“Kyle,
GET
OUT!” I yell.
Kyle lifts his
head and looks at me. “Sophia
stop
please. We need to
talk.” I push him away. I need space. He looks at me with a wounded expression.
“Sophia I am so sorry.” My body is shaking. My head is spinning. I feel sweat
coming down. I have to be strong. I can do this. I keep thinking about how I’m
not the victim and I am a survivor.
He doesn’t stop
walking towards me. I place my hand on his chest and push him again. This time
he stumbles into the hall. The pathetic look in his eyes makes me sick. He
grabs my hand and starts to cry. “Please forgive me. You know I love you. This
isn’t me. I’m just under a lot of stress and had too much to drink the other
night. Please tell me you’re still my girl?” He reaches his hand out to me.
“Are you serious
Kyle? You make me sick! We’re done so please leave me alone!” I look him in the
eyes and I want him to know I’m serious. I will not back down from him.
I can see the
anger spreading across his face but I don’t care. He needs to know that I’m
done and there’s nothing he can say or do to get me back. All of a sudden, he
comes towards me. He pushes me against the wall and I don’t know what to do. I
start screaming for help. “No one can save you now Sophia.”
Suddenly Adam
grabs Kyle’s shoulders and pushes him down to the floor. “Harrington, I told
you to leave her the fuck alone.” Adam says as he gets on top of Kyle and
starts punching him.
Immediately I
run over and try to pull Adam off him. “Adam stop! It’s not worth it! Please
let it go!” I’m crying and wish that this would all stop. Adam stops punching
Kyle and gets off of him. He pulls me into his arms and looks back down at
Kyle.
“This is the
last time we do this Harrington understand?” He pulls me closer and I start to
feel calmer. Kyle gets up and wipes the blood from his mouth. He looks at both
of us and leaves \without saying anything. Adam looks at me and I fall into his
arms and cry. “I’m so sorry Adam.” I sob.
He strokes my
back and kisses me on my head. “Pretty girl you have nothing to be sorry about.
I told you that I’ll be here for you. No one will hurt you.” His voice is what
I need. I feel better. I feel safe with him. The warmth of his touch calms me
down.
“Thanks for
being there whenever I need you.” I bring his face down to mine and kiss him on
his cheek. I see his smile and I start blushing.
He holds me out
in front of him, “How about we grab some dinner?”
I wipe the tears
from my eyes. Dinner does sound good. I want to be away from my room. I need to
feel like me again. “Sure, dinner sounds good.”
Adam puts his
arm around me as we take the elevator down and head out.
We end up at
Lobster Hut and are seated in a booth. He’s sitting in front of me and I can’t
help but look into his beautiful eyes. I want him to know how happy he makes me
but I don’t want to scare him away. I want him to know how thankful I am that
he’s always there when I need him. He’s always saving me.
The restaurant
is extremely busy and noisy but we were both craving seafood. We order a
pitcher of beer and calamari. It feels good being here with Adam-just us. “Do
you remember the time when we were fourteen and we had the freshmen dance?”
Adam says throwing his head back laughing.
I start laughing
out loud and know exactly what he is talking about. Gina Casey had the biggest
crush on him and stalked him all night during the dance. Being the most amazing
friend, I took it upon myself and walked up to Gina to break the news to her.
“Oh… my… God! Please don’t remind me!”
He points at me,
“You made her cry,
Soph
! I just told you to tell her
to leave me alone, but you went all crazy on her.”
I cover my face
with my hands and shake my head. “I know! I felt so bad. How was I supposed to
know that calling her crazy would make her cry?”
We both laugh
while walking down memory lane. I’m surprised by everything he remembers and it
makes me smile that he still carries those memories of us. We both decide on
sharing the captain’s gold platter which has an array of shrimp, clams,
scallops, lobster and crab legs. When the food comes out we start eating. I
pick up a piece of shrimp with my fork and feed it to Adam. He grabs the food
off of my fork and makes the most ridiculous expression as he eats.
“You’re so
gross!” I throw a piece of scallop at him and he catches it with his mouth.
“Talent right
there,
Soph
.” That sexy wink he gives me makes me
melt.
“You’re so
immature,” I laugh.
Adam takes my
head and looks at me, “I’m glad we’re having dinner together.”
I turn my head
away not wanting him to see me blush, “Me too.”
We finish up the
rest of our dinner and decline on dessert since we are both full. When the
check comes, Adam quickly snatches it and gives his credit card to the
waitress. I sit there with my arms crossed and stare at him. “What?” He raises
his eyebrow at me.
“You didn’t have
to pay Adam!” I’m a little annoyed because I didn’t want him feeling like he
had to take care of me.
Adam rolls his
eyes at me. “Stop being a girl. I wanted to pay and I don’t mind.”
I roll my eyes
back at him. “Well, you didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”
After Adam signs
the credit card slip, he takes my hand and we walk out of the restaurant. His
fingers wrap with mine as we walk back to campus. I love being with him.
Things, so far, are coming along so well and I can tell Adam’s happy. My
feelings for him grow with every second and I want more than just friendship
from him. But I don’t want to rush anything. I want him to know how I feel and
that I do love him. I can’t tell how our story will play out. All I hope is
it’ll give us a happily ever after. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him
again. I see his body tense and the sag of his shoulders. “What is wrong?”
He turns his
head, “Nothing pretty girl. Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know. You
just seem so distant from me. What is playing in your mind?”
