Little Moments

Chapter Seven

“So what are your plans for today?” Drake asked like nothing happened.

    “Umm... I don’t know,” I said.

    Drake walked past me and grabbed my grandma’s car keys from the small hook above the stove.

    “Where are we going?” I asked following him out the door to the small silver car. He shrugged.

    “What did Kaleb want?” He asked as we pulled out of the driveway.

    It was silent for a minute. “He asked me to go the Fourth of July Party.”

    Silence again. I wasn’t going to tell him about the kiss. It seemed liked they didn’t get along, so I didn’t want to start any arguments.

    “Since I answered your question you have to answer one of mine.”

    “Okay,” he nodded driving past a McDonalds.

    “Who was Jesse?”

    “One of my friends from school.”

    I waited for him to explain why he acted like he did.

    “Go on!”

    “He was drunk. He gets drunk often and I don’t like it,” he paused and stopped the car in the parking lot of what used to be a costume store. “My mom was an alcoholic and always came home drunk. It was the scariest thing to see her like that. I didn’t handle it well and still don’t. When I was seven she commit suicide.” I could hear the hurt in his voice.

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to ask about his dad, but saw how upset he was over this. He trusted me enough to tell me all of this.

“Do you mind driving?” He asked, his face red.

“Ummm...”

“You’ll be seventeen right?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“Don’t you have your license?” he asked.

I blushed, “No, I just can’t pass the test. I have to teach myself to drive and am too embarrassed to take classes. I tell my friends that I will get it soon, but I lied. I can’t drive.” I confessed.

Clearly better from the conversation, Drake smirked and began driving again.

“What are we doing?” I asked.

“You’ll see.”

    We pulled up to a big house surrounded by dust and rocks. The rain came to a stop leaving the air sticky and cool.

    “Where are we?” I asked getting out of the car after Drake. He didn’t respond, so I continued to follow behind him.

    I followed him behind the large two story house. “What are we doing here? We’re in the middle of nowhere. Who’s house is this?”

    “This is Steve’s house. He owns all of this land. I lived here right after my mom died up until I was ten and then my grandma took me in.” he explained as he stopped at the back door. He reached up above the door frame and moved his hand along it until a pair of keys fell to the floor.

    “But that still doesn’t answer my question of what we’re doing here.”

    He walked over to a long dirty tarp that was clearly covering something and he pulled it off. “I’m going to teach you how to drive.” he smirked glancing at the golf cart.

    “No, thanks, but no.” I said starting to walk back to the car. He must think I’m crazy to have him teach me how to drive.

    “Please Mabel!”

    “No,” I continued walking to the car.

    “And where do you think you’re going?” He smirked.

    “Home.”

    “How do you plan on getting there?” I just about reached the cart when I remembered I can’t drive.

    I stood there for a second my back still to him and then sharply turned around. I walked back to the golf cart without a choice. Drake sat in the passenger seat and  continued to smirk at me. I couldn’t help but secretly love his smirk.

    I took my seat in the golf cart.

    “Ok, I already started it and put it in reverse. A golf is a little different from an actual car. Just put a little pressure on the gas. We are going to start easy. I will tell you how far back to go, so you can get used to it. Okay?”

    I nodded. He was being so patient with me. My dad tried to teach me once after I continued to beg. He gave up after six minutes and told me to forget it.

    I put my foot on the pedal and nothing happened. I continued to push on it, but still nothing happened.

    Drake chuckled, “That’s the brake.”

    My faced burned bright red, “I can’t do this!” I moaned.

    “Yes you can. Let’s just try again, but this time your foot goes on this one to go.”

    I rolled my eyes and put my foot lightly on the pedal not wanting to screw something else up. I started to slowly back up.

    “Ok! Good. Now when you need to stop use the break, but before you use the break you need to slow down first, so you don’t fly forward.”

    I nodded and he set it up for me to go forward.

    “As we get further out on Steve’s land it starts to get bumpy and there are holes in the ground, so you need to slow down when that happens.”

    I nodded again. Drake had to grab the steering wheel and help turn me away every once in awhile.

    It started to sprinkle, so Drake took over and started going back to Steve’s.

    “You weren’t too bad.” he smiled as we drove back. The rain continued to get harder and harder the closer we got.

    “Thank you!” I laughed as we pulled up to the back patio.

    Drake took out the key and we just sat there for a while not saying a thing.

    “Do you like Kaleb?” Drake asked between claps of thunder.

    “As a friend yes.” This question stunned me. He almost seemed depressed by it.

    “No, I mean more than a friend.”

    “Oh.” I never really did take the time to think about this. I do like Kaleb. A lot actually, but when I’m with him it’s awkward. When I’m with Drake I’ve never smiled as much as I have when I’m with him. I couldn’t help, but feel different about Kaleb now.

    I looked up at Drake. He seemed tired. He was breathing heavily, his shirt wet with rain stuck to him outlining stomach muscles.

    “It’s okay if you do.” he looked down, but slowly inched closer to me.

    “I do like him,” I blurted out.

    “That’s okay.”

I didn’t know what happened at first. It took me a second to realize our lips were connected. Drake Lottwood was kissing me and I was kissing back.