Falling For Mr. Perfect

17 The Way It Hits

"THE WAY IT HITS"

Peter Conway has infiltrated my dreams. He was there every time I closed my eyes. The touch of his lips still so fresh in my mind that I could almost imagine him there next to me.

After our date the other night, it took every bit of will power I had not to invite him inside. With my dad out and most likely coming home late, there wouldn't be anything stopping us from exploring each other even further.

Since we'd been "dating" all summer, we were able to skip over all the awkwardness that came with a new relationship. We just did what we'd been doing. Only with a lot more kissing.

I spent fourth of July with the Conways at the beach. We watched the fireworks. Peter left his trash grabber at home and held into me instead as we all pretended to enjoy the tofu hot dogs Sarah, Evan's girlfriend, brought.

He kissed me during the firework show. Aaron, of course, caught it with his camera. Another picture to add to the collection of Peter's firsts.

Peter came over to help my dad and I cook breakfast. My dad glared at him to keep up appearances as the overprotective dad, but even Peter could tell there wasn't any heat behind it.

He even joined me to have brunch with my grandma once. She was impressed with his charity work with animals. Since my granddad passed, she started taking in rescue pets. Mostly dogs, but a few cats, too. And Julio, the parrot, who knew every curse word in the book.

In between it all, I managed to finish the song I started about Peter all those weeks ago. I added the demo to the growing folder of things I'd send to Bea Lopez if she ever emailed me back and gave me a second chance.

Cherry suggested I send a follow-up email. Which I did with shaky hands and a voice in my head telling me it was too late. But I was into chasing things I wanted instead of running from them these days.

Now I sat next to Peter at a Paint & Sip event painting a forest landscape. It was teen night so we sipped soda. We still got to use fancy wine glasses though.

Cherry, who dragged us all there, sat next to Tristan one table over. She was extra bubbly because she decided to kiss Tristan tonight. I think me telling her about my amazing date last week with Peter might've convinced her to take the chance.

Most guys I knew wouldn't bother with a girl who'd wait so long, but Tristan was a good one.

"Alert the media," I said at the end of class. "We found something Peter Conway isn't perfect at."

I thought it'd be a "trust the process" moment with him. Where it looked bad in the beginning then eventually came together once he finished. I was wrong.

"It looks...rough," Peter agreed, squinting at his art. "But it's not that bad."

"Why is the forest on fire?" Tristan asked, coming up behind us. His own painting looked almost exactly like the instructor's.

Cherry diverted from the instructor and painted a pastel, candy land forest. My own painting looked like a discount version of the original.

"That's not fire," Peter said. "It's light from the sun being reflected off the trees."

I agreed with Tristan. "That's a forest fire. I thought trees were your friends."