Chapter 8 #2
I take a deep breath and then put on a smile. “Okay, but you’ll have to braid my hair tonight—tight. It will get so wild with the heat, water, and wind.” I pull my hair up into a ponytail and take an elastic off my wrist to wrap it.
“I know you’ve been avoiding the topic, but we need to talk about the letter,” she starts.
I turn my head toward the window. “To answer your question, no, I still haven’t opened it, and I don’t have any intentions of doing so right now.”
“Chelsea …”
“Aunt Laura,” I sing back to her. “This is Torie’s weekend. Can we just shelve it for a few more days?”
She lets out a sigh. “Of course we can. I’m just so happy you’re here, and I have all of next week to harass you about it,” she says with a smile, and I groan, which she clearly ignores. “So, anything new with you at school? How are your classes going?” She merges onto the highway toward Naples.
“Classes are good; work is good. Oh, I forgot to tell you.” I turn toward her in my seat. “Noelle and I are staying at her boyfriend’s house because our apartment building had to get fumigated.”
“Oh, gross!” She fake gags. “You know how I feel about bugs.”
“I know. I don’t even want to think about what was in the walls, honestly. We never had any issues in our apartment though.”
“Doesn’t Noelle’s boyfriend play football or something?”
“Yes, he does, and so do his roommates.”
“Oh, so I’m sure that’s a real hardship, staying there.” She laughs.
I laugh with her. “Definitely doesn’t suck. Especially when they all walk around shirtless.”
“I bet! I vaguely remember a few of them when we moved you in last year.”
“Yeah, so Casey is Noelle’s boyfriend. Then there’s Silas, who was the really tall one, and Bo. He’s the quarterback,” I say, looking out the window.
“I’ve seen him on TV, I think. He’s very good-looking.”
“He is indeed. And nice.” I look at my phone to check my texts just in case he texted me after we talked earlier, but nothing new is showing. “I’m actually tutoring him too.”
“Oh, really? For what?” She tilts her head in question.
“He got a bad grade on the first test in a psychology class, which accounts for a large part of their overall grade. So, in order for him to stay eligible to play, they hired me to help him get the grade up.”
“Well, if anyone can help him, you can. My smart girl.” She reaches over and takes my hand.
It took me a while to get used to her hugging us or showing us any physical attention really. My parents hadn’t been affectionate with us at all. But I don’t mind it now.
“Yeah, and I kind of like him too. We’ve been flirting a lot. Which is funny because we’ve been around each other pretty regularly, but it’s like a switch flipped, and now we’re all flirty with each other.”
I’m not sure why I’m telling her other than the fact that I haven’t really told anyone about it yet. Noelle and I haven’t gotten to spend a whole lot of time alone this week, so it wasn’t easy to find a time to talk to her about it.
“Oh, to be young and flirty.” She sighs. “Enjoy it all, kid.”
“Yeah, I mean, it’s just fun right now. I don’t know if it’ll turn into anything. We have very different paths. I’ll be going off to law school, and he’ll be heading to the NFL next year.”
“You never know, Chels. Keep all possibilities open.” She squeezes my hand, then releases it to turn the wheel, and we exit the highway.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing him naked a few times. That’s definitely a possibility I would like to keep open.”
I bark out a laugh when I look over at my aunt and her wide eyes. I can tell she’s trying to be cool about it though.
“I’m sure that would be a delight. But you don’t need to tell me about it if it happens. Just promise me you’ll practice safe sex if it comes to that.”
“Absolutely. The pullout method is highly effective,” I say sarcastically.
She looks over at me with her mouth agape. “Chelsea Sullivan.”
I can’t stop laughing at the shock on her face.
“I’m serious, Chelsea. Promise me.”
Once I catch my breath, I reach over and touch her arm. “I promise. Don’t worry; I have no intention of having babies anytime soon.”
“But you do want babies? Someday, of course.”
I pick at the seam of my purse. There’s a small string sticking out—most people wouldn’t even notice it—but I give it a tug, and it unravels a little more.
“Yeah, for sure. But I have a lot to do first. I would love to explore adoption too.” I study her face because I’ve never mentioned adoption to her before.
She looks over at me for a second, but I don’t miss the shine in her eyes. “Any child, whether biological or not, would be lucky to have you as a mother, Chelsea.”
“Thank you. I had a good role model.”
“Oh my God, stop. You’re making me cry, and I can’t see!” She wipes at her face.
I pull out a tissue from the small pack she always keeps in her glove box and hand it to her.
