The Summer of Me & You

by Rae Hachton

  “Anyone up for pizza?” she asked us.

  “I love pizza,” Kayleigh said. My mother reached for the pizza coupons that were laying on the table behind the couch.

  I whispered to her, “Your mom isn't home, is she? Because if she was, she'd be looking for you right now.”

  Kayleigh smiled and whispered back, “Guess I'll be spending the night after all.”

  My mom looked up, “What are two whispering about?”

  “Oh nothing,” I said. “Get us two large pizzas with everything on it.”

  “Everything but mushrooms,” Kayleigh said. “I hate mushrooms.” I took her hand in mine and led her down the hall.

  “Where are you two going?” my mom asked.

  “We're going to spend some of that quality time you were talking about. You've had Kayleigh to yourself long enough.”

  “Leave that door open,” she said, pointing at me. “And don't get too excited because you are sleeping on the couch.”

  “Dammit,” I said, smiling.

  “Scary movies at ten!” she called.

  “Okay!”

  Once Kayleigh and I were inside my room, she plopped down on my bed and told me, “That text I got a few minutes ago really was from my mom, but it's the only one she's sent all day. I'm glad she hasn't been blowing up my phone, but I didn't like what the message said.”

  I sat down beside her. “What did it say?”

  She sighed. “You know, for a parent who is so overprotective, I thought she'd call or text to make sure I was okay or if I needed anything, but she didn't. The message was a one liner. All it said was You better not be with that boy.”

  “Damn. What's your mom's problem? I've never done anything to make her hate me.”

  “I don't know.”

  “She's never liked me. I've known it for as long as I can remember. That day in February, when I was fifteen and confessing my feelings to you in the only way I knew possible, back then at least, she basically scared me away. She gave me this evil look and that's why I left. For the longest time, I thought that's why you avoided me. Because your mom hated me and she'd made you hate me, too.”

  “I could never hate you,” she said.

  “Sometimes I wonder.”

  She repositioned herself on the bed so she could face me. “Kaleb, I didn't run away from you that day because I didn't like you. I ran away because I did.”

  “I don't understand.”

  “I like you. A lot.” She'd said it. She'd finally said it. Then she added to it. “I always have.”

  “Me too,” I said.

  “You've always liked yourself a lot?” she laughed.

  “You're such a dork, Kayleigh.” I grinned. “No, silly. I've always liked you a lot.”

  “I know,” she said.

  “Then why did you run away?”

  She shrugged. “Because it scares me sometimes, maybe.”

  “It doesn't scare me. I think it's great.” I wanted to kiss her, but I didn't know what her reaction would be, so I refrained from doing so. That could wait. I didn't want her running away again. I'd leave good enough for now alone.

  “Hey,” I slid off the bed, dropping down by my TV and switched on the game console. “Want me to show you how to play this really badass game I just got?”

  “Yes, I'd love for you to.” I handed her a control.

  “Can't wait until the pizza is here. I'm starving,” I said.

  “Me too. So glad I'm not having to eat tofu leftovers tonight,” she giggled.

  “Eww,” I made a face. “Yuck.” I waited for the game to load.

  “So, do you have any ideas for our short film?”

  “No, not yet. I love your hat, by the way. Maybe we could go to this year's short film fest down in North Port together. They have it every summer.”

  “That'd be so much fun,” she smiled. She glanced around the room, found the hat hanging on the coat rack. She stood up. “I'm getting my hat back now,” she said. “I told you what you wanted to hear.” She placed it back on her head.

  “How did you become interested in filmmaking anyway. I never knew that was something you liked.”

  “It wasn't, not originally. I thought I liked theater, but I didn't want to act, so I wrote a play instead. It was never picked up for the stage at school, so—and don't laugh when I tell you this okay?”

  “Okay, I promise. I won't.”

  “—So I made puppets out of scrap materials and enacted the play myself, using the puppets. That's sorta why I do puppet theater at the daycare now. I find it amusing.”

