car again. It’s been a long time. I haven’t seen him since he acted like a total jackass the night we played Strip Twister. He said he would never act like that again, and tonight he proved that. He was perfectly sweet the entire night. He chilled with Travis like nothing had happened. I’m dying to know what they talked about. I caught them having a one-on-one, and I can’t imagine what they could possibly say. Travis had knocked him out, and here they were chatting away like nothing happened. Like Amy and I will ever get to that point. Nope. Not gonna happen.
“
It’s still kinda early.” Alex looks over at me as he starts the car. “Wanna do something? Or do you want me to take you home?”
“
Let’s do something.” I turn toward him. “I wish it were spring, so we could go to the drive-in again.”
“
That was fun, huh.” He straps his seatbelt on and pulls away. “I think I have an idea. It won’t be the drive-in exactly, but close enough. Gotta make a pit stop though.”
We pull into the 7-11 parking lot minutes later. We’re in and out with a bag full of candy and a couple of Slurpees.
“
We can just sit in the car for the rest of the night,” I tell him. I sip my drink and reach in the candy bag. “I’m good to go.” I take out a KitKat and tear it open. “I got all I need.”
Alex reaches over and pats my thigh. “So do I,” he says with a wink. I think I just felt my heart tighten a bit.
“
So, where’re we going?” I ask, trying to lighten the mood.
“
You’ll see.” He squeezes my thigh gently, and then puts his hand back on the steering wheel.
It’s not long before we pull into Alex’s driveway and he pushes the remote control attached to his visor. The garage door opens revealing a large empty space on one side and a few recliners and a treadmill on the other. He pulls in slowly, kills the engine, and pushes the remote again.
“
What are we doing here?” I look around in wonder.
“
Well, it’s not the drive-in, but we’re in the car, we have some snacks, and we have a screen. You can even pick the movie.” He reaches out and drags his fingers along the edge of my face. He finishes with a little pinch of my chin.
“
Oh my gosh, this is perfect. But, where are your parents?” The last thing I want is to be getting cuddly with their baby boy and his mom walks in.
“
They’re gone. Won’t be back until Wednesday.” He opens up his door. “C’mon. Let’s pick a movie.”
When I choose
Stomp the Yard
, Alex doesn’t even laugh. He just smiles. “I knew it.”
“
Dancing, good music, and a love story. How could I pass it up?”
Alex fumbles with the several remotes before he gets the movie going. He tilts the screen and says, “Hello, get in the car.”
“
Seriously?” He has to be kidding, right? “You have two perfectly cozy recliners right here.”
“
It’s not the same,” he smiles. “This time, get in the back seat.” He holds the door open for me, and I slide right in. The way he tilted the TV gives us a perfect view.
“
Hey, you need to put the windows down. We won’t be able to hear.” He chuckles and runs around to the driver’s side, turns the car on, and holds the controls to lower all the windows. “Much better. Pass me the snacks.”
Finally, he opens the door and slides in next to me, holding a blanket he snagged from one of the recliners.
“
You wanna call your mom and tell her where you are?” It’s just like him to be worried about me checking in with my parents.
“
I sent her a text. Told her I’d be home by one.” I kick off my shoes and start digging through the bag for my opened KitKat.
“
Good, we should have plenty of time to finish the movie.” He takes out a package of licorice. “Everything ended at Josh’s kind of early tonight.”
“
Yeah, it did. I can’t wait to hear about Steph and Dom. I wonder what they did, or talked about.”
The opening credits roll as we chat and chow down on our snacks.
Nineteen
About halfway into the movie, Alex and I are relaxed with the blanket draped across our legs. With his arm around me, I lean into his strong chest and sigh with content. Gosh, I missed this.
“
You okay?” he says, probably picking up on my long sigh.
“
Absolutely.”
The feel of his lips brushing against my hair sends tingles zipping through my body. I close my eyes and enjoy the moment. “This is what I imagined our first trip to the drive-in being like,” he says, running his hand along my arm.
“
This is what I was hoping it would be like.” I tilt my head up, and his eyes lock with mine. He outlines the side of my face with his fingertips, never looking away. I’d pay money to be in the front seat peeking back, watching this happening. It’s intense, beautiful.
