I was still holding my phone and smiling like an idiot when Jessi walked through the door. I immediately smelled the food and sat straight up. My stomach started growling and I was ready to tear into the bags she was holding.
She held out one of the bags to me but jerked it back last minute before I could grab it.
“Hey! Give me that, Jessi! I’m hungry!” I whined like a baby but I really had not realized how hungry I was until she walked in with that food.
“Oh you are, huh? Then I bet you would be willing to do just about anything for this food, right? Like maybe even tell me all the juicy details about last night?” She finished with a sly smile.
Shit. I should have known.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You are an evil little person. You know that?”
She giggled and fanned the smell of the food toward me. “I know. Spill.”
I sighed, “Jessi, it’s kind of private you know.”
“Um, hello?! I am your best friend. I know every dirty secret about you. This is no different. Plus, I told you all about my first time!”
“I didn’t ask you to! Actually, I am pretty sure I tried to get you to shut up numerous times. I never could look at Paul the same after that day.” I shivered at her very detailed description of her first time.
“Come on, Kelsey. You know you are dying to tell me.” She pouted.
“Fine! I will tell you some parts but I’m not going into details, Jess. There are just some things that are sacred and should be just for Kane and I. Got it?”
“Got it. Now how was it? Was it romantic? Did he have it planned out?”
I rolled my eyes. She asked me to tell her, then she bombards me with questions. “Yes, it was romantic, and, no, he didn’t have it planned out. It sort of just happened. Actually”—I hung my head and fiddled with a puppy charm on my bracelet. I had wanted a dog so bad but my dad would have never allowed it, so the charm was my mom’s way of still giving me a puppy—“it was my idea. I kind of suggested we do it.”
Jessi was quiet and I finally drug my eyes up to hers. She was staring at me with her mouth hung open. “Shut. Up! Kelsey, you did?! I would have never guessed it was your idea to get your freak on.”
I pushed her shoulder hard. “Oh, hush! We were in the water, messing around—”
“Hold up! You were in water? Damn are you sure he didn’t have this planned?” She winked.
“No, Jess, he didn’t. It just felt right.” I shrugged and went back to plucking at my charms.
“That’s beautiful, Kelsey. I’m glad it was your decision and not something you were pressured into doing.”
“He would never pressure me, Jess.”
“That’s not what I meant.” She placed her hand on mine. “I am just saying that I am glad you knew you wanted to share this with him. That you made this decision. So many girls do it because they fell they need to do it to either keep their boyfriend—like I did—or because they just want to get it over with. I know you, and I know that if you decided to do this that it’s because you have some strong feelings for him. Am I right?”
I nodded.
She hugged me. “I am really happy for you, Kelsey. It makes me happy to see some of the old you coming back. Sometimes I thought I had lost her forever.”
“She has always been here, Jessi. Just hiding I guess.”
She pulled back and smiled at me.
“Now. You got what you wanted. Give me my food.” I yanked the bag from her grasp before she knew what was coming.
“No fair, Kelsey! That wasn’t enough and you know it!”
I smiled as I crammed my mouth full of fries. “Too bad.” I mumbled around the food.
Jessi got up and stormed off to the bathroom and my smile grew bigger.
“Don’t pout, Jess. It’s not lady like,” I yelled to her and she popped her head out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in hand.
“You know what else isn’t lady like? Talking with your mouth full!” she yelled back at me as I crammed more fries in my mouth.
I had just about finished all my food by the time she came back in the room. She climbed in her bed and pulled the covers over her.
“One of these days, Kelsey, you will tell me all about it. One of these days,” she said as she yawned and rolled over.
“Don’t hold your breath best friend,” I replied as I wadded up my trash and tossed it across the room, making it into the trashcan.
“Night.” I told her as I wiggled and tried to get comfortable in my bed, but there just wasn’t any use. The only way I was going to get comfortable was to have a nice, warm set of tattooed arms wrapped around me.
There was a soft pecking sound that woke me up the next morning. I looked over at Jessi to see she was still sound asleep, but the pecking noise continued. Finally realizing it was coming from the door; I dragged my body from my bed and cracked it open just enough to see what was making the annoying sound. I was pleasantly surprised that the annoyingness was coming from my boyfriend.
I pulled the door open the rest of the way and rested my head against it. “Can I help you?” I said around a yawn but still smiled at him. How could I not? He was so dang cute.
“Told you I would be over here first thing. I couldn’t sleep without you.” He gave me a full dimple smile. “I couldn’t wait any longer so I came on over. It’s actually still pretty early. You wanna see if we can catch a few more hours of sleep before class?”
I hadn’t really slept well either. The only reason I had slept what little bit I did was because exhaustion had finally taken over. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more at the moment then to be able to sleep in Kane’s arms again, so I gave him a nod. He instantly scooped me up in his arms and carried me to my bed, with me giggling the entire way.
He threw us down onto the bed, wrapped me up in his arms and buried his face in the crook of my neck. “This is more like it,” he sighed and I lightly ran my fingers up and down his arm.
It didn’t take long before I heard his breathing become slow and steady and I knew he was asleep. I took a moment just to let everything that had happened over the last few weeks sink in.
I had started over fresh. Away from that horrible place, and that town, and everyone in it. I had memorialized my mom with a tattoo I never thought I would have gotten. I was slowly starting to find my way back to happiness and the living again. I had met new, amazing people to fill my life with. And I had a boyfriend I was falling in love with. I contentedly sighed and I drifted off to sleep. Happy.