You Found Me

“Are you sure you have to go home?” Harry asked as he pulled over to the side of the street a few houses down from my own. “I wouldn’t mind watching some more Big Bang Theory with you.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” I replied. “But my father’s going to worry. I never leave Jenny’s house this late. It’s almost four in the afternoon.”

“Alright,” he sighed. He leaned over the console between us, resting a hand on my cheek, and pressed his lips against mine.

Almost immediately, he looked to deepen the kiss, flicking his tongue against my lips a couple of times.

Pulling him closer to me, I opened my mouth with an audible sigh and felt him smile a little, his lips growing slightly tauter.

“Okay, I really should go,” I breathed as I drew away from the kiss, though keeping our faces only a couple inches apart. “If we start kissing now, time’s going to run away from us, and I won’t walk through the door until midnight.”

“Mmm,” Harry mumbled, pressing his lips against my jaw. “That’s not a problem with me.”

I laughed as I pulled completely away, putting my back against the passenger’s side door. “We’ll hang out again soon,” I promised him. “If you want to, anyway.”

“Of course I want to.” He chuckled and ran a hand through his curls. “Alright, hurry up and get out before I lock the doors and kidnap you.”

I grinned at him. “Bye, Harry.”

“Bye. I’ll text you later.”

I nodded as I slammed the door shut and scampered in front of the car to get on the sidewalk. The air was hot and humid outside, and I was thankful that I had slept in shorts the night before.

With that thought, I stopped and muttered, “Shit,” under my breath. I’d forgotten my sweatshirt at Harry’s.

Good thing I didn’t need it, I guessed.

I walked toward my driveway, my face already starting to break out in a light sheen of sweat, and saw Jenny waiting in her car. She was staring straight ahead, tapping some unknown beat against the steering wheel.

Smirking a little, I leaned over and knocked on her window.

She screamed, the sound barely audible through her enclosed car, and slapped a hand over her heart. Angrily, she pulled the key out of the ignition and threw the door open, nearly crashing it into my arm.

“FOR FUCK’S SAKE, LEIGH,” she screeched. “You scared the shit out of me!”

I laughed and motioned for her to quiet her voice. “If my dad hears you, he’s not going to let me hang out with you anymore.”

“Leigh, the man thinks I have Chlamydia. He’s not going to care that I swear. And I don’t think I swear any more than you do.”

“But he doesn’t know I swear,” I responded with raised eyebrows. “And he better not find out from any lovely friends of mine.”

She grinned and made a big deal of zipping her lips and throwing away the key as we walked up to the front door.

“By the way,” she whispered to me as I started walking into my house, “you still have to tell me more details about Harry.”

I blushed and shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Maybe what?” Dad asked, entering the kitchen with a coffee mug in one hand and a rolled-up newspaper in the other. I always used to tell him that the news was online, that ordering a paper was no longer needed, but he was kind of technology challenged.

“Nothing,” I responded casually. “Hi, Dad.”

“Hey.” He looked over at Jenny and laughed, shaking his head as he put his mug in the sink. “God, can you guys go ten seconds without seeing each other?”

“Of course,” I answered. “There are times when we have to go to the bathroom. Then we can go, like, three whole minutes without seeing each other. It’s hard, but we make it through.”

Dad rolled his eyes and snickered. “And I was wondering why you guys were sitting out in the driveway so long. It seemed like you guys were sitting there for ten minutes.”

Jenny laughed a little too loudly, and I silenced her with an elbow to the side. “I was trying to convince her to come in, even though she said she had to shower.”

Dad’s eyebrows pulled together as he turned toward my friend. “Jenny, you know you can always use our shower. You basically live here, anyway.”

She gave my father a tight smile as she tucked a lock of straight, light blonde hair behind her ear. “Yeah, I know. But I always kind of feel bad for tying up your bathroom.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, lord.” And then he left.

I let out a sigh of relief, feeling my entire body slump forward with the weight of the lie I told him.

“I was right,” Jenny expressed as we walked into my bedroom, shutting the door behind her. “You are turning into a badass. You just lied to your dad like it was nothing.”

“It wasn’t nothing,” I argued. “It feels like shit. I should probably tell him about Harry soon.”

“Maybe he’ll get worried you have Chlamydia, since you’re kind of jumping from guy to guy,” Jenny pointed out as she lied down on my bed, staring at my ceiling as she pulled one of my pillows into her chest.

“What is it with you and Chlamydia?” I questioned, ignoring the second part of her statement for the moment.

“Did you know that koalas spread Chlamydia more than any other animal?”

I blinked. “Actually, yes. That doesn’t explain your fascination, though.”

“I dunno. It’s just the most fun to say, I guess.” She shrugged and sighed.

“You’re strange,” I informed her. As if she didn’t already know. “But anyway, there’s no way my father’s going to think that about me. Because I didn’t sleep with Harry.”

“I know,” Jenny groaned.

“Okay, first you infer that I’m a slut by saying that even my father would assume that I’m getting STD’s, and now you’re all frustrated because I didn’t have sex with Harry?”

“Yes. I’m a complicated girl. Try to keep up.”

I shook my head and let out a long breath. “I don’t think keeping up is possible. I might as well as quit while I’m ahead.”

“But you’re behind.”

“Whatever!” I laughed, throwing my hands up in fake exasperation. “God, you drive me nuts.”

“Oh, I know. But you love me. Now sit.” She patted the space next to her on the bed a couple of times, grinning at me. “Tell me all the details about Harry. How much does he make you melt?”

I flushed at her statement, but followed her directions anyway before telling her all the details I hadn’t filled her in on before. Which basically meant Harry making pancakes and almost sneaking some blueberries into my pancakes, me slapping the container out of his hand and getting the small fruits all over the floor, eating breakfast, watching a couple episodes of Big Bang Theory, and a lot of kissing.

“Does that freak you out?” Jenny asked me softly, as if talking to a frightened animal. “How quickly you’re moving with him? I mean…you and Jared didn’t even kiss until three weeks into the relationship or something.”

I bit on my lip for a second before shaking my head. “No. For some reason, it doesn’t freak me out. I think…God, this is going to sound cheesy as all hell, but I think the connection between Harry and me is stronger than any connection I ever had with Jared. It’s almost like…It’s like Harry and I are fate.”

Jenny squealed and threw her arms around me. “I fucking told you this was a chick flick!”

“Oh, lord,” I chuckled. “So what about you? That Darren kid?”

She rolled her eyes. “I dunno. Why don’t you ask his girlfriend? His girlfriend of two years, by the way.”

“Ouch,” I winced. “It’s alright. You’ll find someone else.”

“All I have to do is pass my summer school course,” she sighed. “And then I can apply to college for the spring semester.”

I patted her knee a couple of times. “You can do it,” I encouraged. “Just forget about that boy.”

“Even if he was beautiful.”

“Yes, even if he was beautiful.”