Hey, Darling.

“So…” Mia started when I emerged from the bathroom, a towel in my hands as I dried off my hair. “Have you fucked him yet?”

I started unexpectedly, choking on a small piece of spit that wedged into my lung as I gasped. I coughed on it harshly, before clearing my lungs and blinking at her rapidly. What. The. Hell?

“W-w-what?” I sputtered out, dropping the towel from my hands to look at her incredulously.

Firstly, we hadn’t even been going out for a month. I was not an easy ho.

Secondly, I’d never had sex. Did she really think I was going to give it up that easily?

And thirdly, how the fuck did she feel comfortable enough to ask that kind of question?

“Have you guys, you know…slept together?” She made a rude gesture using her pointer finger and an O-shaped hand. “Sex? Penetration? It’s this thing we a man inserts his penis into a woman’s--,”

“I know what it is!” I interrupted. “I know. I paid attention to Health. You don’t need to explain.”

She raised an eyebrow, but put her hands down and stopped spouting out random explanations. She was still looking at me expectantly, though.

I blushed. I put my hand up to shield my face, before ignoring her and walking towards the closet. I was clad in a pair of boxers and a tank top, even though Kennedy was probably going to be here in about twenty minutes. We had plans to just go chill at his house.

It had been three weeks since the first time that I met his mother, and I still didn’t think she was warming up to me. She wasn’t directly rude to me, of course, but rather cold and distant, like she didn’t want to give me the wrong idea. It unnerved me, but I let it go. Kennedy and I were the same as usual.

It felt weird, skimming over three weeks of our relationship, but nothing new had really happened. We went on a couple dates, but mostly hung around at Denny’s or in his car, talking and, well, making out. We kissed, a lot. Kenny was affectionate, and he was not one of those people that apposed public displays of affection. In fact, I was pretty sure that he would be the guy in high school that got suspended because he couldn’t keep his hands off his girlfriend.

Normally, that type of stuff would make me nauseous. However, I was his girlfriend in said scenario, so things were all good.

“Well?” Mia prompted, her gaze following me as I shifted through a couple dresses in the closet. I chose to ignore her.

She groaned after a few minutes. “C’mon, Molly! I’ll tell you my stories if you tell me your’s.” She compromised. “I just wanna hear how it was.”

I ignored her prompting, but turned to look at her. “Wait,” I said. “You and John have already…done it?” I felt so middle school ignoring the word, but I was still red from her questions earlier, and I didn’t need to look like a tomato when Kenny got here.

Mia rolled her eyes. “Duh.” She said, and there was a slight condescending tone in her voice. “Two days after I met him, actually.”

She looked proud at this, and it was my turn to roll my eyes.

“Wow. Way to sound slutty,” I congratulated her, and then pulled away from the dresses and headed towards the dresser. I settled against dressing up, and pulled out a pair of green shorts , a white ruffled shirt. I pulled on a pair of sandals, put some curl-inducer in my hair, and declared myself ready. I still dressed up for Kenny, of course, but not when we were just going over to his house. He knew what I looked like.

“Well, have you?” Mia asked again, an impatient layer to her voice.

I blushed all over again, before squeaking out a small, “N-no.”

Mia looked a little startled, actually. “Really? Because you guys seem like you’ve done it already.” She shrugged.

Her words sparked some curiosity. “What do you mean ‘we look like?’” I asked.

She shrugged again. “I dunno. You guys look really comfortable with each other, like you’ve already done everything.”

I looked at her, before looking away again. I didn’t know what to say. For the first time this summer, I decided against wearing my contacts. I slipped on my glasses, and looked in the mirror to tease some of my hair. I thought I looked okay. Not bad, at least.

Mia stayed quiet after that, and it wasn’t long until my phone was vibrating with Kenny’s text message.

me. meet me out front.

I typed back a quick reply, consisting of the letter ‘k’ and that’s it, before smiling at Mia and heading downstairs. I headed out the door quickly. I hadn’t seen much of my grandmother in the last couple of weeks, but I wasn’t really complaining. We were having fun.

Kenny’s car was idling against the curb, and I smiled. I got in quickly, and hadn’t even put on my seatbelt before he was pulling away.

“Hello,” he greeted. I smiled in return, but said nothing. He immediately reached over and grabbed my hand with his, operating the car using only his left hand. I didn’t restrain my smile.

Three weeks, and there was still the right amount of awkward. I still got butterflies every time I saw him. I faintly hoped that it would always be like this.

“How are you?” He asked.

“Alright. Mia was asking me a bunch of inappropriate questions.”

“Like what?”

“She asked if we had…” I blushed as I explaining, not having enough guts to complete the end of the sentence.

“What’s you say?” He ignored my blush and concentrated on turning the car around the a semi-sharp bend.

“The truth.” I shrugged.

Kennedy peeked over at me with the corner of his eye, this little smirk playing on his lips. “So you told her that we fuck relentlessly every chance we get?”

I scoffed at him, but smiled anyway. “No,” I said. “I told her that we haven’t done it yet, and she seemed surprised.”

“Why?” He got the same puzzling look that I had on my face earlier. We were turning into his driveway now. He lived about seven minutes away from my grandma’s.

I shrugged. “I dunno. She said something about how we looked too comfortable with each other.”

Kennedy jutted his lip out and shrugged as he cut off the engine. “I guess,” he paused. “But I think that’s just because we get along really well.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

I got out, grabbed my bag, and locked the door behind me. I followed Kennedy into his house. It was quiet, because his mother was out doing something. I still didn’t know what she did for a living. I didn’t have the guts to ask her directly, and Kenny and I were always busy. I had almost asked him once, but he cut me off with one of those undeniable kisses.

