My Undefined Romeo

“Jerk!” I accused once I swam to the shallow end of the pool and stood up. Even though I may have sounded mad, I wasn’t. I was practically laughing. And Nate was kind of right. The water wasn’t a million degrees, but it was still pretty warm.

Nate swam over to me with a huge grin plastered on his face and stood up. His body glistened in the sun, dripping with water. “Perhaps,” he said. “But I’m your jerk.”

My heart fluttered and I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.” I started walking towards the steps to get out of the pool, but a pair of arms around my waist suddenly stopped me. “Naaaaate.”

“Emma,” he whispered softly in my ear, giving me goose bumps.

Slowly, I turned around and looked up into his sparkling blue eyes. His hair was dripping wet and he had a sly smile on his face. “What?” I asked quietly.

Nate cupped the side of my face in his hand and his thumb brushed over my lips. “Would you be my girlfriend?”

Nate Carter wants me to be his girlfriend…Nate Carter, the most popular guy in school, is asking me out. This is what I wanted. This is what I had always wanted. Of course we might not work out in the end, but heck, why couldn’t it? Just because we came from two completely different social groups didn’t mean we weren’t meant to be.

To answer his question, I reached around the back of his head and slammed my lips onto his. He seemed a little surprised at first, but then he smiled into the kiss and then tightened his grip around my waist and pulled me against his body.

Nate pulled away and frowned slightly. “Is that a yes?”

I laughed and broke away from his grasp. “Yes, Nate. It’s a yes.” I splashed water at him and proceeded to walk up the steps and out of the water. “One big goddamn yes.”

I walked over to the long bench chair thing and grabbed a blue towel off of it. It had bright orange goldfish on it, seaweed, bubbles…It was awesome.

“Noooo,” Nate whined. “You’re not getting out are you?”

I rolled my eyes and dried myself off with the towel. “Yeah. I don’t like swimming.”

Nate, still in the water, swam over to the edge and folded his arms on the concrete. “But you have a pool. How could you not?”

“It doesn’t matter.” I spread the towel out on the bench thing and laid down on it. Ah, the sun. The heat of it on my skin was pure bliss.

“But you’re my girlfriend,” Nate said. I could hear the smirk in his voice. “I have a right to know everything about you.”

I couldn’t help but smile. That was kind of true. “Alright,” I said. “I hate the water. It’s wet, wet, and wet.”

“Are you serious?” He eyed me suspiciously.

I rolled my eyes. “See, I told you it didn’t matter. I just don’t like the water.”

After that, Nate asked me questions about everything. What I wanted to do with my life, where I wanted to go to college, my friends, what I liked to do, eat, drink, favorite movies, and etc. The sun was almost completely down, and I could barely see him swimming in the water.

I couldn’t even begin to explain what I felt when watching him. I even completely forgot about our parents in the house. Nate would make little circles in the shallow end while trying to think of questions to ask me, or he swim big circles around the whole pool. Sometimes he’d stand on the slippery slope of the pool and run in place. He did cannonball, swan dives, and everything else.

And the whole time he had a big smile plastered on his face. He was just so happy. He was carefree and alive.

How the hell was he falling for me?

“Emma, Emma!” He called from the diving board.

I squinted into the darkness and watched him. “What?”

“Watch!” He was playful too…

I watched, waiting for something to happen. Nate back up to the back edge of the diving board and then ran forward. He bounced on the end and went into the air. His body twisted and turned as he did a spiral front flip thing. It looked really cool.

I clapped when he surfaced from the water. “Very impressive.”

Nate swam over to the edge of the pool and lifted himself out. “You wanna learn? I could teach you.”

I held up my hands as he walked towards me dripping wet. “No, no, no. I’m all dry.”

He smirked and stopped only two feet away from me. “You don’t wanna learn because you’re dry, or you don’t want me to do this because you’re dry…” He closed the space between us and leaned down slightly, staring deep into my brown eyes.

My heart was racing. I didn’t like getting wet, but…suddenly I didn’t care as much.

Nate leaned down the rest of the way and put his lips on mine. It was slow and soft, and the most passionate kiss I’d ever had. My heart felt like it was ready burst.

In an instant, the kiss became more hungry. Nate’s hands gripped my waist, and my hands went to the sides of his face. I wanted him. Bad.

“Uh-Hem!”

Nate and I quickly broke away from each other. Both of our parents were there, watching us with some kind of glint in their eyes. They looked…pleased? God. Parents are so weird.

“I’m really sorry to say it,” Mr. Carter said. “But it’s time to go. Nate.”

I caught my mom’s eye and she winked happily at me. I frowned at her.

“Okay, well, we’ll just give you two some time to say good-bye…” Mrs. Carter and everyone wandered around to the front of the house leaving Nate and I together again.

I looked up into Nate’s blue eyes and raised my eyebrows. “Is it just me, or do our parents seem really happy about us?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, but who cares. We’re happy, right?”

I smiled and nodded. “Extremely.” Nate started to lean down again, but I pulled away. “Nate, what about school tomorrow?”

“What about it?” He asked, frowning.

“Are we going to be together, or do you want to, you know, stay separate. I completely understand if you do! If people saw us together, your reputation would plummet.”

“Emma.”

“Or even if you wanted to break up tomorrow, I’d understand that t-” I was cut-off when his lips crashed on mine.

“No,” he whispered. “You’re my girl, and I want to show you off.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. What if he was just using me? Showing to everyone that could get me? I nearly laughed at myself. Nate would never do that.

“You’re beautiful, smart, fun, amazing…Beautiful.”

I blushed and looked towards the ground, but Nate cupped my chin and brought my face back up. “You’re unbelievable, you know that?” I asked.

Nate laughed and showed his perfect smile.

“You need to go,” I said as he parents honked their car out front.

“Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “I need to stay right here. With you.”

I laughed and playfully pushed him away. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Nate walked over and picked up his clothes, and then walked back to me and gave me a quick kiss. “Tomorrow morning.”

“What?” I asked confused as he walked away.

“Pick you up at ten till!” He called out.

I stood there with a huge smile on my face as I heard the Carter’s car drive away. I was dating Nate Carter. Most popular guy in school, captain of the rugby team Carter. Could life be any better?