Justin stepped onto the dock and kissed Emma’s forehead. “Are you hungry?”
“Yeah, a little,” she smiled and pulled him in for another kiss. The boy could kiss! And she found herself trying to catch her breath, once again. She was truly addicted. Justin tickled her sides as his fingers slid against the skin under the edge of her shirt. She smiled as he pulled away from her and winked.
“I’m gonna make us some dinner on the grill and you can do whatever you need to relax, k?” he said.
Emma nodded and settled herself on the swing. She pulled her legs up and sat indian style as she swung back and forth, watching him. When the grill began to heat up, Justin wiped the sweat off of his forehead. She shot him a playful smile. “Why don’t you just take your shirt off?”
He glanced at her, surprised. “If you don’t mind.”
She shook her head furiously. “By all means…strip!”
Justin laughed and took his shirt off. He could tell by Emma’s stare that she was impressed. He smiled to himself, silently thanking God that he had spent so many morning in the school’s weight room. He turned around and flipped the streak and chicken over and wished he could spend every night like this. He wondered if she would still want to be here, if she knew who he really was.
Emma watched the muscles in his back tighten as he managed the grill. She sighed, happily. How had she spent the last few years missing this? She thought. It’s like before, he had just seemed like a moody teenager whose jokes she could never get. But like in the blink of an eye, he had turned into a man who she could relate to. He turned around momentarily and half smiled at her sweetly. Sweet had never been a word to describe Ryan, but in the last few weeks that’s the word that kept popping into her mind whenever he spoke. ‘It’s like he’s a different person,’ she thought. ‘A person I’m addicted to.’
Ryan approached Sam at her locker in the hallway. He didn’t look at her or stop, like she expected him to. Instead he walked by, looking straight ahead. When he had almost passed her, he took one arm and slammed her locker shut, trying to keep a straight face. Then he kept right on walking, like nothing happened. He thought to himself, ‘This could be more fun than I thought.’
Throughout the day, Ryan came up with things to get her attention and play with her emotions. He was determined to get any kind of reaction out of her.
In first period, when she got up to sharpen her pencil, he just ‘happened’ to be stretching out his legs and she tripped over them.
Second period was gym and he ‘accidently’ spiked the volleyball a little too close to her head.
Third period he flirted with the girl in front of him purposely, and nearly laughed when Sam shot them death glares from her assigned seat next to him.
Fourth period, he had a break to think of more things to do because he didn‘t have the class with Sam.
At lunch, he bumped into her on purpose in the lunch line, making her nearly spill her chocolate milk.
Fifth period he sat behind her and slowly blew on her, making her feel like something was crawling on her. He stifled his chuckles when she kept itching and tugging at her neck.
Sixth period, he did it again and Sam finally realized what he was doing and moved up a seat.
Seventh period, he threw a paperback book at her, claiming that “it slipped”.
The last class of the day was Eighth in the computer lab and he sent her a million messages saying “Are you mad at me? Are you mad at me? Are you mad at me? Are you mad at me?” Samantha received the twenty fifth one, and then turned off her computer. This time, he didn’t hold back and laughed out loud.
Justin and Emma ran through the boathouse playing a game of hide and seek in their swim suits. They had eaten dinner and spent an hour in the hot tub before it got dark outside. It was Justin’s turn to find her and Emma was crouching in the game room, when all the lights went out. In the pitch black, she called out, “Ryan?”
Silence filled the heavy air of the room as Emma suddenly became nervous. “Ryan, what happened to the lights?” she said. No sound could be heard.
“Ry? Where are you?” she called, hearing only her echo in response. She reached for a light switch and flipped it on and off, but the rooms remained dark.
“This isn’t funny, anymore!” she said, no longer concealing her fear.
Just then, she felt two strong arms wrap around her protectively. She jumped in surprise and then settled into his embrace. He leaned in to kiss her neck and whispered, “I’m right here. Don‘t be afraid.”
She turned around to face him and crossed her arms. “You could have answered me! I was freaking out. What happened to the lights?”
She saw his silhouette shrug and then he took her hand. “My parents warned me that this might happened. The generator out here is pretty old. But we don’t need it. I’ll light a fire.”
Justin led her to the living room and started a fire. He tossed some pieces of debris in and watched the fire slowly grow. Then he took a few candles and lit them in the fireplace. He handed them to Emma to arrange throughout the room.
“I’m going to go grab some blankets and pajamas for us upstairs,” she said, picking up an already lit candle.
“Okay. Call me if you need help,” Justin said. He picked up a candle and went into the kitchen. He searched the cupboards and finally found marshmallows and graham crackers. He couldn’t find any chocolate, but decided that Hershey’s chocolate syrup would have to do. He carried the supplies into the living room to see Emma already spreading out the blankets for them on the couch in front of the fireplace.
She noticed the snacks in his arms and laughed. “S’mores are the best!”
He nodded proudly and kissed her cheek. “Only the best for you! Thanks for getting those blankets for us.”
“Not a problem,” she said. They laughed like little kids as they made their s’mores. Something about making s’mores in the fire with all the lights out made them giddy and hyper. Emma melted at Justin’s face, smiling at her in the glow of the fire. She loved how she could be completely at ease with him.
After they each had about five s’mores, Justin settled back on the couch and stretched out his legs over the blanket. Emma was kneeling on the floor next to his head and throwing marshmallows at him, while he tried to catch them in his mouth. Both were laughing like it was the funnies thing in the world. “Oh my gosh, Ryan!” she suddenly exclaimed. “You have chocolate syrup on your chin.”
Justin laughed. “I’m saving it for later.”
“Sorry, but leftovers are simply unacceptable for royalty.” She giggled and got up. Justin froze at she crawled on top of him, so that they could both lay down on the couch.
Until this point he had forgotten that they were still in their bathing suits. Now that she was so close to him, he couldn’t help but notice. She let her face float above his and slowly leaned down to kiss his skin, letting her tongue remove the chocolate on his chin.
Then her kisses travel down his neck, making a trail all the way down his chest. Her lips stopped at his belly button and she sat up, straddling him. Feeling him underneath her, she leaned in and captured his mouth in passionate kisses. He pulled her down so that every part of her was pressed against him and pretty soon their bodies began to move in rhythm with the kisses. Her tongue slid back and forth inside his mouth, and he ran his hands up her back and underneath her swimsuit ties. Soon his fingers found themselves untying them.
Then he stopped. She pulled away from him and looked into his eyes. They smiled at each other and in that moment agreed with their eyes that it was okay to keep going. In one movement he flipped her over so that he was on top and hovered over her. He kissed her forehead and then eagerly captured her lips again. With one hand, Emma held his neck, and with the other, she pulled another blanket over them.
Neither of them noticed the fire die down and eventually go out.
