Wait (The Fast Series) (21 page)

“No. No more waiting. I’m ready right now. I want this. I want it tonight, tents, bugs and all. What we do right now. I’ll remember it. It will be special.” She presses into me, wrapping her arms underneath mine gripping onto my shoulders tightly bringing her lips up to mine for a fiery kiss.

My hands find their way back under her shirt. She feels so good. Her little sighs encouraging me to keep caressing her. The heat scorches between us, my mouth on hers kissing her fiercely. She directs my hand to her opened shorts, breathless at my touch. Her shorts slide down and she steps free of them. I take off my shirt tossing it to the side before we lower ourselves back to the ground. My heart thunders through my chest, her hips rise up to meet me.

“You have one?” I know what she’s asking.

“Yes.” Amazingly I do have one. But I’m not ready for that just yet. My hands go down to explore her body some more. I need to make sure she’s ready.
Oh shit
. Seeing how ready for me she is causes me to shudder, fumbling quickly to prepare myself.

“Mark, please, I’m ready,” she pleads with me.

Once I’m inside of her she cries out and clings to me tightly. I stop, scared I’m hurting her.

“No, don’t stop, I want this.” She holds onto me, not letting me go. Her nails dig into my skin and my breathing comes faster. I can feel her let go and my own desire builds, fever rushing through me as she cries out my name. I’m brought to the edge, my control releases and I soar. Taking me to a place where I have never been before.

“That was…” I’m struggling to catch my breath. “Unbelievable. It was…” Heavy breaths are all I can get out for the next few seconds.

She fits perfectly huddled under my arm, her arm draped across my chest. With all the twists and turns that lead to this moment I’m so happy to finally be here. “I love you, Cassie. This is the most perfect moment of my life, having you in my arms like this, knowing that you love me.”

Her hand darts up to her face and wipe away at the tear I see sliding down her cheek. I feel her lips press up against my chest and she kisses my skin gently while I play with her long hair running it through my fingers.

“I’ll be right back,” she says sitting up and reaching for her clothes.

“Where are you going?” I’m up on my elbows watching her with a hint of fear. Her face doesn’t mirror the happiness of my own expression. “You okay?”

She stands up slipping her shirt back in place. “All the beer I drank, I’m just gonna, ya know…nature calls, over in the woods. I’ll be back in a minute.”

All the beer? The can I took from her was almost full. She only had the one can of beer. And some of that even spilled out when she opened it.

When she doesn’t come back right away I step outside to wait for her. A few minutes later I realize she’s not coming back.

Tucker

The next morning Tessa is showered, dressed, and looking perfect before I’ve even adjusted my eyes to the streams of filtered sunlight filling the tent. She’s on her knees rolling her sleeping bag into a tight roll.

“Morning,” she says quickly exiting the tent. There’s been a shift. Looks like last night changed things for us. She didn’t fall in love with me just yet. But I had time to think overnight, she’ll get there. This doesn’t this mean we’re over. Does it?

I throw on a clean shirt and step from the tent. Tessa’s avoiding looking at me. She’s got large black sunglasses covering half her face, sitting on top of the rolled up sleeping bag, examining her fingernails.

I walk over, grab both hands and pull her up. Her head moves down scanning me like always. That’s a good sign. “How do I look?” I ask opened armed with a grin.

She hesitates before answering. “Good,” she replies coldly and walks away.

I follow her to the nowhere place she’s walking to just to get away from me. “This is because of last night? Because I told you I broke the rules? I don’t get it. I thought that’s what you wanted. Do you think I didn’t mean it? Because Tessa, I do mean it. I am very in…”

“STOP!” She runs back over to me and throws her hand over my mouth. “Don’t Tucker.” The curls swing back and forth as she shakes her head violently. She’s not in love and the message she’s giving me is that’s not gonna change.

“Can we talk about this?” I reach my hand out but she doesn’t take it.

She shakes her head no and looks away.

The point she’s trying to make is painful and I’m not prolonging this any longer. “Tessa, we’re done? Just like that?”

“Yeah.” She nods then covers her mouth biting on a fingernail. Between the sunglasses and her hand I’m unable to see any of her face.

