Pastries, Tats, and Memories

Fourteen

"After about a month or so, Dalton asked you to be he his girlfriend and you guys started dating," my mom finishes off her turn of confessing.

        Kiva then picks up by saying, more to my mom than to me and Dalton, "Yes, I distinctly remember the date, too."

        Dalton utters the date before she can, "February fifth, 2011?" He only says it slightly as a question with knowing and heat dominating his tone of voice.

Kiva and my mom's eyes both spring up from the coffee table between us to look at him. "Yes," they answer in unison.

        Dalton's mom takes in a breath before saying, "Well, even after the second you guys met, you were inseparable!" My mom chuckles and nods in agreement with Kiva. Dalton squeezes my hand and I stroke his thumb in return. The hair on his arm tickles my own arm and it gives me goosebumps everywhere.

"Oh," Kiva sighs. "You two were something else." Her eyes flick between me and Dalton.

        "Then why did you keep us from each other?" Dalton bursts out. He doesn't exactly sound irritated, but he's on the brink of it.

        "We'll get to that," his mom scolds him. Dalton leans back a little and his eyes shift to the floor. "There's a few things we need to explain before you'll understand."

        "Okay, go on," Dalton prompts. I choke his palm because I'm scared that at any moment her words could tear me apart. Tear me and Dalton apart. I lean into his arm and he reciprocates by placing his right hand on my right forearm with our hands still linked between us.

        "A year or so passes and you've stayed together the entire time. No on and off nonsense, a solid year. You were both about to graduate," she stops to look at me before saying, "you were about to turn 18, and I think it was very obvious to all of us what would happen after that." I peer down at the tattoo on my ring finger. Ever since I saw Dalton's matching mark I'd guessed that it was a promise, or engagement ring. Maybe even that we were married, but I still wasn't sure. Kiva licks and bites her bottom lip nervously before saying, "You aren't married, if that's what you're thinking."

        Me and Dalton both look at her dead on waiting for her to finish. "Then what?" He asks impatiently.

        She pauses and, when she finds the words she was looking for, begins, "This is what happened:"

Five Years Ago (Dalton's POV):

"Are you ready for this?" I asked Dakota as I watched her gown flick and wave in the wind. Mine did the same. Our caps and gowns would've been identical if our school didn't have the girls wear white and the guys wear blue.

When her eyes met mine she confidently said, "I'm ready for anything as long as you're by my side." That made me smirk. Okay, fine, I straight up smiled all cheesy-like at her.

We were lined up and about to walk onto the field to receive our diplomas. I was nervous and excited at the same time, but Dakota was right. I was ready for anything as long as she was with me. We'd been together for almost a year and a half by then, and I already knew that I wanted to marry her. There was no doubt about it. I didn't have a ring, college goals, a job, or even a plan to gain all of those things. I knew me and her would figure it out one way or another, though.

I'd ask her when the moment felt right. Don't get me wrong, every moment with Dakota was perfect. But a question like that, the moment had to be special, more special than all the moments before.

Suddenly, the graduation walk song began to play and I could see the front of the line begin to move. Dakota turned around to face me. "Dalton, I don't feel good," she whimpered. Man, her nerves were really crazy, I thought.

Placing my hands around her shoulders, I started to massage her back and neck. "You'll be okay. I'm here, remember?" I tried my best to sooth her rampant mind, whatever it was thinking. I could tell I made her smile because, even though I couldn't see her face, I saw her glasses shift a bit on her ear.

After the ceremony and commencement speech, we went out with our family's and had a pretty good time. We both went to our separate homes only to wait until our parents went to sleep to meet up for the second time that night.

"Twenty-five more seconds until you're 18," I told her as I watched the clock on my phone. It was inching closer and closer to 12:00 AM and I'd promised to be with her the second she turned 18.

She laughed and huddled up next to me. We were in the backyard of her house, hidden around where the gate of her neighbor met hers. When we both saw that there were only ten seconds left, it was like New Years. We started counting down together. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four," We got louder and louder with each count. "Three, two-" and on "one!" I turned and kissed her hard on the lips.

Dakota moaned into my mouth. I always loved it when she did that. So, I pressed her up against the wooden fence and let my hand dive underneath her dress to explore her. She practically screamed when my hand brushed her underwear. That made me laugh a little bit, but I had to muffle the sound of her reaction with my tongue. She was so sensitive, so perfect.

We'd only just had sex together about a month prior. It was the first time for both of us, but surely wasn't our last. We'd been sneaking out practically every night ever since. Being with her was like an out of body experience. Actually, I take that back, being with Dakota was an out of this universe experience. When I say 'being with', I don't mean just when we're touching each other, not even when I touched her the way I was right then. 'Being with' as in just being in her presence.

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