Say Nothing

Two week passed by and Juliana's dog, Frankie, showed up at my porch every night around ten o'clock. They let him out before they go to bed, he jumps the fence, gets into my backyard, makes his way to the backdoor, knocks and patiently waits for Lee. At first, Juliana looked everywhere for him and after about two days, she realized he was just coming to my house to see Lee. My dog was thrilled about having a new friend.

“I swear to God, Frankie,” a muffled voice said as there was knock on the backdoor.

I took off from the living room where I was watching a movie with mom. She shot me a surprised look. Even though Juliana has been coming over every night looking for her dog, mom hasn't found out about her. This was due to the fact that mom works the night shifts at the delivering company she manages. I stopped in the arch way of the living room and peered over my shoulder to my mom.

“It's a friend and her dog,” I briefly explained. She only made a hum noise as her response. I left her alone in the living room and went into the dinning room where the backdoor was. Lee was already sitting there, wagging her tail back and forth.

I opened the back door and Lee busted out quickly. I looked over to Juliana, who was in a really bad coughing fit. She was hunched over, coughing deeply. I closed the door and quickly ran over to her. I patted her back and cooed her.

Her coughs slowed down, and she sounded out of breath. She coughed one more last time before she took in a raspy, deep breath. Juliana stood straight up, trying to pace her breathing.

“Are you okay?! Do you want something to drink, Jay?!” I spat out.

She grinned and said, “You called me 'Jay.' No ones ever called me that.” I felt a little bit embarrassed and she kept taking slow breaths. “And no, I'm fine. Thank you though. I think I'm getting a really bad cold.”

We talked for about an hour as our dogs played. Juliana got into another coughing fit, this time it sounded worse. I rubbed her back as she hunched over again, coughing. I felt awful, but there wasn't much I could do.

I looked her over; she was in a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. Not to sound like a creep, but I don't think I've ever seen her wear shorts. The only time she exposed her legs was at the beach the first day I met her. I shrugged off the idea as she muttered out she had to go. She took off with Frankie, still coughing terribly.

~*~

The next morning when I woke up, I couldn't stop thinking about Juliana and her coughing fit. Did I get her sick from her coming over every night? It has been getting colder almost every night since two weeks ago. Oh my God, I'm getting her sick.

A loud knock on the door almost made me shit myself. Lee jumped off my bed, barking at my closed bedroom door. I hopped up and quickly slid on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that were laying on the floor. I ran down the stairs with Lee when there was a second knock on the backdoor.

I opened the curtain to reveal a familiar large German Shepard standing on his hind legs against my backdoor, panting and waiting for my baby Lee. She jumped around for joy when I opened the door. They took off on the deck and played with each other.

“Hey Frank,” Juliana said from my table on the deck. Oh, mom finally get it outside.

I walked over and took a seat next to her. She was wearing black sweatpants and a green tank-top. Juliana's hair was pulled back into a tiny ponytail with multiple strands hanging out loosely around her face. She also wasn't wearing any make-up. But in this moment, right before me, she still looked absolutely gorgeous.

“This is a surprise-” I giggled out like a girl “-you're never here this early.”

Juliana shrugged and said, “I-” she did air quotations”-'accidentally' let Frankie out of the fence this morning.”

I grinned and said, “Good 'accident.'” I mimicked her air quotations.

She leaned forward towards me more and said, “Actually, Frank... I have something to ask of you.”

I raised an eyebrow as I said, “Oh really? What's that?”

Juliana nervously bit her lip and sighed. She closed her eyes for a brief second as she said, “Will you go on a walk with me tonight? On the beach?” I wasn't expecting that to be what she wanted. I was expecting a cup of water or something.

I cocked my head to the side and told her, “Of course.” Juliana jumped up out of her chair quickly and called out for Frankie.

He came trotting over to her and she quickly said, “Frank-” I looked up at her “-meet me where I accidentally bumped into you, remember?” I nodded my head. “Good, be there at like... midnight?” I nodded my head again and she took off out of my back yard.

~*~

So, you guessed it. I'm at the beach and right now, according to my wristwatch, it's 11:45. I've been waiting for almost twenty minutes. Why? Because I didn't want to be the late one, I'd rather be the obnoxiously early one.

“Oh hey, you're early,” a recognizable voice said.

I looked up to a quickly approaching Juliana. I smiled. “Hey, rather be early than late, right?” She giggled and met eye to eye with me.

“I brought a blanket for us to sit on.”

I cocked an eyebrow up and asked, “Sit? I thought we were gonna walk?”

