“It makes the wait go by faster.” He held up the Polaroid. “It’s a keeper.”
“Let us see!” Selah demanded.
Ben didn’t even look at the camera. He stared at Jo, who looked like her head was on fire from the way the light played on her hair. Maggie’s eyes were shut and she’d angled her head back. My hand covered most of Lizzy’s head and kind of looked like I squished her down. She’d been right about the flannel. Next to her, Quinn and Selah did look like twins whose mother dressed them alike, right down to their matching combat boots.
My own shoulder-length hair could be pulled back into a decent ponytail, but I wore it down unless it was too hot, or in the way when I played bass.
“It’s a terrible pic. My head is glowing like an alien.” Jo sighed.
“Says you. I think Selah and I look amazing. My legs look fantastic in these shorts.” Quinn held up his palm for a high five with his twin.
Selah slapped his palm. “We’ll never be this young or fabulous again. These are the days, my friends.”
“I plan to grow more fabulous as I age.” Quinn puffed out his chest.
Maggie pulled his short ponytail. “Aslan, I’m not sure any of us could handle you being more spectacular than you already are.”
Ever since Quinn grew his hair out, he resembled a lion. One night of too much cheap Mountain Rhine wine, he’d let Lizzy braid his hair and tie it with red scrunchies like the mean girls wore in Heathers.
I thought he looked more like the Cowardly Lion in the Emerald City than the beloved king of Narnia, but I knew enough not to delve into a pointless debate about lions.
Anytime anyone brought up a lion, he’d break into the king of the forest song from Wizard of Oz, proving what an incredible drama queen the lion really had been. The last time it happened, he and Lizzy had skipped across the quad singing at the top of their lungs about wizards.
People spread out all over the apartment and roof as the party hit its peak. I’d lost track of Maggie and needed to find her. Tonight was my last shot. She and Lizzy left early tomorrow morning.
Once I made sure she wasn’t on the roof, I continued my search for her in the overcrowded apartment. I followed raised voices, including Maggie’s, into the hall to the bedrooms.
“What are you even doing here? Who invited you?” With crossed arms and a scowl, Maggie blocked Heidi’s path.
“What are you doing here? Who invited you?” Heidi parroted Maggie’s words.
“Oh, you’re a charming one in your crop-top and acid-washed jeans. First, I live here. In fact, the room you were attempting to enter is mine. The first explains the second question.”
Heidi’s expression went blank as she processed, or attempted to process, Maggie’s explanation. “Prove it.”
I took a step closer to the hall, but Lizzy stopped me. “Let Maggie handle this. She’s been wanting to take down your groupies for months. Think of this as a parting gift when she’ll be on the other side of the world for a year.”
“She what?”
Lizzy shushed me.
“Listen, Heidi, is it? You crashed this party and you should probably go back to whatever corner you came from.”
Ignoring Maggie’s dig, Heidi pushed back her shoulders. “Mark invited us.”
“Mark doesn’t live here. He didn’t have the authority to invite you to my going away party.”
“You’re a real uptight bitch.” Heidi got up in Maggie’s face.
Instinctively, I stepped forward. Lizzy yanked me back by my T-shirt.
“And you’re a skank. Gil’s never going to sleep with you. Ever.” Maggie jabbed her finger in front of Heidi’s face.
Heidi lunged at Maggie. I lunged at Heidi. Lizzy got dragged along behind me because she still held onto my shirt.
Maggie slapped my groupie.
“Whoa,” Lizzy whispered over my shoulder. “I didn’t think she had it in her.”
Unfortunately, Heidi swung her arm to retaliate. And missed, stumbling into the wall. As she fell, she tried to pull Maggie down with her.
“Enough!” I raised my voice over the music. Stepping around Heidi, I checked on Maggie.
“Gilly,” Heidi whined from the floor. “Did you see that bitch hit me?”
“Who are you calling a bitch, skank?” Maggie made a fist.
Trying not to laugh at her tough girl act, I closed my eyelids and shook my head. I pulled Maggie to my side and addressed the mess on the floor. “You need to stop calling her a bitch and maybe she won’t slap you again.”