  But I was laughing. “That's so awesome,” I said.

  “Hey! You promised not to laugh.”

  “Yeah, but I'm not making fun of you. Really. I think that's intriguing. So different.”

  “Yeah right. I'm a dork, I know.”

  “You are, but I still like you.”

  “So anyway, I ended up filming my puppet production. And that's how I spent my spring break last year. I did all of the different voices and everything. And when I went to an art exhibit there was a film gala. They played hours of short films back to back. That's where I got my hat. Some of the films were really good. And the directors were there to talk about their art. They seemed so thrilled about it, that it excited me, so I took home one of their pamphlets and started doing some research into filmmaking as a career. I wanted to be as happy as they were in whatever I chose to do with my life. What about you?”

  As the game loaded, I filled her in on my filmmaking history.

  “Stephen's brother Brian has a company that builds art sets for theaters and low budget films. They also make costumes and send out make-up artists to dress the actors for their parts. Several summers ago, his studio was working on some project and he brought me along with him that week. I couldn't believe anyone got paid to actually do any of that. I mean, they were getting paid to do what they loved, and have fun while doing it. Watching the process piqued my interest. I began reading some books about it and I've been hooked ever since.”

  A silent moment passed between us, but it ended when my mom yelled, “Pizza's here!”

  We both bolted up at the same time and ran down the hall. She tried pushing me back so she could get to the food first.

  Maybe this weekend wouldn't be so bad after all.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Glowing the whole way home

  *

  I didn't expect to see Kaleb on my doorstep at 10 am, and to make it worse, it was my mom's day off. As soon as I opened the door to step out and get the newspaper, he was there.

  “What are you doing here?” This was absolutely horrible. I'd just gotten up and had tossed on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Hadn't even combed my hair yet.

  “I wanted to see you.” His eyes sparkled.

  “My mom's home.”

  He just shrugged.

  My mom jerked the door open, realizing I was talking to someone. She radiated hate, but it didn't seem to faze Kaleb at all. Not even when her eyes threatened to set him afire.

  “Hi,” he said in the most sunny voice possible. “Can I take Kayleigh to the park?”

  My mom wanted to slam the door in his face. I just knew it. She pulled her robe tighter around her body. “It's may I take Kayleigh to the park and no you may not.” She tried to hold her composure. “Get in the house, Kayleigh.”

  “I'll have her back by five this afternoon,” Kaleb tried again. My eyes pleaded with him to leave before this got any worse.

  “Go,” she said snatching the paper from me. “Well, go on,” she said, shooing us both away.

  “Really?” I asked her. Did I just enter the Twilight Zone?

  “Go now before I change my mind.” She stepped inside and closed the door on us.

  “That's different,” I smiled.

  “No one can resist this grin,” he said. And he was right. I'd been trying to for the longest.

  When we were at the park, Kaleb bought us both an ice cream cone.<
br />
  “Your mom corrected me on my grammar at ten in the morning. She's also really grumpy. Hope that isn't you in twenty years.”

  “Hey!” I said.

  “It's true. Some girls grow up and act like their mothers.” He licked his ice cream and I watched. My mind wandered to places it shouldn't have. Get it together, Kayleigh. I internally kicked myself. “Don't know why she hates me so much.”

  I wanted to know the answer to that myself. He'd never done anything to her, or to me either. I followed Kaleb to a secluded area, away from everyone else. They were in the distance. We sat down and he plucked blades of grass from the ground, told me stories about made up movies. He'd name a title of a movie, and ask me if I'd seen it. When I said no, he'd launch into telling me what the movie was about. As soon as I bought in to it, and told him I'd like to see it, he smiled and said, “It's not a real movie, it's just a movie I want to make.”

  I play-punched him. But then the moment shifted to something a little more serious.

  He pressed me down into the flowers. Climbing atop me, he held my wrists down above my head. “I wanna do things to you, Kayleigh.” His lips were incredibly close to mine. I could smell the nicotine on him. My breath wavered. “But I know I'd never be the guy you'd choose.”

