I shut the door to my apartment with a click and set my keys down on the table. I was still wearing Kendall's clothes because his dryer was broken and he refused to let me leave in a damp dress. And frankly, despite the ill fit I did not want to take them off.
We didn't even do anything, we just hug out in the basement away from the party the whole night. We sat on the couch and talked about love and life and just anything that came up. He is a big family man and I learned all about his aspirations and dedication to music. Unlike my family's complete disregard for any of my wishes I could really see where Kendall came from. The way his face lit up just talking about his mother, it made me so jealous and even more of an angry bitter woman. But Kendall was gloating or bragging he was just talking. I honestly could never get mad or pissed off at him.
We talked all night cuddled up next to each other down in the basement underneath the loud party roaring above our heads, but I honestly couldn't even tell you anyone else's name in the world during those six hours we sat together in the basement. He makes me feel like the only girl, no the only person in the world. And honestly, this seems like the kind of relationship that I won't run away from, due to my usual commitment issues.
I set down my sandals and throw my now dry dress on the couch and flop down onto the floor.
I like the floor, I have never been able to sit on a sofa and relax. I can't watch tv or a movie sitting on something other than the floor. Even when I was a little kid and everybody would fight over the best spot on the couch, I just sat my butt down on the carpet. But tonight, I wanted to live on that couch with Kendall. It was so weird, for once in my life the other option, the floor, wasn't what I wanted and it wasn't because the floor was cluttered with soda and beer cans and stale cheetos, but because Kendall was sitting on the couch.
I reach for the remote and turn on the news. I fall asleep to the news every night, the news of peoples unfortunate incidents is just music to my ears as I am trying to shut my brain off, but tonight it seems as though I am going to fall asleep thinking about Kendall.
I am so jittery and giddy and I feel like a complete fangirl. I throw the remote back down onto the floor and give-up completely. Argh, I am so angry at myself for feeling like this, but if I must admit I kind of like it. I walk over to my bedroom and flop down on my bed and stare at the ceiling and soon after my third daydream about Kendall I finally doze off, still wrapped up in Kendall's clothes and with his smell still fresh in my nose.
The next day goes along just as any other Sunday does. I wake up at 630, an hour later than my usual wake-up time, eat a hearty breakfast, and start my intense cardio work out. Then at 8 I take a long shower, unhappy to get out of Kendall's clothes, and hop in the first of my two showers a day. Then I do some cleaning and laundry of my own and then I work on choreography all day. At about noon I check my phone and find 6 missed text messages from Kendall. He sent me two asking if I got home alright, one saying that if I don't text him back that he will call the cops because he thinks I died. And then two this morning one saying "Good morning beautiful, I hope you are alive" and the other saying he hopes I have a great day. He sent me another one at 1130 asking if i wanted to get a milkshake.
A milkshake? What kind of guy asks a girl if she wants a milkshake. I look at the clock and its 1237. I realize it's a little too late for the offer and that I have a lot of work to do. I text him back saying that I am alive and thanks for the concern, but that I have a lot of work and can't take a milkshake break.
I set my phone down and take a deep breath wondering if I made a big mistake. But then my phone vibrates, jerking me out of my moment.
Kendall texted back saying "What?! Come on you have to have time for a milkshake, please" with about 100 question marks accompanying the please. I smile and laugh out loud and then text him back: "well, maybe? where should I meet you?"
He texts back within another 30 minutes. "Where, no I am making you a home made milkshake, come by the house in ten, :)"
Ten minutes, there is no way I am going to be ready in ten minutes! I am a mess, literally, full of sweat and my hair a mess. I give myself two minutes to wallow in my ugliness and then race into my bedroom.
I roll up to the Big Time Rush house and find the place empty of all the cars from last nights party. I park in the driveway behind Kendall's car and see no other cars in the driveway so I am guessing Kendall is the only one home. This makes me nervous, but giddy because I realize that he wants me and him alone, with no interruptions.
I close my car door and walk up to the front door, i fix my shirt and check myself once over in the windows reflection, and I ring the doorbell. It takes about two seconds for me to hear Kendal run down the foyer and open the door. He gives me one of those amazing smiles and moves his arms to welcome me inside.
