[Teen and New Adult Romance]
"Life as a trailer trash kid is nothing short of shitty, especially when the love of my life pretends that I don't exist."
River wants two things: to get out of Gladstone and to be with the boy from her childhood. With h...
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****River at Fifteen****
I kept close to Kaleb's side as he led me back to his house. We'd had a great time together at Jordan's party. Some people had acted like complete whack jobs after drinking what little alcohol they had, but that kind of behavior was to be expected.
"Do you care if I sleep in the dock apartment with you tonight?" Kaleb asked.
"No. That would be awesome." I smiled at Kaleb, glad I didn't have to go home tonight.
"It'll be a lot better than the time we stayed in our tree fort." Kaleb started laughing.
"You barely even stayed there. Once the mosquitos came out, you ran home like a little baby." I teased, knocking my shoulder into his arm.
"So what? You went home too. Those bugs were ridiculous." Kaleb started laughing.
I smiled, shaking my head. "I didn't go home for the night. I just went home to tell my mom I was staying the night at a friend's house, and I grabbed my sleeping bag and a few things for the night."
"At least Vinny wasn't living with you then," Kaleb muttered. "I hate that guy."
"Me too." I nodded, angry that Vinny had taken all my mom's attention. The longer Vinny was around, the more my mother didn't seem to care about me. She used to make sure I ate and had clean clothes, but that changed drastically after Vinny used what little money he had to take us to the water park.
The back of Kaleb's hand lightly grazed mine as we walked into his backyard toward the dock apartment I'd been staying in for the last two weeks. I swung my hand a little faster, wanting to touch him again.
Kaleb glanced at me with a smile and wrapped his hand around mine, holding tight. I squeezed his hand as tingles washed over me. I smiled at him bashfully as we made eye contact. Even though it was dark, under the moonlight, it looked like he was blushing too.
Flutters filled my stomach as I thought about him sleeping beside me for the night. Since the day I met Kaleb, I'd slowly fallen in love with him, and no amount of distance could change how I felt about him. I'd given him my heart, and there was no going back from that. Deep down, I knew I would never want anyone as much as I wanted Kaleb Cole. No one else would ever measure up.
After all the days we'd spent together, this was the first time we'd ever held hands. The feeling of his warm hand in mine was a promise that he would protect me no matter what, and I would do the same for him. Did this mean we were boyfriend and girlfriend now? I hoped so, but I wasn't sure. Maybe we could talk about it later.
With my free hand, I checked my back pocket for the hundredth time. Kaleb's gift was still there. He'd gotten me my first cell phone the week before, and I couldn't have been more grateful.
"I need to go inside to grab some things." Kaleb turned toward me and squeezed my hand harder.
"Hurry back. I'll miss you while you're gone." I joked, giving him my pouty face.
