I do have Everett through it all, though. He’s been helping tamp my anxiety down with lots and lots of kissing … among other things. The way he can get my body to respond, it’s like he knows it better than I do. And it’s not just physical. I’ll wake up to a single flower on the windshield of my car. Or walk out of school at the end of the day to him sitting on the hood of his, ready to take me for coffee or pizza. We spend weekends with my friends.
Last Saturday, he took me to New York City for the day to walk around. We visited the Bryant Park Christmas shops, ate lunch at Carmine’s and saw the big Rockefeller tree all lit up before taking the train home with hot chocolate in hand. It was perfect.
Though, this week has been nothing but insanity. I don’t know why I volunteered to help chair the Winter Wonderland dance at the high school. It’s tertiary to homecoming and prom, but it’s still a school dance and an excuse to flirt in pretty dresses, so everyone goes. As one of the senior girls who has a prominent role on both a sporting team and in many clubs throughout school, I’m always named when anyone wants to throw one of these events. I didn’t have to say yes, but I’m a goody-goody and can’t seem to stop campaigning for college even with the applications already in.
Which is how I find myself, two days before the dance, cutting out paper snowflakes in the cafeteria at nine o’clock at night.
Two other people, the senior class president and her vice president, are helping, but it’s taken this long to get them all done. We still have a mountain of work to actually set up, and I’m exhausted.
“I think we should call it a night,” I tell them, and they nod, agreeing with tired looks in their eyes.
By the time I get home, all I want to do is drop onto my mattress and go to sleep.
What I’m met with, though, is something I never expect.
A trail of flower petals leads to my room, and I’m about to call downstairs until I catch a glimpse of Mom ducking behind the bannister. She gives me a sly smile and a thumbs-up, so clearly she’s in on whatever this is.
I haven’t heard from Everett in hours, and now that I’m standing in front of my bedroom door with pink and red roses under my feet, I have a sinking suspicion I know why. Pushing it open, I reveal my room bathed in candles, and vases of roses on every surface.
“Oh my …” I suck in a breath, marveling at the spectacle of romance before me.
In my entire short life, I’ve never been given flowers. None have been delivered, or left in my locker on Valentine’s Day. So this? This makes me want to fall to my knees, it’s so beautiful.
The path is clearly made to my window, where it stops, a note is taped to the inside.
When I get to it, I peel the note off.
K,
I have a question for you. Open the window and pick up my call.
-E
Smiling to myself, I open the window, Everett grinning from across the void. He points to the paper cup on a string, set up by a pulley-system he’s rigged between our houses. Picking it up, I press it to my ear as he begins to talk.
“Remember when we did this as kids?” he asks, chuckling.
I hear his talking voice more from between the houses which are only a few feet apart rather than the paper cup, but he’s being so freaking cute that I still move it to my mouth to speak.
“Yes. It didn’t work then either.”
Everett laughs harder. “I guess not. But I did have a question to ask you.”
My heart skips a beat as I press the cup closer to my ear. I stare at him, nodding, and our eyes create what feels like a cosmic force.
“Will you go to Winter Wonderland with me?” He smiles, holding up his two crossed fingers.
As if I would say no. “Everett, did you just prompose to me?”
He chuckles. “I guess I did. But this isn’t prom. Don’t worry, that’s coming.”
My heart nearly flatlines, because if this is just for Winter Wonderland, what’s he going to pull out for prom?
“Yes. I’ll go to Winter Wonderland with you.” I swear, my cheeks are on fire.
“Did you hear that Brentwick? Kennedy Dover is going to Winter Wonderland with me!” Everett cups his hands over his mouth and shouts.
“Shhh!” I whisper-screech across the void. “It’s almost ten o’clock!”
“You better get to sleep then, gorgeous. Wouldn’t want to miss that beauty sleep.” He winks.
And although he’s being sarcastic, I know the compliment is real. This feeling, this one I have with him, I would wait forever to have it. It seems like I did.
No one in the world makes me feel the way Everett Brock makes me feel.
28
Everett
Kennedy steals my breath.
She’s kept it the entire night. From the moment she walked down the stairs of her parent’s house in a form-fitting black lace dress, to the way her head laid on my chest during a slow dance.
I wanted to make Winter Wonderland everything for her that I never gave her. I didn’t ask her to my proms, and I barely acknowledged her when she went to homecoming as the senior queen. It feels like destiny that we’re finally here, that we finally took pictures in her living room as her mom cooed and teared up behind the camera. That I could hold her hand walking into the high school, even if I’m not a student there anymore, and grind up on her during a Top 40 song.
It also feels like fate that my parents are out tonight, staying in a neighboring town at a B and B for a friend’s anniversary party. Kennedy’s parents think she’s staying at Rachel’s house, but probably aren’t fooled that she isn’t right next door. I think our parents are just so happy we’re finally dating, that they’ll condone their children staying together while lying to their faces.
“You look incredible tonight. Not even. I don’t have the words.” I breathe as I back Kennedy into my bedroom.
“It feels strange to be in here for …” She gulps, and I know she was about to say this.
Not that either of us have talked about this. I guess it’s implied that if all the stars aligned and we wound up together, in a house, without parents, overnight … that well, something is bound to happen.
“Relax,” I tell her, trying my best to be smooth.
Inside though, I’m fucking freaking out. I’ve never done this either, haven’t gotten this close to the sun. And she is my sun. The one I’ve waited for, the prize I’ve wanted to take and be claimed by. Fresh, untouched by anyone else.
When I lean in to kiss her, Kennedy bows her back, pressing her breasts into me. The soft lace of her dress indents my fingertips as I grip her hips. Before long, our kissing turns heated, then frantic, with each of us trying to get out of our clothes.
We’ve done this dance plenty of times now, in the tree house, in our basements, and in my car at the barn parties. I’ve grown accustomed to her body, its little tics and how she responds to certain pressure and pleasure. The sounds she makes, how she practically melts when I make her come on my tongue.
Shit. If I keep fantasizing while I get Kennedy’s clothes off, and with her hands where they are, I’m going to come way too quickly.
Once my chest is bare, her dress is strewn on the carpet, and our shoes are kicked off, we make out while walking our way to the bed. My hands fill with her perfect tits, searching for the nipples that I know, when rolled in between my thumb and forefinger, will bead and make her moan.