He closes the door behind me and places his hand on my back to lead me to the kitchen and says: "you look beautiful today and I am so glad you came, and get ready for these milkshakes because I make the best milkshakes," he says as he leads me to the kitchen, where I stand to look out the glass sliding door which overlooks the deck and the patio and the ocean behind that.
"Wow, what an amazing view," I say in awe of the location and this house. Now I can really see just how perfectly decorated and amazing this house is now that there aren't four hundred partiers crowding the place.
"Yeah, I mean, I think the view I have right now is better than anything I have ever seen before," he says lifting his eyebrows up and giving me a smirk. I glare back at him as continues to make the milkshakes.
When he is done making a very large strawberry one for me and a small chocolate one for himself, despite my arguments that I don't need a big one, but he insists that I will want to drink all of it and more, he leads me down to the patio and sits me down on a lawn chair.
"So, how in the world did you guys get this place cleaned up so fast?" I say, reminding him of the eager that took place last night in the sanctuary that I am not sitting in. I lay back and let the vitamin D caress my body as I wait for him to answer.
"Oh, well the rest of the guys always just clean up the night of the party, after everyone leaves, they say that there is no way they are going to sleep after a party like that so they might as well just do a full clean when they won't be getting any sleep anyway," he says watching me move to get comfortable in the chair. And I watch him as he takes in my body and gives me a once over. I can't help but be impressed by myself for how quickly I cleaned up and now I can see that he is also happy with my efforts. I take a sip of my milkshake and give him a nod.
"Well, you guys did a really superb job and you did an amazing job on this," I say motioning to the milkshake in my hand.
"Thanks," he says giving me a smile.
"Anytime."
"So, what were you so busy doing last night that you forgot to text me when you got home," he asked me with an actual concerned look on his face.
"Oh, is the famous Kendall Schmidt wondering what I was doing as if he wanted to be doing something with me?" I ask him back. He chuckles and then leans in closer to me.
"I wouldn't say that I was concerned, but maybe I wanted to make sure you weren't doing anything with anyone," he says. Our faces are so close that I can smell his musk and cinnamon and all I want to do is kiss his beautiful lips.
"And what would that anything be?" I ask and he leans in to kiss me just as I let go of my strawberry milkshake and spill it all over him and myself.
"Ahhh, Im so sorry, I feel like such a dork!" I say smacking my hand to my forehead as he picks up the cup I dropped.
He laughs and says "No worries, its no big deal. Just another shirt ruined by just another girl," he says giving me another one of his smirks.
He pulls of his shirt and stands in front of in just a pair of shorts, completely irresistible.
"Whatever you say," i say rolling my eyes at him.
He comes over to me and grabs my hand and says "come on lets go for a dip," he says pulling me up to standing.
I slip my hand out of his and sit back down. "I'm not much of a swimmer," I say.
"Oh, come on, you don't have to go in your underwear, I'm sure we have a bathing suit around here somewhere," he says pulling me up again.
"No, it's not that. I just don't swim," He leads me over to the side and sits me down on the edge of the pool. I roll up my jeans and he dives in, splashing me a good amount.
"So, why don't you swim?" he says swimming over to me and placing his hands on either side of my legs and looking up at me. He really is the complete gentlemen. Other guys I know would just push me into the water or just assume I would get naked with them. But not Kendall, he makes me feel so comfortable and just special.
I look away from his green orbs of eyes and look down at my hands.
"It's just something from my past," I say. For some reason I am an open book with him. Normally I wouldn't say anything like this to a after thguy or anyone for that matter, but Kendall is just different.
