Fostered {h.s}

Chapter 7.

Kayla and I strung red, white, and blue ribbons around the tables that sat in the backyard. In the week that had passed since our walk to the park we had almost become friends, only having a few spats with each other. The only time Harry and I would interact now would be at the barn when I would help him with it, though most of the time it was him working and me standing around watching. Neither of us had mentioned the kiss that we'd shared but the tension still lingered in the air.

Food that we had spent most of the day preparing sat on a table close to the house and coolers full of drinks sat by the edges. We had bought various drinks on a shopping trip a few days ago when Christy had bought me some new summer clothes to wear.

A half hour later when Kayla and I had all the decorations done, the first couple of guests for our 4th of July party started to arrive. It was a young couple with a small child. Christy approached them and called me over.

"Sami, these are my good friends Nicole and Spencer, and their adorable daughter Lucy." Christy said.

"Nice to meet you." I gave the best smile I could manage, as I was always terrible at meeting new people.

"Nicole, Spencer, this is our newest family member, Sami."

"It's so nice to meet you, Sami." Nicole said with a sincere smile. She seemed nice.

I felt a twist of something in my chest when Christy introduced me as a family member. I'd never ever had someone say that about me before and it made a strange giddiness take over my insides. Maybe staying with the Holbrooks would work out for me, maybe I could change my old bad habits, and maybe I could even get adopted. I'd be eighteen in less than a year but I still wanted people to call my family because I'd never had that before.

Other guests started to arrive more frequently after that and before I knew it, there were people everywhere. Jon and Harry gathered pieces of wood from the woods behind the barn at the back of the property and stacked it inside a huge ring farther out in the yard from where most of the guests loitered. I stayed close to Kayla and Maddie as we filled our plates full of food and enjoyed the party atmosphere. The thoughts about Harry and I kissing last week in the barn tinkered at the back of my head.

A few hours passed quickly as Kayla, Maddie, and I hung out with a few of the other girls around my age who were at the party. They showed me the small creek that ran through the woods behind the barn and other places around the huge property. Soon, we all headed back to the party area as it was about to get dark.

"Fireworks will be at 10:30, maybe 11:00." Jon announced.

As I sat at one of the many tables, I remembered the different alcoholic drinks that I'd helped Christy fill one of the coolers with. I also remembered her making it very clear that those were for the guests ages twenty one and over and not for me. People around me paid me no attention as they stood in small circles talking and laughing. I used that to my advantage and made my way through the crowd to the alcohol cooler. Knowing I shouldn't, but not being able to resist, I opened the cooler and pulled out a bottle of grey goose vodka. It was already half empty but I didn't mind because I just wanted a few drinks of it.

I slipped the bottle underneath my arm and made a quick escape back towards the barn. Once there and hidden behind the barn from the crowd of people, I twisted the cap off and took a swig. The vodka burned it's way down my throat before settling in my stomach. I craved that feeling and took one more drink.

And then another.

And then another.

I didn't know how long is been sitting behind the barn when I heard footsteps nearing me. I tossed the almost empty bottle aside and started to stand up. My legs were wobbly beneath me and I didn't get up fast enough to get away from whoever was approaching me.

"This is where you've been hiding all this time?" Harry asked as he rounded the corner.

"I wasn't hiding."

"Sure, sure, just like you weren't drinking that bottle of vodka over there." He said, pointing at it.

I should have thrown it farther.

"Christy is going to be so mad at you if she finds out." Harry ran a hand through his hair. "Why can't you just follow the rules for once? It'd be so much easier."  He sounded irritated now.

I was about to give up the fight and head back to the party area with him when my eyes landed on a bottle of some kind of alcohol in his other hand. He was such a hypocrite.

"Harry, why are you mad at me for drinking when you, yourself, are drinking too?"

"I'm not underage like you. I'm twenty three."

"Then why are you staying here? If you're twenty three you could have your own house." I fired back. I walked clumsily over to the picnic table and noticed that it had grown quite dark outside since I'd first got to the barn.

Harry walked to the picnic table next and stood in front of me. I gazed up at him and my eyes scoured over his muscled arms in the white tank top he wore and the way his legs looked in the tight denim. His long curls were held away from his face by an American flag bandana. He actually looked so sexy and now I couldn't think of anything else but our kiss.

"Maybe I want to spend time with my family, ok? Christy and Jon are my favorite aunt and uncle." Harry snapped.

"Let's just go back to the party, I guess. Fireworks will probably start soon, right?" I said, tired of hearing his attitude.

"Right," he agreed in a grouchy tone.

I stood up from the my seat on the picnic table, took two steps, and stumbled over my feet. Harry caught me by the the hips before I could fall to the ground and heat evoked from the place where his hands grasped me. I twisted in his grip and, without giving it a second thought, I leaned upwards and pressed my lips against his.

Harry froze for a moment and then began to kiss me back hard. His strong arms pulled me tight against his toned body as he pried my lips apart with his tongue. Heat erupted within me, warming my entire body and I brought my arms up to tangle my hands in his already messy hair. A haze began forming in my mind as I kissed him, only breaking apart from him to take a few quick breaths.

Kissing Harry was different from kissing anyone else. He kissed with his entire body, using his hands to hold me tight, using his body to control mine, using his tongue and lips to turn me to liquid in his arms. My body felt overheated and it had nothing to do with the weather.

Harry pulled his mouth from mine, leaving me panting as he trailed his lips down to my neck. A quiet sigh fell from my mouth when he nipped at my sensitive skin with his teeth. Lost in the moment, I tugged his face back up to mine and reconnected our lips, parting mine to let his tongue swipe over my own. Harry's right hand slid down my stomach between us and my breath hitched in my throat when I felt him caress me between my thighs over my jean shorts.

"Harry," I said breathlessly against his mouth.

"Damn," he said suddenly and pulled away from me. He was breathless himself, showing me that I wasn't the only one effected so heavily from what we'd just done.

"That was... Why did you stop?" I asked, bending over slightly to rest my hands on my knees.

"Damn," Harry repeated, still fighting for his breath. "We have to get back to the party, they'll start missing us soon. This, what just happened, is our secret. You can't tell anyone about it, got it?"

I nodded but going back to the party was the last thing on my mind. My thoughts were overtaken by Harry's sexy body and what he could do with his mouth.

"Don't tell anyone." Harry repeated as we walked back towards the house, making his point clear.

((I would really like to know what everyone thinks of this so far or what you think is going to happen next. Thanks for reading and if you're liking it so far, please vote/comment/share.))