She Calls Me Sweetheart

There they lay, a boy and a girl, side by side in a mess of confusion and crisp blue linen sheets. Complicated and conflicting emotions swirled around the two, attacking each mind both gently and harshly. Were they friends, or were they more? Could they be more? Was the other even entertaining such thoughts, or had they fallen asleep ten minutes ago?

John O’Callaghan had only met with Kaitlyn Parker three times before this night.

Every minute of their first meeting was clear as day, playing over and over in the reel of his memory.

***

He walked off the stage with an impish grin, the crowd still going crazy. John smiled to himself. He never would have guessed that there’d be fans like this in a country that they’d never even been to before, but he was certainly proven wrong. He’d wanted to come to Australia for a long time, and it was already so much better than he’d imagined.

“Hey John Oh,” his friend and band mate Kennedy called.

“Yeah?” the tall, bright-eyed boy responded.

“Are you going to come to meet some of the fans?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. I’m just going to go and grab another bottle of water.”

Kennedy nodded at him and walked off in the other direction, and was soon engulfed by a few of the more loyal fans asking for autographs and photographs. John, whose smile was only growing, continued towardsThe Maine’s tour bus, bopping his head up and down toSay Anything who had taken over stage two.

John glanced at the clock and took an extremely quick shower – something that he’d learned to do on previous tours but still had trouble maintaining. Grabbing an icy water bottle from the mini-fridge, he emerged from the bus ten minutes later decked out in dark-washed skinny jeans, a grey long-sleeved shirt, a checkered scarf and his chunky black, white and green vans. The cool twilight breeze refreshed his face as he began to walk the relatively small distance back to where the rest of his band was. The night was beginning to dim, the sky now a dull milky blue and the first signs of stars beginning to show, but the show was still in full swing back at the main ground. John looked up at the couple of stars that dotted the sky, smiling still, and almost had a heart attack as his body unexpectedly came into contact with someone else’s.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” a light, feminine voice sounded.

The tall boy looked down at the girl he’d run into. She wasn’t tall, but she wasn’t short, and being tall himself he had to look down at her. She had a pretty face; a small nose, pink lips, pale skin dotted with a few light freckles. Her eyes were an enthralling honey brown matched with long dark eyelashes that reached out to the rectangular spectacles rested on the bridge of her nose, and her dark-brown-meets-purple straight layered hair was up in a ponytail, thick side fringe reflecting what little light there was and shining. She wasn’t so thin that she looked frail, but she was by no means overweight. She donned gray skinny jeans, black converse, a white long-sleeved shirt and a black vest that assisted in accentuating her curves. A Jac Vanek ‘Trouble’ bracelet adorned her wrist, and a vintage-looking oval-shaped locket hung around her neck, catching his eye as it glistened silver.

“No, it was me,” he confessed quickly. “Sorry. I was looking at the stars.”

Only after the words had left his lips did he realize how stupid he must have sounded. The few stars that were visible at this time were still not particularly easy to see.

“No, so was I,” the girl laughed softly.

John’s immediate response was to smile his unintentionally charming smile and chuckle lightly too. The girl bit her lip and tucked the end of her fringe behind her ear, before her eyes slowly lit up with recognition.

“Wait a minute… you’re John Oh, aren’t you? FromThe Maine?”

John’s chuckle turned slightly awkward as he brought his arm up to rub the back of his neck.

“Uh, yeah, that’s me.”

“Wow. Phew,” the girl sighed in relief. “You’ll be able to help me. I’ve managed to lose my friend. She was going to try and meet you guys and I somehow got lost along the way, and I have no idea how to get back…”

“Don’t worry then,” John laughed. “I’m about to head back there myself. Care to join me?”

“Okay,” she smiled. “I’m Kaitlyn.”

John took her proffered hand and shook it firmly, another smile dancing in his eyes.

“It’s nice to meet you, Kaitlyn.”

“Likewise.”

***

John smiled a little, but his heart yearned to be back there. Instead, he was facing the powder blue wall, fully aware that sleep was impossible at this point, with Kaitlyn lying not two feet away from him, facing the other direction.

Kaitlyn was also having the same problem. There was no way she could get to sleep with this amazing man in such close proximity. As if their relationship wasn’t complicated enough! The boiling heat made her want to toss and turn, find some sort of comfort, flip the pillow over to the cooler side. But she couldn’t dare such a bold movement in this situation. She couldn’t risk making this any more awkward.

She squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled deeply. She licked her chapped lips and tried to remember a time before this had become so strange.