"Well you can tell me about it, but only if you want," he says. I look back at him and at that moment I know that I am falling for him, but instead of getting up and leaving, I sigh and say:
"My parents died in an accident. I grew up in New Jersey in a big Italian family. I have 4 older brothers and about 500 cousins. And most people when i tell them I come from a big Italian family they ask me if my dad was in the Mafia, and he was. He was a big player and it was basically the family business," I say all of this as I look into his eyes. He doesn't interrupt or respond in his face to what I am saying, he just listens, as if I am god speaking to him or something so I continue: "I was supposed to grow up to raise Italian boys who would grow up and marry Italian girls just like me, but I didn't. I danced. They put me in dance class when I was three because there was a classmate of mine who's father owed my dad money and my mother was supposed to get close to her or whatever, and they made a mistake, because dance became my life. I was good and I loved it. I grew up dancing, I was in and out of performances and competitions and dance was all I had. When I was 15, they took me to the city to see the Rockettes Christmas show. We would go every year, but this year was special because I was going to tell them that I wasn't interested in the family business and I wasn't going to meet anymore of their perfect Italian boys, I was going to move to the city and get in a dance company and leave them behind, at least that is what my plan was anyway. After the show we went to my dad's boat which was docked off of the Hudson, and as we were watching the sun set on the New York City horizon, I told them plans and they blew up. I was the rebel child, the black sheep of the family when I was supposed to be the perfect and loyal daughter. I got so mad and I stormed off, I got in one of those canoe lifeboats and snuck off before I could lose it anymore. As I was rowing close to the docks and away from the boat, there was an explosion behind me that flipped my canoe into the water. My parents died, some enemy of the family planted a bomb on our boat once they learned of our plan to go on a boat ride. I was left swimming in the hudson, completely alone. And that was the end of my parents. The last words I said to them was that I love dance more than I love them and that I was leaving the family and never returning." By now the tears are streaming down my face. I have never told anyone this story, because frankly no one has ever cared enough to ask or they just don't care past the whole my parents are dead.
I continue my story, still looking at Kendall in the water. "I was supposed to go to my brothers, now that I was an orphan, but none of them wanted me. I was supposed to die with them and I was the reason they were on that boat. It was my show that they were going to. Needless to say, I was not exactly the child that was to be pitied over the whole debacle. I was able to get emancipated and after the funeral I left to New York City, just like I planned to. But I couldn't deal with the pressure and the loss. I had no one, and I was completely alone. My parents left me most of their money because I was the daughter and I was to be married and not have a reasonable way of making money other than a husband, but that didn't matter I was lost. So when I was just three weeks shy of 16, I walked out in front of New York City traffic and tried to commit suicide. A mail truck was going 45 and I thought I was done for, but I survived. Broke my legs into shattered little pieces. Only one of my brothers came to the hospital after the accident. I have never been able to dance properly again. I can teach, I can choreograph and I can command and yell at people, but I couldn't get a job. I couldn't get a job that mattered in a company that mattered. So I moved out here to choreograph and teach, not to dance, which is exactly what I was meant to do. Crazy huh?! I move to L.A. when I am 17 years old, fresh out of a psychiatric ward because I am suicidal paired with a complete physical therapy plan so I can learn to walk again and I live 5 minutes away from the beach and the ocean and the beautiful weather and I hate swimming. So yeah, thats my gory family story and why I do not swim,because I am afraid of what is going to happen if I get in the water again," I say wiping the tears from my eyes.
Kendall is still in the water looking up at me cry and he takes my hand. He holds it up to my face and caress my cheek. He lets go of my hand and pushes himself and his wet body up so his eyes are level with mine and kisses me.
He kisses me hard and long and before I even realize what is happening I hold onto his head and weave my fingers through his hair. I am so into the kiss that I don't even realize as he pulls me down into the water. I am in the water with him raised above him though so the water only touches up to my waist. I break the kiss once I realize it and I look down at the water. I have never been inside of a pool or a lake or the ocean since I was 15. The longest shower I have ever take has been 7 minutes since then.
"Still afraid of the water?" he whispers into my ear.
I nod my head because I still am scared, but not as much as I was before because he is here with me.
He kisses my neck, as he holds me so my head is above his and my hands rest on his bare shoulders. He traces the kisses up my neck and up until his kisses my nose. "What about now?" he whispers on my eyelids. I shake my head no and take his lips with mine.
I am completely smitten with this dancing musician and I feel like I am on a cloud, not in the water which I have for so long been so afraid of, but with Kendall who's kisses make me feel like I rule the world.