24
Huxley
Ican’t fuck this up. And that’s hard for someone like me because I fuck up nearly everything I touch. Which is what got us here in the first place.
I hurt her. And the worst part is that I really didn’t know I was hurting her. Yes, I know what cheating is and that it isn’t just sex, but for some reason, my mind didn’t compute that what that girl was doing was in the realm of cheating.
Girls always came up to me and sat on my lap. They’d touch me until they eventually pulled me upstairs or asked me to go home with them. And that just seemed normal to me. It was normal for girls to take what they wanted, and I was just supposed to give it to them.
It wasn’t until I heard screaming that I registered the girl on my lap. And it wasn’t until I shoved her off that I realized it was Val screaming for help.
I left her alone at a party full of guys that I would never want around her, and the exact thing I feared almost happened. He could have gotten her all the way to his truck before she screamed. He could have covered her mouth, and I never would have heard her.
I lean my forehead against her apartment door, trying to shove all those thoughts down. I don’t want to think about that night. I don’t want to think about what almost happened. Because right now, I’m about to see my girl, and I’m going to make up for all the shit I’ve done.
And we’ll be okay.
We’ll be okay.
I lift my head and knock twice. Val’s footsteps grow closer until the door pulls open. I’m about to smile at her when my eyes drop to her chest. But not because she’s showing off. No, she’s fully covered. In none other than a t-shirt with… “The Beatles?”
My mind takes me back to Freshman year. That stupid British accent that made me cringe on the inside. But then she laughed. She laughed at the joke. She got that it was a joke. And now she’s wearing a shirt with the band’s name on it.
She leans against the doorframe and raises a brow. “Don’t tell me you hate the Beatles?”
I lift my eyes from her chest so she doesn’t think I’m staring too much. “I didn’t think you liked them.”
She said she didn’t listen to that type of music. Her brother did, so she’s heard some of the songs, but that doesn’t seem like enough to buy a piece of merchandise.
She shrugs and grabs her purse. “I bought it Freshman year at some thrift shop. Thought it looked cute.”
She turns to lock her door, but I’m still caught on her words.
“Freshman year?”
“Yeah.” She turns around calmly.
“The year we met?”
She nods. “Yes, Huxley. The year we met.”
The year we met. She bought this the year we met. The year I made the joke. The year she laughed. Hell, it could have been the same month. And she still has it. She’s wearing it. But did she wear it for me? Does she think I don’t remember, or is she hoping I will?
“Huxley?” My eyes snap back to hers. Which means I was staring at the damn shirt again. “Are you okay? I can change if—”
“No!” She jumps slightly, so I mentally tell myself to calm the fuck down right now. I’m not supposed to be scaring her. I’m supposed to be making this night better. I let out a deep breath and take her hand in mine. “You look great, Love. Don’t change.”
A soft smile lifts on her lips, and everything around me feels a lot lighter. “Are you ready for your first cliché date?” I ask, squeezing her hand a little tighter.
Her smile brightens. “I think the better question is, are you ready for it?”
“I’m literally bursting with excitement,” I say flatly. “Can’t you tell?”
She mock-winces. “Actually, I can.” Her hand waves vaguely over me. “You might want to tone it down a bit before we get there. Don’t want to scare anyone off.”
She smiles again, and this time, I can’t stop myself. I pull her quickly into my chest, knocking her off guard as she gasps and stares up at me with her beautiful, dark eyes.
“I will try my hardest,” I say deeply before placing a kiss on her forehead. She shudders and grips my shirt tightly.
Adorable.
We pull up to the movie theater, and Val reaches for her door to get out.
“No. Don’t move.”
I hurry to undo my seat belt and get out of the truck to run to her side. Pulling the door open, I offer my hand to her. She smiles and softly slips her hand into mine. “How romantic.”
She jumps down from the truck, and I shut the door behind her. “It’s our first-second date, Love. We only get one, so we better make the most of it.”
She tilts her head to process my words. “A first-second date doesn’t even make sense.”
“Just go with it,” I whisper in her ear as I wrap my arm around her shoulders. She leans in closer to me, and I savor this moment as if it’s our last.
We get inside and find the place relatively empty, with just a few other couples in line to get tickets. Either the movies are shit right now, or going on a movie date isn’t like it used to be. Not that I’d really know what it used to be like. But Val mentioned it as a typical first-date scenario.
