The Kick Back

Alone Together

The crowd that had once plagued Water's Edge that night had slowly disappeared. Suddenly, we were the only two left on the shore. I looked around, nervous, yet thankful. I hadn't been alone with her since the first night at the lake. Something felt different about this night. My palms were sweaty, my heart was beating crazy fast. I almost felt like I would pass out if she looked at me too hard. She turned to me and made eye contact, which needless to say made my condition a whole lot worse.

"Are you nervous?" she asked me in a low tone. I looked at the water, the moonlight laid a glow on top of it. The breeze felt beautiful and the stars had never shined brighter in the sky. I looked at her and smiled. "I was but not anymore. It's somethin about bein alone with you. I don't wanna move too fast but I don't know if i can take it too slow either." Our chemistry was unspeakable, and only time would tell what that really meant. For the moment, I knew I was into her. The more she plagued my mind, the more my body wanted her. I respected her though. I wanted to know her mind a little more before I even tried to take it there.

"I feel the same way. It's something about you that makes me trust you. I don't wanna move too fast. Aside from that, I've never done it." she confessed, making sure she avoided eye contact with me. It almost seemed like she was ashamed of it or afraid that it would turn me away from her. Usually, I wouldn't even dream of messing with a virgin. I hadn't been a virgin for 4 years and in that four years, I learned a lot about taking virginities. There was a lot of fumbling around that I wasn't willing to do. But for her, I entertained the thought.

"It's okay to be a virgin, sweetie." I told her as i placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. She looked up at me and smiled. "Most people question me when I tell them that. They don't believe me. But I've been through a lot of things that pretty much kept me from having sex." she said. I nodded, thinking to myself that it was something else that we had in common. Only, the things that happened to me hadn't turned me off of sex, it turned me off of relationship and getting close to people in general. I didn't trust anybody. Hell, I barely trusted my friends.

"I know what you mean. It's hard to find somebody you can trust and even when you do, sometimes they just fakin the funk." I told her, rubbing her back to make her feel more comfortable with me. I looked down at my watch, once again time was against us. I didn't care though. I wasn't looking forward to goin back home to my mother and it didn't seem like she was in any rush to make it home either.

"Maybe one day you'll tell me about some of those things." I said. She looked at me and smiled. "When the time is right, that'll happen." she replied, laying her head on my shoulder. "I just wish we could be together all the time. I feel so safe with you, Antonio." she told me, stroking my hand in that familiar way again.

"Me too. Until then, I wanna do whatever I can to see you. And I do know one thing, I'm not gone wanna hide it forever either." I stated boldly and firmly. Yeah she was an east sider and yeah according to my people, it was wrong to be with her. We risked makin what they call a 'mut' together and procreating with any one of 'them,' would have you exiled and probably even beaten to within an inch of your life in my hood. The more than I hung around Stephanie, the more that I got to know about her, I was more and more willing to take those risks.

"Me either." she said quietly. I felt like it was the perfect time to make my move. I didn't want her to feel pressured so I took it as slowly as possible. I placed my index and middle fingers under her chin and leaned in for a kiss. Surprisingly, she welcomed it, pulling my bottom lip between both of hers and then the top. I felt a rush of energy flow through me that had never been there before. It was almost like electricity when our lips met. It seemed like the kiss lasted forever, although it only lasted about thirty seconds. Finally, she found the will to pull away from me. She looked around and then looked down at her watch. "I better get home." she said, staring at me as if she didn't wanna go. "Me too. You know how people act on the fourth especially when it's this late." I stood up and helped her to her feet. We shared one last hug. "Call me." she told me, which was the usual. We never said too much before we departed, we just wanted to know that we would hear from and see each other again.

"Will do." I told her with a smile. She folded up her blanket and made her way across the sand towards the parking lot. I knew it was going to be long walk home for her and possibly dangerous. But she and I both knew that being caught together that night would surely lead to one or the both of us being seriously hurt. I decided that I'd follow her as far as I could, just to make sure she at least made it to the edge of her neighborhood safely. I threw my hoodie up and started off behind her, thinking about the time we had spent alone together.