He stops walking
and I turn to look at him. His dark hair falls to one side of his face. He is
so beautiful and I want to wrap my arms around him. I have the instant need to
kiss him and feel his lips on mine. Those soft lips stare back at me. I inch
closer to him and press my hand on his chest. I hear his breathing get deeper
as I slowly look up in his eyes. I can see desire in his eyes as I lift up my
hand to his cheek. He doesn’t stop me. I feel his hand on my lower back and his
other hand on my cheek. We look at each other and unhurriedly our lips meet in
a gentle kiss. He tastes like heaven and I don’t want him to stop kissing me. I
part my lips and let his tongue explore my mouth. We play a little dance and
the kiss becomes urgent and full of want. For a moment I forget where I am and
get lost in his kiss. This feels amazing and I don’t want him to stop. I slowly
pull away from him as I hear his breathing. “Wow.”
He smiles and
kisses me on the forehead. “Pretty girl, would it freak you out if I told you
I’ve been waiting for that kiss my whole life?”
I gasp at his
honesty. “No,” I start to say, “Because I’ve been waiting for that kiss my
whole life too.” I pull him back down to my lips as we kiss again.
The next few
days are perfect. Adam and I spend time together and I feel our love growing.
The memories of us haunt me and I try to shut them out so I can live in the now
but it’s hard. There’s so much that we need to talk about but I don’t know how
to bring it up and a part of me wants him to say something. There’s no denying
our feelings for one another but neither of us have admit our feeling. Every time
we hang out with Erin and Connor, they’d make their comments that we should
just get together already. I smile and laugh but Adam doesn’t say anything. It
makes me wonder how he truly feels. We share more moments of passion and I love
when his lips touch mine. I want his kiss to be my last.
He took me out
to dinner a few more nights and surprised me with ice cream while I was in the
library studying more about
Optimax
. The sweet little
gestures mean so much to me and it feels good to know how much he cares about
me. I’m thankful that I’m not afraid anymore to be around him and with each
day, I feel closer than ever to him.
A few days
before Christmas break, Adam asked me if I wanted to ride back home with him
and Connor. As much as I wanted to say yes, I told him I preferred to drive so
that I would have my car at home and was looking forward to some time to think.
He laughed and didn’t push the subject any further. It is Sunday night as I
change into my shorts and tank top before climbing into bed. I haven’t seen
much of
Erin
since she has been busy with finishing
up her assignments and spending time with Connor. I’m happy for my friends and
can tell they really like one another. I am not sure what is holding them back
and I don’t ask, because I know
Erin
would turn around and ask me the same question about Adam. I smile to myself as
I snuggle under my covers. I lie here for a minute or so then take out my phone
and send a text to Adam.
Me: Just wanted
to say good night.
I turn on my TV
and flip through the channels trying to find something to watch. I finally
settle on “
A Walk to Remember
”
.
After about an hour, I look at my phone again and don’t see anything from Adam.
I get a little sad and wonder what he is doing. I turn my head back to the TV
and watch as Landon dismisses Jamie in front of his friends. “What an asshole,”
I say to myself.
Suddenly there
is a knock on the door and I get up wondering who it is. The knock becomes more
urgent. I freeze. I can’t seem to open the door. What if it is Kyle? I look
around my room to find a bat or
anything!
I can do this. I reach for the door and turn the door knob. When I open it, I
see Adam standing there with a bag of food. I let out a deep sigh. Thank
goodness it is
not
Kyle.
His jaw slightly
drops as he looks at me and I remember I’m just wearing shorts and a revealing
tank top. It makes me feel good knowing he likes what he sees so I don’t try to
hide anything. I step away from the door to let him in. “Way to answer me back,
jerk.” I push on his chest.
“Were you
worried?” He winks at me. He comes in and I count to ten. I’ve been alone with
him before. This will be easy! He puts the food on my desk and sits on my bed.
I walk over to
my desk and peek in the bag. “
Mmmm
…what’d you bring?”
“Why don’t you
take a look and see,” he replies playfully.
I open the bag
and see caramel ice cream with peanut butter M&M’s-my absolute favorite! “
Awwww
, you remembered?” I clap my hands together and take
out the goodies. Adam gets up from the bed and hugs me from behind. He kisses
me light on the side of my neck and I giggle. “Stop, you’re tickling me.” His
arms get tighter around me and he kisses a trail down my neck to my shoulder
and back up to my face. I pull away from him but he playfully tackles me on the
bed. The weight of his body is on me and immediately I feel warmth in between
my thighs. My subconscious pokes her head out and falls on the ground laughing.
My breathing starts to get heavy as his face is inches from mine.
“Pretty girl, do
I make you nervous?” His whisper sounds seductive and so inviting. I look at
his lips and want to feel his kisses all over me.
“Of course not,”
I lie, “You’re just really heavy and I can’t breathe!”
Adam laughs and
lifts his body off of me. I miss him already.
He gets off the
bed and brings the box of ice cream and M&M’s back over to the bed. I
wonder how we’re going to eat the ice cream without any spoons but then Adam
grabs the spoons from the bag as if he read my mind. He comes back to the bed
and sits next to me. We start mixing the M&M’s in the ice cream and dig
into the cartons. It tastes so good and exactly what I need, we sit enjoying
our ice cream treat when Adam offers me a spoonful of his ice cream. I smile at
him and offer him a spoonful of my own, but before it reaches his mouth I top
the spoon up to his nose and giggle.