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Zeke

As Addie entwines her fingers with mine and I lead us toward the party just at the edge of the lake, something inside us shifts. I can't say what or even explain it, but something is irrevocably changed between us.

It's almost as though the universe knows it just as much as we do.

Addie and I never talk about what's happening, but I know she feels it, too. It's hard to say if its freedom or fear that we’re both clinging to, but she never lets go and neither do I.

Letting go could either mean reaching a destiny we never anticipated or the very destruction of everything we've ever known. Neither of us is sure which it will be, we just instinctively know we can't go back. Silently, we decide to face it the same way we've always faced everything.

Together.

Not long before we leave, we're sitting at the edge of the dock waiting for the fireworks to start when my phone begins to sound off. I'm not surprised to see Addie's dad calling. Since she doesn't have a cell phone, he occasionally calls mine when he can't get her on their house phone.

“Your dad,” I say, handing her my phone and watching her swipe the screen.

“Hello?” she says quietly, pulling her hand from mine to cup her ear.

I immediately feel a loss, but manage to contain the sigh as I look over the water, contemplating what's next. Things have felt so natural all day, I have no idea how we'd gone so long without ever having slipped out of the friend zone until now. I know she's scared to lose me. I'm scared to lose her, too, but this feels like it could be big, epic even.

The question isn't whether or not we care about each other, the question is if we're willing to risk it all.

“Zeke,” she says, her soft voice breaking my thoughts.

“Hmm?”

“My dad wants to talk to you,” she says, taking in my questioning look and meeting me with a shrug.

“Hello?” I answer, holding the phone to my ear.

“Zeke? I have a bit of a favor to ask you,” Mr. Greyson says over the line.

“Sure,” I say, reluctance in my voice only because he's never asked me for a favor.

“I'm sure you heard me speaking to Addison this afternoon,” he starts, reminding me of the odd conversation he and Addie had shared.

“Yes sir,” I admit.

“Okay,” he says quietly. “Well, something has come up and I need to leave for a few hours tonight. She said you'll be heading back this way soon?”

“Yes sir,” I tell him. “Probably within the next hour or so. We’re just waiting for the fireworks to start.”

“Alright, good,” he sighs. “I'm not sure how long I'll be gone, but I'm not real comfortable leaving Addison here on her own. Would you mind staying here at the house with her? I should be back sometime in the morning.”

“You want me to spend the night?” I ask, unable to conceal the disbelief in my voice. It's clear by the look in Addie's hazel eyes she's just as surprised as I am. “I thought… I thought we weren't allowed to do that?”

“Son, the last time you two asked me, the two of you were thirteen and fourteen years old and your hormones were raging,” he snickers. “I think you've both got enough sense to handle it now.”

Don't put all your eggs in that basket
, I think to myself as I study Addie's face.

“Yeah, okay,” I manage as I hold her eyes, watching her swallow hard. “I can do that.”

“Thanks kid,” he says, the relief clear in his voice. “Can you put Addie back on? I want to make sure she's comfortable with it. I didn't want to mention it until I talked to you first.”

“Yes sir,” I answer, handing her the phone back.

I try my best to look away, give her privacy while she finishes the call, but I can't keep my eyes off her for long.  The low volume of her voice keeps me from hearing what she says and her usually tell-all face is expressionless. Still, something tells me what we thought we'd still have a couple weeks to work out would be happening sooner rather than later.

As she ends the call, she takes a deep breath and keeps her gaze locked on the water for a moment before facing me. An odd combination of hesitance and anticipation is written all over her features as she meets my eyes. In this split second that seems to last an eternity I give her the same trust I always have, deciding whatever she says will determine our immediate fate.

“Well,” she starts, returning my phone to me and releasing a nervous sigh. “It took over ten years, but it looks like we're finally having that slumber party.”

Either the universe is more impatient than I thought or it has one hell of a sense of humor.

Addie

On the way home, it's impossible not to notice how much slower he's driving than usual.

Not that I'm complaining.

Something deep inside me says that everything is about to change between us and I think the extra minute is needed on both sides of the cab.

As he pulls up to his house, the truck is barely at an idle. After he turns the ignition off, we sit in silence for a brief moment before both of us let out a simultaneous breath.

“So…” he starts, surprising me with his inability to say what’s on his mind.

Zeke’s a lot of things, but shy isn’t one of them.

Never… not once, has he been the kind of guy who has a problem saying what’s on his mind. Usually, it’s his impulsive words that get him in trouble. Risking a glance in his direction, it’s obvious with one look at him what the problem is.

