AUTHORS NOTE: FLASHBACKS ARE italicized
"Baby come on wake up, breakfast is done and getting cold." I felt someone shake me from my sleep. I opened my eyes and saw that Derek was leaning over me with a grin on his face.
I smiled back at him "mmmm what a nice way to be woken up. But can I just sleep for a couple more minutes."
"No get up. You're not sleeping your summer away. Before you know it you're going to be back in school. And we will only be able to see each other, every other weekend. So get your ass up" he said lightly smacking me on my butt.
He was right though, summer was going by quickly, and we haven't spent enough time together as it is. "Ok, ok you got a point. I'm up, you can't blame a girl for being exhausted, you wore me out last night." I said as I stood up from the bed and let out a yawn and a stretch.
"Hey I didn't hear any complaints last night, all I heard was my name being screamed at the top of your lungs." He said as I headed out the door, and into the bathroom. I let out a laugh. Last night was amazing, he was more aggressive than he has every been, and I loved it. Its amazing how so in tuned with my needs he is.
After I finished all of my morning duties, I headed back downstairs and into where Derek was standing in the kitchen, by the stove. I hopped onto the counter, while he reached into the cabinet and retrieved two plates. "Mmmmm what's for breakfast it smells amazing."
He turned and handed me a plate filled with pancakes, eggs, and sausages. "Breakfast is served" he said as he turned and headed into the living room, like we always did. He has a dinning table, but refuses to eat there, he says he likes to be comfortable when he eats, something I've never understood, but he likes to eat on the couch, so I sat on the couch as he went back into the kitchen, and came back out with two beers.
I let out a chuckle. Leave it up to him to drink beers for breakfast. "Derek isn't it too early for those" I asked as I pointed to the beers. "I mean it's not even twelve o'clock yet"
"Hey I'm out of orange juice, so it's either these or water. And besides it's never too early for beers" he said as he walked over to the couch, knowing I would pick the beer over the water.
I took the beer from him, as he grabbed his plate and sat down beside me. Who would have thought that beer would make a great breakfast beverage. I guess I learn something new every time I'm with him. We finished our breakfast, and cleaned up the kitchen.
"Hey want to watch a movie" Derek asked as he put the last plate into the cabinet. It was obvious he hasn't washed dishes in a while, because there were plenty of plates, cups, and bowls in the sink.
"Yea sure, but you pick this time, I picked last time." I told him as we walked back into the living room.
"I don't really care what we watch I just want to talk to you any way, nothing serious or anything. It's just that we never talk to each other." He said as he put a movie into the DVD player and turned the volume all the way down. He came and sat beside me on the couch, pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, lit it, and took a drag of it, before exhaling the smoke out into the air.
I fanned the smoke away. It really bothered me, that he smoked, I have tried everything to get him to stop, but he won't budge, but I'm going to keep trying. "Ok speaking of talking, lets talk about when, you're going to quit these" I said as I pointed to the cigarette.
He groaned "Baby we've been through this. I can't just stop smoking them, I have been smoking cigarettes since I was sixteen, I'm twenty one, there's no stopping me now. I need them, almost as bad as I need you." He said as he tapped my nose.
"Yes well if you want to keep me you will stop, smoking them." Sure I would never leave him, over something like this, but from the look on his face, I could tell he took my threat seriously.
He groaned "Ok ok, give me until my birthday next month, I will try to quit, but I will need your help."
"Babe I got you, I will help you in anyway I can, I promise." I said as he finished off the cigarette, and leaned forward to put the ashtray onto the table, when he sat back I laid my head into his lap and he immediately began stroking my face. Reminding me of the day we first met, what a great day that was. A smile crept onto my face and he gave me a strange look.
"What's on that beautiful mind of yours" he asked
"Just thinking about the day we met. Do you remember that"
"Oh god how could I not. You were in the grocery store, on the fruit isle, you and your girls." We laughed, as both of our minds drifted back to that day.