We headed straight towards his room. I felt a little bad, for a second, knowing that we weren’t going to talk any more, rather just get straight into making out. It wasn’t that we didn’t talk, though. We did. A lot. Kenny and I knew a lot about each other.

We bonded.

It still felt like we were rushing. Maybe we were, but I had only about a little over a month left, and I wanted this to feel as good as possible. It was a summer romance, and even though I wanted to remember and recall every second we spent together, I couldn’t do that. I had to only highlight the important things.

I set my bag down on his desk, and spent two minutes getting my feet out of my sandals. Kennedy shed his hoodie and set down on his bed. He was looking at me under half-lidded eyes.

I walked over to him slowly, before sitting down next to him. I fumbled with my thumbs awkwardly, before looking up at him. He was looking back at me. It was one of those simultaneous moves where we both lunged forward at once. Our lips connected, and we fell back onto the bed.

He moved his lips against mine, our tongues tangling together. I was stroking the back of his neck and his hands were moving up and down my sides. We stayed like this for a while, kissing and stroking. Even though I was used to this, it still felt extremely nice.

We had been kissing for maybe twenty minutes when I felt Kennedy’s hands trace my top button. I felt him use his thumb and index finger to unbutton the top button. I let that happen. I took in a small gasp of breath, but I let it happen. One button was nothing.

I let him unbutton the first five buttons too. I don’t know what came over me. I moaned a bit as our cold skin touched, and arched my back up to meet his chest. I tangled my hands in his hair.

I moved one hand down to lift underneath his shirt. I traced the flat plane of his stomach.

Naturally, I felt like this was where we were going to leave it. We had made some progress, yeah, but no need to rush it. I thought we were in a good position.

When Kennedy’s hands fingered the waist of my shorts, I shook my head.

“No,” I whispered, and then I used my other hand to move his away.

He obeyed. We continued to kiss and touch. We rolled around his bed a few times, and pulled away to catch our breath. We didn’t stay away long, though, before we reattached our lips together. Kennedy’s hands moved up my stomach, making me shiver, but they stayed South, never moving up to touch my breasts. Maybe he felt like we hadn’t reached that level.

If he did think that though, I didn’t understand why he was trying to unbutton my shorts. When his hand pressed against the button again, I thought it was a mistake. Then he was maneuvering around them though, and I shook my head.

“Kenny, no,” I said, even though my voice was husky and not very authority-like.

He nodded once, before removing his lips and attaching them to my neck. He kissed there, biting and sucking to leave his mark.

When his hands went down to my shorts a third time, I pulled away.

“Kenny, stop,” I demanded, my voice firmer now that I was getting more air.

He looked a little frustrated. “Why?” He asked. He moved closer, like he was going to attach our lips again, but I dodged him.

This situation was going from okay to awkward very fast.

“What’s wrong?” He asked gruffly. “Mia already said it - we seem comfortable. What’s stopping you?”

I moved to get off the bed, but his hand was holding my wrist back. I tugged. “I’m not ready, okay?” It was more of a statement than a question, but I just shook that off. I could feel the emotion budding in the pit of my stomach. I could feel that this was not going to go very well.

“Why not?” He asked, and my eyes widened. This wasn’t the Kenny that I had gotten to know.

“It’s only been three weeks!” I exclaimed, and then as I waited for him to respond I ripped my wrist from his grasp. I stood up, and started to button my shirt. I was anxious that his mother was going to come home any second and see me like this. I didn’t need her to hate me more than she already seemingly did.

“So?” The way he said that made him sound stupid.

I sighed. “Kenny, I’m not like that,” I tired to explain. I turned to face him, standing a foot or so away from the bed.

“I’m not ready for that yet,” I said. In my ears, I sounded childish and immature, but I didn’t care. I was a teenage girl, this was my virtue we were talking about, and I wasn’t ready to give it up.

I liked Kennedy, a hell of a lot, and I was pretty sure that some day I might even be able to love him, but not if we rushed this. If we rushed this I would end up hating him and myself.

“When will you be?” He asked, sitting up in his bed. He had this unexplainable look on his face, and I remember thinking that he didn’t look familiar in that moment.

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “Someday, but not now.”

This seemed to upset him, because he rolled his eyes and looked around me. “Whatever,” he muttered angrily.

I don’t know why, but that made me mad. “Well I’m sorry I don’t want to fuck you,” I hissed at him, already ready to grab my bag and leave. I was starting to feel nauseous.

“Yeah, me too,” Kennedy’s voice was as harsh as mine, and I felt tears begin to prick at the back of my eyes.

“What?” My voice was high. “I’m sorry. If you want someone who will fuck you, then maybe we shouldn’t do this anymore.”

I regretted the words before they were even out of my mouth, and tried to take them back immediately, but Kenny was already talking before I could.

“Maybe we shouldn't,” he agreed, and I grabbed my bag. The dam broke, and I started crying. I looked over at him for a second, tears falling and eyes pleading for him to apologize, but he didn’t say anything. He saw me cry, and he saw me head down the stairs, and he didn’t come after me. I slammed the door behind me, to see his mother getting out of her car.

She didn’t say hello. She didn’t ask me what was wrong. She just kind of gave me this sympathetic, knowing look, and then looked away.

I speed walked down the street.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Three weeks. Earlier this had already happened. It felt badly written, and rushed, but that was how life was, I guess. Badly written and rushed. Things could change in a second.

The first person I called was Garrett.