No Need For Introductions

My mom greeted me quietly as I walked through the front door, and my dad sat silently on the couch reading some large book. I caught a glimpse at the spine, only reading the words ‘medical dictionary’ before looking away. Work. As always.

“Hey.” I said, dropping my bag by the door. “Is it alright if I just go to bed? I’m really tired…”

My mom looked up from whatever she was doing and smiled. “Sure, honey.”

“Alright.” I mumbled, walking towards the stairs. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Both of my parents said in unison.

“Sleep good.” My mom commented just as I was disappearing from her view.

I walked up the stairs and went quickly to my laptop as soon as I was in my bedroom. I opened it, hoping that I had a message waiting for me from Oli. Maybe I was acting immature, but I honestly wanted to talk to him; really bad.

As soon as I looked, I was right. I smiled to myself, fighting the urge to squeal as I hurriedly clicked the message and opened it on my screen.

Sender: Olisaurus
To: Bailey
So I guess you’re sitting with me at lunch tomorrow ;)

I smiled, clicking the reply button and quickly typing:

I guess so.

I thought for a minute, not coming up with anything else to add to it. I thought about making a smile face or something; something flirty, maybe. None of that would have made sense, then. All I said was ‘I guess so’.

I clicked send and waited to make sure that it actually sent before I got up to change clothes. At first I was skeptical of waiting for another message from him, but when I looked at the clock I changed my mind. It was only 7:30; for some reason, it felt a whole lot later than it actually was. Maybe it was because a lot had happened today. My brain was fried.

I slipped out of my clothes and replaced them with a white tank-top and a pair of gym shorts. I didn’t need to pull my hair up; it was already in a ponytail.

Sitting back down at my desk, I noticed another message waiting for me. I clicked on it and waited for the browser to pull it up for me to read.

Sender: Olisaurus
To: Bailey
Well, you don’t sound too pleased about it…
:(

Every time I got a message from him, I couldn’t refrain from smiling. I wanted to act like I wasn’t nervous about talking to him on Myspace for goodness sake. It was ridiculous. Of course I was pleased about it. I couldn’t wait to sit with him at lunch. Realizing that it was a good reply, I quickly typed down what I had just thought.

I’m very pleased! I can’t wait :)

I hit send and then made my way into the bathroom and brushed my teeth before I washed all of the makeup off of my face. The water was cold, but it made me feel refreshed when it was splashed onto my heated cheeks. Wait—was I blushing? He wasn’t even here, for crying out loud! There was absolutely no reason that I should be blushing, or even nervous, for that matter. I shook my head at my reflection in the mirror, running a wet finger underneath my eye to remove a smudge of black makeup. I grabbed a dry towel and patted my face dry, padding back into my bedroom to read the awaiting message.

Sender: Olisaurus
To: Bailey
This is too slow. Can I just have your number? I’ll text you.

My eyes grew wide when I read his message. Oliver Sykes wants my fucking number? Not believing my eyes, I read over the message again. I was correct the first time.

I took a deep breath and typed my number in, sending it and instantly becoming jittery. Was he going to text me like, now? Or was he going to wait until tomorrow? Why would he want my number, anyway?

And then I remembered earlier that night; when we were “doing homework” in his room. I blushed like crazy, fanning my face softly with one of my hands. The room suddenly seemed to get way too warm. I walked over to the light-switch and flipped on the switch for the ceiling fan, flopping down on my bed and staring up at the rotating blades on the fan. I almost drifted off to sleep until I heard a loud vibrating noise coming from the floor. I raised my head up, curious as to what the annoying noise was. My jeans were in the floor, and there was a light illuminating the back pocket of them.

Oh yeah. I forgot…

I walked over to the jeans and picked them up, digging a hand into the back pocket and pulled out the now-calm cell phone. There was a message from an unknown number, and I quickly read it; it had to be from Oli.

There we go. Now that’s better. So what are you doing?

A flock of butterflies erupted in the pit of my stomach, and I was quick to lay a hand on my belly. I took a breath and replied:

I’m lying on my bed. I don’t have anything better to do.

Only seconds later, there was a reply. I was surprised at the speed that he texted.

Lame. Come meet me somewhere.

I almost puked when I read the message. “Are you serious right now?” I asked, my question directed towards the phone even though he couldn’t hear me through it. My nervousness was now getting the best of me, and I didn’t like it one bit. Where would we meet? How would I get out? I wasn’t sure if my parents would be up for me leaving the house. I told them I was going to sleep! And we couldn’t just meet out in front of our houses; my parents would notice right away.

