Those Little Things

Chapter 26

Melissa

I miss Zack way more than I should. It's 4:00 in the morning and I can't stop thinking about him. His soft lips on mine, his strong, yet gentle arms wrapped around me, and the way that he made sure I was ready before he kicked off his pants. Then, he actually cared about using protection.

What if he doesn't feel the same way about me? What if I pushed him away? Why hasn't he called or texted me? I can't text him because he'll think I'm too clingy. But, my gosh, I want him so bad; I need him so bad. I've known him since pre-k and I guess I fell in love the next year; I just hadn't realized it yet. His personality and the way he can make our entire science class laugh to the point where it sounds like a farm of only pigs. I love the way that his sparkling green eyes pierced through my light brown ones during dinner and how he looked interested in my life; he actually cared what I had to say. The way that he brushed my caramel brown hair out of my face. Why is he so damn perfect and why can't I have him this very second?

Zack

"Z, you okay? You seem like you're either on cloud nine or you've been buried alive. Did something happen with Melissa, man?" Tyler asks me. After our date, I drove around for about three hours then I came here around 1:30 and haven't said a word to Ty. I feel bad but I can't even wrap my head around what happened. "Z-man, what the hell happened last night?! You're not acting like yourself one damn bit so you better spill or imma make you spill by whoopin your ass!" After he said that, everything came back to me.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you; no need to whoop my ass or anything."

"Did y'all hook up? Ah, did the big man finally become a big man by losing his v-card?"

"No, I'm still one-hundred percent virgin."

"So, why are you acting so weird?"

"Because I told her I wasn't ready."

"What the hell, man?! You know you're ready!"

"But she wasn't. I couldn't be that asshole that pressures the girl to do stuff she isn't ready for."

"Bro, she's as ready as you are, trust me."

"How do you know?"

"She told me..."

"When?"

"Well, she didn't tell me. My girlfriend told me... You know Mia Trolon... Melissa's sister."

"What'd she say to you, I mean to her sister then to you?"

"She told her sister to not tell me, which, of course, she had to, then told me to tell you."

"But what were the words that poured out of her face, idiot?"

"Mia told me Melissa said, and I quote, 'I am so beyond ready to be with Zack. I've been admiring him since pre-k and now, I'm finally old enough to be with him. I finally had the balls to text him. I'm honestly shocked that he said yes.'"

"She said that?"

"Of course she did, dumbass! You can see it in her eyes if you look at her! She loves you and you obviously love her. How do I know this? You texted me after your date was official. You two are both ready and you need to do something about it before someone else snatches her up!"

"But, what am I supposed to do at 4:30 in the morning? She's probably asleep."

"She's not. She's wide awake, thinking about what she could have done so wrong to have you not want to have sex with her. She's wondering what she could have done something differently to make you want her. She's replaying tonight over and over in her head. She wants to go back and make everything perfect. She doesn't want to have to run to make sure your parents don't see or stop in the middle of a kiss or have to fight every piece of self control she has left to not rip your close off after you placed your lips on hers for the last time of the night. And I know that's why you didn't get here until 1:30. You were driving around, thinking. Thinking about the exact same thing. Wondering why you didn't just put the condom on and do it."