  I tried to find my voice, but his piercing gaze nearly left me speechless. I quivered. “Maybe you don't know everything you think you do.”

  For a moment, there was an awkward silence. His brown eyes lingered a little too long on mine, causing my pulse to race with anticipation. He was finally going to kiss me. I knew it. This was the moment. Kaleb Scheffler's lips would touch my lips.

  But instead, he let me go, freeing my wrists. He moved away from me, ruining the perfect moment that was playing in my mind.

  I sat up, my head spinning, the sun flaring in my eyes.

  “I want to see you,” he said, “without your glasses on.”

  “Okay.”

  He scooted closer. I held my breath as he reached over and gently removed them. His fingertips brushed against my face.

  “God, Kayleigh,” he exhaled. We were so close to kissing. “—Your eyes are fucking gorgeous.”

  I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. It took a moment for my eyes to readjust because of my astigmatism. I studied his face and how perfect his jawline was. It hurt to look at him. He brought the tip of my black glasses to his lips, biting down on it with his teeth. Oh God, that was so sexy. “You should really consider getting contacts.”

  I could barely think straight.

  “Maybe I will when you stop smoking.”

  He held my glasses out to me, twisting them. I took them from him, placing them back on my face. He rotated onto his side, digging in his pocket. He wore the same pair of jeans he always wore. He was attached to them. A stick of gum with crumpled foil paper fell out, along with a couple of quarters and dimes, a movie ticket stub, and his blue lighter. He finally found what he was looking for. A damn cigarette. Ugh.

  He brought it to his lips, rested it between them. My attention always diverted to his lips. “Don't worry,” he said. “I'm not gonna smoke it. I know how much you hate it.”

  I squinted my eyes. “Then what's the point?”

  He ignored the question. He moved to me again, his proximity putting me on edge. If he didn't kiss me soon, I was going to explode from the inside out.

  Kaleb pushed back the strands of my hair, his eyes gazing in to mine. He mumbled, the cigarette still dangling in between his lips. “I don't think you should feel about a film. You should feel about a woman, not a movie. You can't kiss a movie.” He took a pretend drag of his cigarette.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Godard,” he said, exhaling the fake smoke.

  “In love—” I smiled at him, “—women are professionals, men are amateurs. Truffaut.”

  He grinned, realizing I was able to keep up with him after all. Our score was even. A part of me began to think he was tempting me, seeing how far he could go. Yeah, he knew I liked him. He wanted me to give in first, to kiss him first. But oh no, I wasn't going to. Kaleb would definitely lose at this.

  “Looks like I'll be the amateur. I can live with that.” Pretending to be mildly insulted, he said, “You shouldn't underestimate me though.”

  “Never,” I mocked.

  He stood to his feet. Yanking the cigarette out of his mouth, he walked backwards, keeping his eyes on me. “You're right, you know.”

  “About what?” I gazed up at him.

  “Maybe I should quit. It'd be worth it.”

  I smiled.

  Kaleb flicked his cigarette into the bush, glowing the whole way home.

  ***

  Mom allowed me to see Kaleb on the weekends and the days when she was home, but the rules were we could only see each other during the daylight hours and I wasn't allowed to hang out with him all day. But she made sure to remind me how she felt about him.

  “I don't like that boy, Kayleigh. He's from the wrong side of town. He's nothing but trouble.”

  “Mom, he's really nice,” I told her, loading the dishwasher.

  “Aren't they all. That's how it is in the beginning. Until they aren't anymore.” She sighed, like she was having memories. “I can see why you'd like him. You're attracted to his rebellious bad boy persona. But he's not good for you. I've seen that kind before, Kayleigh. He's the kind the leaves you pregnant and skips town without so much as a goodbye.”

  “Mom, Kaleb isn't dad. And we're not—doing that.” He hadn't even kissed me yet.

  “You better not be having sex with that boy. You two spend a little too much time together.”

