Seven years before
Teenage Dream - Stephen Dawes
E
very ounce of oxygen in Erik’s body evaporated as he watched Abby descend the stairs separating them.
She was always beautiful. But suddenly, that word felt weak and flimsy in comparison to the goddess in front of him.
Green satin flowed over her body, catching on every curve. Her blonde curls were smooth and shiny where they tumbled down her back. Smoky makeup littered with sparkling flecks of green brought out the colour of her eyes, making them shine brightly. And of course, her lips were the brick red that had become her signature in the past year.
As their parents tried to take photos of them, he was repeatedly scolded for not looking at the camera. But Abby was like a magnet, keeping his eyes locked on her.
And he was tired .
Tired of pretending she wasn’t the only thing he wanted to look at. Tired of pretending his whole body didn’t light up as soon as she was next to him.
Erik was used to wearing a mask, hiding his anxieties and overwhelm behind a calm, pleasant veneer that wouldn’t discomfit those around him. Abby had always been able to see through it though. Said she saw in his eyes even what that mask tried to hide. And tonight he was done trying, letting his feelings for her paint themselves clearly across his face. When she looked up at him through her thick, dark eyelashes, there was no chance she could miss everything he was carrying for her. And for the first time, he didn’t care.
Because for the first time, he thought he saw those feelings reflected back.
Erik took in her wide eyes and the soft smile tilting her perfect lips and before he could bend his head more than a few degrees towards her, the click of a camera reminded him that they had an audience. But the moment was enough to inspire a silent promise: before the night was over, before this final, symbolic end to their school days, he would find the perfect moment to kiss her.
They spent the night glued to each other.
Even when they stood to the side chatting to their friends, Abby wrapped her hands around Erik’s bicep and rested her head on his shoulder. When they sat for dinner, he slung his arm loosely around the back of her chair, fingers trailing lazily over the soft skin on her neck and shoulders. She’d shivered slightly when he grazed one of the delicate straps criss-crossing over her back, and he was embarrassingly pleased to have pulled that reaction from her. Erik was aware of the sets of eyes tracking their points of contact, but he was too focused on her to care. Abby’s carefree laughter as he spun her on the dancefloor was a drug he would never get enough of. The weight of her body colliding back into his after a twirl was the single greatest pleasure he had ever experienced. He wanted to take up oil painting so he could capture the glow of her skin where its light sheen caught under the lights.
Comments about their unusual relationship had never phased him. Mostly because he knew they were right, at least where he was concerned. But he sometimes wondered if it bothered Abby. If she realised he was likely the reason no one had ever asked her out. The reason she had spent her high school years single.
Attending their leaver’s ball together had felt like an inevitability. So much so that Erik had simply assumed it to be the case. Then he had heard her name muttered in the back of his biology class.
‘Think there’s any point even asking her? She’s probably going with him .’
That afternoon he had knocked on Abby’s bedroom door—showered, shaved, stupidly nervous, and clutching a bunch of freshly picked daisies—and made it official.
Her response had made him melt.
‘Well, yeah? Obviously. I already got you a tie that matches my dress. Thanks for the flowers though.’
They traipsed out of the school hall an hour before midnight, caught in a cluster of friends determined to continue the party. Cheap beers were obtained from a petrol station and passed around in a park, streetlights illuminating the discarded heels, ties, and jackets littering the grass around them.
Abby surprised him by coming to sit, not next to him, but in the space between his open knees, leaning her back against his chest. Erik’s arms wrapped around her instinctively, his chin dropping to rest on her shoulder.
‘It’s weird to think of all this ending,’ she said quietly, head turning as she took in their group.
Girls sat chatting in a cluster; boys kicked around a football they’d found under a bench; a few couples swayed gently under the trees, not caring about the lack of music.
‘All of it?’ Erik breathed, his mouth right next to her ear. The goosebumps that sprang up on her skin couldn’t be from the warm, late night breeze.
‘Maybe not all.’
