Shots - Frat!l.h.

Twenty Four: Luke

  "I didn't want to kiss you goodbye — that was the trouble — I wanted to kiss you good night — and there's a lot of difference."
―Ernest Hemmingway   

Luke Hemmings

After saying goodbye to my brother and his wife, I walked to the door and left the house. Nora was waiting by the car in all her glory, yoga pants and bun in her hair. She looked different, though. I wondered if the kiss had changed how I viewed her, because I'd done much more than kissing with other girls and felt the same about them.

"Are you ready to go back?"

"To San Diego?" She quirked up a brow.

"To reality," I said as I stepped closer to her, my hand wrapping around her waist, squeezing gently.

She shook her head, looking down at the ground. I realized as she did so that she was much more than a human entity-- she was a flame. She was a fire burning so bright, the sun would have been jealous. She was sugar and curiosity and fire and rain, all wrapped up into one being, and I wasn't sure whether I was jealous or in awe.

"Never," She said, looking up at me through her thick lashes. She was a sight to be seen, so innocent yet so dangerous. A fire burning.

****

It dawned on me as we boarded off the plane how much I had told her in those three days. I'd been the most honest I'd been since Zoe, and I'd actually felt something for someone. It scared me just as much as it excited me. I felt my heart in my chest, beating loudly for the first time in three years. From nerves or enthusiasm, I didn't know.

We hadn't talked about the kiss at all, but I'd been much more forward than usual. Most times, women would come to me, but it was the first time I'd actually been the one trying to get somebody.

I felt like I'd fallen off the face of the earth. It felt like New York didn't follow the rules of gravity and that Nora's body was outer space, and I was floating away into the abyss.

The worst part; I liked it.

I'd never known myself as a man of commitment. The only real relationship I'd had was with Zoe, but that was high school and everything was easy until it was wasn't. With Nora, it was difficult-- everything was sandpaper, friction and grit. But it made me want to work that much harder.

We walked out of the airport and into the garage. The area was vacant of people, which wasn't unusual, considering it was nearing midnight. I knew not to trust places like these, though; the amount of times I'd been caught with my hand down some girl's pants when I thought no one was looking was incredible. It was even worse if there was a picture of the incident on some kind of lush life magazine the day after.

I dragged my suitcase across the cement floors of the underground garage, the chime of the wheels rolling the only sound reverberating between the two of us. It was an uncomfortable silence, awkward and tense. Nora wouldn't look at me, and I wondered if I'd made the right choice when I kissed her. It certainly felt right.

I grabbed my keys out of my pocket, unlocking the truck that hadn't been occupied in several days. My hands shook as I popped the trunk open, putting Nora's suitcase in and then my own. When I'd taken her luggage from her, our hands brushed, and she quickly pulled away. I felt deflated.

Nora walked around the car and jumped into it, and the sight made me smile. She was so short, but it was adorable. I wondered if it would be okay for me to tell her that. I knew that I had before-- before the kiss, before everything-- but things were different.

I didn't even know what had happened. It was like, one second, we had been fine, and the next, she wouldn't even look at me. We had talked all the way to the airport, and then she had fallen asleep in the plane, and when she woke up, she wouldn't even give me a glance.