“Why? Is she your girlfriend?”
Maggie’s arm curled around my waist and she tucked two fingers into the front pocket of my jeans. “It isn’t any of your business, but I am.”
I held my face as still as possible to avoid showing my shock. I kissed the top of her head to hide my ridiculous grin. This was the best moment of my life and I wasn’t going to spoil it by questioning anything.
Lizzy caught my eye and mouthed, “Ohmygod.”
I shrugged in response. The crazy situation could always be used as an excuse for my actions.
“Mark said you didn’t have a serious girlfriend.”
“Mark doesn’t know anything.”
Heidi sneered and scrambled upright.
“We live together. How stupid can you get?” Maggie wrapped her other arm around my front, holding onto me like a koala. Perfect analogy. I heard they’re vicious in the wild. I wouldn’t want to go up against Maggie right now either.
“There’s like twelve of you living here. Unless it’s some sort of sex commune, I’m calling bullshit.” Evidently, Heidi didn’t know when to cut her losses and back down.
“Maybe this will shut you up.” Maggie grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me down to her level. Our eyes met for a second, and the world paused. She blinked. Once. Twice.
Before I knew what happened, her lips pressed to mine.
I sucked in a breath and kissed her back. I didn’t care if she was putting on a show to prove a point. I’d wanted to do this to her and with her for two years.
“You’re both assholes.” Heidi’s heels stomped off down the hall.
Lizzy’s voice broke through my Maggie haze. “You two can stop now. She’s gone.”
We moved apart, but I squeezed Maggie’s shoulder, trying to keep her close.
“You’re welcome.” She touched her finger to her lips, her voice distant. Emotion softened her expression.
“Impressive display.” Lizzy gave us a thumbs up. “Should keep the groupies at bay once she tells all her slutty friends you’re taken. Brilliant move with the kiss, Mags.”
I half listened to Lizzy’s praise. Part of me replayed the kiss over and over. The other part of me wanted to press Maggie against the wall to do it again. Or open her door and lock it behind us.
“After all the excitement, I need a drink. Maybe even a shot.” Maggie’s voice rose in a fake attempt to be chipper.
“Celebratory shots for everyone!” Lizzy led her away. I followed like a puppy.
“Tequila!” Quinn shouted from the kitchen. He poured a row of shots.
“Ding dong, the skank is dead!” Lizzy lifted her glass.
“To friends sticking together.” Maggie downed her shot.
I raised my glass and silently toasted to her. To the girl who captured my heart and owned my body. To bravery.
“With Tomorrow” ~ This Mortal Coil
I KEPT TRYING to get Maggie to talk to me after the fake-not-fake kiss in the hallway. Twice she giggled and brushed me off by either walking away or changing the subject.
Damn it. Time was running out.
I’d wasted two years waiting for the perfect time. She kissed me. I wasn’t going to let her leave for an entire year after our kiss.
The party began to wind down around one in the morning. A few of Lizzy’s friends hung out in the kitchen discussing The Godfather movies. Ben and Jo had already gone to bed. I had no idea where Selah went, or
who she was with.
Quinn and Maggie sat on the couch. He said something I couldn’t hear and she rested her head on the arm, laughing.
“What’s funny?” I sat on the coffee table in front of them.
Maggie sat up and tucked her toes under Q’s legs. “He was telling me his idea for an installation project involving little rhinestone mice and Eva Gabor.”
I cocked my head, waiting for the humor to hit me.
“It’s funny because of The Rescuers. The Disney cartoon. Get it?”
I faked a laugh. I didn’t get it. I didn’t get most of Quinn’s weird cultural references. The guy was a walking pink pie piece from Trivial Pursuit.
What I did understand was I had only hours left with Maggie. “Mind if I borrow Magpie?”
Quinn studied me.
I stared at him, willing for him to understand the importance of this to me.
He tilted his head back, focusing on Lizzy’s group. “I totally disagree. The cannoli are a metaphor for innocence in The Godfather.”
