Tap. Tap. Tap. I wake up to the sound of light tapping against my window. Who climbed the tree next to my window? I groggily make my way toward my window and slide it open.
To my surprise it's Bianca, "Wrong window, Drew's one down," I say half asleep. I don't know why I said that, I know they've broken up but she's probably here to check on him. I start to shut the window when she stops me.
"I'm here to see you," she says climbing into my room. I look at my clock next to my bed, it reads 1:06 a.m. What could she possibly want right now? "I tried calling but you never picked up," she says.
"I'm grounded, my mom took my phone," I say, "So what can I do for you?" I ask, laying back down on the bed.
"Get dressed," she says, tossing a sweatshirt at my face.
"What for?" I ask pulling on the sweatshirt anyways. I have a feeling that no matter what she says, I'll go along with it. She has that effect on me.
"We're going somewhere," she answers. I know she's being vague but I'm too tired to argue or ask any more questions. She disappears into my closet and comes out with shorts, tossing them at me. I pull those on too. "Come on," she says starting to exit my room through the window.
"Wait, we can use the basement door," I say, "We just gotta be quiet." I'm way too tired to climb out a window and down a tree right now anyway.
She nods in acknowledgment. Bianca follows me quietly out of my room and down the two flights of stairs before we reach the basement.
Bianca notices the posters on the table, "Cute hobby," she says making fun of me.
"Becky made them," I say. No point in lying to her about that, not that she'll really care. She glares at the posters but doesn't say anything. "Come on," I say sliding open the door.
Bianca takes point because only she knows where we're going. It's pretty cold out and my legs are freezing. Next time she pops in unannounced, she should pick out sweats for me instead of athletic shorts.
We're cutting through the park near my house when she says, "We're here." She takes a seat on the swing set as I stand there confused.
"We're at a park," I state. Why the fuck are we at a park? And not any special cool park, the one by my house that I used to go to all the time. There's nothing significant about this park.
"You amaze me with your observation," she says sarcastically. I'm not awake enough to say something clever back.
"Why did you wake me up just to drag me to a park?" I ask.
"Just sit down," she says pointing toward the swing set next to her. I reluctantly take a seat and push off the ground. We're swinging in silence for a few minutes.
"This is fun," I say dryly. "Way better than sleeping," I say sarcastically. How long does she want us to sit out here?
"What's your favorite memory here at this park?" Bianca asks, completely ignoring my sarcastic remarks.
I take a minute to think about it. There's so many memories to account for. "I think my favorite memory was when Drew and I came here to toss a football. I know it sounds simple, but it was the first thing we did together as brothers. It was the first time he treated me like Adam. He's been my best friend since," I say. I don't know why I told her all that, she's just easy to talk to. She's easy to be around and she makes me want to open up. I know I've convinced myself not to put my heart on the line again, but she makes me want to risk it.
After a few minutes of more silence, she asks, "You want to know my favorite memory?"
"Yeah, tell me," I say.
"It's a recent one. See, this guy found me swinging on this swing set. And he took a seat next to me, like where you are now. And we started talking, sort of like how we just were. And then he told me he wanted to tell me a secret. That's when he leaned over and kissed me. That's my favorite memory because he's been the guy I've wanted to be with but also the guy who I couldn't be with. Yet in that moment, he was just the guy telling me everything I wanted to hear." Well things just got awkward. I didn't know she brought me here to tell me about some other guy. Doesn't she know that's not exactly what I want to hear from her?
"So where's this guy now?" I ask confused.
"He's right where he should be," Bianca says, leaning closer to me.
I feel an intense sensation of déjà vu as I'm sitting here next to Bianca. Little flashes of us sitting like this, but on a different night under different circumstances, pop into my head. I recall being a little drunk. "Wait, we've done this before, haven't we?" I ask.
She nods her head wordlessly.
More images pop into my mind. I see us sitting next to each other, I can't quite make out our conversation, but I remember leaning in and kissing her. Holy crap I kissed Bianca. She let me kiss her.
"We kissed," I state, but it comes out a little bit like a question.
She nods her head yes.
I can see us getting into Fiona's car and heading back to the loft. So that's how I ended up there on Sunday. It's all coming back to me now. And lastly, I can see Bianca and me falling asleep together.
"Bianca, fill in the blanks," I say, still slightly unsure of what I think I'm remembering.
Instead of replying, she closes the gap between us as her lips meet mine.
