Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dear Diary,
I know you’re getting tired of me saying the same things over and over, but I can’t help it.
I love him, and I want to shout it to the whole world.
My friends know, of course, but I’m sure they think it’s just like any other teenage romance.
New and exciting and will surely fizzle out when the next interesting person catches one of our eyes.
Diary, when he kissed me for the first time, it was like fireworks and a tornado and an earthquake were happening all at the same time. My entire world changed. Colors were brighter. Music was more meaningful. Everything was different. Everything was better.
I wasn’t even nervous when it happened. I know you know this already, because I told you about it before.
We’d been secretly seeing each other for 2 months.
Secretly because Mom won’t allow me to date until I’m 16.
We’d study at the coffee house at least three days a week.
And on weekends, we’d meet in the park when I was supposed to be going to a friend’s house.
He picked a spot, well out of the way, where nobody would see us.
It was a large tree in the middle of a clearing that sits way back from the park.
It’s kind of become our spot. And it’s there where he kissed me then asked me to officially be his girlfriend.
After that, we couldn’t seem to get enough of each other.
He’d go out of his way, sometimes running across the entire school because his class was in the far hallway, and he’d walk me to class.
And on the days he had to work at the coffee house and we couldn’t ‘study,’ he’d walk me home and then run to work.
We don’t have to do that anymore, because another thing I didn’t know about Trevor Jordan Criss—he’s brilliant.
As soon as I turned 14, he had his parents hire me and made it so we work the same shifts.
I don’t work as much as he does. Mom will only let me work 10 hours a week while he works more like 18.
But that’s at least three days a week where we get to spend an extra 3 or 4 hours together.
His parents know about us. How could they not?
In fact, I’m not sure how anyone wouldn’t notice the glances we share.
The touches we steal. The pure energy that surrounds us whenever we’re together.
It’s torture having to hide all those things when Mom comes in for coffee, which isn’t often because she’s usually tired after work.
But she’ll sometimes pop in on a Saturday during my shift just to surprise me.
She’ll make a production of ordering some fancy coffee just to watch me make it.
Then she’ll taste it and fawn all over it like it’s the best coffee she’s ever had in her entire life.
Then she’ll tell me how proud she is of me that I have a job and still make straight As.
All the while, guilt eats at me. Because she has no idea that I couldn’t care less about the job. She has no idea how many times I’ve lied to her about going to Regan’s house only to meet up with Trevor at our tree.
I love my mom. My whole life it’s been just the two of us.
And she’s been so good at being a mom, it’s kind of made me not even miss not having a dad.
Which is why I feel so guilty about lying to her.
I’ve never lied to her. Not one time before Trevor.
Am I a bad person, Diary, for lying to my mom so I can see the boy I love?
Because I do love him. I know I do. And I figure if that’s what this is, true love, shouldn’t I be able to lie to get to experience it?
We haven’t said it. Because, come on, we’re ONLY 14 and what could 14-year-olds know about love? That’s what people would say, right?
But, Diary, even though we haven’t said it, here’s one more thing I didn’t know about Trevor. He loves me too.