Love Storm (25 page)

Her dark eyes held my gaze as I ran my touch over her bottom lip. Time froze for a moment as I stopped at the corner of her mouth, our faces mere inches apart.

"You are so beautiful," I breathed. The words left my mouth of their own accord, but the result was worth it. Winter blushed prettily and couldn't seem to come up with a retort, for once.

I got the same rush of adrenaline I had felt from our almost-kiss yesterday, and wondered what it would be like to actually finish it this time. Suddenly my heart was pounding in my ribcage and I couldn't get a full breath in. Through half-closed eyes I saw that Winter's eyes had slid shut as well as my lips hovered above hers, barely a fraction of a millimeter away. Our lips brushed once in the chastest kiss I had ever experienced, but electricity swept through my whole body, making my skin tingle just from that brief touch. We opened our eyes simultaneously and I just knew from looking into her eyes that she had felt it too. I wondered hazily what she would do if I kissed her again as my gaze strayed to her slightly parted lips.

Someone cleared their throat.

I continued to study her as her fingers curled gently around the baby hairs at the nape of my neck. Our eyes closed again and I leaned toward her to reconnect our lips. Sadly, we never made it.

"
What
is the meaning of this?"

Talk about killing a moment. Let me tell you something now. You've probably heard it all before, but just let me re-iterate: life is
entirely
unfair. I closed my eyes very briefly, wishing I could encase the earlier moment in a glass orb so I could keep it and take it out to replay it whenever I wanted.

It was my father. Another bit of advice: when you're going to start kissing a beautiful girl, don't leave the door open to spectators. Especially spectators of the adult sort. "Uh…hey, father," I said, rather stupidly.

Winter had turned her head into my shirt, hiding there. "Oh, lord," I heard her whisper hoarsely.

"Oh, honestly Joshua, let them be," came the light, musical voice of my mother. There was a bit of laughter in her voice. "Don't you remember what it was like to be a teenager?" She closed the door for me and I heard her pulling my father downstairs, though he was grumbling the entire time.

All earlier notions of my not squishing Winter with my body had clean left my brain by now. My elbows gave and I was shaking as I let my head rest in the curve of her neck. Winter's fingers were still in my hair, and I let them stay there.

We had barely touched lips – in fact, did it even constitute as a kiss? – but I still could not remember how to breathe correctly. When was the last time anyone had affected me so deeply with a kiss? Uh, try never. I couldn't get a coherent thought to register in my brain.

When a full thought did manage to make itself known, I said, "God, Winter, tell me now that you weren't sorry we just – just…" I couldn't finish it.

"…Kissed?" she suggested.

I could only nod mutely.

"No," she said, "I'm not sorry if you're not."

"I am
definitely
not sorry," I murmured, nearly moaning at the want of having her lips back on mine. But I would wait for now.

She blushed. "I'm glad," she said quietly, cheeks flaming. "Though your father probably isn't."

"Oh, god," I groaned. "How am I going to face them again after this? Dinner! And you're staying!"

"I can go home," she said, alarmed.

"No, don't," I said immediately.

Quiet descended between the two of us.

"Zack?" she whispered after a moment, sounding almost afraid to ask.

"Yeah," I murmured against the skin of her neck.

A pause, then, "What did it mean?"

I closed my eyes. "I'm sorry Winter," I said, "But I honestly don't know."

She sighed lightly. "Me neither."

There was another pause.

"Zack?" I could detect a frown in her voice this time.

"Mmm."

"What about Eva?"

I lifted my head, gazing into her worried dark chocolate eyes. "Eva who?" I grinned. Because that was how I felt. Winter had managed to sweep her blue-eyed blonde-haired best friend clean from my mind.

"God, you're terrible," Winter groaned, slugging me on the shoulder gently but smiling slightly. I rolled off her and onto my side while she stayed where she was on her back. I propped up my elbow and rested my head on my hand, looking down at her.

"When's dinner?" she said, settling into my bed more comfortably. "Wow, your pillow's comfortable. I like it."

"Dinner's in forty-five minutes or so." It was only 5:15.

Winter blinked and voiced what I had been thinking: "What are we going to do with ourselves in 45 minutes?"

'
Well, I can think of a few things
…' I thought. Aaugh, no! Naughty Zack.

Winter guessed what I was thinking, again, but took it as a joke. "Oh god, you are so perverted," she muttered when I winked at her. I chuckled.

"I was just kidding," I said. "What
can
we do with ourselves in 45 minutes?"

We ended up just laying there on my bed in my dark room, talking. Talking about everything and nothing. Somehow, conversing with Winter was different than talking with anyone else. Maybe it was because she actually took me seriously, or maybe it was because she always really listened to what I had to say when I was being honest, or maybe it was because the way we talked with each other in quiet voices like we were the only two people in the world and we were sharing something very private made something in my stomach flip every so often, but I found myself opening up to her, just like that night when I had told her about my parents. I could remember everything we discussed clearly even though it was all about little things, which was new for me, because usually when I talked with people I had a tendency to zone out on them. Space Cadet Zack, that's me.

We were halfway through our topic of books (she was telling me that she liked the Harry Potter ones, much to my amusement), when a knock sounded at my door.

"Zack? Winter?" came Victoria's muffled voice. "It's dinner."

"Alright, we'll be right there," I called to her. Winter and I listened to her retreating footsteps.

For a moment, we openly gazed at each other. Winter cocked her head to the side and another secret smile graced her lips.

"What?" I whispered, finding a smile crossing my own features.

She shook her head slightly. "Nothing," she said quietly, avoiding my eyes and focusing on a spot on my chest. The half-smile still lingered.

