Rachel

Rachel: Part 2

It's been several weeks now since Rachel and I finally opened up about our feelings. Since that day on the bed, we steal kisses whenever we can, hold hands any time we're out of sight, and whisper "I love you" to each other whenever we think no one will hear. The past few weeks have been pure bliss.

Of course, we don't have to sneak around all of the time either. Our routine remains the same as it's always been. Nearly every day after school we'll head over to one of our houses to study, eat, sometimes spend the night, and most importantly let our love bloom unhindered. Homework often gets pushed aside in favor of each other's lips, and much time has been spent laying in bed staring deep into each other's eyes.

"You're so pretty," I say, brushing her brunette curls away from her rich, brown eyes as we lay on her bed staring at each other, our history homework long-since forgotten.

"You're prettier," she says playfully.

"Impossible." I steal a quick kiss on her soft lips.

She smiles and wiggles a bit. "How about we just say we're both the prettiest?"

"Deal," I say with a confident laugh. Satisfied, Rachel steals the kiss back.

We lay there for a little longer, gently caressing each other, enjoying the other's touch, until Rachel finally says, "We should probably finish our homework."

I force myself to frown. "Aw, do we have to?" I whine playfully.

After another quick kiss, Rachel sits up and finds the papers forgotten at the end of the bed. Rachel is right, of course. It won't do us any good to fail our history class. We have our whole lives ahead of us. I know the special moments we will have together will be too many to count, but it still feels painful to let any of them end for something as tedious and uninteresting as school.

After an hour of work, we finally finish our homework. To be honest, it could have easily been finished sooner, but it's so hard to care about a bunch of old names and dates when someone so wonderful is sitting right next to you. Never the less, we pushed through it and, as a reward for our all of our hard work, we go back to kissing.

"Do you want to spend the night?" Rachel asks after a few minutes of bliss.

"Do you even have to ask?" I laugh.

We spent the night at each others' places pretty regularly since we were in middle school, so these days our parents are used to having an extra kid around some nights and one less kid other nights. As might be expected, that has increased even more since we made our love clear to each other. To us, it's like we're living together already, just as we imagine our lives in the future. Luckily, so far our parents haven't really seemed to notice the increase, or at least they don't seem to care.

"Wait, you do have your permission slip signed, right?" Rachel asks.

I give her a questioning look. Permission for what?

"For the field trip tomorrow?" she reminds me as if she read my mind.

I facepalm. "Right. I forgot that was tomorrow." I say, shrugging off my embarrassment. "Don't worry, my mom signed it the other day. It's in my notebook."

"Perfect!" she says, beaming.

The excitement in her voice is almost tangible, warming the air around me through its loving embrace. It fills me with joy as well, though I can't figure out what exactly is making her so enthusiastic.

I ask, "I'm glad I can spend the night too, but aren't you a little extra excited?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asks in a bubbly voice that makes me feel almost as excited as she is. "We've been, I guess going out, for a few weeks now but we haven't gotten to actually go on a date, y'know?"