Ignite (14 page)

“You okay?” I ask, resting my hand on her knee.

“Yeah,” she nods quietly, clearing her throat. “Zeke…”

“Don’t listen to a word of it,” I whisper. “We’re being careful. You’re not gonna get pregnant and you’re certainly not stupid, babe. He’s just upset.”

“I know,” she admits, letting out a sigh as she leans her head against the back of the couch, her eyes shifting to mine after a moment. “He’s right though. You’re leaving.”

“Yeah,” I nod, squeezing her leg affectionately. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not my girl, Addie. We’re gonna figure it all out, okay?”

“Okay,” she says, giving me a weak smile.

“Come here,” I whisper, reaching for her chin and angling her face to mine, hovering over her lips. “Whose girl are you?”

“I’m your girl, Zeke,” she says softly as her cheeks begin to heat, giving me a soft kiss until we hear the door shut and her dad re-enter before we can properly pull apart.

“Oh come on! I was gone less than five minutes,” he grumbles, shaking his head before facing me. “Addison, can you excuse us? I need to speak to Zeke.”

“Yes sir,” she says, looking between the two of us nervously.

“I’m not gonna kill him,” he tells her, rolling his eyes. He watches her take the stairs to her bedroom before facing me, his voice low. “You wanna start talking, kid?”

Giving him a quick recap of the other night, leaving the more personal details out, I watch as he takes a seat in his recliner. Raking his hand over his jaw, his lets out a deep sigh, accompanied by a quiet string of profanity before facing me.

“Does she know anything?”

“No sir,” I say immediately.

“Thank you,” he nods.

“With all due respect, Mr. Greyson, I didn’t do it for you,” I tell him honestly, holding his eyes when they meet mine. “I meant what I said, I love your daughter. I didn’t want her to be scared and I don’t want her to ever question my feelings for her,” I continue. “I know you think this is just a stupid fling, but it’s not like that with us. Truth is, the sex thing was going to happen between us regardless. Your friend just happened to speed things up is all.”

I watch him stand and at the same time, I rise to my feet. I know I’m being disrespectful, but I don’t care. He can hate me all he wants, I just don’t want him punishing Addie for something that’s not her fault.

“Zeke, don’t ever talk to me like that again. Do you hear me?” he asks, his warning low. I’m about to respond, but I’m cut off when he surprises me by pulling me in for a tight hug. “Thank you.”

August 1, 2010

Zeke

Over the past two weeks, we’d spent every second together.

Every. Single. One.

Once the awkward talk Addie’s dad and I had shared was over, I knew there was only one thing left for us to figure out. After sneaking her up to the roof one night, I told her my plan to sink what little savings I had into the beat up Corsica I’d driven in high school. I’d left it behind when I came back for Christmas once I’d realized I never had a reason to drive it on campus.

Now, I had a reason.

Honestly, the thing had been more trouble than it was worth. I figured with a tune up and a little TLC, it would get me to her. When I asked her if she wanted to try it, her excited reaction almost had both of us plummeting two stories to the ground.

Now that things were ‘official,’ we’d slipped so effortlessly out of the friend zone, it almost seemed too easy, like we’d cheated the system somehow. To be fair, the bulk of the transition had belonged to the summer, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t an air of terrifying, yet exhilarating freedom in belonging to her, knowing she was mine and mine alone.

Her dad was still acting strange, but things had seemed to calm down a lot over there. Addie had mentioned a few more suspicious phone calls and he’d been working a lot, but I suspected that was in order to pay off whatever debt they’d come to the house that night to collect. That was my hope anyway. I was relieved to know that he’d not only avoided mentioning our talk to Addie, but that no more unexpected visitors had been stopping by.

Just to be sure she was safe, he’d still ask me to keep an eye on her if he needed to go on a quick run. At this point, though, it was pretty much just a formality. He’d never admitted as much, but he had to know I was sneaking into her window every night. Mr. Greyson had made a few mistakes here recently with keeping an eye on Addie, but he wasn’t stupid. As many times as I’d climbed into that window over the years, I had it down to a science and he knew it.

I couldn’t be sure why he never intervened, but I suspected he might be worried I’d tell Addie what had nearly happened due to his faulty deal with the van guy. He knew I didn’t want her to know about it either, but as awful as my keeping a secret from her was, he knew he’d come out looking just as bad, probably worse.

I simply didn’t want her to get hurt. Intentional or not, whatever he was doing had put her directly in harm’s way.

Whatever the reason though, I didn’t ask any questions. We’d kept our communication on the subject confined to a nod of understanding when he left for work. He knew she’d be safe with me. In return, he didn’t give us any shit about spending so much time together.

With just a week standing between me leaving for school, the need to be together was more pronounced than ever. Aside from the occasional trip to the bathroom and showers when her dad was home, we were together. The last few days her dad was away, we didn’t even shower apart. What we had was an addiction to each other, plain and simple. While it had remained dormant for years due to the nature of our friendship, once we lifted that barrier, it vanished instantly.

The thought of Addie and me being so dependent on the other should have scared the shit out of us. It should have thrown up red flags, warning signs,
something
, but it didn’t. Even if it had, we never would have seen them anyway.

We were far too busy falling in love.

Addie

“Am I the worst boyfriend on the planet because I just realized I have no idea what you’re going to school for?” he asks me, glancing over from his spot beside me on the roof.

The orange T-shirt that’s hugging his muscular arms and chest makes his bronzed skin look utterly delicious. The way his indigo eyes stand out as he looks down at me, shielding his eyes from the sun, stifles my ability to respond for a moment.