"Tell me?" I murmured.

Her smile grew and her eyes met mine again through the darkness of the room, studying my face. She shook her head again. "Maybe some other time. We have to go downstairs now."

"Oh, no," I groaned. "That's right. Aww, do we have to go?" I mock-whined.

"Yes," she said firmly, though her eyes were sparkling. "We must."

"Nope," I said resolutely. "There's no way I'm sharing you. You gotta stay here. Sorry." I rolled back on top of her, and though she tried to move out of the way, she wasn't fast enough. "I'm keeping you all to myself," I whispered in her ear.

She laughed. "C'mon you big joker," she whispered back, her lips just barely grazing my ear. Suddenly I couldn't breathe again. "Let's go down and meet the parents. Take two."

"Oh, shit," I muttered expressively, remembering again. She didn't know how true her words were. It really
was
going to be Meet the Parents, with capital letters.

xxxxx

We made it half-way through the meal before my dad started interrogating her.

"So, Winter," he said. I scowled at him discreetly. "How did you and Zack meet?"

"Well," she started slowly. "We go to the same high school, and I've known him since middle school."

"And how long have you and Zack been…seeing each other?"

She blinked and stole a glance at me. She was confused; I could tell because she automatically brought up and hand and rubbed the spot just above her eyebrow. "Uhm…well, we've known each other since middle school," she repeated, perhaps thinking he hadn't heard the first time. No luck there. My dad had perfect hearing.

'Good answer,' I thought, 'But not the one he's looking for.'

"I see," my father said.

"What I think my husband means is," my mom laughed, "How long have you been
dating
?"

Winter's mouth formed a small O, and she looked at me. She cleared her throat and took a sip of her water.

"Uhm," she said, swallowing. She looked at me again and I groaned softly to myself. Realization dawned on her face and I could tell she was smirking to herself even though no one else at the table could tell. "We've been dating for a while. A couple months, maybe? Yeah, pretty much since the beginning of the school year."

It was scary how convincing a liar she was.

"Hmm, I see," my mother said, her eyes sparkling and an uncontained smile on her face. "And has he ever taken you out?"

"Oh, well we hang out a lot," Winter said, shrugging a little. She was really getting into this. "But he did take me to homecoming, which was pretty nice."

My mother's smile grew wider and I knew she was going to take over this Spanish Inquisition. I furiously berated myself for letting such a lie start in the first place. I was
ne-ver
going to live this down.

"That's wonderful. Did you take pictures?"

"Er, no, unfortunately," Winter said, smiling wistfully. This girl could get an Oscar if she wanted to. "The line was too long so we decided to skip that part." She even had a bit of a regretful expression on her face.

My mom continued to ask her questions through to the end of the meal, and by dessert Winter was hard pressed to keep her laughter in check. I could tell because her mouth was gradually becoming a straighter and straighter line, and she was gripping her napkin very tightly in her lap. Alright, let me reassess the situation –
Winter
is never going to let me live this down.

Afterwards we all walked her to the door.

"It was very nice to meet you again, Mr. and Mrs. Crowne," Winter said, gasping almost inaudibly and clutching her stomach a little.

"Are you alright?" my father frowned.

Suddenly she couldn't hold it in anymore and broke out into a huge smile. "I'm f-fine," she said, coughing a little to cover up a wayward giggle. "Thank you
so
much for dinner. It was absolutely lovely."

"I'll drive you home," I broke into the conversation smoothly. "I'll be back in twenty minutes. Bye, everyone."

With that I pulled her out of the house and closed the door behind me. I clamped a hand over her mouth but it was no use. She nearly broke out into hysterics.

"Oh my god!" she shrieked, laughing even harder than when I had tickled her earlier. I scowled.

She was doubled up, clutching her side and leaning against the driver's door of her dad's car. "Oh my god," she kept saying, and pounding the roof of the car with her fist.

"Hey, stop it, don't damage the car," I frowned.

"Zack." She was laughing so hard she couldn't get a full sentence out. "Your parents…" There were tears of mirth sparkling in her eyes. "…are lovely," she choked out, "And…" She shrieked in delight. "I would be so happy to meet them again… on the evening…
hahahahahahaHA
…of our engagement announcement."

"Are you quite done?" I said haughtily. This wasn't very funny to me.

She breathed in a couple times through her nose. "I'm sorry Zack," she said, still giggling a little and not sounding very sorry at all, "It's just…you should have seen your face when your mother suggested we were…" She chuckled again. "…going out.
Dating
. I just couldn't resist the temptation."

Grumpily, I thought in passing that maybe it was good she hadn't been able to resist the temptation, because otherwise I would have been busted for my little not so white lie.

I sighed. "It's okay," I said, inadvertently grinning a little also. I watched as she fished around in her pocket for her keys. "I'll follow you home in my own car. Now you can prove to me that you're that oh so great driver."

"I will," Winter was still laughing quietly. "Let's go."

Chapter 20: Just Worse and Worse

Winter

"Abercrombie smells like money," Eva declared.

"I beg your pardon?" I said into the phone absently, flipping through one of her
Seventeen
magazines that I had borrowed five months previously but had never found the time to look at.

It was roughly five days after the episode of The Announcement, with a capital T and A. Thanksgiving had passed uneventfully and was not really worth mentioning except that this year Caroline's Pies had outdone itself and the apple pie was the best I'd ever experienced. I made a mental note to always get a pie from there for every holiday from now on – apparently the passing of a holiday was so joyful that the bakers must have celebrated by adding a special something into their pies. When my mother saw my blissful expression on my first bite, she had commented that perhaps they had added, quite specifically, a special
alcoholic
something.