Beautiful Tragedy (A Standalone Romance Novel) (9 page)

It’s so strange, because I’ve always been able to tell
when a girl liked me and wanted me to kiss her. I think Molly likes me, maybe
just a little more than a friend. But she protests a lot about not wanting to
date, and not wanting a boyfriend, so I have to ask myself why would she be
receptive to a kiss?

Last week we watched a movie together. It was one with
Johnny Depp that I had seen a bunch of times. I like Johnny Depp, and when I
was sick my dad used to buy me all of his movies and I’d watch them over and
over in the hospital when Dad wasn’t watching football.
 
I quoted this one part, before the girl on
the screen said it. This may sound weird, but at that moment I thought she was
going to actually kiss me. If I were smarter, I would have gone in for it right
there. I don’t claim to be all that bright though, so here I am looking at her
hair shine in the moonlight and her pretty dark eyes looking at me…still
wanting to kiss her, so very badly.

We had done pretty much everything there was to do,
and it was getting colder and the wind looked like it was blowing in some dark
clouds. I asked her if she was ready to go. I wanted to get her home on the
bike without getting soaked. She said yes, and then I remembered the pumpkins.

“Damn, I never saw Jake and Megan. Did they show up?”
I said. Molly looked at her phone and said, “It’s only nine-thirty; they’re
probably just on their way. We can get pumpkins anywhere though.” She was
always so...flexible.

I smiled at her and said, “Okay, we better get going
then before that black cloud up there opens up and we drown on the way home.”
This was the sad part about having a Harley instead of a car. I can’t honestly
say I can think of many others.

I took her hand again, feeling brave now and helped
her up the dirt ramp to the parking lot. Just as we got there I heard a roll of
thunder and then a clap of lightning. I looked up again and that black cloud
was moving fast. “Maybe we should wait and have you ride home with Jake and Molly.
I don’t want you to get sick or something from being soaked.”

She laughed and said, “That’s nice of you to worry,
but I’m no wimp. I’ll be fine.”

You already are…fine. I think I stared at her too long
after I thought that. What the hell were we talking about? Oh yeah, going home.
I felt a fat drop of rain on my head, and then another and another. Suddenly it
was like standing under a solid shower. We were a ways away from any shelter,
and sitting on Suzie wasn’t going to help, so I did what any guy would do…I
took her hand in mine and said, “May I have this dance?” I thought she would
tell me I was crazy, or run for the corn shack. Instead, she smiled through the
rain that was now beating against her pretty face and said, “Why certainly.”
There was, of course, no music so I had to improvise. Now, I’m a musician. I
should have a thousand or more songs in my head at any given time and be able
to sing them all on demand. I usually do. But tonight, the only song I could
recall the words and the tune to was by Aerosmith. I have no reason to lay
here, scouts honor and all of that; it was the only song I could recall.

I used the hand I still had ahold of, and I pulled her
close. I was trying to block some of the rain, but I also just really wanted to
feel her close to me. It gave me kind of a light-headed feeling. I tilted my
head down and put my lips close to her ear and sang, “I don’t want to close my
eyes. I don’t want to fall asleep because I’ll miss you babe and I don’t want
to miss a thing.”

I wasn’t sure what she thought about my song choice,
but at this point I was into it and she hadn’t kneed me in the gonads so it was
all good. I had one of her hands in mine and the other one on the lower part of
her back as we moved our bodies together to the tune. My pulse was racing and
every time I opened my eyes and looked at her I shuddered. I don’t think it was
from the cold. I had never done this before, singing to a girl without any
music at all while we danced, in a dirt parking lot next to a pumpkin patch.
Okay if I had billed it that way to begin with, she probably would have said
no. The spontaneity of it had made it that much more exciting, and I had never
wanted to kiss her more than I did now.