He’s scared.

I’m scared, too. Nothing can help that, but I know what can help him.

“Addie…” he starts, his low voice barely a whisper in the cab.

“I can’t believe I forgot to tell you this,” I cut him off, hating the slight crack in my voice that reveals my own nerves. “I found your old XBOX in my closet the other day.”

“Oh yeah?” he says, his blue eyes meeting mine in confusion before falling on my lips.

“We should totally play Fable,” I tell him as I push my door open, watching understanding reach his eyes as they fill with relief.

“Yeah, okay,” he says, giving me a small smile as he nods. “We haven’t done that in a while.”

“I know,” I smirk as I wait for him to join me at the front of the truck. “We never found all of the gargoyles. I think we still have seven of them left.”

“Something like that,” he says, coming to a stop in front of me.

Holding his eyes for a moment, I savor his touch as he brushes his thumb over my jawline and searches my face.

“Don’t turn it into a thing,” I say softly. “We’re just playing a video game.”

“I know,” he promises as the corner of his mouth turns up slightly. “I’m not.”

“Okay,” I smirk, turning to walk across my yard with him following me.

Surprising him, I walk past my window and head for the front door, turning to find him staring at me in disbelief before he catches up.

“I thought there wasn’t any adventure in a front door,” he teases as he comes to a stop in front of me.

“There isn’t, Zeke,” I admit, swallowing hard. “Something tells me after today, we aren’t going to need that window to create adventure anymore.”

“Yeah,” he whispers, giving me a slight nod. I’m about to unlock my door when his voice stops me. “Addie?”

“Yeah?” I answer, turning to face him.

As my eyes find his, he grips my face in his hands and pulls my lips to his. He kisses me deeply, causing my head to spin wildly in an instant as he pushes me against the door frame. By the time he pulls away, we’re both panting wildly, his hot breath washing over my lips as he takes the keys from my hand. He holds my eyes as he pushes the door open and takes my hand.

“No matter what happens, I’m still not letting you go,” he promises, prompting me to nod.

“Okay.”

Slowly, we make our way inside and up the stairs to my room. As he pushes my door open, the scene in front of us is a complete contradiction to the people staring in at it. Somehow, it’s exactly the way I left it this afternoon. After everything that’s happened today, all that is bound to happen now, the familiarity of this room seems impossible. However, I’d be lying if I said the full size bed in the corner didn’t seem a whole lot bigger than it did the last time I saw it.

He flips the switch on the wall and my bedroom fills with the soft light of the twinkle lights I’d hung up a few years ago. Taking a few steps inside, he follows me and closes the door behind us. The action is almost silent, but aside from my own pounding heart, all I can hear is the click of the door.

His quiet footsteps as he makes his way to me have me swallowing hard. I can’t help the nerves that swim through my veins as I begin absentmindedly chipping away at my nail polish.

God, I’m so awkward.

“Addie,” he whispers, breaking my thoughts. “I don’t want to play Fable.”

“Okay,” I manage, turning to find him directly behind me. “What do you want to do?”

Please don’t say sex. I’m so not ready for sex yet.

Lifting the remote to my stereo, ‘Where Is My Mind’ by Trampled by Turtles fills my room. As his blue eyes stare down at me the buzz of the lyrics fills my veins, replacing my fear and for the first time all day, I feel understood.

Taking my hand, he gently spins me in front of him and I return my now teary gaze to his and realize he understands what I need, too.

“Dance with me, Addie.”

Zeke

As my eyes slowly flicker open the next morning, a gentle sigh that leaves her as she tightens her hold on my waist. Glancing down, her head rests against my bare chest as her blonde hair hides her face from me. Bending my head slightly, I take in the familiar scent of her, still drunk on it from the night before and rest my head on the pillow.

Her breathing tells me she’s still sleeping, so I scan the bedroom that’s nearly as familiar as my own while I allow my thoughts to wander. Letting my eyes roam, I think about the stark contrast between her dark room and the front she puts up outside of it.

Although she’s more unique than anyone I’d ever met, few people would ever believe Addie lived in this room. From the outside looking in, she’s a sunny, eighteen year old girl with a few odd quirks.

I know better though.

The dark grey walls covered in pictures of her favorite musicians and our childhood seem random, but they scream volumes about her heart. They remind me of how deeply she loves, how loyal she is regardless of how heavy her soul sometimes gets.

Her bookshelf covered in graphic novels and old notebooks may tell you she’s thoughtful, but they won’t see the art and truth within those pages.

