F.U

Chapter 16

Jennie

I THREADED MY FINGERS through Chaeyoung's hair as she lay against my chest the next morning. The second we returned from our date, we'd dropped everything to the floor and had sex against the living room windows. Addicted and unable to stop, we moved to the kitchen, then to the hallway, and then to the deck that surrounded the hot tub. We made it to her bedroom balcony shortly before sunrise, and we passed out mid - conversation in her bed.

Since I doubted that she was going to wake up anytime soon, I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and checked my text messages.

Mom: Jen. Call me when you get a chance. I've got some amazing news about your future...And some not - so - amazing news about something else.

I rolled my eyes and deleted her message, opening the next ones.

Jisoo: man, i don't want to hear you complain about me and my friends being too loud ever again. After the way Chaeyoung was screaming your name last night, I'm sure all our neighbors know your name...

Jisoo: Okay. They definitely know your name. The grandma who lives next door asked if I was "Jennieeee" this morning and fucking winked at me.

"What's so funny?" Chaeyoung stirred, looking up at me. "I want to laugh, too."

"Text - messages from Jisoo. Inside jokes."

"Oh, okay." Her voice was hoarse. "Was I loud last night?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I know I had a decent amount of wine at dinner, and you had to get us an Uber, but I don't remember anything else but sex and screaming. Was I loud?"

"No." I kissed her forehead and held back a laugh. "Do you feel like going out today?"

"I have a ten o'clock class."

"That you missed hours ago. It's four o'clock."

"What?" She struggled to sit up. "Why did you let me sleep that late? I have a project to turn in for a contest. No, two projects. I wonder if they'll let me do an email entry and bring it in tomorrow."

I raised my eyebrow. "We talked about this before we fell asleep, Chaeyoung..."

"Can you take me to campus so I can try to turn my boards in before the department closes? If that doesn't work, can you take me to the other campus branch across town since they're open a bit later?"

"No." I pushed stray hairs from her face. "But only because you made me leave your art by the door, and Jisoo took it to campus for you."

"Do you think she took it to the right department?"

"You made me draw a map." I laughed. "Besides, when I told her she could find new people to date in the art school, she insisted that she was going to make sure she got there early."

"Let me see." She rolled over and grabbed her phone, checking her email. "My confirmation email says she came in at eight o'clock," she said. "And my professor said that my 'friend' spent two hours standing outside of her Nude Women Painting class. She says I'm supposed to tell her not to come back."

We both laughed, and I slapped her ass.

"You've got an hour to get ready. There's something I want to do with you today."

"Can we do that after another round of sex?"

"Absolutely..."

FOUR HOURS LATER, AND after multiple rounds of sex, we took separate showers and met in front of my car.

"No bikes?" Chaeyoung asked.

"After looking at the way you've struggled to walk straight today? Probably not."

"Fine." She blushed. "Are we going back to the pastel park benches?"

"Not at all. I want to take you to see some other things you've missed out on since you've been at sea." I tossed her my car keys. "We'll start at the east end of Main Street, and you can drive."

"Oh, no I couldn't." She tossed them back.

"You can." I shrugged and opened the driver's door for her. "You complained about my driving every day when we were in high school, so I'd love to finally see how yours compares."

"I meant to say that I can't," she said, setting the keys on the hood. "I never got my permit...Or my license."

"What? Why not?"

She shrugged. "The summer after we graduated high school — when we weren't talking, I failed the test like three times. They said that if I failed it again, I'd have to wait an entire year to take it."

"So, instead of walking next door and asking me to help, you decided not to take it?"

"I didn't want to see you again after graduation." She smiled. "Hence, Semester at Sea."

"I forgot how mature you were." I shook my head. "What part of the test did you fail? Parallel parking, lane switching and speeding, or gear knowledge?"

"All of it." She paused. "On the last test, I forgot to move the car out of reverse, so I backed into a group of cardboard people at full speed."

"And the test before that?"

"I never made it out of the parking lot. I tensed up once I got behind the wheel and forgot everything."

"Okay." I grabbed my keys and opened the passenger door for her. "We'll catch up on the campus stuff you missed this weekend. You need to learn how to drive."

"I'll get my license eventually." She slid onto the seat. "It's not a big deal."

"It is to me." I cranked the engine. "I'm going to spend the rest of this week teaching you how to drive whenever you're not in class, and you're going to pass the test next week."

She leaned back in her chair and rolled down the window.

"Buckle your seatbelt." I looked over at her. "They give you five points just for that. Please tell me you always did that without them pointing it out."

She laughed and shook her head.

"Jesus, Chaeyoung." I reversed out of the driveway. I clasped her hand behind the gearshift and drove to the other side of town, to a long and secluded stretch of sand where my mother taught me how to drive.

Shutting off the car, I looked over at her. "Lesson number one, sit in my lap."

She blushed. "So, you were only kidding about teaching me how to drive?"

"No, I was quite serious." I unbuckled my seatbelt and pushed my chair back. "But, if you weren't able to learn the regular, boring way, I don't see why we need to repeat that..." I leaned forward and trailed my finger against her lips. "Besides, I think the first thing we need to do is make sure all the stress is out of your system."

She sat there looking at me, not moving, so I unbuckled her seatbelt and slid my hands under her thighs, lifting her into my lap.

"Lesson number two, the longer it takes you to learn the basics, the longer it takes us to have sex on my front seat."

"I'm not the one who wants that," she said, looking over her shoulder. "You may want to come up with something else."

"I think what I came up with is perfect." I kissed her shoulder. "Now, tell me what you remember about the first things to do when you get into the car..."