It was the way the moment happened. So quick, yet so slow. I could literally feel the bile rise in my throat and the beads of sweat piling up on my forehead. A deep, sharp pain began to make its presence within me and I tried my hardest to fight through it. Like an unwanted desire, it still burned within my soul. I told myself at least a thousand times that I was just fooling myself; that nothing like this could ever happen. But still, all the while hoping that it wasn't just a mere dream… a piece of me knew for a fact that it was, indeed, the true, untainted mask that is reality.

That very day I had seen her at school. Looking rather lost and a little bit shyer than usual. She was not your typical school girl. No – she was that of your rarest of rare high-school girls. She wore her hair in an unkempt, but fixed way. Her clothes resembled that of a rock and roll star, but also that of a meek, preparatory student. It was mighty hard to explain their differences, but deep down inside me… I knew the explanation. I wasn't very close with her as some of her other friends were… she seemed to only have one really close friend. His name was Aiden. He was your typical jock. Beautiful body, great head of hair, and biceps that would knock you off your feet – if his charm and nice smile hadn't done that already. But all in all, Aiden seemed to have a pretty good relationship with her.

I figured out a plan to "run into her" one day. By now, I knew her class schedule:

1st: American History

2nd: Biology 3

Lunch

3rd: English/Literature

4th: Girls' Athletics

I had made it my goal to at least say more than a "Hi, how are ya?" to her and that was my plan. We both had 3rd hour together and unfortunately, I was seated at the very back of the room. And as you can imagine, she was assigned the seat in the very front row… shit. I figured that me getting in a few words with her was pretty much hopeless, that is… until the day came for us to be paired up with a partner for our next assignment.

"Now class," stated Mrs. Robinson, "I have a special assignment planned for us today."

Groans and moans were exchanged amongst the students as we all wallowed in self-pity.

The stern woman ignored the remarks from us and continued on with her lecture.

"Today we'll be exploring the wonderful world of Edgar Allen Poe!" she finished her sentence with a slight head tilt; not understanding why we weren't thrilled to hear about this. "Anyway," she shrugged off, "you will all be paired off in a group of two. Seeing as how out of hand our last project got, I will be picking the teams this time."

A few students groaned once more and one even piped up with the remark of, "That is so not fair, Robbie!"

"Oh, it is quite fair, indeed! Now," she moved on, "I'll need…" she pulled out a piece of paper with names written all over it. "Okay, for Team 1, I'll need Sharon and Mark to pair up. Team 2, I'll need Stephen and Kyle. Team 3, I'll need Whitney and…" she quickly scanned the room, her eyes meeting mine. I sure as hell did not want to be Whitney's partner – I had another partner in mind. "Sarah, you can be with Whitney."

I mentally whipped the sweat from my brow and then looked back up to her.

"Umm… Team 4, we'll have… Ashley and," my heart dropped at the sound of her name. I wanted so badly for Mrs. Robinson to call my name out to be paired up with her; so badly, did I wish. "Ashley Davies… hmm… who would be good with you… oh – I've got it!" Just then, I noticed a slender finger pointing in my direction. "Yes, Spencer Carlin – our Ohio transfer. You'll be working with Miss Davies. Ashley, please raise your hand for Miss Carlin to see."

As if she needed to raise her beautifully tanned hand in the air. But, she did as she was told and after raising her hand, she turned to look at her new partner face-to-face. I looked down from her hand and met luscious brown eyes that glared everso lovingly back at me. My heart almost gave way when she fluttered her lips in the shape of a smile. At that moment in time, I seriously needed oxygen. Maybe I'd pass out and need mouth-to-mouth. Anyway…

As if a timer went off, the bell rang and most of the students bolted through the doorway. I was always the last one out of the room, but today – I wasn't alone. I grabbed my coat off the back of my chair and turned around, only to be taken completely off guard by a petite brunette with porcelain looking skin. She did that same flutter thing she did earlier with her lips that made me go weak in the knees. I steadied myself by placing a shaky hand on the top of my desk.

"Hi," she said calmly. She stuck out her slender hand and looked up at me. "I'm Ashley. Ashley Davies."

I slowly got my balance back and then grasped her hand in mine. "Hi, back." Wow, that was really retarded… nice one. She giggled a few before shaking my hand up and down.

"I guess it seems that we'll be working together, huh?"

I nodded my head in agreement; not really knowing what else to do in this situation.

"So, know anything about Edgar Allen Poe?"

I slowly regained confidence in the motor skills I had developed within the last 16 years and finally spoke, "Umm… not that much. Sorry – all I know is that he was one twisted man."

She let go of my hand and I instantly felt cold. Her touch was like a light bulb that had been on for at least a couple of hours; warm to the touch.

"Yeah, no kidding. I read somewhere that he like… liked his cousin or something."

She wrinkled her nose at the sound of her own sentence and I mirrored her image. We began to laugh a little and that is when she asked, "So, what are you doing after school? Anything important?"

I thought for a minute – here I was… the new kid – in a new city… with no friends.

"Nope… nothing much. Why?" I asked partially knowing the answer and partially wanting to hear her speak again.

"Well, I was thinking," she started, "if you weren't doing anything exciting… maybe you'd want to come over and we can get started on this whole assignment thing."

I caught a glimpse of want in her eyes and I generously accepted her offer.

"Great! Okay, umm… what's your favorite kind of pizza?" she asked a very confused me.

