Chapter 34 Saylor
Saylor
I don’t get to see Heaven for another two days.
My mom is trying to squeeze in as much family time as she can before Stel and Scarlett go to soccer camp, and when she doesn’t have her phone or her camera in our faces, I realize my sisters are just as annoyed and over it as I am.
Scarlett is hiding in my room with me whenever she can, watching Love Island with me on my laptop, and finally Stella freaks out on Mom over the matching bob situation.
Mom starts crying. Dad defuses the situation, but everyone is miserable.
The next morning when Heaven texts me and says she’s coming to get me so we can go interview Lara Joseph, owner of Le Petit Morceau, I have to force myself not to throw on my shoes and run down the hill just waiting for her car.
I’m waiting at the bottom of the stairs looking at Heaven’s Instagram account when Scarlett finds me. She sits down beside me, and I decide not to freak out on her for wearing my Tanner Adell shirt.
“What are you doing?” she asks, putting her head on my shoulder.
“About to meet up with Heaven,” I tell her.
“What are you looking at?”
“Just some stuff she posted.” I laugh. “Look, it’s all your little tattoos.” I hand her the phone, so she can see the post Heaven uploaded. Just two slides, the full flash sheet and one picture of Stella and Scarlett’s arms with their little beach kittens side by side.
This was fun. Thank you @cristineford is all the caption says.
“Are you and Heaven gay together?” she asks, catching me off guard. I take my phone back and go back to the main feed.
“No.” I laugh, even though I’m tired of lying about this. I haven’t even told Bethany or any of my other besties that she and I have kissed, let alone how I feel about her now. And that just seems like it’s against the law. “We’re just friends.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not like that with your friends. You act like you like Heaven.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, trying to play it cool.
“I don’t know. You smile at her all dreamy like and you wanna hang out with her more than you ever wanted to hang out with Rhys, your actual boyfriend. You never waited for Rhys to come pick you up on the stairs. You never even put framed pictures of him in your room.”
“Oh, well then, I think you cracked the code,” I say, smiling down at her.
If she only knew what was on my phone, over a dozen sketches and drawings Heaven sent of us looking very in love.
And kissing. A lot of sketches of us hugging and kissing.
Scarlett looks back up at me, a thoughtful expression on her face.
“But you like her right? Like, like her?”
I think about lying to my sister. I’m totally fine lying to my sisters, especially when they are being nosy, but the thought of lying about how I feel about Heaven makes my stomach turn.
“Yeah, I like her, but don’t tell Mom. The whole world doesn’t need to know.”
“I don’t even want to tell Mom what I want for dinner.” We both chuckle a little. We love our parents deep down, but running away from home sounds so appealing.
“Well, I think you should ask her to be your girlfriend. She’s really nice,” Scarlett says. Just as a text from Heaven pops up at the top of the screen.
I’m here.
You want me to come inside?
God no.
I’ll be right out.
I stand and give the ends of Scarlett’s curly bob a little bump. She looks so cute, like a little forty-year-old. “She is nice, but it’s not that simple. I’ll see you later, okay.”
“Yeah, okay.”
It’s been hot all summer, but we’ve entered a heat wave, and I can feel myself nearly baking by the time I climb into the air-conditioned comfort of Heaven’s car.
The cool air only brings my temperature down a little.
Being this close to Heaven again after the last few days does something to me.
I can’t help but smile when she looks back at me with those deep brown eyes.
“Hey. Everything cool?” she says.
“Absolutely not,” I say, working out my seat belt with my left hand. “Drive like three houses down and I’ll kiss you.”
“Okay.” Heaven laughs, but almost immediately she puts the car in drive and gets us far enough away from our doorbell camera.
She pulls over and I check to make sure none of my neighbors are out walking their dogs in the scorching heat, and then I do the thing I’ve been wanting to do the last few days.
I lean over the center console and kiss her.
She kisses me back like she’s missed me just as much.
“What’s going on at your house?” she asks me. I glance at the clock on the dashboard.
“I’ll tell you on the way. We don’t want to be late,” I say.
“ ’Kay.”