I'll Forget About You

I hadn’t seen my friends in weeks. The days amounting to those weeks without them were filled with solely Garrett and myself. Just us being together, soaking in every scrap of time we had left. Of course the summer was only passing its half-way point, but seemingly there never was enough time when it was spent with someone you couldn’t get enough of.

And I’d found that as I wanted more and more of Garrett, I wanted less and less of all of my friends. The old friends, the new friends. None of them were nearly as superior as Garrett was. So I’d taken that lowly road so many friends dreaded their own friends taking: abandoning everyone who had been there for you for someone new and shiny--someone you had the potential of falling in love with.

I wouldn’t be falling in love with Garrett of course, but I felt like being anywhere but with him was a waste of time, especially when there wasn’t a lot of time left. I’d have to start packing in just a mere four weeks, soon after shipping off to New York where I’d start my new life away from everyone here. And I truly meant everyone.

“Do you know what I think we should do?” Garrett asked, looking off into the sky while we walked down to the duck pond just outside of our neighborhood.

“What?”

“We should go to the beach,” he said casually.

I snorted a laugh, looking over to his beautiful profile, feeling that still-familiar rush of butterflies swirling in my stomach when he finally allowed his blue eyes to meet mine. “Garrett, if you haven’t noticed, we don’t exactly live anywhere near a beach.”

“So we’ll make an adventure out of it!” he told me, his voice reeling with excitement as I watched him putting all of the pieces together in his head. “We could drive out to California and stay in hotels or maybe even camp on the beach, and stay there for a week and just swim in the ocean all day long and wouldn’t it just be great?”

“And when exactly would we embark on this adventure?”

“Anytime!” he said enthusiastically.

I saw him look out into the sky again, the sun reflecting all over his skin as I’m sure he dreamed of what this adventure would be like, perfecting the image in his head. I couldn’t resist how gorgeous Garrett simply was, just thinking as he looked off into the distance. Maybe he wasn’t even thinking about anything at all, but I guess it didn’t really matter. He was too gorgeous to let that image simply disappear when he turned his head again.

So I heaved up the Canon D-SLR I’d become so attached to since I’d received it as a graduation present, capturing the way Garrett appeared to be so peaceful and yet still so full of life. Captured it forever, to never forget that image until I deleted it. Although even should I delete that image, there was a highly unlikely chance I could ever forget it.

I’d never be able to forget Garrett. I’d be able to move on, but I would never forget. I already knew how things would be like, or at least I thought I did.

He looked over at me after hearing the shutter, that silly half-smile on display. “What was that for?” he asked, a teasing tone in his voice.

“You looked cute,” I murmured, not being able to ignore the steady blush raising to my cheeks.

I let the camera rest on my stomach, the strap behind my neck taking care of supporting it. My hand found Garrett’s, our fingers intertwining while the duck pond was finally in sight.

We just stood there for a few moments, leaning on the wooden and chain-link fence that protected the ducks in the pond from any old creature wandering into their habitat. I watched the winged birds swim around for a while, my eyes drifting off into the sky. Everything was happening. Happening. And of course I had realized this a while ago, but I’m not sure I was sure of what it meant until now. Garrett and I weren’t dating, but we certainly had a “thing.” And this meant that it could as easily dissolve instantly as it could flourish into something quite unexpected, and Garrett had always come across as the unpredictable type.

But those thoughts weighed too much to be harbored in my carefree mind, so I pushed them aside into a dark corner, to be reasoned with and examined later.

The Canon rose up, the shutter clicking away as I captured every image in sight, mainly Garrett. The shots were only candid for a few frames before he realized what I was doing, purposely making absurd faces that I was afraid to admit I couldn’t find any less cute than the face he normally wore.

His arm found its way around my shoulders and I lowered the camera down, happy enough to just stand here and watch birds be birds. Moments were fun to capture, but you couldn’t live through a photograph. Sure it might hold memories, but can you remember how everything felt if you were too busy snapping up every scene change? I wanted this summer to be at the top of the list, to be the best in every single way. This of course could only be measured at the end of this summer, which would no doubt spiral out of control once certain secrets were found out.

But that was so far away I couldn’t possibly bother myself enough to care. So instead I took pictures to capture a few select moments of perfection, enough to help me remember down the road that this was the summer my life started, no matter how it ended.

