22. The Fountain
THE FOUNTAIN
ALEXIA
T he kiss doesn’t last long, just long enough to shut me up. Water sprays on us from the fountain, causing a slight wetness to the kiss. He kisses me incredibly soft and delicately almost like he fears he’s doing something wrong.
The kiss literally takes my breath away, not trying to sound cliche or anything but when he kissed me, I actually forgot how to breathe and now that we’ve pulled apart, we’re staring at each other.
I’m in shock and confused. I finally start breathing again as he says, “Sorry, It’s the first thing that came to my mind.” I stare at him, processing what he said.
“It’s okay… I didn’t mind,” I tell him. Then It’s quiet again. I don’t know what to say and I genuinely think he doesn’t either.
“Can I kiss you again?”
I nod, surprisingly.
Gray reaches back out and cups my face. We both lean in till our lips are touching again. That short kiss was definitely not enough. I’m itching for more. His hand reaches farther behind my head, pulling me in closer, and I place my arms around his neck as he grips my lower body. This water may be cold but I’m feeling anything but cold. It’s almost like electricity is flowing through us as we grip onto each other.
“Found you!” Charlie yells and we both jump apart.
“You idiot, you aren’t it,” Gray yells.
“I know, but Kenan already found me, so I was bored and came to find you,” Charlie says, shining his flashlight over us.
“Can you not shine that in my face?” I say, covering my face.
“Sorry,” Charlie replies and shines his light lower to the ground.
“Why did you two look like deers caught in headlights when I came up?” Charlie asks, sitting on the ground in front of us.
“Maybe because you shined a light in our face,” Gray answers angrily.
“Well, what have you two been doing?” Charlie asks us, ignoring Gray’s attitude.
Gray looks at me and I look back at him and then Charlie and then back at Gray. Is he going to tell him we kissed or is this going to stay between us?
“We were kissing,” Gray answers. And telling Charlie takes the win. Charlie’s eyes go wind as his mouth drops, and he goes back and forth, looking between us.
“Oh my god. When? How? Was it good?” Charlie asks all at once.
“I don’t kiss and tell,” Gray answers.
“It happened a few minutes before you walked up and I was rambling, so he kissed me,” I answer Charlie’s “when” question.
“Then we kissed for fun,” Gray adds.
“You jerk. That’s no first kiss. You have to do better than that,” Charlie says while slapping Gray’s arm.
“Jesus, can you not abuse my arm?” Gray says, swatting Charlie’s hand away.
“While I appreciate you considering me a god, I just think you should have chosen a better first kiss moment,” Charlie says simply.
“Who kissed who?” Scarlett asks, walking up from the left side of the fountain. How did we not hear her walking up?
“Gray kissed Lexi but in a terrible way,” Charlie says. Scarlett takes a seat beside Charlie on the ground in front of us.
“I need details,” Scarlett says excitedly.
“There are none, she was rambling and boom, kiss. No fairytale,” Charlie answers.
“He’s just disappointed,” Gray says.
“I am too,” Scarlett says, slapping Gray’s arm.
“Can everyone stop hitting me?” Gray says loudly.
“Did you at least like the kiss?” Scarlett asks.
“I’m not answering that,” I answer.
I did but they don’t need to know that.
“Kiss her better,” Charlie says, but Gray just rolls his eyes, which causes me to laugh a little.
We sit in our hiding spot for about ten more minutes before Kenan announced the game was over and we all went to the fire pit.
Walking up to the fire pit I notice Nevea and Kenan off to the side talking. It looks more like he’s getting upset with her over something. That must be why the game stopped. I continue to watch them as Gray ushers me to a seat.
“Song time!” Emerson cheers and Noah swings around his guitar. Noah and Charlie sing while Zara and Emerson pass out the supplies for us to make s’mores. I assemble my marshmallow onto the metal skewer as I see Kenan coming over to the fire pit and Nevea walking into the cabin.
They are definitely going to have a frosty night in bed.
Finally, we go inside to watch movies after all of us have completed our s’more. Noah pulls out the alcohol he brought, and I only choose to have a wine cooler since I don’t want to get completely drunk. Raven pulls out the weed that she brought while Scarlett rolls them up. “Do you mind if we smoke?” Charlie asks, directed to me and Lia. We both look at each other before shaking our heads.
“You wanna try?” Scarlett asks.
“I will.” Lia bounces up.
“I’m good with my wine cooler,” I reply.
I do not need to add weed on top of alcohol.
Once everyone has their respective drinks and snacks of choice, Noah starts Scream 4. Within about an hour of the movie, everyone has either gone upstairs or fallen asleep on the sofa, so I decide to go ahead and take my shower and lay down. Gray is already laying down in his bed when I come inside. “You can shower now,” I tell him since I’m done in the bathroom.
“It’s okay, I used the hall restroom,” he tells me.
“Cool.”
I walk over and climb into my bed, putting my phone on the charger. I’m not sure what to do, but I don’t think we will be doing much talking tonight. I need to tell Faith what happened because I have no idea what to say or do.
I lay down, turning away to face the bookshelf. Maybe the awkward tension will go away.
“Did you like it? The kiss,” Gray asks from across the room. I was not expecting him to speak.
“Yes, did you?” I reply.
“Yeah.” The room is silent again and all I can hear is the clock ticking.
“Do you think you like me or possibly could?” Gray asks. The most dreaded question, it’s not that I can’t answer it, but I didn’t come to California to leave with a boyfriend and what about when I leave. We are on two different sides of the country.
How would that even work? We would probably break up within weeks of me being home. On top of that, he’s a world-famous rockstar, and I know I’m not the only super fan out there. He could also fall for some super pretty model again. There are just too many things to consider.
“Yes, I think so,” I answer.
“For which one you like me or think you could?” he replies.
“I like you, but I don’t know if I want to try something just to get hurt,” I answer. It’s not that I’m not sure of my feelings; I like him, but I’m not sure if I like him enough to risk getting hurt.
“I wouldn’t hurt you,” Gray states.
“You can’t be sure of that,” I reply.
“I can be sure that I'll try not to,” Gray says. Him saying he can try really makes me want to try but I don’t want to start anything and it’s all just a hoax.
“Maybe we can see where things go,” I tell him.
“I can deal with that.”