I glance down at her as she takes in the nearly empty room, too. I think she’s realizing the same thing I am. Neither of us knows shit about dating.
“So Valentine.” I need to talk about something before this gets to her head. She looks up at me as her hand reaches up to hold mine. “What’s your favorite type of movie?”
She pulls herself closer to me. “Guess.”
I answer immediately. “Romance.” Only because she said she learned about relationships from movies. Not that she couldn’t have watched a bunch of horror movies that had a relationship subplot. You know, dark romance and shit. But that doesn’t seem like her forte.
She raises an eyebrow at me. “That is such a stereotypical and sexist assumption.”
I freeze for only a second before I notice the corner of her lip twitch. My smile brightens, causing her to roll her eyes. “Yes, I do like romance. But I’ll watch just about anything.”
I shake my head as I pull her close, pressing my lips to her temple. I love this girl.
We approach the ticket booth, but I couldn’t care less about the movies right now. “Two tickets to the third movie on the list.”
Val looks up at me with a deep layer of confusion covering her face. I point to the list of movies, still only looking at her. “The list of movies,” I say simply. “The third one down.”
The ticket boy must understand me because I can hear him pressing buttons on his machine. I pay for the tickets and nod at the kid before pulling Val to the food counter.
“That was the weirdest way I’ve seen someone buy tickets,” she says to me when we stop.
“It’s so that way we’re both surprised.” Not the real reason I did it, but it works. She shrugs and turns to look at the candy selection.
I gesture over the glass. “Take your pick, Love.”
I lean my elbow on the glass, watching her scan the rows of candy.
I’ve watched her before, when she doesn’t realize I am, or she thinks no one is watching her.
Okay, that sounds stalkery. Oh well, my point is, I’ve watched her before.
But watching her now, knowing she’s here with me, it feels different.
I could reach up and tuck her hair behind her ear, which I do because I can’t help it.
She turns her head toward me, her eyes curious of my actions.
But I just smile at her and pull my hand back.
I just like knowing she’s here. Knowing she’s in reach.
Because she wasn’t once, and she won’t be again.
She tries to hide her smile as she looks back at the candy, but she can’t hide the blush that spreads over her cheeks. I want to kiss her right now, but I’ll wait for that. We still have time.
She suddenly turns to face me. “I bet I can guess your favorite type of candy,” she says with a growing smile.
I smile back and shift closer to her. “What do I get if I guess yours right?”
She lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “Surprise me.”
Oh, how I could do exactly that. But I can’t scare her away by being too forward.
I slide closer to her until she’s right next to me. “And what do you get if you win?”
Her chest lifts quickly, and for a moment, I really think she’s thinking the same thing I was. I lean a little closer to her, and she blinks slowly. “Half of your candy,” she whispers.
One day. Not anytime soon, but one day, this girl is going to let me do whatever I want to her. I can see it in her eyes as she blinks slowly again. She swallows hard when I don’t pull away yet, and I can practically hear her mind wondering what I could do.
But I’ll settle for letting her have my candy. For now. “Alright, Love,” I whisper. “You’re on.”
She turns back to the candy counter quickly, and all I want to do is kiss her neck where I can see her heartbeat pounding.
Soon.
I glance over the candy and find something random. Because I don’t need to win this. I just want to be here with her.
“I have my pick.” She turns to me, so I glance back at the candy to pretend to look for my choice. “Me too.”
She nods for me to go, so I say the last candy I looked at. “Your favorite type of candy is M&M’s.”
She smiles. “As much as Mike would approve, you’re wrong.”
Bringing up our first date only makes me fall for her more. “What is it then?”
Her smile grows as she turns to the man behind the counter. “Can I get a bag of sour gummy worms, please?”
Oh my god. I’m in love with a girl who likes sour gummy worms. She’s adorable, but those are disgusting. “No, Love. Not the gummy worms,” I groan.
“Sour gummy worms,” she emphasizes, like that makes it any better. She thanks the man behind the counter as he hands them over before she turns back to me.
“Alright, crazy. You guess now.”
“I think your favorite type of candy is Twix,” she says so confidently, I can’t tell her she’s wrong.
I shake my head, and she sticks her bottom lip out.
I look away because 1. She’s fucking adorable, and I can’t handle it anymore.
And 2. I don’t want to think about all the things I want to do with her mouth.