Juliana shrugged as she said, “Eh.”

I helped her set up the large blanket on the sand. I sat next to her with my knees folded up to my chest. I was in a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt. She was in the same sweatpants from earlier and a new t-shirt; it was also green, like the tank top.

“Frank,” she quietly began. I made a soft hum noise and looked over at her neon green eyes. She looked really concerned and frightened. Juliana bit her lip and slightly laughed out of nerves.

“We're friends, right?” She asked.

I knitted my eyebrows together and said, “Yeah, of course... why do you say that?” Juliana brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She placed her head on top of her knees and sighed. I watched her as she leaned her head over towards me and we met eyes.

“And with us being friends...” she awkwardly paused, trying to get the words out. I nodded my head as encouragement. “... means that we'd do anything for each other right?”

I paused and questioned her question before saying, “Right.” as-matter-factually.

Juliana licked her lips quickly before replying, “Promise you wont hate me?”

That really got my attention.

I whipped my head backwards dramatically and said, “I'd never hate you! What's wrong?”

Juliana coughed lightly and cleared her throat before replying with, “I'll tell you sometime soon... okay? But right now, I need you to tell me a secret.”

“Wai-what?” I stuttered on my words. A secret?

“Please?” Juliana begged.

I thought about it. I could tell her things that I've only told my best friend, Shaun, but some of those things are really embarrassing. I shifted through my thoughts for a few minutes before thinking of the perfect one.

“When I was thirteen,” I began and caught her attention, “I got my first kiss...” I paused, thinking that I shouldn't tell her the rest. I covered up my face from shear embarrassment.

“That's not so bad,” Juliana plainly said.

“I'm not finished,” I told her, still covering up my face. I took my hands off and revealed my most likely red face. I looked over at her as I finished. “I got my first kiss from a guy. It was from my friend-” I didn't add the fact he was my best friend “-Shaun.”

She giggled and asked, “What!? Are you serious? That's still not that bad!”

I shook my head yes as I smiled. “I'm no where near homophobic... but, yes! It was that bad! I swear to God, it was the worst, the most slimiest kiss ever. I'm surprised my wonderful 'kiss' didn't make him full-on gay for me.” Juliana roared with laughter. “It was during a spin-the-bottle game at a summer party, too! He landed on me and was like 'come 'er baby' and fucking made out with me like his life depended on it! It was suppose to be just a kiss!” I dramatically told her.

She laughed for a few good minutes, almost at the brink of tears. She kept saying, “Oh-oh God.” between her laughter. I laughed with her for a few minutes; Juliana's laugh is highly contagious.

“Just the way you said it,” she said through her giggles, “just fucking priceless.”

I grinned and asked her, “Why'd you want to know something like that?” Juliana stopped laughing and intertwined her fingers together. She picked away at her chipped, yellow nail polish.

“I've...” she took a deep breath as she tried to get the words out. “I've never been kissed before.” I twisted my head backwards and to the side.

“Oh?” I didn't know what else to say. I'm sixteen years old and I've only kissed two people my whole life. Obviously, Shaun and my almost-first girlfriend, Maria. We didn't work out, but we sure did make-out a lot before breaking off our little 'fling.'

Juliana cleared her throat and said, “Yeah.” there was a long awkward pause after that before she asked, “Promise you wont hate me?”

I scooted closer to her and grabbed her free hand as I told her, “Look, I'll never hate you unless you kicked my dog and even then, I'm sure you'd have a damn good reason why you would.”

Juliana lightly giggled before saying, “Frank.”

I leaned my head over and smiled. “Juliana.” Juliana grabbed my hand tighter before saying two simple words that threw me over the edge.

“Kiss me.”

I didn't give her much reaction time as I pulled her closer into me and met our lips together. I definitely wasn't going to say no to kissing her! Anyone in their right state of mind would never deny such a gorgeous girl a kiss and especially when they asked you to kiss them!

We didn't beak our kiss for a long time. We didn't break holding each others hands, either. Her lips were soft and smooth, no signs of being chapped. I highly enjoyed kissing her and I'm assuming she was enjoying kissing me too because she kissed back. We didn't French kiss or anything, we just kissed. And it was pure bliss.

Juliana pulled her hand away from mine and pushed me back. Before I could say anything, she began to cough really badly. She hunched over in her spot, covering her mouth and holding her chest. I placed my hand on her back; she felt awfully warm.

I rubbed her back as she calmed down from her fit and told me in a raspy voice, “Sorry.”