I looked down at her face when I got to the part that
says, “Even when I dream of you, the sweetest dream will never do and I miss
you babe and I don’t want to miss a thing…” I wanted to tell her that was true.
I had never even dreamt of a woman like her. As I looked at her, I saw and felt
her take a deep breath and I could feel a little tremble in her hand that I
wasn’t sure if it was for me or because she was cold and soaking wet. I liked
thinking it was for me. My hands were shaking, and I knew it was because of
her.

She had a smudge of mascara under her eyes, and her
hair was now plastered to her head and I swear to God at that moment she was
the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I couldn’t talk myself out of it
anymore. If she objected, I would just shoulder the consequences. I was finally
going to do it. I was going to kiss her.

As I finished the chorus of the song once more, I
pulled my head up again slightly from where it was at next to her ear along the
side of her cheek. This time, instead of rising up to look at her, I let it
linger there. Our mouths were so close that all it would take was one gentle
motion by either of us for our lips to meet. I took another deep breath and…

Just then, there was a flash of headlights and a honk
of a car horn. I squinted through the rain and saw that it was Megan and Jake.
I told myself that I was getting new friends the first thing in the morning.
The friends that I have right now seriously suck. At this very moment I should
be feeling Molly’s warm, sweet lips on mine. I despise them.

Molly looked at me and grinned. I think she knew I was
going to kiss her. I think she wanted me too, maybe as much as I wanted to. Or maybe
it was my imagination. Now I would never know.

I took her hand and we walked over to where Jake had
his big head sticking out of the car window.

“What are you guys doing?” he said with a big, stupid
grin.

I’ll remember this next time he wants me to leave so
he can have a “romantic” evening with Megan. I’m going to sit on the couch in
my SpongeBob boxers and play video games all night. I’m going to pass gas and
scratch myself and leave my dirty socks in the living room. Oh! And…I’m going
to leave the toilet seat up every time I went to the bathroom. That’ll teach
him.

“We were going to leave, but it started raining…” Molly
said. I wondered if she was thinking revenge too when Megan interrupted her
with, “So you stopped in the dirt and danced?” Then she and Jake laughed like
they were so proud of themselves for setting us up. Molly looked at me and
rolled her eyes. Then back at Megan and said, “It was mud, which we are still
standing in by the way. Now are you going to invite us in, or do you enjoy
seeing us out here getting drenched?”

“Oh shoot!” Megan said, unlocking the back doors of
her car. We got in, both of us shivering now and Megan said, “There’s a coffee
shop in town about five miles back. You guys want to go there and warm up and
see if it’s going to stop raining? I don’t want to ride a haunted train in this
mess, and I’m sure you don’t want to ride that bike right now.”

I looked at Molly and she said, “Coffee sounds really
good right now, I’m freezing.”

“Oh!” Megan said. “There’s a blanket in my trunk.
Jake, will you get it for them please?”

Jake looked like he wanted to do anything but get out
in the rain. It made me happy. His punishment was only just beginning…

He jumped out and literally ran to the trunk Megan had
popped open and back to the car. The blanket he threw back to us was soaked
just from those few seconds. I looked at Molly and said, “You take it, I’m
fine.”

She surprised, and delighted me by saying, “No, you’re
as cold and wet as I am. Scoot over here, we’ll both use it.”

I didn’t argue with that. I scooted close to her and
she spread the blanket out across both of our laps. We snuggled together, and
it was almost as good as our dance. Except that the moment for the kiss was
over and I would have to find another. I looked up and saw Megan looking at us
in the rearview mirror. I didn’t want to share our first kiss with anyone but
Molly, so for now it could wait.

CHAPTER
NINE

MOLLY

I hadn’t seen Brock since the night of the haunted train
ride. It had been two days, twenty-two hours and thirty-six minutes…give or
take. Not that I was counting. I do have to wonder what would have happened
that night if Jake and Megan hadn’t pulled up when they did.

