Chapter Forty-One
He was still asleep when I awoke, but his arms were wound around my upper body to the extent that I knew if I stirred he'd awaken.
I didn't mind. I'd waited for a quarter of a year for this, in some unconscious way I'd waited my entire life.
He'd waited longer, I expected. The way his arms were on me, even in his sleep, the things he'd said to me during the long night we'd spent together.
Very together.
I blushed at the thought of it all. Once upon a time I'd promised myself I'd wait for marriage. That was what had kept me from doing everything during the weekend at the beach house, and again at the night at my house before Daddy had discovered us. Now I'd done everything I'd lectured Lauren about only months ago. What kind of person was I, to sleep with a boy who hadn't been my boyfriend in almost four months?
Sawyer stirred, and for a brief moment his hold on me tightened as if in surprise at my presence. He exhaled sharply and yawned.
"Good morning," he said, kissing the nape of my neck softly.
"Hey," I responded, rolling to face him.
"Sleep well?" he asked.
"Surprisingly yes," I said honestly.
"Surprising?" he asked, pretending to be offended.
"It isn't often I spend the entire night with another person in the same bed," I quipped. He laughed.
"I'm not used to having you in my bed, either," he said.
"It's been a while."
"Too long," he agreed.
"Why did you ignore me like that? You were so persistent before," I said.
"A guy can only take so much. And I knew what you needed," he said simply.
"Yeah, much more so than I did. What if you'd been wrong-what if without your… wooing, I guess, I'd never gone to you?" I asked him.
"I had a few plans up my sleeve," he admitted.
"Good. I would have liked those," I said.
"Well, let's hope you'll never have to hear them," he responded.
"We should get up," I said reluctantly.
"No, stay."
"Have to go. Soon Haley will come in here and… kill me," I said, disentangling myself from his strong grasp and hopping onto the bare floorboards.
Blushing, I ran across the room to retrieve my discarded clothing. He watched me as I did so, as though surprised I'd entered his bed so completely willingly at all, let alone unclothed.
I put back on the wrinkled sundress to creep across the hallway. I breathed as sigh of relief as I reached the safety of the room I occupied.
"Where the hell have you been?" asked a voice from across the room. I shrieked in surprise, and spun around to face it. Mom was sitting calmly on my bed, her legs crossed.
"Um, I stayed out all night," I said. A bad thing to do but in some lights, according to teenage parents, it was so, so much better than what I'd done.
"You did not," she accused.
"Oh yeah?" I asked, trying hard to keep the stiff look on my face.
"You've never done before," she reminded me.
"Well, never say never," I said lightly.
"You know, maybe I should believe you. Because staying out all night would be a stupid teenager thing to do. But I don't, because I know you don't see the value in it. And I also know that as much as you hate to hear this and you're never going to believe it, but I wasn't a kid that long ago. So do you want to tell me the true story before I guess? Because I have a pretty good idea," she said, glancing accusingly at my rumpled sundress and messy hair.
"I was in Sawyer's room," I admitted.
"And..?"
"We're back together. We didn't have sex. Happy?" I asked irritably, lying through my teeth.
"Very. We're leaving in two hours, be ready," she said, looking more sad than angry as she left.
I was ready, two hours later, when we left, but Mom wasn't exactly pleased with me.
Sawyer and I had agreed to be discreet, so we didn't touch each other or even come close during the plane trip or the drive back to our houses.
Jenny was sitting on the front porch steps when we arrived and got out of Daddy's car. We all hugged her excitedly, forgetting that she shouldn't be there in the surprise of seeing her at all.
"I thought I'd come for dinner," she said uncomfortably, breaking the easiness of having her there. It flooded back-how she'd moved back, how she hadn't come home to visit all summer.
She helped Lauren and I lug our suitcases up to our rooms on the third floor and we all congregated excitedly in our room.
"Tell me about the guy you did it with," I demanded.
"Um, it wasn't important. He left pretty soon afterward-I think he regretted it," she said empathetically, staring guiltily at me.
"You're allowed to hook up with people," I said, tweaking her ear.
"So how about you tell us why you weren't in your bed this morning?" asked Lauren a moment later. Jenny gasped.
"Well, because I was in someone elses bed," I answered.
"You did! Finally!" said Jenny in relief.
"Yeah, we did. For a long time," I admitted, blushing.
"Aw, tramp! Was it awesome?" asked Jenny eagerly.
"Fairly awesome. I mean we'd already done the… before, coming type stuff but this time we did all that and the actual in the act stuff. It was perfect," I admitted.
"Your first time is supposed to suck," said Lauren, looking happy for me but almost jealous.
"Well, if you're not fourteen…" said Jenny in a singsong voice.
"Okay, okay. How was Jason?" she asked curiously. Jenny made a head jerking toward the hall as soon as she looked away.
"Um, Jenny, can I borrow a pad?" I asked.
"Sure. We'll be right back," she said smoothly as we walked off together.
We went into the bathroom that the three of us shared.
"Well, first of all, really need one?" she asked.
"Jen, I had sex last night," I reminded her.
"Um, right. Well it's my third day, but anyhow. I think Jason's not as devoted to Laure as she'd like to believe," said Jenny.
"You think he cheated on her?" I squeaked. "With who?"
"That's the thing. I have absolutely no idea, but I know it was someone, because I heard him bragging. He's really not such a nice kid."
"How can a boy go bad at fourteen?" I asked her.
"Fifteen. Bragging point for him," she said, stifling a giggle.
"We shouldn't laugh at this-she's going to be so crushed," I said worriedly.
"I thought they'd broken up?"
"Sort of. Not enough that he can sleep with other people-the whole 'we were on a break thing' you know?" I asked, crossing my arms and leaning against a sink.
"Oh, this is bad."
"Yeah. And I lied to Mom about me and Sawyer. I should go on the pill," I said suddenly. She raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, because that would really help avoid suspicion," she said sarcastically.
"Well! I can just say that I want to get more regular!" I responded.
"Callie, even I know your schedule. You've been doing this since the fifth grade, you hardy need to be more regular. You're going to need a better alibi," she said.
"I guess. So much for summer being relaxing, hey?" I said, suddenly tired of it all.
Author's note: Some of you may be confused about the ratings. I changed it to 16+ because I was planning a specific scene which I eventually axed, so I changed it back to 13+. I'm younger than sixteen, so writing like that would be a bit of a lie. So review please!
