"And you must be home by nine," Dad said for the hundredth time.
"Ten," Mom corrected in the background.
"Nine-thirty," Dad compromised.
"I get it, Dad. Bye, love you," I waved goodbye and closed the front door behind me. I gave a sigh of relief. Finally, I was out.
"He's so intimidating," Travis muttered.
"Oh he is not," I defended. My best friend gave me a "really?" look. I slapped his arm playfully. We hopped into his green Truck and drove off. A few of our friends were having a bonfire tonight, so we were going to hang out.
"I don't think he likes me," Travis said.
"You're my best friend, so I'm sure he doesn't have a huge problem with you," I said.
"I think your father would prefer if your best friend was female," Travis turned his blinker on and steered the car down a new road.
"How many times do I have to tell you you're fine," I huffed, "Why would it matter?"
"You're clueless," Travis chuckled as he turned the country radio up, one of our favorite songs came on, Down to the Honky Tonk by Jake Owen. We bobbed our heads and sang along way too loud and way out of key.
"Here we are," Travis put the car in park at our friend Emily's house. When we went out back to where smoke rose from a fire pit, we saw four other teenagers already sitting there.
"Carmen! Travis! Hey guys!" Emily's peppy voice rang. We took a seat down and talked for a while. The other teens there were Kendall, Mason, and Aveen.
We played dumb games and I kept sneaking glances at Travis for some reason and he did the same to me. Emily sighed and pulled out her phone for a minute.
I got a text message from her in my group chat called Triple Dummy Groupie with her and Kendall.
Oh my gosh! Carmen! Make an excuse to go into the house. Kendall and I will come in in a minute.
I made eye contact with her and nodded.
"I'm going to the bathroom," I said. Entering the house, I chilled in the kitchen for a minute before Kendall and Emily snuck in.
"What did you want?" I asked. Kendall groaned.
"You two are so annoying!" Emily giggled.
"Me and Kendall?"
"No dummy, you and Travis," Kendall clarified.
"Why?"
"Ugh. You're totally in love and won't admit it!" Emily squealed.
"Oh my gosh not this again," I groaned. Kendall, Emily, Aveen, and Mason have this thing where they like to tease me and Travis and then take pictures of us together and post how we're totally secret "dating". It's so annoying. Honestly I'm not sure how they get some of those pictures of us.
"Come on it would work perfectly. I'm dating Mason so we could have little group dates," Emily said.
"And ruin our amazing clicky friend group? No way. Plus, you're assuming this whole 'group date' thing would involve Aveen and Kendall. And Kendall is dating David," I said.
"While I understand David isn't in our very clicky friend group," Kendall began, "and I would never date Aveen, because dating him would be way weird-"
"Ah-ha! Got you! See? Dating someone in the friend group is weird,"I insisted.
"So you're saying Mason and I are weird?" Emily accused teasingly.
"No! Plus you were dating before our group gathered. I don't know. Travis doesn't even like me like that," I said.
"Oh honey you must be blind as a bat," Emily huffed
"He so likes you. He treats you like a gentleman, unlike to Em and I, and he always has this cute little longing puppy eyes when he looks at you. He's so love sick it's unreal," Kendall ranted.
"I would also venture to point out that you haven't denied a liking of Travis," Emily said.
Shit. I had been hoping they would not notice that.
"You guys are crazy," I rolled my eyes, attempting the whole casual thing.
"She's still not denying it," Kendall giggled.
"I'm going back out there. The boys are gonna think we had a girl congregation," I said.
"That is what we're doing. And anyway I already told Mason," Emily said.
"What?! You told him about all this?" I whined.
"Oh honey, no one needs to tell anyone other than you, an oblivious idiot. The whole world knows he has a thing for you. He's just too shy to admit it and ruin your best friendship of many years," Kendall said.
"Ten years," I corrected, thinking back to how we had met when we were seven, "Now I'm seriously going back out there." I turned and left the kitchen, heading back to the fire.
"What were you guys even doing in there? It's been like ten minutes," Travis chuckled. I blushed. Why?
"Uh-uh nothing," I tripped all over my words. Why did they have to tell me these things! I can't look at him the same!
Before we knew it, it was 9:25.
"Oh my gosh!" I sprang from my lawn chair, "Travis, my dad's gonna kill me. We have to go."
"Aww," Emily pouted.
"Dude, why does your dad give you such an early curfew?" Aveen asked.
"It was supposed to be nine oclock, but my mom made him make it later. 9:30 isn't much better though.
We said our goodbyes and walked back to the car.
"Well that was fun," Travis said, "but now I'm gonna step on the gas really hard because the business end of your dad's gun isn't a place I want to be," Travis said. I just rolled my eyes. The two of us talked about random stuff for a few minutes and I tried to not pay attention to the fact that it was 9:37. We fell into a silence as a new song played. It was Kiss Somebody by Morgan Evans.
I suddenly felt uncomfortable as the lyrics came out of the speakers. I tried not to focus on the fact that Travis had tensed just as much. What was wrong with me?
Sometimes you gotta kiss somebody. In the back of a cab or a subway train. Sometimes you gotta kiss somebody. On a midnight street in the summer rain.
I cringed. Why?
Seriously, chill Carmen, I thought. We both kept stealing glances at each other and I hated when we made eye contact.
Finally, the song came to an end. I gave a small sigh of relief. Travis relaxed a bit too. We had heard that song a million times! Why was it suddenly weird? And why was I getting butterflies?
A new and upbeat song came on, Paradise to Me by Nico Moon, and the happy tune put me in a better place. But we were still glancing at each other.
At glance-and-make-awkward-eye-contact-number- 47, Travis muttered, "Screw it," and pulled off to the side of the road. It was a quiet street surrounded by trees and a small, grassy field. One more turn up fifty feet and you were on my road.
We looked at each other again and this time, we didn't break eye contact. Instead, our lips met right in between the two seats. Travis reached his arms over and around my waist. It was so foreign. We soon realized what an uncomfortable position we were in with our seatbelts cutting into our necks and we broke apart for mere seconds. I unclicked the belt and felt Travis' soft finger tips touch my cheek, drawing me back toward him.
Our lips met again, now much more comfortable. His arms retook their place on my waist and I found myself across the seat on his lap. My legs draped over the center console, with my feet falling into the passenger seat. My hands were placed gently on his face, with the tips of my fingers reaching into his curly blond hair.
It was wonderful, but also scary. Both of us seemed so unsure. Like one wrong move and we were ruined. Not just this thing that had begun, but our friendship. Like we were moving as if our whole relationship was on the line.
Slowly and tentatively, we broke apart for air. Our foreheads leaned together and our noses barely touched. We didn't dare look each other in the eyes. The music still played in the background and we sat there, staring at each other, but neither of us were embarrassed.
Sure, we could feel the heat radiating off each other's cheeks, but it wasn't from embarrassment. It was from this sudden rush. After a few moments of pure blissful silence, Travis spoke up.
"While you give some very convincing reasons as to why I shouldn't drop you off quite yet, I'm still deathly afraid of your father. Which means we really have to go now."
I laughed. I moved back into my seat, but not without stealing a kiss for good measure.
We drove up the road in silence, neither of us having much to say. When we pulled up to my house, I could see my dad on the front steps, glaring.
"You best not get out," I muttered.
"Probably not," Travis chuckled then groaned, "I just realized something. Our friends were right and now we're going to pay dearly." I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, thanking God that it was dark and my dad couldn't see into the car, "I think I can deal with that."
"Text me when you get home," I say before leaving.