Following his non sequitur, he jumped over the back of the couch and joined the party in the kitchen.
Finally, Maggie and I were alone.
“I have a going away present for you.”
“You didn’t have to buy me anything.” She focused on the hem of her shorts, pulling at a long string where her jeans had been cut off.
“I know. But I wanted to get you something.” I stood up and held out my hand. “Come on.”
She paused before uncurling from the couch and standing. I reached for her hand, entwining our fingers. At first her grip remained soft before she mirrored my pressure.
I led us down the hall to my room. Selah and Maggie shared, but with Quinn in the former dining room, I had my own space.
Once inside, I flicked on the desk lamp and locked the door with a quiet click. If she heard it, she didn’t react.
Maggie being in here wasn’t strange. Our normal meant being together. Last week we’d rented an old black and white French film, and both fell asleep on my bed in the first ten minutes.
Quinn joked the two of us could sleep in a twin without touching. Truthfully, we could sleep in the small space, but touching was the whole point. At least for me. Sleep made me brave.
“You lured me in here with the promise of a present.” She gave me a shy smile, and held out her hands.
“Who are you and what did you do with my best friend? First, you’re having a big, old-fashioned cat-fight over my honor. Next you’ve gotten all demanding. Do I need to check the back of your neck for signs of alien abduction?”
She held up her hair and turned around to show me her flawless neck.
I opened my desk drawer and pulled out the small wrapped rectangle. From its shape and weight, she should immediately guess what it contained.
I tossed it to her, and surprisingly she caught it.
“Ooh, is it a new car?” She shook the box.
“Why would I buy you a new car when you’re leaving the country?”
“Excellent point. Is it a dog?” She tapped the paper wrapped plastic. “You should’ve added some air holes for the sweet little guy.”
“It’s not a puppy. Again, do I need to remind you this is a going away gift? Not really fair for the puppy to be quarantined because France is afraid of American dog germs.” I made a face over the word France.
“You’re really emphasizing the whole ‘leaving the country’ part of this gift.” She frowned and her dark blue eyes shone brighter with tears she quickly blinked away.
“Merely stating the facts.” I tried to sound like her leaving wasn’t a big deal.
“When I signed up last fall, seeing the world, or at least Europe, on my parents’ dime, and enriching my life sounded like the perfect thing.” Her voice grew softer the longer she spoke.
“Hey,” I stepped closer to her, “It’s a wonderful opportunity. Don’t ever regret following your dreams, Maggie May.”
She sat heavily at the foot of my mattress, still holding the wrapped gift. I knelt on the floor in front of her.
“Open it.” I placed my hand over one of hers. “It won’t bite.”
“It’s not the boa constrictor I asked for?” She faked her sad face.
I pouted. “It’s not. Because you would never, ever, ask for a snake as a present.”
“You know me too well.” Finally, she ripped the paper in one quick tear. She held the mixtape up to look at the handmade cover.
“Quinn helped with the collage.” Seven floating heads, one for each of our friends, decorated the paper. Five sat on a red blob vaguely resembling America and two floated on a green square on the other side of a blue ocean.
This time her tears spilled over her eyelids and down her cheeks. “You made me a mixtape?”
I nodded before wiping more tears threatening to fall off the edge of her jawline. “You’ll need some decent music over there. For all I know they listen to Jerry Lewis comedies and old Marcel Marceau albums.” I winked at her.
Understanding my mime joke immediately, she laughed. “I think you mean Maurice Chevalier.”
“I doubt it. A really old guy thanking heaven for little girls is trés creepy.”
She flipped the tape over and read my tiny script of the song list. “You put ‘You Can Call Me Al’ on here.”
I moved from the floor to the mattress next to her. “It’s our song. I have one favor to ask.”
She rested her head on my shoulder. “Anything.”
“Never dance to our song with anyone else.”
Leaning back on her elbows, she stared into my eyes. “Never anyone else.”
“Deal.”
Silence followed our underlying promise to each other. Even in the moment, I didn’t believe we would manage to keep our word, but I wanted to. I wanted to believe space and time wouldn’t change our friendship.
