There Are Other Ways to Kiss up to You

I let out an angry breath and crossed my arms over my chest. My lips pressed together as I waited for him to continue. When he just sat there saying nothing I raised my eyebrows.

“You done now?” I asked, watching as he put his hands in his pockets, nodding his head.

“Yeah. Jenna, I’m sorry.” he whispered, not daring to look into my eyes.

I rolled mine in return. “Don’t pull this ‘I’m sorry’ shit Caleb.” I seethed.

“But-”

“No!” I yelled, cutting him off. “You just go and flirt with other girls! That’s bull shit Caleb!” I took a second and waited for him to open his mouth, but he didn’t I continued to rant on. “What if I didn’t come here? Huh? What would have happened?!”

“Jenna! Nothing would have happened!” he yelled in response. “Those were fans, nothing more!”

I shook my head, my dark brown hair flying around. “You say that a lot Caleb.” I told him, my hands dropping limply to my side.

We were silent for a while, neither of us knew what to say. I shook my head and went to walk past him, but he grabbed my waist and pulled me towards his chest.

“Jenna.” he whispered near my ear. I could feel goose bumps rising all over my body as his breath hit my skin.

“Caleb, I don’t want to have to deal with this time and time again.” I told him, resting against his body.

“You know I love you.” he responded, placing his lips just above my ear. I felt my heart flutter as my body relaxed. “I’m sorry Jenna.” he whispered again.

“It’s okay Caleb.” I said, allowing him to turn me so I was facing him. A smile toyed at his lips while his deep brown eyes looked down at me. “I love you too.” his smile grew wider before he leaned down and kissed me. “To make it clear, a simple ‘I love you’ isn’t always going to get you off the hook.” I told him.

He smiled before kissing me again. “There are other ways to kiss up to you.”

++

“Caleb Michael, knock it the fuck off!” I said, turning around and shoving his arms off of me. “Just leave me alone!” I hissed, shoving him backwards.

“Jenna.” he groaned, slapping his hands over his face. “Would you calm down please?”

I set my glare on him, my eyes burning holes into his pale skin. “Calm down?” I let out a loud, annoyed sigh. “Go lie to someone else Caleb. I’m done with you right now.”

“You don’t mean that Jenna.” he said, looking up at me with pleading eyes.

“Oh, well you see now Caleb. I don’t lie. Unlike you. Now get out.”

“This is my house too.” he protested, crossing his arms. “I don’t have you leave.”

“Well, you’re sure as hell not going to sleep in my bed tonight.” I shot back, mimicking him and crossing my arms.

“I’ll sleep on the damn couch then.” he said, throwing his hands up in his frustration. I shrugged and waited for him to make a move. Frowning when he roughly pushed past me and towards our bedroom, coming out a second later with his pillow. He brushed past me again and entered the living room. I let out another sigh before walking into our bedroom and climbing onto my side of the bed.

With my knees pulled to my chest I watched the clock on my nightstand, knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to fall asleep without Caleb laying next to me. My ears strained to hear any noise from him and my body jumped when I heard the front door close. I quickly scrambled out of bed and ran down the stairs, flinging myself to the living room window just in time to see Caleb’s car drive away.

I waited a few minutes for him, staring out the front window. His headlights had faded, and weren’t coming back for at least a while. I let out a soft sigh and sat down on the couch, where his pillow was resting. My hands lightly touched his dark blue pillow case before pulling it onto my lap.

I really didn’t mean it when I said he had to leave. I thought to myself before placing his pillow back on the arm of the plush couch and laying down. My teeth sunk into my bottom lip as my eyes traced the window, hoping that I would see his headlights soon. After a moment of darkness, I closed my eyes deciding that it would make the wait easier.

“Jenna?” Caleb’s voice called. I slowly opened my eyes, blinking a few times to get his body into focus. “What are you doing on the couch?” he asked, kneeling down in front of me. I heard the rustling of a plastic bag, telling me that he went to the store.

“I heard the front door closed, I didn’t want you to leave.” I said, looking down when I heard how childish my voice sounded.

He chuckled and kissed my forehead. “I went to the store. I got you something.”

My eyes light up as I looked up at him. He picked up a white plastic bag from the local grocery store and pulled out a container of peanut butter. “I know how much you love it, and I figured it was the best way to say sorry.” he said, handing me the jar.