I look down at the ground struggling to find my voice for a second. “I’m sorry about that. Guess I should have followed the rules better.” I can’t stick around anymore. The tent, sleeping bags, I leave it all there. I need to get away from her. “Turns out you’re the one who doesn’t do relationships,” I state angrily as I walk away.

I’m shocked this is the way it ends for us, with me falling in love, giving my heart to someone for the first time only to have it handed back to me. For a brief second I think about contacting Ashley, but what would that do? Ashley can’t make her fall in love with me.

CHAPTER SIX

Text messages:
None
.

Inbox:
Empty

Mark

“What happened? Where did you go last night?” I catch Cassie, in what I believe, is her escaping from her cabin extremely early to avoid me.

Her scared look at seeing me changes to a forced smile as she finishes walking down the stairs and greets me. “Bleh, yuck, let’s get this over with. Awkward. Friends who got drunk and had sex…embarrassing.”

I’m at a loss for a few seconds. “Excuse me?”

“Come on, Mark, don’t make this worse than it is. We need to shake it off and move on.” She covers her face and laughs. “Ah, we saw each other naked, good thing it was dark. But let’s not get all weird about it.”

“I have no idea why you’re acting this way Cassie but last night I told you I loved you. You told me you loved me.”

“Beer,” she says simply referring to the one partial beer she had.

I stand there wordless while she avoids any and all eye contact with me. A snicker escapes me from the ridiculousness that we’re back to this. After all we went through this summer we’re back where we started.

“Okay, I want to clarify something. I really do love you. And in case you’re wondering I’ve had no beer this morning.” I can tell by looking at her she isn’t prepared for my response.

Her foot drags lazily across the dirt. She stares at the ground and shrugs her shoulders. “I love you too. Just not like that. We’re friends.”

“Ahhh,” I let out the frustration building inside and run my hands over my head. “Cassie, everything between us that’s happened is more than friendship. From when we finally had our first kiss at the lake to the nights we’ve shared since then. God, Cassie. The whole year we spent together before we even came to this camp. Last night I thought we got there. Got to the point where we finally admitted once and for all the truth.”

“Mark, I’m sorry,” she says sadly shaking her head no, “but last night I was drunk, said some stupid things I shouldn’t have. You were my summer fling. And well, summer’s over.” She walks away leaving me stunned, hurt and speechless.

Tucker

Vinny hands me the necessary paper to sign myself out of camp. Another summer done.

“You think you’ll be back next year?” Vinny asks.

“No, this was my last year.” I extend my hand out and give him a firm handshake. “I’ll be back to visit though.”

“I didn’t see much of you this summer.”

I scratch my head. “It was a different summer. One I never saw coming. That’s for sure.”

“For you and me both. I think Julie and I are going to try and work things out. Being away from here should make things easier.”

“You’re probably right. I’m happy for you guys.” My chin dips and I ask the question I told myself I wasn’t gonna. “Was Tessa down here to sign out already, is she gone?”

“Yeah, she was here about twenty minutes ago. You two are the first ones. I think she was sad to go. She was a little teary eyed. Personally, I think she may have been too innocent for this place,” Vinny chuckles.

“She might have been.”
No might about it
. “Bye, Vin. Good luck with everything. I hope it works out for you and Julie.” I step out of the office. Before heading to my truck one last stop is required. I have a gut feeling.

There she sits. Up on the rock, the place I deemed “our spot” the first weekend here. Her eyes are once again hidden under sunglasses making them unreadable.

“I wasn’t sure if you were gone already.” I sit next down next to her dropping my duffel bag down at my feet.

“I couldn’t go without saying goodbye,” she says sadly.

“Tessa, this summer I opened my heart up. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you what you were looking for.”

She jumps up to her feet and stands in front of me, her arms wrap securely around my neck. “Tucker, you gave me more than I ever expected.” Her voice is still sad, her cheek presses against mine. I know she’s crying. I feel her tears on my face. “It’s not you, it’s me.”

She’s giving me the
“It’s not you”
speech. Hell, is this what it feels like to be on the other end of those words? I always thought that was a gentle way of letting someone down. It’s not. I reach up to her hands clasped tightly behind my neck and unlatch her fingers slipping them back down to her sides. “I gotta go. You take care. Be careful driving home. Don’t drive too fast.”