"Me and two of my best friends were sent to the local grocery store, by my mom to pick up the things she would need for dinner tonight. We were standing by the fruit, laughing our asses off, because we were able to find everything on the list, besides two things. We weren't able to find a zucchini, and a squash, we have been in this store for over an hour looking for them, but no luck came our way, this store didn't even have labels up.
"Listen guys, I'm tired of looking for something we don't even know what it looks like, I'm going to go ask one of the workers, if they could help us find what were looking for so we can get the hell out of here." I told them as I left them standing there and walked over to one of the empty lines.
There at the register, was the most gorgeous, man I have ever seen, his caramel complexion, glistening from the sun that shined through the windows, and that killer smile of his he gave as he greeted me. "Hi welcome to the MarkEeeHut how can I help, you beautiful."
"Um I was wondering, would you mind helping me and my friends. We're kind of having trouble over there." I said to him pointing towards my friends.
"Sure I will, beautiful" he said coming around the counter. "Hey I don't think I caught your name" he whispered.
I smiled to myself and blushed a little, was this guy actually hitting on me. "Penelope" I said simply.
"That's a beautiful name. My name is Derek." He said as we came to a stop in front of my friends. He gave my friends a smile before saying "How can I help you ladies today"
"Can you tell them that this is a zucchini please" my friend Maria asked as she picked up a long green object that was in our basket.
He smiled that smile that, could make any girl melt. "Um sorry but that would be incorrect. That's cucumber, not a zucchini."
I started laughing "see I told you guys, I may not know what a zucchini is but I knew that was a cucumber." I said pointing to it
"Well I thought that they were the same thing." Maria said as she tossed the cucumber back into the stand. "So where are the zucchini's"
I felt Derek hand come to the lower part of my back, "if you guys will follow me, I will take you to the vegetable isle and show you where the zucchini's are" he smiled at me.
"But wait, I thought a zucchini was a fruit" my friend Jessica asked.
"Well my boss wanted to keep down confusion, you would've thought a cucumber was a vegetable, but he says it's a fruit. So since a cucumber and zucchini looks alike, he put the cucumber in the fruit section, and the zucchini in the vegetable section." He said as we all began to walk with him towards the vegetable section. "Hey" he whispered to me.
"Yea" I whispered back.
"What does a guy like me have to do to get your number"
I blushed "Give me a piece of paper and a pen." Was my quick reply, I'm not normally this out there but it's something about, him, he's giving me a type of confidence.
He smiled and said "ok". He gave a light quick smack to my lower back, before walking ahead of us. before, he came to a stop "ok here are the zucchini's, anything else I can help you with" he said pointed to the section where the zucchini's were.
"Uh yea, where are your squashes." Maria asked him.
"They're right down there." He said pointing a couple of spots down. He said as Jessica and Maria started to look at the zucchini's before moving down to the squashes, leaving me and Derek to talk.
"Thank you, for helping us" I told him. "We didn't want to bother you but we've been in here all day-"
"Yea I know I've been watching you all day, wondering when you were going to come talk to me." He gave me that smile again "But hey when you guys are done shopping, make sure you come through my line. Ok"
"Yea. Ok." I said back to him
"Well beautiful I guess I better get back to work." He said as he turned and headed back to his register. Just as his boss came over to talk to him and he began to nod and shake it his.
After finishing the little shopping we had to do we headed towards the register, where he rung up our groceries, he even gave us a little discount, before he handed me a piece of paper. "I see you ladies found everything you need, I hope you enjoyed the service here" he said, as I wrote my name and number on it, and handed it back to him.
"Everything was great, you were great thank you so much" I told him as he put our bags into our shopping cart.
"I will most definitely call you later beautiful." He smiled and winked at me.
"I hope you will handsome" I replied back.