I don’t know how I’ll get past my parents; where do you want to meet?

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I sent the message. I was excited and nervous all at the same time. But what if Sidney found out? No matter how good it felt, it was actually a very bad thing. There was no way that I would be able to explain this to Sid. The make-out session in his room could be explained easily; we were studying, and he kissed me. This? No, not that easy.

During my moment of thought, my phone began to vibrate wildly again. I opened up a new message from him, taking another nervous breath as I did so.

I’ll meet you at the corner.

Short and sweet. He didn’t even have to explain which corner he was talking about. I knew it was the one that was only a few feet from his house, but the view of the corner was blocked by tall bushes and shrubs. I pulled on a clean pair of jeans and put on a white t-shirt over my tank top. I grabbed a coat out of my closet and wrapped myself in it; there was no way in hell that I was going to call this night short just because I got cold. I would freeze to death if that meant spending a little more time with Oli.

I quickly typed an ‘okay’ before shoving my cell phone in my coat pocket and walking slowly down the stairs. Both of my parents were in the same position they were in when I went upstairs, but this time they were talking and laughing.

“I thought you went to bed.” My mom asked, a confused look on her face.

“I uh…” I started, glancing quickly around the room. “Sidney asked me to come back over for a little while; her parents had to go somewhere and she’s bored all by herself with the boys.” I lied, putting on the most convincing face I could.

She shrugged. “Okay. Don’t be too late, though. You have school tomorrow.” She instructed, continuing the conversation with my father.

“Alright.” I said, satisfied with myself for pulling it off. “Love you guys.”

“Love you sweetheart.” My dad said, waving in my direction. I closed the door quietly, looking down to the Sykes’ driveway. I barely caught the back of Oli’s body disappearing behind the shrubs and arriving at the corner.

I walked down the driveway, not taking my eyes off of the Sykes’ house; preferably Sidney’s window. The lights were on, but there was no sign of her near the window.

Soon I was close enough to the corner that I could see Oli, and I whistled quietly at him.

He turned on his heel and stared at me, a brilliant smile forming across his beautiful face. “Yeh scared meh.”

“It’s just me.” I said, holding my hands up like someone was about to shoot at me. “Why are we meeting? And why the hell are you not wearing a coat?”

I glanced at his bare arms, and my eyes trailed down to his hands that were shoved into the pockets of his incredibly tight skinny jeans. I noticed the top of his black boxers sticking out of the top of his jeans, and smiled a little to myself.

“I were bored, and so were yeh. I thought we’d take a little walk.” He shrugged, picking at the furry hood of my coat. “And this is summer weather to meh.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “Summer?”

He nodded, smiling. “It gets a whole lot colder in Sheffield.”

“Wow.” I said, widening my eyes as I said the word.

He finally turned and began walking down the corner—away from our houses. “C’mon.”

I jogged a few steps to catch up with him, walking as soon as I was next to him. I shoved my shaking hands in my coat pockets, staring down at the ground as our feet walked in perfect unison. I felt something bump into me, and I looked up to see him smiling down at me.

“ ‘S somethin’ wrong?” He asked, a somewhat worried expression on his face.

I shrugged my shoulders, smiling back. “Nothing at all.”

He looked back ahead of us, and we were quiet until we reached the next corner. I followed as he turned down another street.

“So tell me somthin’,” He started, clearing his throat before he did so. “One minute yeh can be completely outgoing and happy, and then the next minute yeh’re quiet and yeh seem sad. Why?”

I was a little taken aback by his question; I’d never even noticed that about myself. It surprised me that he actually paid attention to my mood swings—the mood swings that I never even knew that I had. I shrugged my shoulders, glancing up at him as we walked. “I don’t know.”

“Does it ‘ave somethin’ to do with meh?” He asked, a smirk on his lips. “Like, at first yeh feel confident and excited, but then when I come around yeh become shy?”

I smiled a little at his conceited theory; however conceited it was, it was cute. “It might…”

“Hm.” He said, chuckling slightly. “I seem to ‘ave that affect on a lot o’ the birds around ‘ere.”

I nodded, my smile diminishing somewhat when he mentioned other girls. I knew he wasn’t mine. But in all honesty; the thought of him with someone else made my stomach turn. Not in disgust, but in dislike.

We walked quietly again until we finally arrived at the City Park. I followed him over to a swing set, and we each sat down on a swing.

“I want yeh to tell meh somethin’ else.” He said suddenly, narrowing his eyebrows in thought.