***

The daydreaming girl was at home, cooking curry for dinner under her mother’s instructions. The sizzling sound of the fry pan at work was her soundscape as she completed the tasks; her mother wouldn’t allow her to cook with her iPod in, and if she was perfectly honest with herself, Kaitlyn liked to cook. It was early to be making dinner, about four in the afternoon, but this particular recipe required leaving it to simmer for a while. Kaitlyn already had tears running down her cheeks from chopping up the onions and she had now moved on to the carrots.

Unexpectedly knocking her out of her trance, Kaitlyn’s cell phone began to ring and vibrate from its place on the table. The girl raised her eyebrows and wiped her hands hastily on her sister’s old apron before flipping open the phone, forgetting to check the caller I.D.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Kaitlyn?”

“Yeah?”

“Hey! This is John. John O’Callaghan. FromThe Maine. We met at the show last night?”

“How could I forget?” she laughed, squealing inside from this unexpected call, sniffing slightly and rubbing her stinging eyes. “You totally saved me, plus you’re kind of famous.”

“It was the least I could do,” John said, pausing. “Hey, are you okay? You sound like you’ve been crying…”

“No, no,” she assured him. “It’s just the onions. I’m cooking.”

“Oh… okay. What are you making?”

“Curry,” she smirked softly at how he was avoiding to address whatever reason he had rung for. She decided to make him say it. “So to what pleasure do I owe this surprise? To be honest, I really didn’t expect you to call.”

“Well, we’re in the city for one more night before we fly back to the States. I was wondering if you wanted to… I mean, if you were free… we could hang out. Or you could show us some of your favorite places or something. Or…”

“John,” she interrupted, smiling. “That sounds great. I’m having a family dinner tonight, but we could do something afterwards if you like?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. What should we do?”

“Well… I have an idea… but I want to keep it a surprise.” Kaitlyn wedged the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she adjusted the heat on the stove, before turning to lean against the other stone bench, a smile contagiously spreading over her face. “Are you staying at a hotel?”

“Yeah, just for tonight,” John answered. “We’re staying in the city at…The Sebel?”

“Ah okay. I think I know where that is. I’ll meet you in the lobby at eight?”

“Okay, sounds good,” John grinned.

“See you later.”

Kaitlyn remained quiet at her family meal that night. Her parents didn’t particularly notice, as they were too busy trying to stop her four year-old brother from eating paint instead of the food. Her younger sister was scribbling intently in her diary about whatever eleven-year-old problems she was caught up in, taking mouthfuls of the food at random intervals. And the final member of the family, Kaitlyn’s twenty-year-old sister Josie, was busy talking full-speed on her cell phone.

Overall, the house was very loud and any other time it would have given Kaitlyn a headache, but she was too preoccupied being nervous about that night. She was sure that she’d be able to get away with it; her parents would ask her where she was going and she’d say she was going to Jess’s place for the night. They wouldn’t follow up. That wasn’t what worried her.

She was going into the city to meet up with the members of a band she liked. People whom she’d only met briefly a few days before. People years older than her. John. John, who had asked to exchange phone numbers. John, whom she’d never expected to remember her, let alone call her to hang out...

That’s what made her anxious.

***

Kaitlyn breathed in a muggy, humid breath of air, and couldn’t stop herself from coughing a bit from the unexpected thickness.

“Kait? You okay?” John whispered, using this as an excuse to turn in and face her.

She sat up abruptly and searched blindly for the glass of water on the bedside table. John leaned across her, really not helping her breathless state, and flipped the lamp on so she could see.

“Thanks,” she gasped after a gulp of unpleasant warm water.

“That’s alright,” he said, looking at her with an intent frown. She blinked innocently. “Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t look so good…”

It was true. He had never seen her face so flushed before.

“Yeah…” she answered hesitantly. “It’s just this heat! It’s unbearable! It’s not always this hot here.”

He chuckled a little, leaning over to brush the back of his fingers against her forehead. The small frown never left his brow.

“Yeah, you’re definitely overheating. What do you usually do when it gets this temperature?”

Kaitlyn immediately blushed even more and looked down. Of all the questions he could possibly ask…

"Doesn't matter," she muttered.

"Go on, tell me," he coaxed.

“Uh… well, usually I, uh, take my shirt off…”

Increase awkwardness times a thousand.

“Oh. Uh…” John struggled to find words, but nothing was coming to him.

Kaitlyn let out a small, nervous laugh.

“Yeah.”

She continued to avoid eye contact, and John’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed a gulp of air. Cautiously, he began speaking again.

“Uh, well, if you want… I mean… I don’t mind if you want to, you know… do that. Like, I promise not to look or anything…”

“Oh, uh, that’s okay,” Kaitlyn lied. “It’s not too bad. I can handle it…”

In spite of the situation, the corner of John’s lips twitched into something resembling a smile and a smirk.