I chuckled and replied, “It's okay. Do you wanna go home? You feel really warm.” I brought my hand from her back and touched her forehead. She was so fucking warm. Juliana tensed up and nodded her head.

I grabbed her blanket and dusted off as much sand as I could before we walked home. I walked with her the whole way to her house. We didn't say anything else to each other. I felt kind of awkward and I felt bad, like I did something wrong. I hoped and prayed that I didn't.

We reached her house (or assuming that we did) when she stopped walking. Juliana looked up at me, looking deathly ill. I started to feel really bad that we were out this late at night and she obviously isn't feeling good at all.

“Will you be alright?” I asked her, finally saying something.

Juliana nodded her head and said, “Yeah. I think so. I'm sorry about tonight.”

I waved my hand in the air and smiled. Juliana smiled back as I told her, “No. Don't feel sorry about anything. Tonight was one of the greatest I've had in a while.”

“Really?” She asked and I nodded. “Me too.”

Before I could say anything, Juliana yanked the collar of my shirt and pulled me down. She kissed me for a brief moment before pulling away. I grinned ear to ear and she returned it. I felt my heart flutter with excitement and my stomach fill up with the cliched butterfly feeling.

Juliana grabbed the blanket from me and said, “Bye, Frank.”

“Wait,” I grabbed her wrist and she twisted around. I probably grabbed it way too hard, but she didn't say anything about it.

I pulled her back toward me and kissed her again. I wrapped my arm around her waist and kept the other one on her wrist. She kissed me back and then letting the other hand wrap around my head. I held her tight, licking the bottom of her lip for more.

She obliged, letting me inside. We played the ever-so fun 'tongue hockey' for a few minutes. I felt her drop the blanket and place her other arm around my neck. We didn't break away for a good, long time. I was in such a daze and I loved it. I loved kissing her like this and I just couldn't believe she wanted to kiss me.

Juliana pulled away, biting at her lip. “I gotta go home.”

“Okay.” I pulled my arms away and awkward ruffled the back of my hair, embarrassed.

I watched as she quickly scooped up the messed up blanket and leaned over, quickly pecking me on the lips. She quickly took off for the front door and when she reached it, she waved goodbye. I waved back and Juliana blew a kiss. I pretended to tuck it in my pocket. She laughed and went inside.

~*~

Two days went by before I saw Juliana again. Her dog didn't show up at my doorstep and she didn't either. I started to get worried, but I knew it was probably from that sickness that she was developing. Which brings me into today, around two o'clock I'm going to go to the house I dropped her off at and make sure that she's okay.

I awkwardly stood at the doorstep, hesitant about knocking on the door. I sighed out of nervousness and knocked on the door with three light taps. A loud shuffled was going through the house before someone opened it. An older woman, most likely in her eighties, opened the door.

She had the generic old lady attire; wearing color-blinding pants and a white blouse that obviously didn't match. She had the short, curly white hair that was permed, most likely at her favorite hair salon once a month. Her face was covered in lines of wisdom and worry. Over all, she was a grandma and really cute looking old lady. Old people are so adorable.

“Can I help you?” She asked, in her weary tone of voice but still gave me a smile.

I smiled back and said, “Yeah, I was wondering if Juliana is home?”

Instantly, her face dropped down into a frown as she said, “Oh honey, she's not home right now. She's in the hospital. Been in there for– oh, goodness gracious –a couple of days now.”

I felt my smile drop too. The hospital? Is she that fucking sick? I felt my heart beat quickly and I started to panic. The hospital? The fucking hospital? Juliana, Jesus fucking Christ, if you were that sick-

“But she'll be out soon...” the old woman brought me out of my panicked thoughts.

I sighed and asked, “Do they know what's wrong?” The old woman looked around, obviously for a lie.

“The flu.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, when you see her next, can you tell her Frank stopped by?” I responded, not bothering to press the issue. The old woman nodded her head and closed the door.

~*~

Three more days went by and every single day, I went to the old ladies house and asked for Juliana. I found out that the old lady was Juliana's grandmother. Juliana's parents recently got divorced and she didn't want to stay at home during that. So, she decided to come here from Florida and stay instead.

On day four, I came over at the exact same time as the three previous days. This time, though, granny Slade was sitting on the porch, sipping a mug of some sort. She was blankly staring off into the distance, in deep thought. I walked up onto the porch and the creaking from the old wood brought her out of her thoughts.

Granny Slade gave me a warm smile and said, “Go inside. She's home.”

I nearly pissed my pants when she said that. I quickly busted the door open, slid off my shoes (of course, for respect of her home), and began to call out Juliana's name.

