The next morning I awoke to the sound of the shower shutting off. I sat up in bed and stretched. The bathroom door opened and John entered wearing nothing but a towel. It was my turn to stare, I had never seen such a perfectly formed human being.
“Oh, I thought you were still asleep. I’m just going to grab some clothes.” He grabbed some clothes and went back into the bathroom. I sat on the bed stunned, I still could not believe what I just saw. John returned fully clothed and I went into the bathroom to shower. I couldn’t stop thinking about John in that towel. Before I even noticed I had showered and dressed in the clothes from the day before. We ordered room service and Robby and Mike came in to say goodbye. They had earlier flights than John.
While we waited, I called my grandma to find out where mom was.
“Gramma?”
“Wynter, is that you?”
“Yeah, gramma.”
“We were so worried about you.”
“I’m sorry, I should have called sooner.”
“That’s okay, honey. Are you okay?”
“Gramma, I can’t go back home now. She’s too far gone. I can’t take it anymore.”
“Wynter, I know, honey. Why don’t you come and live with me and gramps?”
“I can’t, she’ll come over all the time if she knows I’m there. I’m going to stay with Ivy. I’ll be okay. They have a spare room.”
“As long as you’re safe.”
“I will be. Where is she now?”
“Here, hun, she’s asleep.”
“Can you keep her there? I need to go home and pack some stuff. The last thing I need is another run in with her.”
“She said she wasn’t going to leave until you called. She knew you would. I just won’t tell her you called.”
“Thank you so much gramma. I’ll call you soon.”
“All right hun. Goodbye.”
“I love you. Tell gramps the same.”
“We love you too.”
I hung up the phone right as the room service arrived. Over a quick breakfast I told John what grandma had said. We decided to leave right after breakfast, we didn’t want to take any chances. We finished our breakfast quickly and headed out to the car.
It was still too early to do much talking, I was incredibly thankful that John was not a morning person. I turned on KTCL and turned it up when I heard Oleander. Being that it was a Sunday morning there wasn’t much traffic, so we got to my house rather quickly.
I unlocked the door and did a quick search of the house to make sure mom still wasn’t there. After finding no trace of her, John and I climbed up to my room. I was rather impressed when I found my room still untouched, I really expected mom to go through it this time. I turned on my radio and begun digging through my closet for bags to pack my stuff in. I tossed each duffel bag and suitcase I ran across to John, who layed them out on the bed. When I was satisfied that I had them all, I began taking clothes off hangers. John and I went through my room folding all my clothes and sticking them into suitcases. Miraculously, we managed to get all my clothes in two suitcases. We put them by the door and I started in on my make-up and jewelry.
We packed everything I deemed necessary for surviving the next three weeks. After that I would come back with grandma and box up the rest. I set the last bag by the door and turned around to find John staring at a picture of himself.
“Is it weird looking at a picture of you from a magazine on someone else’s wall?”
“A little. I’m just surprised someone actually took the time to cut it out and put it on their wall.” I was standing next to him now.
“Well, your fans love you.”
“Do they?” He said looking down into my eyes.
“Very much,” I said holding his stare. You could get lost in his eyes, they were like the light reflected off the ocean in the middle of a cloudy day. Light blue with a little gray. He leaned down and kissed me, a deep, passionate kiss. My senses came alive and every nerve in my body tingled. I laid down on my bed pulling him down with me. As he kissed down my neck and over the front of my shirt, I pulled the drawer of my bedside table open. I fished around until I found the small, square, foil packet and then closed my drawer. He pulled up my shirt and began kissing his way back up my stomach. “So much for not taking any chances,” I thought, and pulled him back up to my mouth. The first chords of “Crash” floated from my radio, as I forgot all about my mother and my problem.
I woke up two hours later in John’s arms.
“Oh shit.” I shook John gently, “John, hun, we gotta get out of here.” He moved around and moaned a little. “Come on, babe, up and at ‘em.”
“All right, all right. I’m gettin’ up.” I pulled myself out of my bed and began digging through the pile of clothes for mine. John just laid in my bed. I got dressed and began throwing John’s clothes at him. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” he whined.
“Getting you up,” I said as I walked over to the bed.
“Oh really.” He grabbed my wrists and pulled me over him onto the bed. He tried to kiss me but I turned my head to the side.
“Huh-uh. Not until you get out of this bed and get dressed.”
“Okay.” He stood up to get dressed and I leaned against the head board to watch him.
“So when do you leave?” He stopped with his shirt on his arms.
“Late tonight.” He pulled on his shirt.
“Do you want me to take you to the airport?” I would do anything to spend more time with him. He walked over and pulled me off the bed into a hug.
“I don’t want to leave you,” he whispered into my hair.
“Then don’t”
“I have to, we have some shows to do. But, if you come live in Manhattan after graduation we’ll have a few weeks before I tour.”
“Okay. It’s only three weeks. We have to leave now.” He pulled out of my hair and looked into my eyes. I ran my fingers through his soft, shaggy, blond hair and pulled him down to kiss me. We pulled apart and breathlessly stared at one another for a moment, then we picked up my bags and left.
We went to Ivy’s house to drop off my bags. John and I loaded ourselves down with my bags and walked up to the door. Before I even had a chance to knock, Ivy yanked open the door.
“Wynter!” she yelled, throwing her arms around me and causing me to drop all the bags I was holding. I laughed as I hugged her back.
“Nice to see you too.”
“I haven’t seen you in such a long time.”
“It’s been two days, Ivy.”
“Well, it felt like longer. Come on in. We’ll put your stuff away.” She motioned for me to follow her into the house. “Mom and dad decided to extend their vacation for another three weeks. They’ll be home the day before graduation, so we have the house to ourselves.” Ivy’s parents are rich, so they were always going on vacations. This time they were on a cruise in the Carribean.
“Cutting it kinda close, aren’t they?”
“They always do.” Ivy had gotten used to her parents neglect, just as I had. It was one of the things that had brought us so close. We met in second grade, neither of us got along with our classmates. We got along with each other just fine. When her parents were out of town or my mother was drinking, we would spend the night together.
We walked into the guest room on the second floor at the front of her house. I set down my bags and suddenly realized that John was there.
“Oh John, this is Ivy. Ivy this is John.”
“Hi,” John said extending his hand.
“Hi,” Ivy said grabbing his hand and pulling him into a hug. “Well, I’ll leave you alone to unpack. I’ve got a lot of homework, so I’ll be in my room all night if you need me.” Ivy winked at me as she pulled the door closed.
“She seems nice.”
“She’s great,” I said as I collapsed with a sigh on the bed. John jumped on the double bed next to me. He leaned on his elbow staring into my eyes, he reached up and brushed a piece of hair away from my face. He leaned over and kissed me gently. It suddenly occurred to me how little time I had left with him before he went home. I pushed him over and got on top of him. I kissed him hard as I struggled with the buttons on his shirt and pants. Luckily, I had had the forethought to stick some condoms in my pockets. Reacting to my sudden surge of forcefulness, John began tugging at my clothes.
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