As we're kissing, I can feel everything changing. My heart feels uncontrollable, like my chest is about to explode. It's more than just a rapid heartbeat, it's the feeling of allowing someone in. Even if I wanted to fight it, if I wanted to turn off my feelings to avoid heartbreak, it's too late. Bianca's found a place in my heart and now that she's here, I won't ever let her go.
She breaks the kiss but doesn't pull away. Her forehead is pressed against mine and her eyes are closed.
"Bee," I whisper, breaking our silence. Her eyes flutter open and I see how fragile she looks, like what I say or do next could make or break her. I want to reassure her, tell her that she has nothing to worry about, that we can be together now. I want her to know that she's the one I've always wanted and that nothing can come between us. I want to tell her I love her.
"Let's take a walk," she says, interrupting my thoughts. She gets up from the swing and I follow. After a few seconds we reach the sidewalk and head in a direction away from my house. I glance down and notice our hands, only inches from each other. Should I hold her hand? After hesitating for a second, I reach out and take her hand in mine. She doesn't say anything but I see a smile appear on her face.
"So I'm the reason you broke up with Drew?" I ask.
"Yes and no," she says, "Things with Drew were already falling apart when I realized I liked."
"So how long have you liked me?" I tease.
"Awhile," she says vaguely. I love that she's liked me probably for as long as I've liked her. Imagine if we didn't waste all this time playing coy with each other, who knows how different things would be.
"Where do we go from here?" I ask seriously. Just because we like each other doesn't automatically mean we can date. It's sadly much more complex than that.
"Wherever you want it to go," she says, leaving it all up to me.
"Well I know what I want," I say confidently.
"And what's that?" She asks, looking up at me.
"I want you, obviously," I say squeezing her hand, "I want us to be together."
"What about Drew?" She asks nervously.
"We can tell him together, or I can talk with him on my own," I offer. She still looks unsure so I turn to face her and pull her in for a hug while whispering in her ear, "We're not going to hide being together in fear of his reaction." Honestly, my brother wants me to be happy. I know he will be able to come to terms with this.
I feel her head nod against me and hear her mutter, "Okay."
"I guess that leaves me with only one question," I say, slightly pulling away from her but leaving my arms loosely around her waist.
"What's that?" She asks, tilting her head to look up at me.
I have a huge smile glued to my face when I ask, "Bianca Desousa, will you be my girlfriend?"
The worried look on her face immediately disappears and is replaced by a smile mirroring my own. She doesn't even hesitate when she says, "I thought you'd never ask." The girl of my dreams finally said yes!
I pull her closer, lean in, and kiss her. Our first kiss as a couple. It feels familiar yet foreign. I've kissed her, and many other girls, plenty of times. But this time I really feel like the feelings are reciprocated. It's not just a kiss, it's an affirmation of our love for each other.
…..
Bianca's POV
We eventually wander back to Adam's house but it feels way too soon to say goodbye. I don't want to come off as clingy so I guess I better say goodnight and walk home.
"See you tomorrow at school?" I ask as we're hovering at his back door.
"It's too late for you to walk home, why don't you just spend the night?" He suggests. Before I even respond, which would have been a yes, he takes my hand and leads the way inside. We quietly make our way up to his bedroom and he shuts the door behind us.
He pulls off his shorts and sweatshirt, leaving him with a t-shirt and boxers, which was what he was wearing when I woke him up earlier.
He comes closer to me and tugs at the bottom of my top, "You can't sleep in all those clothes," he whispers, grinning ear to ear. I encourage him by lifting my arms over my head as he pulls the top over my head. He tosses it on the floor next to his clothes. Obviously feeling confident, he reaches down to the top of my jeans and unbuttons them. He pulls me closer using the belt loops and kisses me. My hands find their way around his neck, deepening the kiss. He tugs at my jeans, slowly pulling them off. Eventually they get low enough for me to shimmy out of them and kick them to the side of the room.
Adam breaks the kiss to admire my newly exposed skin. "You are so beautiful," he whispers, almost like he's talking to himself. His eyes on my body make me start to blush.
"Come on," I whisper, taking his hand and leading him toward the bed. We climb into his bed and he pulls the sheets over us. We're face to face, only inches apart, and his eyes are staring directly into mine. Adam reaches up and gently brushes some hair out my face, tucking it behind my ear.
"Goodnight," he says, closing the small gap between us and pressing a soft kiss against my lips.
Maybe it's the way he's looking at me right now, or the way he makes me feel when I'm around him, but my heart wants me to say those three little words. After a few minutes, Adam falls asleep next to me and in the silence of the room I whisper to him, "I love you Adam Torres."