“Maggie?”
She gazed up at me and wet her top lip with the tip of her tongue.
“I’m really going to miss you.” I blinked away the sting of tears.
“Me too.” Her voice lowered to a whisper.
Unconsciously, my own breathing slowed and matched hers while we stared at each other.
Slowly, we moved closer, a magnet pulling us together.
Her hand rested on my thigh. My fingers wove into her hair at the nape of her neck.
Everything moved incredibly slowly.
Our touches. Our breathing. Time.
“Gil.”
I kissed her, softly pressing my mouth against hers. Unlike the kiss in the hall, her lips parted, soft and wet. Inviting.
I wet my bottom lip before sweeping my tongue across her lips. A soft moan escaped her throat.
Exhaling, I changed the angle, brushing my nose along hers. Her tongue peeked out and gently touched my lip. Accepting her invitation, my own tongue responded, gliding into her mouth and following her lead.
As the kiss intensified, time zoomed ahead. Everything sped up. She leaned forward, pressing me back against the bed. Her hair formed a curtain around us as she kissed me, her hands exploring my chest and shoulders.
Wanting more, everything all at once, I rolled over her, settling my knee between her legs.
She opened them to accommodate me. With her fingers in my hair, she tugged me closer to her mouth. Her other hand pulled my torso against hers. I let my arm collapse and pressed my weight down on her.
A million thoughts fired in my brain. Behind the impulses to touch, taste, and feel everything I could on her body, a small voice kept reminding me she was leaving. To stifle my doubts, I listened to my body demanding more and more and more.
My finger hooked around the top button of her shirt. I paused before slipping the button through the hole. Her hands found their way under my T-shirt, and she gently scraped her nails along my spine.
The entire time, our mouths never broke contact. Once her shirt lay open, I moved my hand to cup her breast through thin fabric and lac
e. Her nipple responded, rising to meet my touch. I slipped my finger under her bra and tugged it down. Only then did I stop kissing her mouth.
Bracing myself on my forearm, I teased her skin with my tongue before sucking on the rounded peak. Gasping, she arched her back.
With my other hand, I reached behind her and unclasped her bra. I needed her shirt off to remove her bra. I lifted her up with my hand on the middle of her back.
She responded by raising the hem of my shirt. I reached behind my shoulder and pulled it off with one hand before returning my focus to her. Naked from the waist up, her eyes held a little nervousness and her hand moved to cover what I’d only had glimpses of before.
“You’re beautiful.” I whispered, gently bending her arm and placing her hand on the bed next to her shoulder. “You have no reason to be shy around me.”
She interlaced our fingers, holding my hand and stretching her arm above her head, pushing her chest toward me again.
Time paused as I explored her body. In the background, the stereo switched over to the Cocteau Twins’ Treasure. I paused, thinking I should change it to something sexier.
“I’ve always loved this album.” Maggie pulled me to her mouth, our skin touching from shoulder to hips. Hers felt warm and unbelievably soft.
“Maggie.” A sudden urge to tell her everything crashed over me.
“Shh.” She pressed a finger to my mouth. I kissed the tip.
“I—”
She wrapped her legs around mine. “It’s okay”
What’s okay? I loved her? Did she mean she felt the same?
Her tongue in my mouth and her hand skimming the fly of my jeans stopped my mind from thinking. She snuck a finger beneath the denim, brushing against the skin by my hip. Reacting on instinct, I thrust against her, seeking more. A low moan reverberated in her chest. I did it again and the sound grew louder. Shifting to lie beside her, I drew a wide spiral down her stomach with my finger, slowly watching her skin react, leaving goosebumps in my wake.
The top of her purple underwear peeked out above the faded denim of her shorts. I followed the line with my finger from one hip to the other. Under my teasing touch, she twisted and squirmed.
Unwilling to torture myself any longer, I undid her shorts’ button fly. She bridged her hips, and I shimmied them off of her.
We Were Here: A New Adult Romance Prequel to Geoducks Are for Lovers (Modern Love Stories Book 1) Page 18