“You’re a horrible liar, you know.”

Kaitlyn blushed yet again, meeting his eyes for a moment before looking away again with a slight chuckle.

“Yeah, I’ve always been told that.”

She bit her lip. She really just wanted to take her oversized band shirt off, but it could change everything in their weird kind of relationship. They were friends. Friends who may or may not have been insanely attracted to each other. Friends didn’t sleep with shirtless friends, even in the literal sense. It was just crossing the boundary a little bit. Then again, their line of friendship had been blurred from the beginning. Her once empty locket had held a photograph of him since their third meeting. Her once empty heart seemed full at the mention of him.

John took a deep breath, shuffling over a bit on the queen-sized bed and facing that taunting powder blue wall again.

“Seriously, go for it. I swear I’ll keep to my side of the bed.”

She smiled faintly to herself as he slid deeper into the covers of the bed that consisted only of the sheets because of the high temperature.

“Okay,” she said softly.

His heart thudded obnoxiously at the two gentle syllables, and he bit down hard on his bottom lip as he heard the teasing sounds of material caressing skin, dusting over beauty. Kaitlyn sighed happily at the freedom as she sunk back into her lying down position, covering herself with the light blue sheets.

John’s mind raced back to the reason he wasn’t supposed to feel this way.

***

He watched her as she smiled at the guy serving drinks. She looked so much different to when he’d seen her a few days ago. Kaitlyn’s clubbing attire was very different to her concert gear. Tonight, she was simply stylish in a flowing cream-colored dress with a black trim, cinched at the waist with a black buckled belt. Shiny black leather pumps adorned her feet, raising her height by a few inches so that she was almost as tall as him. Her hair was out and styled in the fashionably messy trend, reflecting exquisitely the brightly colored lights on the ceiling, and her make-up was done to perfection. Her glasses were exchanged for contacts and her shyness was joined by some sort of small confidence. She was receiving many appreciative looks, which shouldn’t have made John’s stomach twist the way it did.

Pat and Jared, too tired, decided to sit the night out back at the hotel, taking advantage of the rare touring comfort. Garrett was having a great time dancing with a group of girls, making John and Kaitlyn laugh, and Kennedy had brought his stunning girlfriend Amanda along so he was probably making out with her at some corner of the place. This left John and Kaitlyn alone together at a small circular table, sipping unknown beverages.

“So where exactly are we?” John asked, attempting conversation lightly and trying to ignore all the people that he felt watching them.

“It’s called ‘The Neon’. It’s just this little underage club kind of thing. It’s not too overexploited, which is good. A friend brought me here ages ago and I sort of fell in love with it. What do you think?”

Just before John could answer, a familiar song began pumping through the speakers. The pair glanced over to the DJ booth, which showed an adjacent Garrett laughing his head off at his song request; Everything I Ask For.

John smirked.

“I think that it has great music taste, for one…”

“Oh, shut up,” she laughed.

“And it’s a pretty cool scene. Not that I mind, but why’d we come to an underage bar, though? The drinking age here is eighteen, right?”

Kaitlyn paused, finishing off her drink through a red straw while looking at him with confused eyes. It didn’t take her too long to realize her mistake, and she wanted to hit herself right then and there. Immediately, a wave of embarrassment tinted her face pink and her regular awkwardness engulfed her.

“Uh, I guess I should have made this clearer before…” she started uncomfortably. “I’m only sixteen.”

John’s heart skipped a stunned beat and everything in his mind spiraled down. He really liked this girl already. And just his luck; she was underage.

***

Half an hour later and still the two remained awake. Sleep didn’t even seem like an option at this point. The same phrase, ‘just friends’, replayed itself over and over in each of their minds, but it was becoming increasingly easy to ignore as it was being replaced by images of skin on skin, hands in hair, lips on lips. No matter how much they tried to push their desires away, they’d be pulled back as if by gravity.

They knew each other. They had a good friendship going. How could Kaitlyn even think about jeopardizing that? She was lucky to have a friend like John. Sure, they may not get the chance to see each other very often, and their relationship may mainly revolve around text messages and the occasional phone call, but that didn’t mean she could just let her hormones use him as an imaginary outlet.

Besides, she may have grown a year since the last time they’d actually seen each other, but so had he. He was twenty-one, incredibly handsome, and famous. She was just an average seventeen year-old girl. There was no point in her even thinking this way because there was no way that he could possibly feel the same about her. Their friendship was unbelievable enough as it was.