"Umm… I don't really care. But – maybe pepperoni?"

"Pepperoni's my favorite… good choice! Okay, so – you can just come home with me after school… if you want."

Once again, I accepted her offer and by the time I could even realize what just happened, she was off down the hallway.

The rest of the day went by pretty slowly. With the anticipation of tonight's events flowing through my head like a well oiled machine, I barely paid attention in Biology and got away with telling my teacher that I was border-lining narcolepsy.

The time finally arrived for me to face my fate. I waited in the foyer by the vending machines like she told me to and sure enough, there she came… waltzing around the corner of the gym everso elegantly. She was like this picturesque girl who didn't even know how much she livened up the room with just a single smile. The air soon got crowded as she, in person, was standing in front of me with the biggest smile I've ever seen.

"Ready?"

I shook my head in agreement before following her like a little duckling to her brand new Porsche. It was beautiful… just like her. I could only imagine what the rest of her establishment looked like if her car, alone, was this gorgeous. I was seriously surrounded by too much beauty. The drive to her house, or should I say 'mansion' took only about five or six minutes, but with Ashley Davies in the car… it felt like a lifetime. Not that I was complaining, of course.

I walked in her house with her leading the way and was immediately taken back by the sudden hugeness of the house. Gold fixtures filled the walk-ways, a huge winding staircase spiraled its way up to the second floor of this mansion, and the living room was anything but normal. Big screen TV, actually – I'm thinking in comparison here and I'm believing that she probably bought it from the Harkin's Movie Theatre just down the road.

"Wow… do you live alone in this place?"

"Well… in a way, I do. My mom's never home and my dad is always on tour. No biggie." She nervously looked around the area as well, obviously a little bit embarrassed by all this interest I was giving her about her place.

"So, should we get started?"

"Umm… yeah." I pulled out a couple of books from my pack and strung them out amongst the coffee table. "During lunch, I went to the library and picked up a couple of biography books over Poe. I thought they'd come in handy." I piped.

"Yeah, anything will help when you have no idea who this man is." She picked up a pretty large book. "Wow – this is huge! Is it all over him?"

"Yeah, pretty much! I think the lady said that was the one about his achievements and stuff… some nonsense like that." I rolled my eyes quickly and received a giggle from the beauty.

The night wore on pretty fast and before I knew it, it was 11 o'clock.

"Well," I said as I straightened up, "I should get home." I looked back down at Ashley and caught the slight disappointment in her eyes.

"Do you have to?" she asked.

"Well…" I saw no reason to leave, only that of my mother getting vigorously upset with my tardiness.

"Please…" she pleaded, "you can spend the night! I have some spare clothes if you don't have anything else to wear." She grabbed my hand and squeezed tightly. "I mean, I know we just met and all, but – you're really cool and great company. Its rare that anyone catches my attention the way you do."

For some odd reason, I don't think I was supposed to hear that last part. Seeing as how uneasy she became after saying that, I pretended like I didn't hear it. I looked down at the time on my phone and sighed dramatically, "Okay… I'll stay!"

She squealed for a few seconds before pulling me down on top of her on the couch. It was almost like a hug slash cradling thing, but either way, I wasn't complaining. She gingerly wrapped her arms around my shoulders and hugged me from side-to-side in a rocking motion. I managed to let my hands fall where they wanted to and they somehow ended up on her hips. She slowly moved her head from the crook of my neck to the front of mine and smiled deeply at me. "Thank you, Spence." I smiled back at her and almost immediately after that, she was kissing my cheek in an attempt to be friendly. I'm pretty sure that both of us knew that it wasn't just going to stop there. When she removed her lips from my cheek, she slowly placed her forehead against mine and her breath caught in her throat. I knew this because the same thing happened to me, only sooner. She let her arms fall loosely around my back and I moved one free arm up to her face. I cupped her delicate cheek in my hand and caressed the smooth skin underneath it with my thumb. She stuttered for a few seconds; trying to come up with anything to say. All of a sudden, the words escaped her perfectly portioned mouth, "Spence," was all she had to say before my lips made their way to meet up with hers. Slowly and softly, I didn't want to rush anything. The time had come for us to become one with each other and I felt the needed to keep it at a slow pace; that is, unless she wanted to move quicker… then I'd be all for it. I let my lips dance across hers and allowed her taste to exude my buds. The soft, sultry feeling of her bottom lip between my own lips was a pleasurable moment that I never want to forget. I opened my mouth a little wider and I felt a slight sound being made in it; the moan of want was coming from her and I knew what we both wanted.

She took her time with her hands to make their way down my back and connect with the exposed skin. Once there, she pulled upward on my shirt. I felt a cool breeze make its way up my back and it sent chills all through my body. Her hands were so soft and warm and it made the chills subside just a bit before the coolness was absolutely surrounding me. I caught a glimpse of my discarded shirt being thrown across the room, as if no meaning to it in this game; I agreed! I allowed her hands to roam across my back and she delicately traced patterns and designs on my bare skin. This went on for a few minutes before I felt the warm hands, once again, connect with something of mine. This time, it was the connection of her hands with my bra snap. I knew what was coming next and I, once again, let it happen. Gravity took hold and then we were moving in a direction that both of us wanted more than anything.

I wasn't for sure if she knew how much I wanted her, but I believe that she understood how much we both wanted this.

Imagination is a terrible thing to waste.