19. Young Love
CHAPTER 19
Young Love
KEY
Eight Years Ago
I don’t think I’ve ever been so bored in my life. All I want is to see Dusty. She said she’d wait for me, and she had a detention after school anyway.
“Keith?”
I blink and sit up straighter in my chair as I look over at Cynthia Redwood, a stuck-up senior who goes to my church. “Pardon?”
She sighs. “I was saying, we should all work together to get signatures for the petition.”
My eyebrows rise. “Petition?”
This time she rolls her eyes. “Yes, Prentiss, the petition.”
“Remind me what it’s for?”
She crosses her arms. “To have that cheating harlot, Dusty Connors, expelled.”
I lean forward so fast my chair almost tips. “Wait, what?”
“I heard Mrs. Smith say she’s testing at the top of her class. She’s obviously cheating.”
“So because she’s smart she’s automatically cheating?” I press.
Cynthia scoots forward on her chair. “She dresses like a street walker, she smokes, and I heard from Emory Radcliffe that she was looking to”—Cynthia looks around then lowers her voice—“score drugs.”
My face scrunches. What a load of nonsense. Dusty and I have been secretly dating for months and never once has she mentioned doing drugs. She smokes, yeah, but who doesn’t? “Cynthia, that’s insane. Also, Radcliffe has never told the truth in his life, so I doubt it. There’s nothing wrong with her.”
Cynthia huffs, turning to the group. “You see? Even our very own choir boy Keith Prentiss has fallen under her spell.”
I roll my eyes. “Spell? She’s not a witch.”
Another girl, Karen, with headgear and long brunette braids, leans forward. “She may as well be. I’ve seen the way you look at her. Like you’re . . . thinking sinful thoughts.”
“It’s not a sin to have thoughts, Karen,” I retort. “But if that’s what you believe, it would explain a lot about you.”
She scrunches her nose. “You know that’s not what I mean. She’s a temptress. And if we don’t stop her, how many others are going to follow down that path?”
I scoff. “Oh please. She doesn’t even have any friends. She’s always alone. Who is she going to influence?”
“Clearly she’s influenced you,” Matthew says from beside Cynthia.
I narrow my eyes at him. “What?”
“She’ll be your carnal sin, Keith,” he says, sitting back in his chair looking pleased with himself. “Your fall from grace.”
Cynthia and Karen sneer at me. “She’s trash, Keith,” Cynthia says. “And you know where trash belongs? At the dump. Not our school.”
I’m on my feet so fast my chair tumbles backward. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that,” I yell.
The moment the words leave my lips, I know I fell right into their trap. The girls cling to each other, and Matthew smirks.
“I’m sure Reverend Hollis would be very interested to hear why you’ve taken such an interest in her. Your parents will be disappointed.”
“I haven’t taken an interest in her. I just don’t think it’s right that we judge someone to the point of bullying them out of school. I thought it was god’s job to judge us. Since when do you all consider yourselves above the lord?”
I see them squirm in their seats. See Cynthia’s eyes move to her clipboard and petition, then tuck it away in her backpack. Point for Key .
“Love thy neighbor,” I say, doubling down. “Isn’t that right? Or have you all forgotten?”
They cast their eyes away, and I grab my bag before heading out of the library, pushing through the doors and into the empty halls. I wipe sweat from my forehead and take a deep breath. That was too close. It still could be. Those narrow-minded jerks could still go to my church—my parents—but at least for now, I think I’ve stopped them.
A sharp whistle grabs my attention, and there’s Dusty, smiling at me from behind a door to my left. I take one last quick glance at the library to make sure no one from Teens for Christ is watching me then jog after her into the room.
When the door snaps shut behind me, it takes me a second to recognize the school auditorium, or rather backstage—the curtains hanging around us block out the lights from the seating. Dusty’s hands find me in the dark, weaving through my hair, and I wrap my arms around her waist. Our lips meet and we melt into each other. We take our time, and while I know it’s something I shouldn’t be doing, I let my hands wander.
Dusty lets me explore her curves, her edges, and everything in between.
“Key?” she whispers.
I nibble on her earlobe and smile as she shivers. “Yeah?”
“When can you get away next? To the cabin.”
“Hmm . . . Friday. My parents are taking my brother out of town for some kind of debate tournament.”
She looks up at me and her blue eyes sparkle. “So, does that mean you won’t have a curfew?”
“Why? Plan on keeping me out late?”
I can just make out her cheeks turning pink. “I just—I thought . . .”
My brow furrows. “What?”