That’s it. I reach for my bag and walk away. It’s all I can handle.

Mark

My car is packed. I’m ready to leave this camp and the crazy, amazing, back to crazy summer that came with it. Cassie’s words still sting, but now that camp’s over, we’ll be able to think more clearly. I make one last trek up her steps to help carry her stuff to my car. A long car ride home with nowhere to run off to will give us a few hours to straighten everything out.

The door opens. “Mark, hey honey, you look great. How was your summer?” Mrs. Demarco stands before me smiling. Why is Cassie’s mom here?

“I’m surprised to see you here. Cassie didn’t tell me you were coming.”

“She didn’t? Hmm, that’s strange. She called me last weekend and asked if I would come down and pick her up. She said she had a lot of stuff to bring home and it wouldn’t all fit in your car.”

“Oh, you’re here to bring her home?” My mouth drops open, stunned that she would call her mom and not even tell me.

“Sweetheart, are you okay? Cassie didn’t mention any of this to you? I’m sorry.”

“Where is she now?”

“She ran down to the office to sign out.”

I don’t even say goodbye to Mrs. Demarco. I run down the hill to confront Cassie. I need to know why she’s doing this.

I spot her walking towards me. I can tell by looking at her she was planning on leaving without even saying goodbye to me.

“Why?” One word, it’s all that’s needed.

Cassie growls. She throws her hands in the air. “Because Mark, if we end it this way. There’s no heartbreak.”

“Why would there be heartbreak? ’Cause I’m leaving for school? That’s crazy. You come see me, I come see you. Simple.”

“I’ll be working. All the time. It’s not simple.”

“You’re making it hard.”

“Mark, trust me. It’s better this way.”

“You’re wrong, Cass.”

“Let’s just go back to the way it was. We’ll be friends like we were. You go to school. Have fun. Be crazy.”

“You can’t keep playing these games and expect to win. We both know how we feel. It’s out there. We said stuff. We did stuff. And we both meant it. But if this is the way you really want it. Fine. Go ahead. Go home with your mom. Thanks for the summer fling.”

“How is this supposed to work, Mark? Huh? Tell me. We see each other at the holidays? A few weekend visits home hanging out in my family room. Oh yeah, and don’t forget all those sexy visits we’re going to have in your dorm,” she hollers sarcastically. “I don’t even have a car. How would I even get there?”

“Cassie, you’re being ridiculous. It would work. You think we’re the first couple to ever have a relationship while in two different places? It’s not like I’m gonna be gone forever.”

“Fine. Then we’ll wait. In four years when you graduate, if you still feel the same way maybe we can date then.” She backs away. “I gotta go. Have a safe trip home, Mark.”

“So now we’re back to waiting? Waiting for something to happen? Newsflash Cassie. It already did.”

“That’s just it. I don’t want you to wait. It’s time to move on, move forward. Don’t waste your college years waiting on some high school romance. Go have a good time. Have fun.”

“Okay.” I give up. I can see her mind is made up. “So what now? You go home with your mom. I go home and leave for school. When do I get to see you again?”

“I’m sure we’ll see each other.”

“When?”

She runs a hand through her hair and lets out a long sigh. “Goodbye, Mark.”

I watch her walk away, frozen in place until she disappears out of sight. I take one last look at the green grounds surrounding me.

“Goodbye, Cassie.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Three months later.

Tucker

“This is from the blonde across the bar.” The bartender puts down a coaster and places a fresh bottle of beer in front of me.

I let myself be hopeful that the blonde he’s referring to is the one I’m still in love with. My eyes gaze across the bar and a blonde lifts up a beer bottle toasting me. Pretty. But she’s doesn’t interest me. I dip my head down in a curt nod thanking her for the drink.

All this time at school and I’ve only seen Tessa a few times from a distance. She’s done a good job avoiding me and I’ve done my own share of avoiding her. Too painful.

The blonde has not picked up on my disinterest and slides onto the stool next to mine. “Hey handsome, you here all by yourself?”