Every Forty Seconds

Chapter five

The next day, I knock on her door. Except, she doesn't answer. I open it slightly, just in time to see her younger sister bounce down the stairs. Her name's charlie, and she's only a couple years younger than me and lainey. Charlie hates me, thinks I'm not good enough for her sister. At least one person agrees with her. She looks at me, flipping her hair and narrowing her eyes at me.

"She isn't here," she says, and starts to walk away.

"Do you know when she'll be back?" I call after her, and see her shake her head without looking at me. When she turns the corner into the living room, I see her eyes flash. For a moment I think I see... pity? No, cant be.

But it is.

I push it from my mind. I'm being paranoid- stupid. And besides, it's pointless to ponder about things that could never have happened. So I descend the three small steps that lead to her porch and walk off the yard. Hands in my pockets, I follow the concrete trail that leads to a large green field. I say large, but it's actually fairly small. It's just the biggest i've seen. But as I go up the slanted side of the almost-hill, I see lainey there. She's sitting on a towel, legs crossed, reading a book. I see on the cover that it's Little Women, a classic favourite. The sun is out and it's unusually warm, so she has a strapless shirt on that hangs off her chest and falls loosely at her stomach above the waistline of her shorts.

She's gorgeous, as always.

I walk up behind her and kiss her cheek.

"Guess who," I say, and she grins.

"Brad Pitt?"

"Oh definitely," I agree, laughing. I walk around her and sit next to her on the towel. She closes the book after folding over the corner of her page. She leans her head on my shoulder and I put my arm around her waist.

"What're you doing out here?" I ask, and I feel her shoulders go up and down when she shrugs.

"Just wanted to go out, I guess. Plus, it's nice out here. Quiet, calm..." her voice trails off at the end. The air blows quietly around us, and the animals sing. It's so calm, that I feel like I could sleep here forever. The tranquility holds us close. It's weird- I never thought I could be so comfortable with someone.

"I saw charlie today," I tell her, and she starts to laugh. "It's not funny! She hates me!" I add.

"No, she doesn't," lainey says, still laughing slightly. But I don't believe her- I saw the look in charlie's eyes. My phone starts to ring, and chris' name shows up. I decline it, but he calls again.

"One sec," I say, getting up and answering the phone.

"Hey," I say.

"Where the hell have you been?" he asks, obviously angry.

"Nowhere," I reply, shrugging even though he can't see me.

"Well, you haven't been speaking to us." That's when I hear vi and jen talking in the background.

"Look, I'm sorry but i've been with lainey and her friends. You don't know what it's like- she's amazing and I want to spend as much time as possible with h--"

"So your excuse for ditching us is your new girlfriend? I can't believe you miles. If that's even who you are now."

I roll my eyes.

"Stop being so dramatic," I say, but he hangs up before I can finish the sentence. Lainey comes up to me, the towel draped over her arm and her book under it.

"Let's go?" she says, but she asks it more like a question. I nod, and we start to walk across the grassy, green surface. We are about to go to her house when we see her father's car pull up in the driveway. Lainey shoots me a sad look, and I kiss her quickly before making my way back to my house.