My Calamity

His hands brushed my skin as he draped his jacket on my shoulders, and then laced his fingers through mine, pulling me in tow back to the Boat House. I shivered, unsure whether from the cold or the delight, and dipped my face into the collar of his jacket, taking a deep whiff of his cologne.

"Did you like the shoes?" Patrick asked me, making me look up embarrassed.

I shrugged my shoulders. "If I did, I probably wouldn't have thrown them."

"Why did you throw them?" he asked curiously.

"I don't know – I didn't want to wear them anymore."

Patrick laughed. "And so you had to throw them? You couldn't just take them off?"

My eyes narrowed into slits at his mocking, and I turned my head away from him, angling it as if to say 'I'm ignoring you'. Patrick laughed, pulling me closer to him. "Alright, I'm sorry."

We continued up the beach towards the Boat House in silence, after that. It was hard to focus what with Patrick's hand laced through mine, but I managed, somehow. It was still weird, acting this way towards a guy, like we were dating, even though we weren't officially.

"Well, this may be a problem." I looked up at Patrick's voice, staring into the empty Boat House, aside from a few stragglers, and the clean-up crew.

"Our parents left us?" I stated shocked.

"It appears that they have, I guess we're walking home."

"I have no shoes!"

"Guess you should have thought of that before you threw them in the ocean." I turned to Patrick then, and elbowed him angrily. "Ow," Patrick moaned, rubbing the spot on his arm I had hit. "If you're done being violent, I think we should start walking."

"We? Our houses are in two completely different directions. This is where we part ways." I made my way out the front entrance, Patrick in tow and stopped on the sidewalk. "I guess I'll see you later."

Patrick looked left and right, and then back at me. His grey eyes made my heart beat quicken. "Yeah, I'm not letting you walk home alone."

"I'll be fine," I muttered. "You're concern for my well-being is most endearing, though."

Patrick glared at my smirk. "I am not concerned about your well-being."

"Oh, well then," I snapped with fake sarcasm, turning and storming away. I heard Patrick's quick footsteps on the pavement, and then I felt his smooth fingers enveloping mine. I couldn't help but giggle.

"There are a lot of creeps out at night," Patrick said defensively.

"Mmmhmm," I said with a smile watching him mirror it.

☼

"Well, this was a very interesting day," Patrick said, breaking the silence as we neared my house.

I looked over at him, a rueful smile on my face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, I've never seen a person curse a sidewalk before."

I glared at him playfully. "Well then you obviously have never stubbed your toe."

"Well if you hadn't thrown your shoes into the ocean…"

"You know what, shut up." I continued up my walk way, my feet slapping against the cool stones with each deliberate step, and then stopped when I noticed my dad's car parked next to my mother's.

"What's wrong?" Patrick asked, stopping behind me.

I turned around quickly. "Nothing," I lied looking up to meet eye contact. "I guess I'll…see you later?"

Patrick didn't look like he brought it, but nodded his head nonetheless. I nodded my head too, unsurely, and then turned back around ready to close the distance between the door and I in a few long strides, but then he grabbed my hand and pulled me to him, like he did before, but instead, we didn't quite kiss.

We ended up face to face, our noses touching, but nothing more. My heart was in my throat, and I thought at any moment I was going to regurgitate everything I had had for dinner, but Patrick didn't stop there. He brought his hand up, brushing back any stray hairs, and then he rested his hand on the side of my face, and I became hyperaware of everything – how he smelt, the slight stubble across his jaw, the pinpointed grey of his eyes.

"One of these days, you're going to do that, and we're going to end up hitting noses," I whispered breathily.

"I look forward to that day."

And then he kissed me, like I wanted him to, and I melted under his lips, knowing I was in now. That I would soon become one of those girls, and I didn't know if that was a bad thing or not.

I just wasn't sure anymore.