Be My Escape

I guess with the way things had been going lately, I should have known that my date with Josh wasn’t going to go smoothly. I was an idiot to think everything would go perfectly, anyways, but to think nothing would go wrong and then have absolutely every little thing go wrong all night was just ridiculous.

It started off when I couldn’t figure out what to wear. Josh refused to tell me where we were going or what we were doing for our date, and I, like any other girl, would have liked to plan accordingly. But because he was being so freaking stubborn, I couldn’t do that.

So was it a surprise when at six o’clock there was a knock on my door and yet I was still standing in the middle of my room with nothing but a towel wrapped around my body? Not at all.

“Shit!” I exclaimed, as I hurried through my flat towards the knocking. I didn’t even check the peephole because I knew it would be Josh. “I’m not ready!” I called through the door, praying he could hear me.

“What?” he called back. I just groaned in response and threw the door open.

I gestured to my towel clad body and gave him a duh look. “Not ready!” I exclaimed again before grabbing him by the arm and pulling him inside before slamming the door shut again. I didn’t want to flash the whole building, after all.

“Well what the bloody hell have you been doin’ all day, Peyt?” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration. “It’s not like I surprised you with this date last minute or anythin’.”

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms in front of my chest in a huff. “Okay first of all can you not? I need to get ready, and it would be easy to get ready if I knew what the hell we were doing!” I yelled at him, frustrated with the whole situation. This was not how the night was supposed to begin.

“Just put on jeans and a tee or something, it doesn’t matter Peyton. You’re puttin’ way too much thought into this.”

I rolled my eyes again and stormed off to my room before slamming the door shut. Of course I was putting a lot of thought into it! This was important to me, what it being our first official date and everything. I wanted things to be perfect and I wanted it to all go smoothly, but so far nothing was going as I wanted.

I ended up throwing on a pair of jeans and a black and white baseball tee. I slipped my black vans on and grabbed my black peacoat, just in case it was cold, and called it a day. I left my hair to dry curly and swept some makeup on quickly before heading back out into the living room where Josh was patiently waiting for me on the couch. “Ready?” I grumbled, which for some reason made him laugh.

“Yes, Ms. Grumpy Gills, I’m ready.” And then, with his hand on the small of my back which was comforting and exciting all at once, we headed out.

***

I would have thought that once we were actually out of the flat and on our way to wherever the hell we were headed, the night would have gotten better. But I was sorely mistaken.

Of course, as per England usual, it had rained earlier in the day. The rain had pretty much stopped, but there were still puddles everywhere. I didn’t care all that much, because I was rather used to walking through rain puddles by now.

What I was not used to, however, was having a car drive by us, getting us completely soaked when they splashed us by driving through a puddle.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered as I looked down at the white shirt I was wearing, which was now soaked through. The pea coat resting on my arm, the same pea coat I had brought with me in case it was cold but was not wearing would have been extremely helpful, had I actually been wearing it when I got wet.

Josh tried not to laugh as he started to take off his own jacket to give to me to wear, but I shrugged it off. “It’s fine,” I assured him. “What’s a little water going to hurt?”

I tried to be upbeat as we walked the rest of the way to our destination, but that was a hard thing to accomplish when every step I took caused my shoe to squish unattractively with water. “We’re almost there,” he reassured me, his hand resting on the small of my back again as we walked down the sidewalk towards town. Suddenly, it didn’t matter how far we were walking or how much water had gotten on me; Josh having his hand resting on my back was nice enough to make everything fine.

Before I knew it, Josh was stopping me in front of a building. I looked around, but there were no signs or anything. “Uh, Josh, care to explain…” I started to ask.

“Go-karts!” he exclaimed, that goofy, childlike grin he possessed coming out full force. “We’re racing go-karts!”

I started to laugh, and then once I started I couldn’t stop. He was just so damn excited, as if he had found gold, and it was so damn cute that I couldn’t help it. But then when I finally calmed down and caught the hurt, dejected look on his face, I felt bad. Really, really bad. “Oh, Josh, no, I’m not—”

“Nah, ‘s alright, Peyt. We’ll just go get something to eat, or something,” he mumbled, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

I immediately grabbed his free hand to catch his attention and stop him from walking away from me, which is exactly what he looked like he was going to do. “Josh, I was not laughing at you. You just…” I trailed off, suddenly embarrassed by what I was going to say next. “You just look so damn cute when you get excited like that, I couldn’t help but laugh. And then with all the comical errors that have gone wrong so far today, I couldn’t stop laughing.”

He smirked. “Would you expect any less from a date with the two of us, though? I mean, really, Peyt.” He was joking with me again, which meant he wasn’t hurt, which was good. I wasn’t going to screw this date up before it even started.

