Three Days to Fall in Love

The Party

1 day

At five till seven, there's a knock at the door.

My mom beats me to it. She swings it wide open. "Hello," she greets. She is smiling like a mad woman.

I cringe at her weirdness and stand up. I walk up behind her. I see that Parker is on the other side of the door.

"Hi, Ms. Moore."

"You must be here to take Quinn out. She kind of never goes out with friends or people. She's always studying and I always tell her to live a little."

"Mom, I'm right here."

"Oops. Anyway, she's always been a little awkward. She came home one day from fourth grade wiping at her lips because some guy kissed her. I was laughing and congratulating her and she told me that a guy will just get in the way of the novel she was writing." My mom begins to laugh. Parker smiles a bit.

I groan.

"I'm still standing right behind you, you know?"

Parker looks past my mom, at me. "You were writing a novel?"

"She finished it," my mom says. "It was pretty good."

"I'm gonna leave now." I push past my mom and out the door. "Bye."

"Keep her out past midnight," my mom yells. "That poor child made herself go to sleep at, like, eight every night."

I roll my eyes, walking past Parker and to his car.

"I'll try," he tells my mom. "It was nice meeting you."

My front door slams shut and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Sorry about her. She can get a little weird at times."

"It's no big deal," Parker says. His face lights up in a smile. "I'm sorry that I almost got in the way of your writing."

"It's no big deal," I laugh awkwardly before stepping into his air conditioned car. I didn't realize it was so hot outside until I felt this drastic change. It feels nice.

"Have you ever been to a party?" Parker asks while driving down my street.

"You heard my mom. I've never done something like this."

"Not with Alexis?" he asks.

"Nope. We aren't the partying type. We stick to binge watching Netflix. Movies, TV shows, documentaries, whatever." I shrug my shoulders, as if going to parties never even crossed my mind.

But it has.

"Do you go to a lot of parties?" I ask.

"Not as many as people would like to think. I've maybe been to three. Oliver always invites me since him and Henry are cousins."

"You only go to Henry's?"

"Yeah. His is probably the safest party you'll go to." He sighs and pushes his hair back. "I mean, there's no, like, drugs and he keeps the noise level down."

"Okay," I say softly.

He parks the car on an empty street.

"I'm sorry," he says. His forehead falls onto his steering wheel and he lets out yet another sigh.

"What for?" I ask. Maybe I'm being brave, but I'm pretty sure that I'm just not thinking. I place a hand on his arm.

"Taking you here. I'd rather have taken you to some place nicer but I promised Oliver."

"It's all right. It's not an ideal place to have a nice chat, but I've never been to a party. It'll be . . . fun?"

"It won't be fun." Parker lifts his head and looks at me. He smiles a little. "But we can try and make it better."

He steps out of his car and makes his way around it to my door. He opens it and stretches out his hand. I grab it so he can help me up. He, surprisingly, doesn't let go. We walk around the street corner and to a house.

People are in the yard doing who knows what. We walk up the front steps to the door.

"Ready for your first party, Quinn Moore?"

"Ready as I'll ever be, Parker Finn."

He opens the door and the nasty stench of alcohol overtakes me.

Loud but, like Parker said, not too loud music blasts through speakers.

He leads me inside and does that weird head nod greeting to a few of his friends. We pass by the kitchen and he offers me a drink.

"I don't drink," I say.

"I don't either," he laughs. "Want to go somewhere quieter?"

I nod my head in response.

Still holding my hand, he walks to the stairs and up them. He goes to a door on our left and unlocks it with just his finger.

"It's his sister's room. Henry doesn't let people in it to . . . you know?"

"I get it," I say while we walk into it.

Parker locks it back up and sits on the floor. I follow suit and sit facing him.

"Wanna talk?" he asks.

"About what?" I ask, while playing with a loose thread on my pants.

"Life. How's it going?"

"Good. I mean, my mom has always been crazy even before my dad . . . And I've always been studious but it got worse after that so she always brings it up as a joke. That's what she was doing today. I'm sorry about that."

"I'm sorry about your father." Parker looks down at the floor.

"Thank you, but it's okay. I mean, we'll never get over his passing but I don't know . . ." I look down too, bite my lip, and try not to cry.

"I'm sorry I asked to talk," Parker says.

"Don't apologize," I laugh. "We've both been apologizing all night."

Parker scoots closer to me. He leans towards me.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he says. With each word, he leans closer and closer. "Sorry." He leans his head down and captures my lips with his own.

At first, it catches me off guard. But then, I return the kiss. I've never really kissed a guy before. I don't even know if I'm doing it right. But I just follow his lead.

Our kiss deepens until I'm pressed against some twelve year olds bed frame and Parker's hands are just under the hem of my shirt. I pull away.

I never knew that my second kiss would be with the guy who was my first kiss and would turn into some heated make out session.

"I'm sorry," he whispers.

"I'm not like that," I tell him.

"I'm not either," he says, his voice almost questioning.

"Oh," is all I manage to get out.

He stands up. "Oh?" he repeats.

"Well . . . There's these, um, rumors."

"That's what they are," Parker spits out. "Rumors. I knew that you would've heard them by now."

"They're not true?" I ask.

"No. I've had two girlfriends. Kissed one of them, maybe, five times before she broke up with me. She started talking about me like - like that."

"I'm sorry."

"I should take you home."

-

This is a verrrry long chapter for this short story. Oops. I tried to keep it under a thousand words, I failed. But we learn that Quinn doesn't have the best life and that Parker has been ruined by rumors and that they were each other's first kiss aw.