It was all so romantic that it had gone straight to my
head. The fun we had at the pumpkin patch and tree farm, and then the moonlight
and the rain, and then dancing in a parking lot of all things. I can’t believe
he sang that song. He’s so talented. I love the way his voice sounds, even a-cappella.
I also love Steven Tyler. He’s my absolute favorite. I know that I’m young and
I hear it all the time, “Aero—who?” But come on, classic is classic and
obviously Brock understands.

“Oh my God, Molly! I said this out loud to myself in
an empty room. What the heck is wrong with me? I’m counting the hours since I
saw this guy last. I’m humming, “Don’t want to miss a thing”, in my head, and
I’m saying that he understands me. What happened to the girl who didn’t want a
boyfriend?

We’re just hanging out. Yeah right, that’s why he was
about to kiss me two days, twenty-two hours and thirty-six minutes ago, and I
was going to let him. That would have moved this thing straight from “hanging
out” stage to “soulmates”. Yes, I’m sure it would have been that good.

Snap
out of it Molly! He’s hot, yes. He’s smart, yes. He’s talented, yes. He’s
sweet, yes. Do you want a boyfriend who is going to take your heart when he
finds out you’re sick, and run in the other direction as he stomps on it like
the last one did? No!

He called me yesterday and told me what a great time
he had the other night. I told him I had too, honestly. I can’t remember the
last time I had that much fun. I told myself before he called that I just wasn’t
going to put myself in that situation again, one where we’re close enough and
alone enough to kiss. Then he said, “Hey, why don’t we watch a movie tomorrow
night?”

And I said, “Sure that sounds great.”
Way to cut him off Molly.

So now I’m getting ready for movie night, both in
anticipation of the thrill of seeing his handsome face, and with anxiety that
he’s going to want to finish that kiss. I’m going to stay strong this time, no
matter how sweet his lips look. Megan is going to give me a ride over to his
apartment, maybe her and Jake will hang out for a while and foil Brock’s
kissing plans yet again.

“Molly, you ready?” It was Megan, sticking her head in
the door.

“Yep,” I said. I grabbed my coat and on the way out I
asked her, “Are you and Jake watching the movie with us tonight?”

“No. Jake wants to drive out to that car show he was
telling us about.”

“Isn’t that like a three hour drive?” I asked her.

“Yeah, he says that we can stay at his friend Tim’s
mom’s house if it gets too late.”

Great, they won’t just be absent long enough for the
kiss…they’ll be gone all night. I’ll have to find a way to foil his plan on my
own. It wasn’t my planning that I had doubts about. It was my resolve.

Megan texted Jake when we drove up at their apartment,
and then she looked at me and said, “You two behave. We might be gone all
night.” And then she grinned. I rolled my eyes at her and I didn’t dignify it
with a response.

“Drive safe
Meggs
. Thanks
for the ride,” I told her as I got out of the car. I passed Jake coming out as
I was going in.

“Be good,” he said, with the same grin that Megan had
on her face. These two are ridiculous.

“You too,” I told him. It was Saturday. I had used up
all my good barbs for the week and that was the best I could do.

Brock was waiting at the door for me, literally. He
was standing in the doorway, waiting for me. It was nice, but you have to admit
it was also a little weird.

“Hey Molly, Jake told me you were here.”

“Hey. Yeah, I passed him on his way out. Megan must
really love him to drive three hours to a car show.”

Brock smiled. “You wouldn’t do it?” he said. I took my
coat off and sat down on the couch. I was getting so comfortable here; I didn’t
even wait to be asked anymore.

“For Jake?” I asked with a grin. “Never!”

He sat down next to me. He doesn’t fight fair. He
smells so good…all the time. Seriously, the guy never has a bad smell day.
Sometimes when he looks at me with those blue eyes I completely forget what
we’re talking about, and whose turn it is. Did he ask me a question?

“No, not for Jake,” he was saying. Now I remember.
“For the man you love.”

“Hmm, that’s a hard one. It’s November which means
it’s colder than a witch’s teat out there. I don’t like to be cold.”

“I do know that,” he said, fighting dirty still with
an almost edible grin.