Don't You Ever Fear I'm Always Near

This morning I found an anonymous note on my front door. Whoever wrote it asked me to meet them at a specific beach at 7 tonight. I had no clue who’d write this, it could be some murderer for all I know!

I went over to Ky’s house later that night to see what she thought. Kylee seemed to think it was exciting and urged me to go. I eventually came around to the idea, who knows, it might be fun.

Tanner showed up during my debacle with my sister over wearing a skirt. I’m 21 and I don’t think I’ve worn a skirt for…. I can’t even remember! But do you know what Tanner did? he threw me over his shoulder and carried me upstairs!meanie. Why does he have to be so much bigger than me?

After a while I was finally ready…and wearing a skirt. I drove myself to the beach hoping that this guy wasn’t going to stand me up.

“Kirstie?” a familiar voice asked once I had arrived at the beach and had walked around a while.

“Josh?” I questioned turning around to meet him.

“Did you get one of these too?” He asked while holding up a note.

”Yes!” I shouted while we both scanned over each others. “I didn’t write this, did you?”

“Nuh-uh. I just found it and figured I might as well come,” He shrugged. “But I have the feeling we got set up.”

“And I think it has Kylee Jacobson’s name on it….and probably Tanners too,” I said while shaking my head.

“since we’re here already we might as well stay. It’s a really pretty night,” Josh suggested.

“Alright,” I agreed as we started walking near the beach.

“You look really nice Kirstie,” Josh smiled over at me. “Well not that you normally don’t look nice it’s just-“ he rambled but I cut him off.

“It’s okay, I know what you mean,” I laughed. “But thank you,” I told him as his comment started to take affect and my cheeks turned red.

The two of us just walked together in silence for a while before I decided to break it.

“I want to get to know you better. Tell me about yourself,” I said to Josh with a little smile.

“Um..Okay,” he smiled back. “I have a sister named Erin, she’s 20 years old. I’ve been on a dirt bike since I was 3 and racing since I was 8. Born and raised in the ghetto area of Riverside. My parents names are Mike and Mindy but….they’re divorced.”

“I’m sorry to hear that about your parents,” I softly empathized with him. “Did this happen recently…if you don’t mind me asking.”

“I don’t mind…. I was 14,” He stated.

“That must have been so hard,” I said.

“It was. It was really hard….it’s still hard,” Josh said in a pain filled voice.

“Josh,” I said getting his attention. “You look like you could use a hug,” I told him while opening my arms.

“I would love a hug,” he weakly smiled as he walked into my embrace. “Thanks Kirstie, that helped.”

“Not a problem Josh,” I smiled.

“I don’t like talking about my parents but that really helped. You’re a very comfortable person to talk to,” he said, returning my smile. “But now I want to know more about you.”

“Um… I don’t know what to say,” I laughed. “You’ve already met my family.”

“Tell me about yourself, your family’s track, how you became an insanely amazing mechanic,” he rattled off.

“Well, my grandpa died the year Ky was born and left the farm to my dad….who hated farming so he turned it into a motocross track. Kylee and I were raised on that track, we were there every day. I grew up out there, that was pretty much my family’s life,” I explained.

“Did you like that?” he asked.

“Yeah, I loved it,” I smiled. “Soon Kylee got into rally though and was gone a lot. I didn’t like that. But when she left my parents saw how sad I was and they bought me a new dirt bike…. I accidentally crashed it that night. It was a mess, radiator was busted, clutch snapped off, fuel line broken, so that’s when I started fixing bikes,” I giggled.

“Seriously?” Josh asked through laughs.

“Yep. They didn’t find out until I told them a couple years later,” I told him.

“That’s funny,” He said.

By now the moon was brightly shinning and reflecting off of the water. It lit Josh’s face up and showed off all his features. He turned and looked down at me and we gazed into each others eyes.

Before I knew it both of us were inching closer and closer. Soon enough….it happened. Our lips pressed together in a passionate and beautiful kiss. I had never felt so much in a kiss before, it sent shivers down my spine and goose bumps appeared on my skin.

Once I realized what was happened I immediately pulled away. As I did so, Josh tried to push his lips back to mine but I backed away.

“I’m so sorry,” I quickly apologized.

“Don’t be,” He told me.

“No, this is wrong,” I rambled. “I’m your mechanic for goodness sake! I can’t be kissing you! I…I…have to…g.go.”

“Kirstie, no, don’t leave,” Josh said while reaching out for my hand.

I was so scared, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted with all my heart to stay but my brain told me it was wrong. As I looked at Josh’s hurt face I still didn’t know what to do so….I left. I didn’t want to, I wanted to stay and be with Josh but I didn’t think it was right.

As I got into my car I started crying. I was so confused right now. I longed to stay, I wanted to get out and run back to Josh but… I started driving in the opposite direction. I think it’s going to be much harder to forget about my feelings for Josh now….