This is where our relationship started. We talked on the phone day and night, until we got the urge to see each other, I was sneaking out of the house at twelve o'clock, every Friday night, to be with him. I almost got caught one night, and that's when Kevin came up with the plan that he would be my pretend boyfriend because we both knew how much my parents adored him, we told Derek about the plan and he agreed to do it and it's been easy going ever since.
"You were so bold that day" I told him bringing us out of our thoughts.
"Hey but you went along with it. I bet you and your friends talked about me the whole way home."
"Whole way home please, I issued an emergency sleepover to talk about you. That's what teenage girls do, you know" I told him as we both began to laugh.
"You were only a sweet sixteen year old girl when we first met and I don't regret that day at all. I knew we weren't the same age but I didn't care, I knew I had to talk to you anyway. I'm glad I did though, even if we are sneaking around I wouldn't change anything I have done." He said suddenly getting serious.
"I wouldn't either, besides Kevin, you are the only other person I feel comfortable around -" I was cut off by the ringing of Derek's phone.
We both looked at the phone, no one ever calls Derek's phone, other than Kevin, not even his mom. "Well no one calls me so it must be Kevin but to be on the safe side I'll answer." He said as he stood and went over to the counter where the phone was.
"Yea" he said into the phone. "Yes Kevin, you want to talk to her. Ok, yes I understand, I promise you I won't, yea yea here she goes."
"Ooooooh Penelope it's for you." Derek said dangling the phone as I got off the couch and grabbed the phone from him.
"Kevin what did you say." I said into the phone. Knowing Kevin is never on his best behavior, I knew he said something he shouldn't have.
"I just told him, I know ways to get rid of people, if they hurt my love ones. I also told him, that I know fifty ways to make his life a living hell. You would be sooo proud of me, I sounded so convincing too." He said and I could practically hear him smiling through the phone.
"Yea I doubt that, but you don't have to threaten Derek every time you talk to him. I'm pretty sure Derek can do more damage to you than you can do to him." I laughed as I watched Derek nod his head in approval, and light another cigarette. I shook my head at him, and he mouthed the word "birthday"
"Yea yea he probably can but anyway, listen, you know how your birthday party is next weekend right, your parents just called me and said that I can invite a friend or something like that, and I was thinking since I don't have any one to invite, I could invite Derek, you know he shows up with me, hang out a little bit, and sometime during the time of the party, you two could sneak off for a little bit. Because I know you want him there, and -"
What a brilliant idea, I have been trying to find a way for Derek to come, and this was the perfect plan. "Oh my god that's a great idea. Kevin you are a super duper genius, that's like a great plan. That's if he want too-"
"Pen honey you can get that man to do anything you want him too do, just ask him and call me back."
"Ok I'll call you back" I told him as I ended the call and turned towards him. With my biggest and brightest smile.
"What was that all about" he asked as he raised his eyebrow.
"You know my little party thing, next weekend" I paused as he nodded yes "I really want you there, butttt because of our situation I just can't invite you, my mom is in charge of the guest, but she told Kevin, he could invite a person if he would like too, and he wants to invite you. Would you like to come. I mean I would completely understand if you don't want to -"
"Baby hush, of course I would love to go, As long as there's a chance we could sneak away for a little while, to be alone."
"Yes of course. Thank you baby, now I know that night will be perfect" I threw my arms around his neck and gave him a tongue twisting kiss.
"I guess I have to go shopping huh" he said as we broke apart.
"Not unless you can find something in your closet. I would much rather you find something in your closet."
"Well I probably can, what color is your dress."
"Royal blue, why"
"Because I got just the right thing to wear. But I still need to go shopping"
"Why if you already have something to wear"
"It is a party isn't it, can't show up to a party without a gift for the birthday girl, now can I." He said as he walked passed me, gave me a smack on my butt, and headed into the kitchen to grab a beer, and headed upstairs.
Leaving me in the living room smiling to myself. I loved this guy so much even though I haven't told him, and he hasn't told me but I know, he doesn't have to tell me, he shows it.