He probably didn’t even find this uncomfortable at all, and here she was freaking out about every second that passed. He probably found himself in bed with shirtless women many a time. He had girls throwing themselves at his feet, asking him to sign inappropriate body parts. At least, that’s what she’d witnessed during their last encounter. They were worlds apart, sharing a bed.

***

John smiled as he exited the stage in a hurry, absently wiping the sheen of sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand and then proceeding to wipe his hand on his dark jeans. He was excited to see his friend again. He and Kaitlyn had been texting regularly since they’d met in Australia six months ago, and he’d learned to push his feelings away. It was easier with oceans between them.

However, when his eyes caught sight of the pretty girl arguing with the security guard, previous wants and desires came rushing back. She was wearing a short layered black skirt – almost tutu-like, a white singlet top, a blue cardigan, black tights and black flats with small silver buckles. Her hair was out again, and she wasn’t wearing her glasses. Regardless of their distance and age, she still looked just as beautiful to him.

“Kait!” he grinned, waving at her.

She waved back, and the security guard turned to see John give him a nod of approval. The security guard grunted as he let Kaitlyn through and she ran up to see John. Unable to stop himself, he opened his arms for a hug that she stepped into willingly. He breathed in her cinnamon and apple scent ignoring how the embrace had a slightly awkward air. When they broke it a quarter of a minute later, both of their faces were flushed and they tried to ignore the heat.

“Hey there,” he said, a crooked smirk in place.

“Hey yourself,” she greeted. “You played a great show just then.”

“Thanks,” he smiled bashfully, before changing the subject. “I can’t believe you’re here!”

“Yeah,” she laughed. “Never in a million years would I have expected to come on a trip to America before I was of age.”

He gulped and nodded, a smile still fixed in place as he tried to ignore the subject of her age being brought up again.

“Well I’m glad you did. You wanna come back to my place? The guys are coming too, so it won’t be, like, uh…” he stumbled over words. “… You know, and we can just play videogames or whatever…”

She gave him a small smile, pretending not to notice his stuttering or awkwardness in his attempt to make her feel comfortable.

“Yeah. That sounds great.”

And that was the last time that they had seen each other.

***

But it was different now. The other guys had so conveniently locked John out of their hotel, and he’d spent the day hanging around the shops with Kaitlyn anyway. She was really his only contact in the country, even if she was seventeen and four years younger than him. Her parents were too preoccupied to notice that she had anyone in her room. She may as well have been invisible. But John was there. And he saw her.

He bit his lip; his constant nervous habit. He strained his ears to listen for her breaths. She was breathing evenly, but that didn’t mean she was asleep. All he wanted to do was to turn around. Just to make sure she was okay. Just to see if she was asleep. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, was there?

He knew that in actuality there was, but by some unknown force of nature he forced himself to shift his body weight to the other side, allowing him to see Kaitlyn. The breath was knocked out of him immediately. She wasn’t facing him; she was lying on her side and facing the other direction. Her long dark hair was splayed almost artistically over the contours of her shoulders, and her pale skin teased him as it was accentuated by the stream of silvery moonlight pouring in from the slightly shuddering window. The moonlight played with the shadows along her curved back, dipping elegantly at her lower spine where the shadows darkened. The bed sheets ran a diagonal along her side and twisted around her lower back, showing that her chest was still covered although her back was so exposed.

She didn’t have the body of an awkward teenager. She had the body of a woman. And it was the sexiest thing that John had ever seen.

A gentle breeze blew through the window, dancing briskly with her hair and sending her sweet scent in his direction. John’s eyes were lidded with lust, but it wasn’t the type of lust that he was used to feeling. It wasn’t a sexual kind of lust. It was more… sensual. He just wanted to touch her. He wanted so bad just to feel that creamy skin under his fingertips, to drape his hands around her waist and hold her close, to press soft kisses to the nape of her neck. He wanted to run his fingers through her long hair, to give her goosebumps from the feel of his fingers, to turn her around gently and look into the deep pools of her honey eyes. To take her lips in his, to let his hands roam her glorious figure, to let her know how much he really cared for her…

And as Kaitlyn faced the other wall, facial expressions hidden just as well as her thoughts, there was no way for him to know that she wanted it just as badly as he did.

Minutes passed, but every tick of the clock felt like hours to them both. At this rate, it must have been years since they first lay together, wondering how they could make this work. The thought of sleep was long since forgotten. Kaitlyn completely consumed John’s mind as he did hers.

“John?”

He was startled by her whisper. They hadn’t spoken in… well, time was forgotten. But it seemed like a lifetime. She still remained facing the other way, but he didn’t mind. The sound of her voice in that singular second eased the discomfort just a little.

“Yeah?” he whispered back.

