Always/Never

Chapter 21 / Getting Lost With You Is Like Not Being Lost At All

Accha didn't know it, but she held my heart in her hands.

Or maybe she did, and that thought had me melting even further. If she knew, then my heart was a delicate thing, one she was careful with.

She drove long after the sun sank beneath the line of view, and the moon twinkled its soft shadows over the road. The radio played music that had me feeling like a teenager again.

Every time she reached over to touch my side, graze my thigh, poke my cheeks, I laughed and laughed until the breath was expunged from my lungs, and all I needed in the world was Accha. Accha, Accha, Accha.

Past midnight, she took a left turn into a street shrouded by shrubbery. Fireflies pierced through the bushes like fallen stars, discarded along each branch.

Porch lights flickered on as we passed before fading, as though we were being led down a runway.

"Rory." Accha poked my knee. "We're lost."

I nodded. "That's fun."

"No, like, 'I don't know where we are,' lost," she said.

"That is the definition of the word, yes."

She sighed, pulling over, though in the semidarkness she landed more or less on someone's driveway. Leaning over, she brought her lips to mine. "Don't be silly." Her nose brushed mine. Her exhale matched mine. "You know what I mean."

Despite the fact that I was leaning over the clutch, I was pretty content to stay in this position. For a while. However long.

"Where's south?"

I didn't have to see her to know she rolled her eyes. "That way." She pointed.

"So, how can you be lost?"

Her head cradled against me. A laugh vibrated both of our chests. Galaxies twinkled in her eyes. "Because it's dark, and I can't see. That's how I'm lost."

With another kiss, she returned to the wheel to get us back on the road. I heavily doubted Jessamine would be pleased if her car returned coated with dirt.

We rolled out of the side street. Faced down with a stop sign. That was a new sight. Maybe we were about to get so far away from campus that we couldn't get back, but I couldn't bring myself to care much.

I'd spend the next seven years with her if I had to. And not a second of it would be a punishment.

"So, stars or satellites. For my fifteenth birthday, I got some wooden boards all wrapped up with paper and a bow," I said.

"That's easy." She shot me a look, checking in every direction, before crawling forward. I wondered where all of the signs were to give us any indication of nearby towns. Everything we'd passed on the way here weren't so much directions to a gas station or even a village, but roads named 'Dotty' or turnoffs called 'School Avenue' and 'Lakeside Point.' "That's a very Rory gift. Star."

"Yeah. Great gift. I built a birdhouse with it."

Her lips curved into a grin. "You know, it was impossible to explain my gifts for you to anyone. I'd say I was buying you a new, fancy wrench, and have to explain that you wanted a practical present. And yes, I triple-checked, and yes, I promise I don't hate her."

"Oh," I whispered. "Those poor, poor cashiers."

Accha snorted. We were eyeing the speed limit, coasting, her headlights illuminating the empty path in front of us. "For my fifteenth birthday, I got chocolate."

"That's not how you play the game." My tone was light.

"I know. I'm telling you that's what I got."

Another stop sign appeared. I wasn't convinced it was a different one from the last. "You mean, like, gluten-free chocolate?"