Books On Hold

In A Heart Beat- Chapter Nine

"It's, It's- It's" I stuttered at the remarkable seen before me. "Jake this is too remarkable for words to describe."

"Enchanting? Magical? Gorgeous? Magnificent? Pulchritudinous?" he teased, placing himself down beside me.

"Pulchritudinous? What, do you read the dictionary daily or something?

"Nahh, usually like every other day unless I'm feeling extra daring, then I'll read it every day" he said playfully. I laughed leaning back farther to look at him in the eyes. Suddenly, a flash of reality struck me. I was here with a boy I had just met this morning. Why? I haven't even talked to anyone from school in five years and now suddenly I'm comfortable laying here in a boys lap.

"Why did you take me here?" I blurted out before I could take a moment to think.

"What?"

"Why did you take me, of all people, here? It's obviously special to you"

"Abigail you really don't understand me do you?" he snorted. "I brought you her because there's just something about you that's intriguing. I just want to explore your mind. Figure you out. Open you up."

"I sound like a book" I giggled, adjusting my body so I  could comfortably watch his face.

"Abigail you're not like all the other girls out there"

"So I've been told" I teased, grabbing his hand and placing my own in his lap.

"What I mean is, there's something about you that makes me believe that we're going to be good friends for a long, long time"

"Who said we're friends?" I giggled, stroking his fingers. "Maybe I actually hate you. You never know" I burst out laughing at how ridiculous I have been sounding. He laughed along with me, tears streaming down our faces at how stupid I've been talking. After a few minutes of laughter had gone by we were back to silence. I began to pluck pieces of grass from the meadow we were laying in. How perfect was this moment? Daddy would be so proud of me right now. I was opening up, I was actually letting new people back into my life. "Tomorrow's my birthday." I blurted out randomly.

"Well happy early birthday then!" he laughed stroking my hair which had become partly tangled from laying in his lap.

"Thanks, but I was wondering if you'd like to maybe help me set up before my party and hang out or something?" I mumbled.

"That sounds like fun, sure I'll come and help out" he decided.

"Really?" I sighed, relieved.

"Yeah! I'll walk you home again and then I'll help you and your friends set up!" he suggested, brushing my hair away from my face. Friends. Great, he thinks I have other friends. He's going to get to my party expecting to be introduced to some preppy, excited girls, but I have no one to introduce him to. No friends whatsoever, unless you include my dog BamBam.  

"Oh, um it'll just be you. I don't really. It'll just be you coming to help." I stuttered, helplessly avoiding eye contact. It was nice for one day to just be friends with an amazing guy without him thinking I was the weird girl with no friends. It's time to open up to this boy a little more. "Listen Jake, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm just going to be blatantly honest. I have no other friends except for you. You're probably the first person I've opened up to, even just this much, in like five years. I hit some rough patches when my father died and I still haven't really recovered, but I'm working on getting there." I began to shake and could feel tears springing to my eyes. "This isn't easy for me to be saying. I've lost a lot of relationships with people over the years and, and well yeah, I am afraid of losing you too. Heck, I've only really known you for a day but yeah I'm afraid that you're going to leave just like everyone else. It's all I know." I whipped a few tears that started to gather underneath my eye. "Losing daddy happened in a heart beat, everything from then on was instantly shattered and flipped upside down. Never to be the same-"