  And it was then when I realized that while Kaleb and I had been having a lot of fun together, he'd alluded to very sexual things. And me? I couldn't even watch that boy smoke a cigarette or eat an ice cream cone without my mind going to the gutter. If this progressed between us the way I wanted it to, I could be his girlfriend soon. Which was a great thing, really. But Kaleb would have expectations. Sexual expectations. What would I do then?

  But there wasn't too much to worry about, right?—he couldn't be that serious about me, could he? We hadn't even gone on an official date yet.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Go out with me...”

  *

  Kaleb ran through my backyard with urgency, hopping over the lawn chair, and knocking over my mom's plant in the process. I laughed. Why was he in such a hurry? He stopped, momentarily, to stand her plant back up, making sure it was okay, then he dashed off again. My eyes darted, following him as he flew through the back door, nearly exasperated.

  “Go out with me,” he said, pressing his palms against the door frame like he was trying to hold himself up.

  I laughed. “What!”

  “Go,” he enunciated, “—out with me.”

  “That sounds like a command, Kaleb. Why don't you try asking me first? I grinned.

  “Because. I'm not taking any chances of you saying no.”

  “I don't quite grasp your logic. I could still say no even though you've commanded it.”

  “Well, let's see if I can explain.” His arms dropped away from the door frame and he walked closer to me.

  “Mhm, please do. I'm intrigued.”

  “It lowers the probability of your answer being no, because I didn't leave no as an option. For example, if I'd said, Kayleigh will you go out with me?—then that leaves only two options—yes or no. See, the first thing you're immediately going to do is say no because you don't want to give yourself a chance to actually have any fun, but then you'll spend the rest of your day wondering why you didn't say yes. So I'm doing both of us a favor here, because when I say Go out with me you're going to immediately think Wow, that's such an amazing idea. Why didn't I think of this myself? And your reply will be Yes, Kaleb, I would love to go out with you, because now you're going to think it was really your idea all along.” He smiled.

  I nearly fell off the kitch
en counter laughing.

  “And—” his eyes glided up from beneath his dark lashes to meet mine. “—it was a request.”

  “Exactly how long did it take you to think of this brilliant idea?” I asked.

  “So, is that a yes I hear?”

  “No,” I laughed.

  He stepped closer to me, placing his hands on either side of the kitchen counter where I sat, enclosing us in a small space. His action silenced my laughter, making the moment more serious. He gazed up at me, his fingers inching closer to mine. I gripped the counter.

  “Just one date,” he tried to compromise. “If you don't like it, you never have to do it again. I swear. It's just that easy.”

  How could I say no?

  “And I never have to do it again, right?”

  “Yes—Just once.”

  “Well—” I pretended to ponder it for a second. “I guess it wouldn't hurt,” I smiled.

  “How about Friday night?” he said, enthused.

  “I'll be here,” I told him.

  “Sure hope so.”

  I playfully shoved him away. “Now get outta here before you wake up my mother. You're rowdy.”

  He smirked. “Wouldn't wanna do that.”

  “Nope.”

  Kaleb slowly backed away.

  “See ya,” I said.

  “Can't wait for it, Kayleigh.” He twisted around on his heel and headed back out the door. He glanced at me through the kitchen window, smiled once, then jogged off.

  When he was gone, I hopped down off the counter, elated. Did that just happen?

  I'd never been on a date before. And this was a date with Kaleb. I began to wonder where he'd take me. What should I wear? Would the night end in a kiss?

  Friday wasn't even here yet and I was already nervous. The scariest part?

  I had to tell mom I was going on a date with Kaleb, at night, when she'd be at work. She'd never agree to it.

  The next afternoon as she was getting ready for work, I stood in the bathroom doorway watching her powder her face. I wondered if guys really liked that sort of thing. I hated makeup. Didn't like the way it felt on my face. But I thought I could paint my fingernails a pretty color so if he reached for my hand he'd notice. If guys even noticed those sorts of things.