The thoughts she only tells God and the paper they’re written on.

The massive stereo she saved up her allowance to buy for a year may look typical, but the way she lets the music pour into her soul is unlike anything you’ll ever see in anyone else.

The twinkle lights scattered across the wall and the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling may look like some goofy shit a girl put up on a whim. You’d never guess by looking into her hazel eyes that they’re there because she’s been scared of the dark forever or that her last memory of her mom was them staring at the stars.

I’m lost in the walls around me and the feel of her skin on mine when she starts to stir beside me. Glancing down at her, I watch her thick eyelashes begin to flutter open beneath the mess of blonde hair that’s strewn across her face and my chest. Her hand begins to gently stroke my bare abs, sending a pulse of pleasure through me and further fueling my arousal. I’m in the middle of a silent breakdown when she stills her movement completely and seems to realize what she’s doing.

She raises her gaze to mine and stares into my eyes silently, her lips still swollen from our hormone-induced make-out session last night. Searching my eyes for a moment, I can’t help the grin that covers my face when I take in her bedhead.

“Hey,” I chuckle, rubbing my eyes clear and letting out a yawn.

“Hi,” she says quietly, mirroring my yawn before resting her forehead on my chest. “It’s hot in here,” she says, kicking the covers off of her and revealing her bare, tanned legs.

“Yeah, it is,” I manage, attempting in vain to divert my gaze as she uses the remote on her nightstand to switch the radio on.

She rolls off of me and lies beside me as she begins quietly singing along with Katy Perry on the radio. As shy as she was last night, I’m surprised she’s being so open with me now. We didn’t have sex, but we did manage to cross some pretty fantastic lines.

I could tell she wasn’t ready. Truth be told, I wasn’t either, but one look at her purple panties and ridiculously short pink Rugby shirt and my dick disagrees. As she rolls over and stretches her arms above her head, I can see the bottom of her tits peeking out from below the fabric and I let out an audible groan, halting her movement.

“Are you checking me out?” she asks, pulling my guilty eyes to hers.

“Uh… no?”

“You liar!” she blushes, playfully smacking me. “You totally were!”

“Okay, yeah, fine! I was!” I admit, shaking my head and looking up at the ceiling. “But I mean, come on, Addie! Look at what you’re wearing right now, can you really blame me?”

“I’m wearing a t-shirt!” she argues, still blushing through her shy smile. “What’s the big deal? You’ve seen me in bikinis before.”

“Yeah, you’re wearing a really short t-shirt with panties and you’re stretching and shit,” I groan, causing her blush to deepen as I peek over at her. “And I definitely checked you out in the bikinis, you just never caught me before.”

“Zeke,” she says as her cheeks flush, covering her midriff with her hands shyly. “You weren’t supposed to do that.”

“Why the hell not?” I ask, causing her to balk. “That’s not fair at all! I’ve seen you checking me out before.”

“Yeah,
now
,” she argues. “Things are different now. Now, we’re…”

Searching her eyes, I see her struggling for her words and try as I might, I can’t help her find any.

“What Addie?” I say, turning to face her as she runs her eyes over my face and begins to slowly shake her head.

“I don’t know,” she confesses in a small voice. “We’re something, though, aren’t we?”

“Yeah,” I whisper, letting out a sigh. “Yeah, we’re definitely something, babe.”

Lying silently, we allow our thoughts to wander for a moment before her voice breaks through.

“I guess at some point we’ll need an answer to that question,” she muses quietly as she slowly sits up, resting her chin on her knees and examining her nails.

“Yeah,” I agree, glancing over at her and studying her messy blonde mane as she begins biting on her nails and twists to face me. “I mean, I guess so.”

“So, what do we do, Zeke?”

“Well, the way I see it, we have two options,” I start, sitting up next to her and leaning over my knees, matching her. “One, we can see where this goes,” I gesture between us. “We’ve still got a few weeks before we have to leave for school, so we can see how we feel closer to then. Maybe set a few ground rules and see where it takes us, ya know?”

“Yeah,” she says carefully, staring ahead and lost in thought.

“Or,” I continue. “We can just pretend that nothing happened. Go back to the way things were before… this.”

“Yeah,” she nods. “That would probably be the smart thing to do, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, that would definitely be the smart thing,” I agree quietly, hating the feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Right,” she says in a small voice, letting out a sigh. “So I guess that’s what we should do.”

“Probably,” I agree, watching her slowly deflate with me as our eyes meet. “There’s a problem with that plan, though.”

