Love Like This

3

[A/N] Thank you all so much for reading this collection of short stories. I hope you had as much fun reading them as I had writing them :)

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Juliana sits outside on the cement steps of her front porch, sipping from a can of soda. It didn't take long for Paige to fully recover and get back to riding her scooter. This time, though, Juliana took the initiative off sweeping those pesky pebbles along the shoulder of the road into one giant pile. Now, there's no way Paige will fall that way again.

"Howdy!" Juliana looks up from her book, fully recognizing the deep voice. Squinting, she spots Anders emerging from his house and walking across the street to her. He high-fives Paige while she speeds by him before tipping his hat at Juliana. "How are ya doing today, miss?"

"I'm perfectly content, thank you for asking," she replies as her heart beats faster inside of her chest. That good, ole-fashioned Southern greeting never gets old to her. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good, too. Your teachers here give out way too much homework," he says, sitting down next to her. Their arms brush, and Juliana feels a shiver run down her back.

"And you're telling me," she laughs, shaking the book in her hands. "I'm only on page one."

"Well, that's a start. 'Catcher in the Rye' isn't all that bad of a story, though."

Juliana hums, shielding her eyes from the sunlight. "It's so hard to do school work on a day like today. It's too beautiful and nice out."

"I agree," he replies, placing his hat on her head. "Does this help with the sun?"

"Yes, actually. It functions quiet well as a shield," Juliana replies, turning a bit red. Was that his special way of hinting at his feelings for her? Or is she thinking into this simple act of friendship too much?

The pair sits in a comfortable silence as they watch Paige ride up and down the street. Juliana suddenly smiles to herself, scooting a tiny bit closer to Anders. Even though their friendship has lasted only a few weeks so far, she feels comfortable around him.

The rest of the afternoon passed by in a furious blur, and day quickly melted into night. Juliana hunches over her desk inside of her bedroom, sketching a picture of a face. She's not sure whether it will be a woman or a man yet, but that's the beauty of art; you get to make your own rules.

At first, the noise sounds like a slight plinking sound, like rain falling softly on the pain of a windowsill. Juliana ignores the noise and continues working on her drawing. Gradually, the noise becomes more aggressive and louder, turning into an urgent knocking sound on the glass.

Suspicious and confused, Juliana turns off her lamp and opens the curtains. She scans the perimeter of the block, looking for anything that's moving. The night is still, and nothing even so much as budges. Suddenly, a pebble hits the window with a short-lived ping. She follows the invisible trajectory of the rock with her eyes and finds Anders standing by the mailbox.

Juliana unlocks the window and shoves it open. "Anders, what the heck are you doing out here?"

"Howdy! I wanted to cordially invite you to take a swim with me."

Juliana glances at the lock hanging crookedly over her desk. "At 11 o' clock at night?"

"Well, if that's what time it is, then yes."

Juliana pauses, biting her lip. Of course she'd like to join him no matter what the set of activities would be. However, she's unsure if she can sneak out of the house undetected. "Okay, stay right there," she yells in replies. "I'll be right out."

Closing the window and shutting the curtains, Juliana races to retrieve her bathing suit from her closet. After slipping it on, she quietly tip-toes downstairs, skipping the squeaky last step. With her keys in hand, she maneuvers around the first floor, slipping out of the house without any encounters with her family members.

Anders is still standing by the mailbox with nothing but a pair of swimming trunks and a cowboy hat on. "Glad you could make it," he smiles, eyes flicking over her body. Juliana's heart beats faster in response.

"May I ask why we're going for a swim so late at night?"

"Because I just discovered that a small stream runs through my backyard, and I thought you'd be up for a little adventure."

He hit the nail square on the head with that inference.

Juliana follows Anders through his front lawn and around the back of his house. Nothing but a blanket of trees coats the edge of his backyard. Anders carves a path in the trees with the flashlight on his phone, leading her to a small stream.

"Woah, it's dark back here."

"That's why I brought these," he replies, flicking on a couple of camping lanterns he must have pre-placed on rocks around the stream.

Juliana smiles, heading towards the river-stream hybrid of a waterway. She feels Anders' warm body behind her, practically willing her to just jump right in.

So she does. And, boy, is the water cold! But Juliana feels Anders' hand slip into her own, and she knows for certain that he likes her, too.

When they both emerge from the freezing cold water, they laugh. "We're crazy," Juliana says, laughing. Her hand is still intertwined with his.

"A fun type of crazy, though, right, partner?" Anders asks, lifting their hands out of the water with an earnest smile.

Juliana takes it that this is his special way of asking her out and grins back at him. "Yeah," she replies as he kisses the back of her hand. "We're partners."

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