When he didn’t continue, I shrugged. “What do you want to know?”

He seemed hesitant, but he continued anyway. “Why didn’t yeh tell me that yeh liked meh? I mean, was it all because of Sid, or did yeh just not care enough to mention it.”

I didn’t answer at first, and that seemed to send him into a panic. “Because, yeh know… I never really ‘ave trouble gettin’ girls to admit it. They do it willingly. Yeh’re just a little hard for meh to figure out.”

Truthfully, it was mostly because of Sidney. I wasn’t blaming her or anything; I just didn’t want to upset her. She was my best friend, and I didn’t want to do anything to upset her or lose her trust. And what was I doing at that moment? Losing her trust. Every minute that I spent with Oli was going to upset her in the long run.

I shrugged my shoulders, tilting my head to the side slightly and admiring the tall slide that sat only a few yards away. “Part of it was because of Sidney, yeah.”

He looked at me, waiting to hear what the ‘other part’ was.

“And the other part…” I trailed off, picking at a loose string on my jeans. When I found the words, I sighed and looked up at him. “I guess I just didn’t think you would ever actually see me.”

He furrowed his eyebrows. “I see.”

There was a long awkward silence before he stood up, grabbing my hand and pulling me up with him. He didn’t let go, but held it as we continued walking through the park.

We stopped under a set of monkey bars, and he reached up carelessly to grab the bars. He was tall enough to grab them without picking his feet up. Unlucky me, though—when I raised my arms straight up, there were still a good three-or-so inches between the tips of my fingers and the bars.

He laughed at my effort to grab the bars, grabbing both of my hands out of the air and holding them in his. He bent down and pressed his lips lightly to mine, our lips instantly molding together like a puzzle. His lips were a piece, and my lips were another. They seemed to fit together perfectly. He dropped one of my hands to place his on the back of my head. He held my lips securely to his own for a small amount of time before he pulled away to look down into my eyes.

I’d honestly never seen this side of Oli before. There was the complete asshole, and then there was the guy that was just plain nice. Never had I realized that there was a sweet, completely loving side to him as well. He held my gaze for a few seconds before I felt his thumb lightly rub against my lips.

I couldn’t smile. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do it. I was completely caught up in his gorgeous brown eyes, and nothing could tear me away. He bent down and pressed another kiss to my lips and pulled away, keeping my hand in his and pulling me away from the monkey bars.

“I feel like a little kid again.” He chuckled as we exited the park and began walking back towards our houses.

I laughed, looking up at him. “What do you mean?”

“Meh first kiss.” He laughed. “It were on the playground at school; I think I were 6 years old at the time. When I kissed yeh, it reminded me of that.”

“So you’re saying I kiss like a six-year-old.” I said, smiling sarcastically at him.

He laughed loudly, glancing down at our hands that were still clasped together. “Not at all. It just took meh back, yeh know?”

I nodded. “I know exactly what you mean.”

We walked in silence until we reached the corner again, and he turned around and stood facing me. “So I guess the kiss on the staircase really weren’t a goodnight kiss.”

I shrugged. “I guess not. But the one at the monkey bars was a pretty bad ass goodnight kiss.” I laughed.

He faked a confused look. “But that weren’t yeh goodnight kiss, either.”

“Oh really?” I asked, feigning my own form of puzzlement.

He smirked, taking my face in his hands and pressing a hard kiss on my lips. If I didn’t enjoy it so much, I probably would have complained about him slamming his lips against mine. I didn’t mind, though; I rather liked it, honestly.

When he pulled away, he left one more peck on my lips. “That was yeh goodnight kiss.”

I stared at him, shocked. It was actually an amazing kiss, and I sincerely wanted him to say ‘just kidding!’ and give me another. I didn’t want to end it.

Without another word, he turned and strode up the sidewalk, disappearing into his house only a minute later. I began my journey back up the sidewalk as well, staring at the concrete beneath my feet. I pulled the cell phone out of my coat pocket to check the time. It was only 10 o’clock, but I was exhausted.

I opened the door to my house, and all of the lights were turned off. Since my parents were asleep, I was spared from trying to explain exactly why Sidney needed me at her house again. If they had been awake, I was certain that they would have asked about it; thank God I was spared from being caught. There was no way that I would be able to lie after that. My mind was currently disheveled and mixed up, and mostly because of the kiss that I was left with.

I sighed as I trudged back up the stairs, and I was soon lying in my bed replaying the whole walk that Oli and I had taken. I thought about it for so long, in fact, that I fell asleep and dreamt about the kiss.