Seventeen and Invincible

“Let’s not fight,” I suggested sleepily, my head resting on his chest. It was comforting to not be fighting anymore. He was soft and warm and like a giant teddy bear. “I don’t like when we fight.” He exhaled and nodded. I was lying on my side curled up against him and his arm was around my shoulders, holding me to him. I sighed and closed my eyes, listening to the water surrounding us.

“I don’t like it either,” he whispered. I wrapped one of my arms around him, hugging him around the waist. “I’m sorry for starting the fight.” I shook my head. No one really started the fight…

“It’s fine. It wasn’t your fault.” He sighed and shifted slightly. It was actually his fault, but I wasn’t about to say anything. Instead, I closed my eyes and tried to will myself to go to sleep. I knew that sleep would probably come easy now that I was with Garrett. “What time is it?” I whispered.

“It’s almost five.” I sighed. If I fell asleep now it would be almost pointless. “Why?” I shrugged and snuggled closer to him, inhaling his scent that was like a drug to me. This was the easiest way to sleep.

“It’s pointless to go to sleep now, that’s all.” I opened my eyes again and smiled.

“So do you wanna leave?” he whispered. I shook my head ‘no.’ My eyes shut again and I sighed sleepily. “Then what do you wanna do?” I shrugged.

“Let’s just talk.” I shifted and pulled my sweatshirt tighter around my body, wishing I’d put on either jeans or sweatpants. Garrett noticed my fidgeting and pulled the edge of the quilt we’d put down on the dock over my legs. “Thanks, Gar.”

“What do you want to talk about?” I shrugged again. I didn’t really care, I was just happy to be in Garrett’s arms. I was just glad we were on speaking terms. I really didn’t care what we talked about so long as I got to hear his voice. It was like a lullaby. “Pat and I are graduating in December—at the end of the semester.” I nodded. “We’re gonna come back to walk with everyone at graduation.” I nodded again.

“Garrett?” I asked quietly. “Let’s not talk about you leaving, okay? Anything else is fine. Just, you leaving isn’t.” He nodded and pulled me closer to him.

“You know I’ll always come back to you, right?” I nodded and squeezed my eyes shut. “I just have to ask, are you going to be okay when I’m gone this winter?” I shrugged and buried my head in his chest.

“I might not be okay even if you were here Garrett. It doesn’t make a difference this time.”

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“Shut up,” I giggled, throwing the washcloth at his head. “Shh, you’ll wake someone up.” He grinned widely and took down the handheld shower sprayer so that he could spray me with cold water. “Garrett, stop,” I laughed.

“Why should I?” he laughed. This is exactly why there was always a bathing suit in my drawer at Garrett’s house. I never knew when I was going to end up having to wash the oil out of my hair and be tormented by him at the same time. “Fine,” he sighed, “I’ll stop.” I smiled and walked in front of him, hoping to rinse the shampoo out of my hair. “But,” he laughed, coming up behind me to tickle me. “I’ll still do this.”

“Gar, not funny,” I smiled. His hands, against the skin not covered by my bikini, burned me. They were setting fire to my blood; leaving a trail of flames in their wake. “Stop,” I laughed.

He stopped tickling me and his hands remained slightly above my hips. I turned around leaving us face to face. We stood there awkwardly, staring at one another. It probably looked like a scene from some horrible teenage drama.

We remained that way—eyes locked, his hands on my hips—until there was a knock on the door. I pulled my gaze away and to the floor. “I, uh,” he laughed awkwardly, “I guess I should probably get that.” I nodded and shut the water off. He threw me a towel and I squeezed the water out of my hair, throwing it into a messy ponytail.

“Garrett, open the goddamn door,” Trey mumbled from the other side of the door. “You are way over your allotted time. I have to get ready for work.” I walked past Garrett to retrieve my toothbrush and brush my teeth. “Gar!” We brushed our teeth quickly, as we didn’t exactly want to anger Trey.

“Morning,” I smiled, walking out of the bathroom and past Trey. “He’s still brushing his pearly whites.”

“You’re here again?” he asked with an eye roll.

“Of course Trey. Where else would I be?” I opened Garrett’s door and opened my drawer to look for clothes. I smiled finding my favorite shirt folded and in the drawer. It looked cloudy so I decided to go with a pair of jeans instead of the usual shorts.

“Trey was surprised to see you,” Garrett laughed walking in.

“Why would he be surprised? I mean it isn’t like I don’t practically live here. I’m here all the time.” I walked to the other side of the room with my pile of clothing to face the wall, get dressed and let him pick out clothes as well.

“I don’t know,” he laughed. “Apparently he didn’t expect you because you weren’t here last night and I was home when he went to bed.” I nodded. After all, I guess it was a reasonable explanation.

I turned around fully dressed to find Garrett shirtless and rooting around for something to wear. My breath caught in my throat and I shook my head. It was so wrong to think about Garrett like that. He was my best friend—nothing more. “I like the red plaid shirt.” He turned around smiling.

“I couldn’t decide if I should go with the red or the blue.” I looked at the blue shirt when he held it up.

“Go with the red. It makes your eyes stand out more.” As if they didn’t already stand out enough. Now they’ll only succeed in actually making me weak in the knees.

“The red it is.” I started looking around his room for the hair dryer that I knew I’d lent to him to take on tour when he turned to look at me again. “It’s on the shelf in my closet.” I nodded and opened the door to find the pink hair dryer.

“So how was it having this on tour?” I laughed, plugging it in to the wall.

“Uhm,” he laughed, “it sucked. I never used it, but it was always just there. And it was hot pink.” I smiled. “You almost ready to go?” I nodded. In Arizona, drying your hair didn’t exactly take a long time.

“Ready,” I said unplugging it. The ends were still damp, but all I really cared about was making sure my bangs weren’t in my face.

“Cool, let’s go, we can get you Starbucks on the way.” I smiled and he threw his arm around my shoulders and handed me my tote bag on the way out.

“Don’t act like you don’t like coffee too.” He laughed and shooed my out of his room and down the stairs. We called a quick Good Morning and Good-bye to his parents and then wandered out into the hot, early morning sun.

“Vaminos,” he said as we both slid on our sunglasses. “Let’s go start our senior year a day late.” I laughed and followed him to his car.