“
Can I kiss you, Megan?” The words flow out of his mouth in a hushed sexy tone, and my girl parts tighten when he says my name.
I swallow, and nod.
His firm full lips come down on mine and it’s like fireworks go off. The gentle pecks of his kisses are enough to make me melt. But when our tongues glide past each other, I can’t help but gasp. He smiles as our lips press together. Once, twice, and again. I can’t get enough. Small kisses, long ones, pecks, full tongue. This boy sitting next to me with his hands exploring my body and his mouth feasting on my neck makes my heart swell with happiness. It’s like all the time passed between us has disappeared. There’s something more than familiarity, and something more than just lust. This something feels a lot like … home.
“
So are you guys gonna get back together or what?” Keesh asks Steph.
She takes a long sip of her drink before she answers. “No,” she mumbles. Although, it looks like it pains her to utter the two letter word. She looks around the food court, distracted.
“
Why not?” I ask. I don’t see what the big deal is. They obviously still have a thing for each other. More than a thing by the looks of it last night at Josh’s.
“
What do you mean, why not?” Her voice rises to a high-pitch tone. “We had a plan and I’m gonna stick to it. Dominic and I wanted to give each other space to live and breathe outside of each other.”
“
And you have.” I place my hand on her arm. “Maybe it’s been long enough. Maybe it’s time to rethink that plan.”
Her lips tremble and I know we’ve struck a nerve. “We had a plan too.” She swirls her index finger around, gesturing to Keesh and me. “Single ladies, remember? I can’t just abandon you guys. We’re supposed to be dating machines this year.” She goes back to nursing her smoothie.
“
And look how that’s worked out for us,” Keesh says. “We suck at dating. The guys at our school suck. I’m starting to think this whole plan sucked.” She hacks off a piece of her Mrs. Field’s chocolate chip cookie and chomps away.
“
You’re just starting to believe that?” I chuckle. I think I caught onto that when we had the water polo guys over. “We do suck at it, Steph, so if you don’t think you’d suck with Dom, then go for it. Don’t worry about us.”
Keesh grins. “Well, you might need to suck with Dom, but that’s just a different kinda sucking.” Our eyes widen at her and she gives us her innocent snicker. “What?” We all bust up laughing. I swear Keesha kills me sometimes. Well, a lot of the time.
When we finally come up for air, Steph turns to me. “Well, what about you and Alex?” Oh no. I don’t want to go there.
“
What about us?”
“
Oh, stop. Don’t act like you two are fooling anyone. How did it go last night? Did you guys talk about getting back together?” Keesh asks.
Now, I’m the one guzzling my drink. “It was nice to see him.”
“
Nice? Gimme a break. You guys practically did it in front of everyone last night when he walked through the door. If we weren’t all there, you probably would have. Wait, did you guys do it when you left?” Keesh’s eyes are glued to mine as she waits for an answer.
“
No,” I shrug, “we didn’t do it. Are you crazy?”
“
Hey, if you would have seen what I did, you’d be asking me the same thing. You guys were having hot naked sex with your eyes.” Keesh leans back in her chair and crosses her arms.
“
Well, we didn’t. And we’re not getting back together.” It’s not like we didn’t talk about it, for just a few minutes. The idea got squashed quickly. As much as we want each other, not a damn thing has changed. We’re still in different places. Maybe someday we’ll catch up to each other.
“
Why the hell not?” Steph raises her voice again, only this time she seems angry. “If Dom and I should get back together, why not you and Alex?”
“
Because Alex is three years older than me. And even worse, he’s over four hundred miles away.” I can’t help but shout back at her.
“
At least he’s not over a thousand miles away.” Both Steph and I go silent as our eyes dart to Keesh. This is the first mention of Jonathan in a long time. Sure, we reminisce about the goofy shit he pulled, and we text a lot. But this is different. Keesh never talks about their relationship, how it ended, or how she might wish that it didn’t. Of course, it’s assumed, but her hard ass never talks about it. “You guys don’t even realize how easy you have it. Both of you have these hot sweet guys that love you and you’re just throwing it away.”