She kissed his cheek in a goodbye as he climbed out of her window.
She watched him climb down from the roof, running to his car the moment his feet hit the cold concrete of her driveway.
She sighed a heavy sigh as she slipped into her bed that felt empty without his body there, too. Without his warmth.
Her breath caught as she pulled the down-comforter over her bare legs. Over her bare chest. But suddenly, in a flash of embarrassment, that felt wrong.
Another sigh as she pulled the blankets off of her legs, treaded across her carpeted floor to her desk chair, and pulled her sweater over her head.
A sudden dryness coated her throat. Dehydration, she thought.
She was downstairs by 12:09. Filling up her water at 12:10. Breathing heavily as she walked back up the stairs in a fog of exhaustion between 12:10 and 12:11, pausing to rest her head against the wall. By 12:12, her legs felt weaker than they did when she was kissing his cheek. And finally, at 12:13, she collapsed back into her bed with a yawn.
She properly fell asleep at 12:14, resting on her stomach, dreading the next morning.
Because the next morning meant seeing her family. And driving to school. And seeing him. And then seeing him again at dinner, because the holidays are just around the corner, so everybody will get together for dinner, her mother explained to her during dinner. Only she wasn't listening, because she was focusing harder on just how she would sneak him in later that night.
***
The morning came to her slowly in a hazy blur. The world around her had an odd brightness to it, something that she recognized in the depths of her mind, as a grey sky.
She didn't know when she got out of bed to open her window, but the world came to her all too quickly as the icy wind bit at her bare legs. For a moment, just a single moment, she watched snow fall slowly to the ground. The first snow of the season.
Her phone buzzed on her nightstand, and immediately, she knew who it was. She could feel it in her core that it was him. It had to be him. She hoped it was him, at least.
After she found them, she pulled her pajama pants on and collapsed back onto her bed, pulling her phone with her.
She smiled at his name on the screen.
Ravishing
good morning, pretty girl
Her heart skipped a beat.
Pipster
good mooorning!
She almost told him she missed him.
Pipster
it's snowing!
He sent her one smiley face, and that sent a blush to her cheeks.
She thought about that smiley face for the rest of the morning; while she got dressed. Putting on her makeup. Eating her breakfast.
She thought about it as she drove to school, and as she parked. That smiley face consumed her thoughts as she fished through her backpack for a cigarette and a lighter.
Sometimes she questioned how she got to this point. How smoking became her new addiction, taking coffee's place. She didn't let it bother her too much, though, and she tried not to think about it.
She nearly dropped her cigarette when she realized that knuckles were rapping against her window. Her eyes were blown wide when she looked out the window.
Only, her gaze softened as she met his golden-brown eyes. Her lips curled up into a smile as she rolled down the window.
"You shouldn't be smoking, Pip," he said.
"You shouldn't care, Ravi." She replied, a laugh hiding in her voice.
Pip watched him glance around the mostly empty parking lot before leaning in to kiss her, but she pressed her finger to his velvety, plush, sweetly soft lips. "One kiss now, and I won't be able to make it through my first period," she told him, pulling her cigarette to her lips.
She inhaled, one, two, three, and exhaled, four, five, six. Ravi's eyes hardened, his lips shifting from a smile to a frown. A car's engine hummed nearby, and that is what snapped Pip to reality. She took one last drag from her cigarette and tossed it out the window. Like the friend he was, Ravi stomped it out for her.
"Plus, didn't we agree?" She asked, her voice gentle. "We don't kiss in public? I'm not your girlfriend, Ravi."
He laughed, opening her door for her as she grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. "I know that." He told her, brushing her hair behind her ear and watching her cheeks flush pink.
The walked together to the front of the school, and they sat on the front steps for five minutes, waiting.
Watching as those two cars pulled into the parking lot. As the Ward sisters and the Reynolds brothers stepped out of their cars in near-perfect sync.
Cara waved at Pip wildly, her lips curled into a wide grin, snow catching in the tight curls that made up her bun. She wrapped her arms around Pip in a tight hug, and Pip buried her head in Cara's neck.
When they pulled away, Pip greeted Naomi and the Reynolds', and as a group, they walked inside of the school together.
Pip's snow boots squeaked against the tile floors.
Something inside her recoiled as Ravi's hand brushed hers. She coughed once, a blush flushing her cheeks. Pip swatted his hand away - don't do that, Ravi, her eyes screamed to him.
He stifled a snicker, clapping her shoulder as she turned the corner and they parted their ways.
***
By the time she was walking back to her car, she didn't think she could wait until after dinner to sneak Ravi into her house and feel his touch again. Maybe she was just that addicted to him.
Maybe, that was why she was pulling him by the arm to her car. Maybe that's why she hurried to unlock it. Maybe that's why, almost angrily, she opened the back door and shoved him onto the seat.
Ravi laughed as he pushed himself against the door opposite, bending his knees as Pip slammed the one ajar.
She climbed onto his lap and her lips were against his in seconds, her hands in his hair, his roaming her body.
Pip slapped his hands away as they gravitated towards her chest, and she sat up, disconnecting their lips. "Tonight," she warned. That was that. One warning was all he needed; he knew better than to annoy Pip around the holidays.
Especially not the afternoon before the first big dinner of the winter.
He snickered as she hurried to press their lips back together, hers working hard against his. Enough to hold in her mind for awhile. Keep her sane for the rest of the night.
And, if he was being honest, he needed that bit of sanity, too.
YOU ARE READING
COWBOY LIKE ME
Romance"WE COULD BE THE WAY FORWARD, and i know i'll pay for it." (formerly titled 'Only This Time') Cigarettes and sneaking around. Dinners with too many families for one dining room. Family friends who have known eac...