“No, I wouldn’t. But I must warn you. I’m a very competitive girl, and I do not let boys beat me.”

So that’s how we ended up racing go-karts for the next hour, with me beating him almost every single time. When he finally gave up and surrendered, I just did my victory dance the entire way out of the building and part way down the sidewalk.

When he finally got sick of me, he groaned. “Are you done yet? I get it, I’m a proper terrible go-kart racer. Don’t rub it in!”

I just smiled, looping my arm through his and holding it as we walked. “I’m better than you are,” I whispered in his ear semi-seductively, just to tease him.

To say what happened next was unexpected would be an understatement.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me into the alley closest to us. It wasn’t that dark out, and for some reason the fact that he had me pressed against some sketchy as hell alley wasn’t creeping me out in the least. Then again, maybe that’s because I wasn’t even remotely focused on the alley at the moment.

He smirked as he put his hands on either side of my head and leaned in. “Weren’t expectin’ this, were you?”

I gulped and shook my head slowly. Then again, when was I ever expecting anything Josh threw me way?

He leaned in and whispered in my ear, “This is better than that silly dance you’ve been doing though, isn’t it?”

Oh, if only he knew.

He pulled back slightly, the smile still on his face. He started to pull away completely, as if he wasn’t going to make a move at all, but I was not about to let that happen. He had started this, and he would finish it.

I did not like to be teased.

I brought my hands up to his face and pulled him back in, letting our lips attach quickly and easily. He didn’t even hesitate to put his hands down on my waist and pull me closer, as if we had been doing this for months and knew each other better than we knew ourselves.

I let go of his face and instead wrapped my arms around his neck tightly, pulling him even closer to me. When we finally pulled back to take a breather, it wasn’t for long. This time, I let his lips find my neck again while I leaned my head back as far as the brick behind me would let me, offering him as much access to the sensitive skin as possible. If there was a spot on me that drove me crazy, it was my neck, and I had a feeling Josh was figuring this out.

I’m not sure how long we stayed there making out, and honestly I don’t know if we were going to stop anytime soon. But the whistles of passerby’s were getting our attention and we finally separated, Josh leaning his forehead against my own and staring into my eyes with a grin on his face.

“How’s that for a victory dance?” he joked.

When we finally stumbled away from the wall hand in hand on our way to dinner, I couldn’t stop smiling. My lips were swollen and my cheeks flushed and I probably looked like a giant crazy slut, but I couldn’t help it; Josh had put a smile on my face more real than anything I’d ever experienced in a long time, and I wasn’t going to make that go away just because I may have looked a little crazy.

When we finished dinner and finally got back to my flat, we were standing outside of the door just staring at each other. “So, this was fun,” I smiled.

Josh laughed and nodded. “Between seeing your bra, getting my arse kicked at go-karts, and a lovely snog with a beautiful girl, I really can’t complain.”

I blushed and ducked my head. “Between being caught naked, you seeing my bra, kicking your ass at go-karts, and having a wonderful alley make-out with a good looking boy, I guess I can’t complain either.”

When I looked at him again, he was smiling that genuine smile that made my stomach flutter. Before I even knew what I was doing, I was saying, “Will you sleep here again tonight please?” all in one breath.

“Really?” he seemed surprised, which worried me slightly. I only wanted him staying if he wanted to.

Hesitantly, I nodded.

“Are you sure?”

More sure of myself, I nodded again. “Please?”

He smiled and took my hand, walking into my flat with me.

Telling him to wait in the living room, I hurried to change into a pair of PJs—shorts and a tee—before meeting him on the couch. I curled up next to him with a blanket over us both and snuggled into his side. There was just something so easy about being comfortable with Josh. Even though I had no idea what we were, I was still so comfortable with him.

Suddenly though, I was reminded of something that was making my stomach churn. “Josh?” I mumbled from beside him, my arms tucked around his body while his arm rested over my shoulders and his head rested against my own.

“I really need to know where we stand, because it’s bothering me a lot and I never do this and I just don’t want things to get serious or weird or whatever.” I stopped myself because I was rambling.

He sighed. “Now, Peyton? Can’t we do this later? We had such a good time tonight, I really don’t want to end it in a fight.”

I sighed too, but remembered what he had said to me before when I had asked what we were or where we stood. Just go with the flow and relax.

So I took a deep breath and did just that. We had tomorrow. Even though I wasn’t in control of this situation, I still felt okay. Josh made me feel okay, and I didn’t care if we had no labels or if we ever had labels, as long as he kept making me feel okay again.