…..
Adam's POV
There's no better way to wake up than with my arms wrapped around the girl I love. Her body pressed against mine with our legs tangled together, her face tucked in the crook of my neck, and her steady, warm breathing brushing against my skin. It's not how I remember falling asleep but it makes for one damn near perfect morning.
I carefully lean up to glance at the clock, it reads 7:03am. I'm running late. Drew and I usually leave around 7:20. I don't want to wake her, but if I don't we'll be late. What are the chances my mom will let me take a sick day?
I'm about to wake Bianca when I hear a knock at the door. I hear Drew's muffled voice behind the door, "Adam, can I get my leather jacket back?" What jacket? Oh the one he lent me for my date with Missy. Fuck. I haven't seen Missy since battle of the bands but she's still managing to fuck me over.
I whisper urgently, "Bee, wake up," as she starts to stir. Drew knocks again, "One second," I shout toward the door.
"Come on Adam," Drew says impatiently. Bianca's awake and looks flustered as she realizes who's at the door. I know we decided to tell Drew, but it's definitely not going to be like this.
"Sorry about this," I say to Bianca who's quickly thrown on her clothes and already has the window open to climb down the tree. I get an eerie feeling she's done this before.
"It's okay," she says, giving me a quick peck on the lips before climbing out the window.
I grab the leather jacket from the floor and open my door, "Sorry, I had to find it," I say handing the jacket to Drew.
"It's all good," he says taking the jacket and putting it on. He notices my dressed down attire, "Bro you better hurry up, we're leaving soon," he says before turning around and heading back into his room.
I shut the door and take a huge sigh of relief. That was too close. I need to have this talk with Drew sooner rather than later before he finds out from someone else, or worse, catches us.
I quickly get ready and grab my backpack, meeting Drew downstairs in the kitchen. My mom's there also, sipping her morning coffee.
"Hey mom, can I get my phone back if I do extra chores for the week?" I ask.
She thinks about my compromise, "Okay but you're still grounded from the Xbox until the end of the week."
"Deal," I say grabbing my phone off the counter, "Thanks mom." She looks pleased that she was able to make me happy while also maintaining her punishments.
"Ready?" Drew asks with a mouth full of bagel.
"Yeah," I say, opening the front door and heading out.
As we're sitting in the car listening to music that Drew picked, because driver gets to control the radio, I think that this might be a good time to talk to him.
"You seem like you're in a better mood," I observe. He actually is a lot more upbeat today, plus he's wearing the jacket that he thinks brings him luck with the ladies. Maybe he's moving on.
"Today's going to be a good day," he states confidently.
"Why? What's special about today?" I ask curiously.
"I have a date," he says grinning.
"How did you get a date between yesterday's drunk fit and today?" I ask, slightly astonished but impressed with my brother. I guess if anyone could pull that off it would be my brother.
"I texted Katie last night and asked her if I could take her to lunch," he answers.
"Dallas's Katie?" I clarify. Oh fuck. Drew can't go after someone Dallas is going after, that just won't work. Not only is it a dick move but it's just going to cause trouble in the house. Something that we don't need any more of.
"He doesn't own her," Drew says defensively.
I state the obvious, "But we both know he likes her."
"Come on Adam, I need this," he says in a pleading tone. I know this will help him get over Bianca so the extremely selfish part of me is happy he's moving on rather than trying to win her back. But the loyal part of me, the part loyal to Dallas, knows this is a terrible thing. I don't want to see Dallas hurt if Drew ends up getting with Katie. And I definitely don't want to live in a house where Drew brings Katie around in front of Dallas.
"I don't think it's a good idea," I say, "but do what you gotta do." I'm going to refrain from telling Drew about Bianca and me until after his date with Katie. I want him to be as over Bianca as he can be before I lay the news on him.
We pull into the school parking lot when I check my phone, two unread messages.
The first message is from Bianca and I can already feel the smile on my face as I read the text, "Wish we didn't have to rush this morning."
I type out a quick reply before Drew sees who I'm texting, "We'll make up for it."
I check the second message and see it's from Becky, "Please don't forget to bring the posters to school!" Oh shit, I totally forgot the posters at home. I'll have to ditch first period and run home.
"Hey Drew," I say as he's exiting the car, "I need the keys to run home real quick, I forgot Becky's poster."
"Alright but you're going to miss class," he says. Thanks captain obvious. Since when is he the studious one anyways? Drew tosses me the keys regardless.