I smiled and took it from him. “Caleb, you’re so cute.” I said, leaning forward and pressing my lips to his.

“Can I sleep in the bed tonight?” he hopefully asked when we pulled away.

“Of course.” I answered, sitting up. “Just remember that you can’t always just buy me peanut butter whenever you mess up.”

He chuckled before kissing my forehead. “There are other ways of kissing up to you.”

++

I gripped onto the half empty pack of cigarettes before throwing them at Caleb’s chest.

“You fucking promised me that you’d quit.” I said through clenched teeth.

“I’m sorry!” he yelled, picking up his cigarettes and tucking them into his pocket. “It’s hard!”

I rolled my eyes. “If you really wanted to quit you would have, and you wouldn’t have lied to me about it.” I snapped, I could feel my body shaking with anger as I looked at him.

He sighed, “Jenna, just hear me out.”

“No.” I said, shaking my head. “I’m done.” I felt angry tears start to form. “I’m sick of the lying, I’m sick of how much you party. I’m sick of you.”

“Please don’t give up on me Jenna.” he begged. I watched as he dropped down onto his knees. His own tears slowly traced down his cheeks, but for the first time they had no effect on me. He reached forward and grabbed my hand. “Please Jenna.”

I pulled my hand away from his. “I really need to think about it this timed.” my voice stiffly answered. I took a step back so that I was out of his reach and watched as he put his face in his hands. With a sad sigh, I walked past him and into our bedroom. I grabbed my overnight bag before throwing some of my clothes into it.

“Jenna, don’t leave.” Caleb begged from the doorway.

“I’m just going to Gabbi’s for a while.” I shortly answered. “When I make up my mind I’ll come back.” I said, zipping it closed.

“Please don’t leave!” he begged, not allowing me to leave our bedroom. “Please Jenna.”

“Move Caleb.” I sighed, dropping my eyes to the ground. “I need space right now. Just let me breathe. I’ll come back when I decide if I can be with you or not.” he dropped his arm and let me pass. I quickly made my way down the stars and grabbed my keys before dialing Gabbi and telling her I was coming over.

--
“He’s here again.” Gabbi said from the doorway of her guest room that I was currently staying in.

I let out a sigh. “Let him come up.”

“You’ve made up your mind?” she asked, throwing her long brown hair over her shoulder.

“I think so.” I frowned, playing with my fingers. “It’s been four days, I should go with my gut.”

“No, you should go with your heart.” she said, turning away and yelling to Caleb to come up.”

I quickly got off the bed and smoothed down my white t shirt. My feet started pace back and forth across the beige carpet as I waited for the red head to make his appearance in the room.

“Jenna?” he asked as I walked past the bed for the third time. My hazel eyes quickly jumped up to his distraught face.

“Hey.” I said, looking at his body. His flannel looked as if he had worn it for a few days straight now, his hair had turned curly and I knew he wasn’t taking care of himself.

“I’m sorry. I just…I needed to talk to you. I know you’re still mad, but I want you to know that you make me want to be a better person. And whenever I did smoke or drink or anything I ended up hating myself because I knew that you didn’t want me to do it. Baby , please.”

“Caleb, just shut up.” I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. “You need to knock this stuff off. You can’t just be off partying and lying to me all the time.”

“I can make it up to you!” he exclaimed, reaching into his back pocket.

I quirked an eyebrow and watched as he pulled out an envelope and shoved it towards me. Slowly, I opened it and drew out to thick tickets. “Caleb?” I gasped, looking at the destination. “Disneyland?”

“I know you like it there a lot. So I figured this would show you that I’m completely serious this time. A whole week and Disneyland, just me and you babe. And I’ll stop smoking, I haven’t had one since you left. No more partying, just being with you.”

I put the tickets down on the bed. He kept talking and making promises but I just walked over and pressed my lips onto his, making him stop talking. His hands went down to my waist while my encircled his neck as he kissed me back.

A second later I pulled away, “And don’t just think that you can buy me tickets to Disneyland if you par-” he pressed his lips against mine again.

“Baby, there are more ways to kiss up to you than tickets to Disneyland.” he said with a sigh. “God, I love you.”