“What’s that?”

“Addie, do you think you can pretend like yesterday and last night never happened?” I ask her nervously. “Because I don’t think I can.”

“Zeke…”

“If you say that’s what you want, I’ll try my best,” I promise her. “I meant what I said last night, I’ll never let you go, Addie,” I continue, holding her eyes. “If walking away is what you want to do, I’ll take all the feelings I’ve got and just swallow them, but something inside me keeps screaming that this,” I gesture between us. “This could be epic. This could be what we were always meant for, babe.”

As I hold her hazel eyes and watch her breathing catch, I can’t deny the combination of adrenaline and pure terror running though me. I meant everything I’d just told her, but the thought of my best friend shooting me down isn’t my favorite.

She stares at me silently long enough that I grow more nervous, hating the alien feeling. I’m about to speak again when she cuts me off.

“No,” she says softly as shakes her head. “I don’t think I can go back, either.”

Addie

The second the words leave my lips, we let out simultaneous breaths of relief before Zeke leans down and hovers over my mouth.

“We’ll be okay, Addie,” he whispers, holding my watery eyes.

“Say you swear it.”

“I swear it,” he says immediately. “There are lots of risks I’m willing to take, but losing you isn’t one of them.”

“Okay,” I nod, closing the distance between us and gently pulling him to my mouth.

The way his full lips feel against mine have my head swimming almost instantly. To keep myself from floating away completely, I grip the back of his neck as he deepens the kiss. Slowly, I sink below him onto the bed, loving the feel of him hovering over me. His bronzed, muscular arms cage me protectively as he sucks on my lower lip and I sink into the mattress below us.

As one hand lowers to rest at my bare waist, he rests on top of me, the delicious feel of his weight pulling a whimper from my chest. His fingertips skim along my ribcage, his touch shooting fire into my belly as he runs his lips over my jaw.

His clean, familiar scent surrounds me as he lowers his mouth to my neck. His dark brown hair hangs over his forehead, hiding his thick eyebrows as he raises up to meet my eyes.

“Addie,” he whispers against my lips, his indigo eyes searching mine beneath his thick, black eyelashes. “You have to tell me if…”

“I will,” I nod, pulling his lips back to mine.

Even though I’ve never done anything with anyone but him, I know Zeke lost his virginity back in high school. Inexperienced as I am, I trust him completely. Not only do I know without a doubt he’d never push me to do anything I’m not ready for, his careful touch is a constant reminder of my safety.

Do I think that’s where things are headed right now? Probably not, but it’s nice to know one word is all it will take for him to stop when I’m ready.

I’m lost in the heady feeling of his hand skimming the bottom of my breast when the sound of the front door closing loudly pulls me back to reality.

“Addison?” my dad calls out from the bottom of the stairs, the sound of his heavy footsteps coming up the stairs sending panic into both of our eyes.

“Shit, Zeke!” I hiss, sitting up quickly to pull the blanket over my legs as he scrambles to find the shorts he’d worn last night.

Thinking as quickly as I can, I throw a pillow and the spare blanket at the foot of my bed at him before lying back down, my body barely concealed in time for the door to swing open.

“Hey kids,” my dad says with a slow smile, looking between the two of us quickly before taking in the still folded blanket Zeke’s holding.

“Hey Daddy,” I smile guiltily.

“What are y’all up to?” he asks, leaning against the frame and crossing his arms.

“Nothin’,” I lie. “Just about to get up and have breakfast. Everything okay?”

“Yep,” he says, still cutting his eyes at us suspiciously. “How’d ya sleep, Zeke?”

“Good,” he says, risking a glance at where he’s still standing with the partially folded blanket. “Just, uh, trying to fold this back up for Addie.”

“Well, isn’t that sweet,” he says with a smirk before his eyes fall back on me. “So, nothin’ exciting happened while I was gone, huh?”

“No,” we both answer immediately, further incriminating ourselves.

After an awkward silence, Zeke clears his throat and faces me, his face a shade of red I can’t explain.

“Addie, I think I’m gonna go take a shower,” he says quietly. “I’ll call you after?”

“Okay,” I nod.

“Better make it a cold one, kid,” my dad snickers as he pats him on the shoulder on his way out. The groan that leaves Zeke is loud enough that I hear it from my spot on the bed. “Addison, downstairs in five minutes.”

“Yes sir,” I manage as he pulls my bedroom door shut.

As my head hits the pillow below me, the slight huff leaves my chest and I’m left wondering if all that really just happened.