“I thought maybe we could, you know . . . We’ve been dating for a while now and I thought we could spend the night together.”
“I—wait . . . what? You don’t mean?—”
She offers me a shy kind of smile, like that’s exactly what she means.
“We could have sex,” she whispers. “If you want.”
For a fleeting moment, I think of Cynthia and Karen. Maybe there was some truth there . . . Is Dusty an evil temptress trying to seduce me? But of course it’s nonsense. She’s my best friend, my girlfriend.
My blood thickens in my veins when I meet her gaze. “Well, I-I mean, of course—I just—” I stumble, take a deep breath. “I just have never, uh—done that before.”
She tucks her hair behind her ears. “Me either.”
I nearly choke. “You—you’ve never . . . ?”
“You thought I wasn’t a virgin?”
I fear that saying anything will just get me into trouble here, but words tumble out anyway. “I’m just surprised. You’re always way ahead of me when it comes to grown-up things.”
That must’ve been the correct choice, because she wraps her arms around my neck and plays with my hair. “I mean, it’s not like I never had the opportunity. Guys tried, but . . . I guess I was saving myself.”
The blood whooshes from my head straight to my groin. “You were?”
She nods and kisses the corner of my lips. “I always wanted it to be you.”
I cup her face in my hands and look into her starry blue eyes. “You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted,” I whisper. “There’s no one like you.”
* * *
My palms are sweating as I pull my bike up to the abandoned cabin. There’s candlelight flickering through the grime-covered windows and I take a deep breath. When I knock quietly and let myself in, Dusty’s mouth drops open.
“Oh! Wow, you look so handsome,” she says.
I’m an idiot. What kind of guy wears a suit and tie to lose their virginity? “Sorry, I just—I don’t know . . . this seemed like a special occasion.”
Before my face can get any redder, I hold out the bouquet of flowers I got her. Her face splits into a beautiful, dimpled smile.
“Key, they’re so beautiful. Now I wish I dressed up.”
“You’re always beautiful,” I say.
“I didn’t know you were such a romantic,” she says, taking the flowers and placing them in a large glass with water.
I shrug. “I don’t know about that. I guess it’s just that the church taught me this is supposed to happen on our wedding night.”
An expression I can’t pin down crosses her face. “Right.”
I sit down awkwardly on the couch, and after a few moments, she joins me. Neither of us says anything until finally, her fingers lace with mine.
“Key, I . . . if you’re not comfortable with this—we don’t have to. We could just hang out like we usually do.”
I can’t hold it in any longer. “Dusty, I love you.”
Her eyes widen, those ruby-red lips forming a delicate O.
“I’ve loved you since we were kids. I don’t know why I’ve never told you, but you’re not just my best friend or my girlfriend. You’re my everything.”
Tears fill her eyes, but I didn’t mean to make her cry. “Key . . .”
“We’re just two idiots who still haven’t finished high school, but when the time is right, I want us to be more than that. I want to drive off into the sunset with you. I want us to follow our dreams together.”
I jump up from the couch and walk over to my guitar. I loosen the D string until it comes free, then twist and twist and twist. Triumphantly, I hold up the little wire ring and, as heat pools at my collar, kneel down on one knee before her.
“Dusty Connors,” I say, holding up the makeshift ring, “I love you, and I want to be with you always. Will you accept this ring as a token of my promise to love you forever?”
Her gaze bounces between my face and the ring, and my heart has never beat harder. But then she smiles and leans forward, palming the sides of my face.
“Of course I will, Key, because I love you too.”
She breathes out a laugh, and I slip the guitar wire ring onto her finger, my cheeks in pain from the smile pulling at them. “It’s beautiful,” she whispers, twirling it once, twice.
“It’s a D string,” I confess. “For Dusty.”
“Appropriate,” she says with a giggle, then she reaches up to the nape of her neck. Her eyes never leave mine but the breath halts in my chest as her necklace comes loose. She holds up the gold chain in front of me then takes my hand. “I know you won’t be able to wear it because of your parents, but I want you to have this.”
She takes my hand and drops the sun pendant into my scarred palm. “Really? But you . . . You’ve worn it for as long as I’ve known you.”
With a look down at the necklace she takes a deep breath. “My mother gave it to me the day she left—the day we met. She told me to always look for the sunshine in life. That’s why you should have it,” she whispers. “Because my world is brighter because of you. And I promise that you’ll never have to come back for me again, because I’ll never leave your side.”
She kisses me, and the candles flicker and burn down to the wick as we spend the night showing each other just how far our love goes.