He could hear the smile in her voice as she reached up to wrap a hand around his pinkie.
If he was going to do this, she was giving him his opening. But not here, where twelve pairs of eyes would gawk at them.
‘Take a walk with me, Sunshine?’
Abby nodded, smoothing her dress out after Erik helped her up. She took his arm for the umpteenth time that night as he led them to the small pond she’d loved since they were kids. It took them just out of their friends’ eyeshot.
‘Think they’ll be worried about us?’ Abby asked after a few minutes of staring over the water.
‘I think no one is ever surprised when we leave the group to hang out by ourselves,’ Erik said quietly, turning to face her.
Abby laughed softly. ‘Yeah. Why do you reckon that is?’
Erik cupped her jaw gently. ‘You know, Abby. You’ve always known.’
Her eyes flicked over his face, breath hitching as his tongue darted out to wet his lips.
‘Abby…’ His voice sounded pleading. He might have been embarrassed, but then…she nodded. A tiny, almost imperceptible tilt of her head.
His world narrowed to three points of contact: her hands on his chest, his hands on her face, and the place where their lips finally, finally met.
He had no fucking idea what he was doing.
Abby didn’t seem to care, as she opened her mouth slightly on a breathless sigh. Erik pulled her closer, and her hands slid up to wrap around his neck.
It was clumsy and inexpert, noses and teeth bumping when he tried to change the angle.
It was the best first kiss Erik could have hoped for.
He finally pulled away when Abby let out a small whimper because he’d nipped her bottom lip too hard.
‘Sorry.’ He smiled sheepishly. ‘I’ll get better.’
Abby shook her head, fingers twisting through the ends of his hair. ‘It was perfect. You’re perfect. The five most passionate and pure kisses since the invention of the kiss all got bumped down another notch.’
Erik laughed lightly, still cradling her face. He dropped his forehead to rest against hers. ‘I’m so glad I waited for you.’
‘That was your first kiss?’
‘Obviously.’
Her fingers tightened in his hair. ‘Mine too,’ she whispered.
His heart jumped in his chest at the admission, timed to perfection with a buzz emanating from his pocket.
Erik groaned and checked the text, prepared to flay his brother.
‘Are you ready to go? Alex says he can pick us up on the way home from his date.’
‘His date’s ending now ? It’s almost midnight. There’s nowhere to go in this town after ten.’
Erik chuckled. ‘It’s Alex .’ And, well, there was one place to spend a private moment late at night. He was counting on them visiting it a few times in the coming summer holiday.
When his brother stopped in the parking lot a few minutes later, Abby was bundled in Erik’s jacket and wrapped in his arms. He’d always taken advantage of her addiction to touch, and now…now he was never letting her go. They held hands for the duration of the brief car ride, Abby glancing up at him shyly every few minutes.
He’d never thought of her doing anything shyly.
He liked that he was the cause.
Up in his bedroom, Erik found his smallest shorts and his biggest shirt, handing them both to Abby. It didn’t matter that she still packed her own pyjamas when she spent the night. She said his were more comfortable, and every stupid, primal part of his brain loved seeing his clothes on her.
He wrapped her in one final embrace, wishing he could spend the night holding her close. ‘Goodnight, Sunshine,’ he whispered, smiling into hair. He pressed a quick, chaste kiss to her lips, and as he left the room to sleep on the sofa downstairs, he thought he might be the luckiest man alive.
‘You finally got your head out of your arse and kissed her, didn’t you?’ Alex leaned in the doorway to his bedroom, his lazy, chronic smirk firmly in place.
Joy threatened to spill out of him and Erik didn’t trust himself to speak at a volume that wouldn’t wake his parents. He just nodded, face splitting into a huge grin, and ran a hand through his already unruly hair, remembering the feel of Abby’s fingers twisting it less than half an hour earlier. Before he could continue walking, Alex surprised him by pulling him in for a tight hug.
‘Don’t fuck it up.’