“I was just seeing if you were still awake. I can’t get to sleep.”

Regardless of the situation, John smiled a bit to himself. He couldn’t even explain why. The sound of her voice just formed his lips.

“Me neither,” he replied.

“But I don’t really want to go to sleep…” she trailed off, leaving his mind running into overdrive.

“N-neither do I.”

“So what do you propose we do instead?”

He could have sworn there was just a hint of suggestiveness in her voice as she glanced over her bare shoulder at him, but decided to let it go. Instead he just gulped, swallowing every bit of evasiveness and doubt he held. He knew this was bad but he couldn’t help himself. He was going to have to do something about this sooner or later. Why put himself through the misery any longer?

Because in a year she’ll be eighteen, that’s why.

But with his mind clouded by want, John wasn’t thinking straight. He was just looking for an excuse.

“I have an idea…”

He slowly but boldly moved his half-naked body over on the mattress so that he was about a foot away from her. She had turned her head back again to face the other way, but he knew that she knew what was happening, and she began breathing just a fraction faster.

“Stay still,” he whispered in her ear, huskier than he’d intended.

A gentle sigh broke through her lips as she felt his fingers brushing over her shoulder, feathering ever so slightly. It hardly counted as a touch, and already she wanted more. Her heart beat faster, her eyelids fluttered shut, and she knew that she’d let him do whatever he wanted.

Because already, she was hopelessly and irrevocably in love with him.

Her skin felt amazing beneath his fingertips, so perfect that he doubted the actual existence of such a texture. So soft, so special… It was the very essence of her, and he couldn’t get enough. He trailed his fingers lightly over her back, tracing the curvaceous patterns that the shadows cast upon her, pressing just a little more surely than he had at the start. His eyes focused intently on her figure, watching with wonder at how his touch could make her shiver, make her move. He shifted upwards so that he was in a half-sitting sort of position, using both of his hands to feel her back. He saw her toes dig into the sheets as his hand moved to the small of her back, and heard her strong hitch in breath as he slowly, cautiously, moved his head to the back of hers and ever-so-softly brushed his lips to the nape of her neck. Even such a slight contact made her arch back to him, dying to feel his lips again. His heart pounding faster as well, he leaned in and kissed her neck lightly, innocently, as one hand began to play with her long dark hair and the other slowly wound its way around her waist, holding her protectively.

He began to slow down a bit. Was this too much? Was this safe? He didn’t want to freak her out or anything… if he lost her in his life altogether he didn’t know what he’d do. He was ensured and encouraged, however, when Kaitlyn’s hand covered his, holding it in place around her body.

“Please don’t stop,” she murmured, in the lightest whisper imaginable.

He shifted again, heart throbbing in his chest at the mere thought that Kaitlyn just might feel for him what he couldn’t deny he felt for her. He placed a loving kiss on her temple before whispering back his reply.

“I won’t.”

He continued showering her with tender kisses as his hands continued to explore every line, form and shape that created her. His fingers danced down her legs, the soft, creamy touch sending his head further and further over his heels.

“John…”

He stopped abruptly as her voice touched his ears, numb from fear of having destroyed everything. He looked down at her, her sweeping fringe preventing him from seeing her eyes. He was just about to apologize when he was caught completely off guard as she swiftly turned herself around in his arms and attached their lips with more force than he thought the girl could hold. After the shock wore off, he wasted no time in kissing her back, relishing the sugar-sweet taste of her lips, drinking in her quintessential core as their tongues danced. This was by far the best kiss he’d ever experienced in his life, full of so much passion and raw emotion that it was on the edge of unbearable, but just enough to be completely amazing.

He couldn’t believe that this girl was his. Or could be his. He didn’t know where these developments left them in relation to each other. But either way, the fact that in these few moments she seemed to feel for him everything he felt for her was enough.

He allowed her control as her hands began to search his body, leaving teasing nail marks along his back. She kept his face permanently in front of hers, only breaking the kiss for fractional seconds due to mandatory breath, and he lost himself in her arms. Slowly, gradually, he had moved back to his lying down position as she hovered above him. The passionate kissing had calmed to a lazy, comfortable pace and the smiles the couple both bore could be felt against the other’s lips. Carefully, John moved Kaitlyn across so that they were lying side by side, still holding each other with touching lips and her hand cupping his cheek.

Neither of them knew what the morning could mean for them. Everything could be different, for better or worse, or everything might even stay the same. But all the worries for the next morning could be pushed aside. Right now, everything was perfect. Right now, there were no age differences. There were no oceans between them. There was nothing to suggest anything wrong with their predicament.

Right now, they were just two kids in one love.

Who cares if we make it up?