“Up here!” Her raspy voice said from upstairs.

I jumped up the stairs, skipping every other step. I walked around the hallway, trying to figure out which room. I almost played the guessing game, but the coughing gave it away and it was the last door on the left. I knocked before opened the door. Juliana was laying in bed.

She was laying in a king sized bed with a mountain of blankets on top of her. I closed the door behind me and made my way over to the bed. Juliana's eyes looked sunken in and the rings around them looked obvious that she hasn't slept in a long time.

The worst part that killed me was an obvious bruise that was fading on her wrist. The same exact wrist that I grabbed her with the other night. I sat down in the bed next to her and picked up her hand gently. I examined the bruise before she pulled away, realizing what I was looking at.

“I bruise easily,” she told me.

“I'm sorry.” I couldn't stop looking at it. Juliana tucked it away in the blanket and smiled up at me. “I'm so fucking sorry,” I told her with sincerity, even though I dropped the f-bomb.

“It's okay,” she said. “I bruise easily, and it was an accident. So, please, don't worry.”

I shifted around the bed and looked at her more. Her skin looked so pale and she looked like she thinned out a little bit more. Juliana did look like she was deathly sick of something. I frowned and she tried to flash me a warm smile, but it didn't work.

“Are you okay? I've been coming everyday...” I trailed off and stopped talking. I sounded like a creep.

Juliana grinned and said, “Yeah, I know. Granny visited me in the hospital everyday and would always say-” she cleared her throat and used a dramatic old lady voice “-'there's a boy named Frank, just like your puppy, who comes over everyday just to see if you're okay. He's a keeper, baby girl.'”

I laughed and said, “Yeah, she made me tea yesterday. I think she likes me.”

Juliana playfully rolled her eyes and replied, “Ya think?” I smiled and moved a bit closer to her.

“How are you doing now? Any better?” Juliana's smile dropped.

“I'm okay... I'll be better soon. It was just-” she cleared her throat, obviously trying to remember the lie “-the flu.” I brought my lips to a fine line and before I could say anything, Juliana spat out quickly, “I missed you... a lot.”

She brought her hand from out of under the bed and pulled me closely to her, kissing me on the lips. Great distraction. We kissed innocently for a few minutes before pulling away. Juliana's face was a deep shade of red and I found it to be extremely cute.

I smiled and told her, “I missed you too.”

~*~

I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, but here I am, at the beach, a quarter 'til midnight, waiting for Juliana. Two days ago she was released from the hospital and claimed to be doing better. Everyday I would go visit her and she didn't look any better at all. But still, Juliana asked me to meet her at the beach again at the same spot as last time. She begged until I agreed to meet her.

Juliana waved at me as she came into view. She was in her black sweatpants and a blue t-shirt. I was, once again, in basketball shorts with a t-shirt; these are my normal bed-time attire. She came over and laid down her blanket and sat down. Without a word, I sat down next to her.

“Frank?” Juliana asked for me.

I leaned over and looked at her through my hair. “Yeah, what's up?” I brushed my hair out of my face and looked into Juliana's neon green eyes that I adored.

“Promise not to get mad?”

Not this again.

I smiled and replied, “Never. You know that.” Juliana bit her lip, lost in thoughts.

“In three weeks from today, can we have sex?” Juliana plainly asked, like it was almost nothing.

I began choking on air and Juliana giggled. I grabbed my chest and tried to find the air to breath with. Dear fucking God, what is air? Does oxygen even exist anymore? I looked like an idiot, trying to breath. That question fucking blindsided me.

“W-what!?” I stammered out.

Juliana giggled and said, “I'm sorry. That's too much to ask of you.” I waved my hand at her, telling her it was okay.

“No, Jay, it's okay. That just came out of fucking no where.” I chuckled. “I forgot how to breathe.”

Juliana laughed heavily as she replied, “I'm sorry, Frankie.” I smiled at the nickname.

“It's okay, I wasn't saying no.” Her face went red with embarrassment.

”What?!” She asked, shocked.

“I just wonder why the three week wait?” I asked, trying to not pressure the fact I was jumping for joy.

“I don't know... I guess to see if it is something we should actually do, you know?”

I nodded my head and told her, “Yeah, I understand. I'm okay with it if you are. I'm... you know-” I waved my hand in the air out of embarrassment, telling her I was a virgin; she smiled “-so, if I'm bad at it or what-not, just don't make fun of me.”

“No, never.” I smiled and Juliana smirked. “Okay, now we got that settled,” she began, “kiss me?”

“Always.”