…..
Bianca's POV
I miraculously managed to make it home, change clothes, and make it to school on time. Usually I would gladly just ditch first period, but I really want to see Adam. It feels good having a reason to want to go to school. I like my classes, and I really don't mind all the work, but I love the anticipation of seeing that special someone. That's something Drew and I kind of lost after a while. Nothing was special about that relationship anymore. I don't regret that it happened, but I regret letting it go on that long.
I head to my locker to get my books and notice Fiona a few lockers down talking to Imogen. I don't know why I feel so giddy, this usually never happens to me, but I really want to tell Fiona everything that happened last night.
I walk up to her and Imogen, "Hey guys," I say tentatively. I don't know if I'm interrupting something or not, I don't usually talk to Fiona when her girlfriend is around.
"Hey," Fiona says welcomingly.
"How goes the Adam troubles?" Imogen asks. I guess Fiona told her everything. No big deal. That saves me the trouble of filling Imogen in. Besides, if Fiona trusts her that means I can trust her.
"The troubles have been resolved," I happily inform them.
"Really?" Asks Fiona, "And how'd that happen?"
"Let's just say I dropped by his house last night and got him to remember everything," I say.
"I'm so happy for you two! And it's for real now, right?" Fiona asks.
"Yeah, we're really together," I confirm, "but keep it to yourselves until Adam and I get the chance to tell Drew about it."
"How are you going to manage that?" Fiona asks. Good question.
"I'm not really sure, there's no easy or right way to do it. Honestly, I don't think Adam's anticipating the worse. He's convinced his brother will understand, but I think we all know Drew isn't the most understanding or level headed person. I just don't want Adam to be crushed if Drew isn't cool with it," I confess to the girls. It's really been weighing on my mind. What will Adam do if his brother hates him? I can't be responsible for destroying a relationship between brothers.
"I think you should talk to Adam about it, tell him that you're worried and that you don't want him to get his hopes up that things will go smoothly," Fiona advises.
"I know I should, it's just… we just started out, we finally got things figured out, I don't want to have any bumps in the road so soon," I say.
The bell rings and people in the hall start to hustle.
"Everything will work out," Fiona reassures, "We'll catch you later," she says, bringing our conversation to a close.
"Good luck!" Imogen adds as they two start walking toward their classes.
At least Adam's in my first class. So now that we're dating, does that mean I get to take Eli's spot next to Adam? I don't really know how open Adam and I are going to be about our relationship until Drew finds out. Unfortunately this morning we didn't have time to sort these things out.
Because I haven't talked to Adam about it, and I know Adam hasn't had time to talk to Eli about it, I take my regular seat in front of Adam's spot. As kids start to file in I notice Adam is nowhere to be seen.
When the bell rings and Adam is still a no show, I start to get slightly worried. What if Adam told Drew and all hell broke loose? I turn around while the teacher isn't looking and whisper, "Where's Adam?" to Eli.
Eli looks confused, "You talking to me?"
I roll my eyes, "Yes I'm talking to you."
"I don't know, I haven't talked to him since yesterday," he says unhelpfully.
I pull out my phone to text him, "Where are you?"
Much to my relief he replies quickly, "Running an errand for Becky." Apparently whatever it is that Becky needs, Adam's willing to ditch class over it.
I look over at Becky Baker, sitting there next to Jenna, looking all cheerful and perky. I already know I don't like her. Besides hearing how religious and close-minded she is, which is reason enough to dislike someone, she feels like competition. I don't know what Adam sees, I mean saw, in her but whatever it is she better keep it to herself.
Not really knowing what to say back, I decide not to reply to Adam. Whenever he gets to school he can come find me and explain whatever there is to tell. I'm not going to play the inquisitive girlfriend and ask a bunch of follow up questions.
After class I decide to take preventative actions toward Becky. I walk up to her while she's putting her books in her backpack, "We need to talk," I say forcefully.
Becky glances at Jenna before turning toward me and tentatively saying, "Okay sure."
A/N: I'm sorry it's been awhile. I started school, college to be specific, and I've been real busy. Plus I have very little alone time to write. That being said, these are just excuses and I'll try harder to not let a month go by without an update. On to the story, how should Adam tell Drew? How will Bianca handle Becky? Will Adam and Bianca actually make it without a stupid break up? Also, who says "I love you" first? Technically it was Bianca but Adam wasn't awake to hear it. Thanks for reading and please comment!