“Why don’t we get out of here, back to my house?” he asked, his blue eyes sweeping over my face, making me shiver despite the heat. With a sly grin he added, “My parents are gone.”

I said neither yes nor no, only letting the corners of my mouth tug at my lips ever so slightly, allowing myself to be pulled away from the pond by Garrett’s hand. The walk back to his empty house seemed so much longer than it would have had his parents been home, had I not known what was about to ensue.

Garrett seemed to be at the same level of excitement, as his legs strode faster and faster as we neared the house in which his yellow Chevy was parked out in front of. I wanted it, him, Garrett. I wanted it all.

He led me through the gate of his fence, into the backyard, muttering something about how his house key had fallen off his key ring. I wasn’t really paying attention to anything anymore, just the fact that my heart was beating so fast, each gush of blood laced with more lust than the last.

Perhaps the heat was starting to get to me.

“You know, I’ve never met either of your parents. In fact, I’ve never even seen them,” I remarked languidly, scoping for family photos hanging around the house. “They always seem to be somewhere else.”

“Well, they work. A lot,” he said, his tone saying everything that he wouldn’t. That he was just eager to get down to business. Enough with the chit chat.

“Oh,” I sighed, that sigh turning to a gasp when I felt Garrett’s arms come around my waist, pulling me into him. The camera hanging around my neck dug into both our torso’s however, resulting in a mutual grunt, before I slipped it off and set it gently on the counter.

Nothing else was about to be gentle.

My hands found his shoulders, fingers curling into his hair while his lips explored around my exposed shoulders and neck. Thoughts escaped from my mind while the only thing I thought of was how thankful I suddenly was for Garrett’s parents never being around. His lips were like little clouds of passion, drifting from here to there and back, teasing the skies of my skin.

I found myself stumbling backwards, my lips now attached to Garrett’s. He shoved me around in the right direction, grabbing on to me when I nearly toppled backwards, snorting a laugh before continuing on with business. The stairs were a tough feat, neither of us inclined to travel up them with closed eyes and occupied mouths. His hands held mine though as we jogged up them, sprinting into his bedroom and collapsing on the pile of clothes and various other junk.

My cheeks pressed against his, I felt a wave of heat appear as he wiped everything onto the floor with one arm. I chuckled, letting my head fall back on his pillow while attempting to catch my breath.

Apparently I’d been breathing long enough though, when Garrett’s lips captured mine again, and suddenly I found myself tangled up in his sheets. I tried to free myself, but it was no use. It’s not like I minded being trapped in his bed, anyways.

His shirt peeled off, landing soundlessly on the floor. My tank top was next, leaving me exposed in my strapless bra. I could have sworn the window in his room was fogging up, but that was probably just my imagination.

Everything was a blur, it was just happening, and I wasn’t really doing anything to stop it, before Garrett said something.

“Are we--?” he asked breathlessly, not really asking anything at all.

“Um, I don’t--”

“We don’t have to,” he blurted.

“No, it’s--”

“Not if you’re not sure--”

“I am, but--”

“But you don’t want to.” All of a sudden he looked rather dejected, or as dejected as a topless boy laying on top of a topless girl can look.

“Maybe, maybe next time?” I suggested, still breathless while trying to collect my thoughts. This wasn’t the right time, I knew. I wanted it, and Garrett wanted it; but I felt like maybe another time things would spin together smoother, slightly more romantically than in Garrett’s dirty bedroom during the middle of the afternoon.

“I can settle for that,” he said, smirking.

It was as good as a promise, but the thing with promises when you have a “thing” with someone, is that most of the time things get in the way. I had a feeling that Garrett wouldn’t let anything get in the way though. Maybe this would even inspire him for times to come, to perhaps give his bedroom a once-over cleaning before letting a female enter, let alone strip down in his bed for him.

I smiled, stroking his hair after he let his head fall to my chest, apparently exhausted from all of the hard work we hadn’t gotten around to. It was sort of weird, the feelings, or non-feelings, between Garrett and myself. I wasn’t sure what to label those emotions, and I wasn’t sure what to label the pair of us. The closest thing we had was “fuck buddies,” but we hadn’t even fucked yet. We were just a mess.

A big, naked mess.