“I guess potentially,” I admit before smirking. “But lucky for you, I just decided myself, so you’re off the hook.”

“Oh thank God,” he says, releasing a breath of relief and making me laugh.

“I wish my dad had felt that way,” I grin. “I think he’s been afraid I’m going to major in pottery or philosophy or something. That I’ll end up living at home until I’m forty and the attic’s overrun by cats and he’ll have to go live in a home.”

“Nah, that’s ridiculous,” he smirks. “Everyone knows you’re a dog person.”

“Assface,” I giggle, smacking him playfully and leaning my head against his chest.

“So what’s your major gonna be?”

“Veterinarian medicine,” I tell him, my eyebrows furrowing when I watch him shake his head. “What?”

“It’s nothing,” he smiles. “I’ve just been racking my brain all day trying to remember if you told me because I didn’t want to ask you. I can’t believe I never thought of that. That’s perfect, Addie. You’re going to be amazing at that.”

Giving him a small smile, I lean against his shoulder and savor in the feel of the breeze on our skin. We lie there quietly for a moment, the only sound a gentle hum of contentment from me when he begins to affectionately run his hand over my back. When he hears it, he turns his head and softly kisses my hair before his cell phone begins to buzz in his pocket, breaking the silence. After checking the caller ID, he ignores it and places it on his stomach. Glancing over at the screen, I see the clock lit up, revealing that it’s half past five.

This time next week, Zeke will be leaving.

The realization that we’ve got less than a week left before we’ll be separated hits me like a ton of bricks. Before I can stop it, my eyes begin to burn with tears I refuse to let him see.

It’s not that I don’t feel comfortable crying in front of him, that’s not the problem at all. The problem is that I know my tears won’t change anything. They’ll only make him feel like crap about something neither of us have any control over.

“You fallin’ asleep, babe?” he asks, breaking my depressing thoughts.

“No,” I tell him honestly with a slight shake of my head.

“You got awful quiet all of a sudden,” he starts quietly. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” I sigh, inhaling his scent deep into my lungs and squeezing him tighter around the waist. “Just thinking.”

“What about?”

“We have less than one week,” I say softly. “This is going to be really hard, Zeke.”

“I know,” he admits, brushing my hair back. “It’s gonna work though. You know that, right, Addie?”

“I hope so.”

“It will, babe. It seems like a long time now, but in the course of the universe, it’s just a blip,” he says, angling my face to his. “When we’re old as shit and our kids are screamin’ at us of to get off the roof, this is just going to be one of those things we did to get there, ya know?”

Surprised by his words, I sit up and stare down at him. I can’t keep the stunned look off my face as he takes me in, completely un-phased. Raising up on his elbows to get closer, his lips hover in front of mine for a moment before he speaks.

“Don’t sweat the small shit, babe,” he says, so close I can feel the feather light movement of his lips on mine. “Our hearts know what they want. We just gotta keep our heads from fuckin’ shit up and we’ll be fine, okay?”

“Okay,” I manage, giving him a small nod.

“Cool. Let’s go get some food,” he says, pressing his lips to mine as I watch him sit up completely to climb down to my window. Glancing over his shoulder when I stay in place, he gives me an amused smirk as a chuckle escapes his lips. “You comin’?”

“Zeke, you just told me you wanted to marry me,” I blurt, still stunned.

“Yeah?” he shrugs. “So what? You already knew that, Addie.”

“How would I know that?”

“Well, duh,” he laughs. “I’d be stupid not to want to marry you. I’m in love with you, Addie,” he admits as his eyes soften. “And you’re in love with me and we’re gonna finish college, move in together somewhere and when we’re ready, we’ll get married.”

As the weight of his words hit me, I don’t know what to say. Everything he’d said was right as far as our feelings went and I can’t see myself wanting anything different. He’d just never told me he’d thought that far ahead.

“So that’s it?” I ask. “We’re eighteen and nineteen years old and we just have our whole lives planned out already?”

“Well, not everything. I mean, we still have no idea what we’re gonna eat when we get in the house,” he starts with a sly grin. “You want some chicken?”

“No, I don’t want any chicken!” I shout. “What the hell is wrong with you? This is serious, Zeke!”

“No, it’s not,” he laughs, hooking his arm around my neck and pulling me close enough to kiss my cheek. “Don’t turn it into a thing.”

“It is a thing! It’s a very big thing that you just sprung on me from out of nowhere!”

“Definitely not from out of nowhere,” he shakes his head. “Addie, look at us. On the surface, we couldn’t be further apart if we tried. On paper, this should never have worked. You and me are as night and day as it gets, babe. So why do you think we met when we did? Why do you think against all odds, we stuck by each other through all our bullshit teen years? Do you really think it was so we could have sex one summer and then go meet other people?” he asks, holding my eyes. “No, baby. We met when we did and things went the way they went because this is exactly where we’re supposed to be. It took us a while to figure it out, but we’re supposed to be together. That’s why I’m not freaking out about school. I’m gonna miss you, yeah, but I know at the end of that, we’re gonna be together because that’s just how it’s supposed to be, Addie,” he continues, brushing his fingers over my lips. “I mean, that’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah,” I admit. “You know it is.”

“See? It’s what I want, too. There’s no logical reason why at our age, we should even be thinking about settling down, but it’s just our fate, baby,” he says. “So don’t freak out. Everything’s finally going the way it’s supposed to, okay?”

“Okay,” I nod, smiling at his words and the way he kisses me on the tip of my nose.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.

“Good. Now stop trippin’, gimme a kiss and come eat some fuckin’ chicken with me.”