Loving Raven

9. Stalked

I twirled Raven's hair in between my fingers, her head laid soundly on my chest. She tapped her hand on my abdomen to the rhythm of my heart beat; tap tap, tap tap, tap tap. Before long she peered up at me with a slight smile on her face, "What are you thinking about?"

I felt the beds of my cheeks begin to flush, I knew they had to have been red. "You," I smiled, "That's all I can ever seem to think about these days, you." 

She chuckled softly, "Oh, Mr. McIntyre, you're flattering. You and I both know that's not true." She rolled over and jumped up from her bed and walked across her bedroom to where her desk sat, she stood there and looked at the corkboard she had on her wall. This corkboard was filled with pictures, pictures of Raven with a few girls. She was happy, innocent.

I walked up from behind her wrapping my arms around her as soon as she was within reach, "I know I've been an ass, and I know you can't trust me right now. I'm telling you, it's you. You're all I think about Raven. This is scaring the shit out of me, I don't know how to do any of this. I've had so many girlfriends in all of my years of life, girls I was interested in but none come close to comparing to you."

She turned to face at me peering into my eyes, "I just want this to be real. Since the day I met you, all I longed for was to be close to you. It killed me to see you there in class, my chair staying open and beckoning as if it was meant to be for me right beside you, it crushed me when I knew I had to be mad at you. I had to play it off as if I hated you, but I didn't want to." Her eyes met the floor, a look of shame could be read in her eyes that had all of the sudden sunk away from looking into mine. 

I took her head into my hand, using both of my fingers to pry her chin away from the floor. I knelt down to give her one small kiss, a sudden burst of fireworks returned only for a moment before I pulled away. "This is for real Raven," I brushed the sides of her cheeks, "You don't have to pretend anymore. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to do this right this time. I'm going to make you the happiest girl in the world." I turned my attention away from the suppressed moment and turned her back around to face the corkboard, "Who are these people? Tell me about them. Are they your friends from back home?" 

She nodded her head against my chest, "Best friends. Sam, Margaret, and Becca. We had all sorts of fun together, they'd think I was insane for doing the things I'm doing now. I was all play back then, even though it wasn't really that long ago. We would go out and party all the time, but we were also the biggest nerds on the planet. I guess you could say we were bookworms by day, and straight street bugs by night. Mailboxes with baseball bats, hanging out of car windows and sunroofs, jamming the radios to the maximum audio capacity, old-school barn parties and bonfires. You name it, we did it. We had this whole agenda to complete before the end of High School, and we managed to cross off all but one thing."

"What was the one thing?" I asked her curiously, almost afraid of what her answer might be considering the amount of history she must have had during her adolescent years. 

"First kiss," she chuckled, "It seems silly, but first kiss. We were so worried about maintaining such high GPA's and partying, neither one of us took into account the existence of boys. I guess I can cross it off my list now." She turned to face me, grabbing me by neck and pulling me downwards to where I was a mere inch away from her succulent lips, "Kiss me again?" She licked her bottom lip, a means to persuade me to want to kiss her. Means she didn't have to take into account, the sexual temptation between the two of us was at it's peak, I couldn't resist her or her temptation. This kiss was more passionate than the first two, neither one of us wanting to come up for the need of oxygen. Our tongues danced around in each other's mouths for what seemed to be an eternity.

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"What's got you in such a good mood here lately?" My father asked one morning as he finished his usual coffee and began the sports section of his morning newspaper, "Something in you has changed, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Is there something you want to tell me or talk to me about?"