“Sorry.” I laugh, then admit, “The great thing about adoption is, I can give a kid a better story than the one they started with. Love them, support them, let them know they’re wanted.
And maybe it’s selfish, but I like the idea of choosing someone—and being chosen back—without the whole mess of finding a guy first. And honestly, why settle down when casually dating is so much fun? ”
“Ahh. The old fear of commitment.”
“I don’t have any fear. I just don’t see the need to be in a fiery, passionate, dramatic, all-consuming romance.”
“You know, Chels, it’s okay to have more than a fling with someone. Not every relationship is like the one your parents had.” She glances over at me.
“Oh, I know.” I shrug it off like what she’s saying isn’t hitting home in some way. “I just don’t want to get invested in someone when I’m leaving and he’s leaving too.”
“I get it; I just want to see you consider it, is all. Love can be a very wonderful thing,” she says wistfully.
“Since I’ve never been in love, I can’t say that I know that to be true, but I’ll take your word for it.” I look over at her. “How is it you know so much about love anyway? I’ve never seen you with a man.”
“I’ve dated, and I’ve had serious relationships in the past, before you girls came to me. I just haven’t had much time in the last ten years to get into anything. You girls needed me more than I needed a relationship.”
“You should take your own advice then. It might do you good to get dicked down too, Aunt Laura.” I can’t hold the laugh that I try hard to keep in.
“Good Lord.” She shakes her head, but has a smile on her face. “And who says I haven’t?”
I gasp. “Aunt Laura! Have you met a man? Do you have a … loverrr?”
She wiggles her eyebrows. “A lady never kisses and tells.”
“Well, you’re no fun! Bravo though. You need to get some too.”
“Chelsea, I mean it. You’re not a kid anymore.
I don’t have to worry about you meeting the wrong boy and getting into trouble.
You’re a woman now, and it’s time you started taking some chances.
I spent my twenties buried in med school, doing everything I could to avoid the opposite sex.
And while I want you to stay focused on law school, I also want you to have a little fun.
Meet a cute guy. Go on dates. Let yourself be romanced.
Don’t wait until your forties to realize you deserve that. ”
I widen my eyes and grin. “Okay, who are you, and what have you done with my aunt Laura?”
She laughs as the light turns green.
“This new guy must really have you under his spell,” I tease, smirking. “Either that or his dick is huge.”
She bursts out laughing. “What in the world will I ever do with you?”
“Make me chaperone a bunch of teenage girls and then feed me to the alligators, apparently.”
She glances at me, still chuckling, and shakes her head. “You’re impossible.”
“Admit it,” I say, trying not to smile. “You love me.”
“Oh, I do,” she says warmly. “More than you know.”
The rest of the short ride to our house, we talk about her and her job.
When we pull up to the house, my sister is standing outside, waiting for us. She’s literally bouncing up and down. I look over at my aunt, and we both start laughing.
“Get ready for the weekend of Torie!” my aunt says.
I reach for the door handle with one hand and grab my bag with the other. “Can’t wait!”
While we were at dinner, I got a text from Bo, asking if I got home safely. I told him we were out to dinner and I would text him when I got back to the house. Which I did, but they were at the movie, so he couldn’t text back and forth.
So, I took my shower to get the travel crud off of me, had my aunt braid my hair, and then crawled in to my bed. I didn’t really expect to hear from him again because of the curfew, but at nine forty-five, which is ten forty-five my time, my phone buzzes.
Bo: Are you still awake?
Chelsea: Yes, I just got into bed though.
Bo: Do you want to go to bed, or do you feel like talking?
Chelsea: I can talk, but don’t you need to go to bed soon?
Bo: Yeah, but I’d like to talk to you if you’re not too tired.
I can’t help but smile.
Chelsea: Yeah, we can talk.
My phone rings a second later with a FaceTime call.
“Hi,” I say, smiling wider. “You meant, like, actually talk and look at each other.”
He chuckles. “Yeah, I meant actually talk with voices and faces.” He’s in his bed too. Shirtless. “Did you have a good time at dinner?”
“We did. We went to Torie’s favorite restaurant, so she was happy. Even happier when we came home and had dessert. The girl loves birthday cake.”
“That’s good. I bet they were happy to have you home.” He smiles.
“They are. It’s good to see them. It’s funny because I don’t feel homesick when I’m gone, but when I’m here, I realize how much I miss them. Is that weird?” I purse my lips and tilt my head in question.
“No, I know what you mean. I feel the same when I go home, which isn’t very often.” He leans over and reaches for a bottle of water on the table next to the bed.
“Did you get your check-in from your coaches yet?”