Love's Rapture

Kelly

Our first date ended up being more fun than I could have imagined. Breton asked me to go to a little ice cream shop in town. It didn't matter that it was October and getting cooler; ice cream was for always. Mom was fine with that since there were lots of people around the area, and she dropped me off a little early so I could run to the library across the street.

When I was walking back across the street for my first date, I saw my two older(idiot) brothers sitting in Jake's jeep. They waved at me, and Jake honked the horn, drawing attention.

I marched up to the jeep and asked, "What the heck are you doing here?"

They both laughed before Jake answered, "Kelly, you're fourteen years old and going on a date. You have a dad and brothers that are obsessed with keeping all of you ladies safe. Of course, we followed you. Ivy would have even come, too, but she's fighting with Dad again." He sobered up and picked at an invisible speck on the steering wheel. "It was getting super annoying, so we left."

That didn't change how embarrassing this was! "You guys are so stupid! Go away, or I'm going to start screaming."

"The whole town knows us, you moron," Parker laughed.

"You're both so annoying!" I yelled before stomping off and into the ice cream parlor.

By the time Breton got there, I'd cooled down a little but fought embarrassment when he recognized my brothers before coming inside.

"Let's mess with them," he said after we'd finished our ice cream.

"How?"

His answering grin is the reason we forwent the ice cream and decided to walk all around town. We ignored the jeep of brothers following us at a snail's pace, ignoring every angry person that honked and had to pass them. I recorded a couple of videos to send to my parents, who got a kick out of it. As much as I thought my dad and brothers were sometimes overbearing, I knew they loved me. Plus, I didn't want my parents to think I'd lied about wanting to get ice cream, so the video was just proof that we were making Jake and Parker's lives just a little complicated that day.

The date ended with a hug and Breton telling me he'd had the best time with me. I blushed as usual and climbed into the jeep, so my guard dogs could take me home.

Cloud-nine was a nice place to be.

*

Our first year in high school seemed like it ended before it even started. Breton and I were inseparable. Everything I wanted to do, I wanted to do with him. He was all I could have ever wanted in a boyfriend. He was my best friend.

Swimming at the lake, riding four-wheelers in the woods on my parent's property, and trying to find where his younger brother, Talon, hid his journal seemed to take up all of our time. Talon always ended up walking in while we were in his room looking and would get angry. He'd yell at us to get out of his room and stop touching his things; then we'd laugh until we got out to the backyard. Collapsing in the grass, we would open up about all of our thoughts.

Even though my family was close, I found confidence in having someone else I could go to about my problems, no matter how small they usually were.

When school started in August, Sophomore year, I was so irrationally scared that what I had with Breton would go away. I completely expected him to meet a girl he'd not noticed his first year here and leave me in the dust. I quickly realized how silly it was of me to feel that way. Every morning he was standing by the front door, waiting to hold my hand through the hallways.

"Are you coming over after school?" Breton asked while leaning on the locker beside mine.

"Yes! I didn't clean the horse stalls out last night for no reason!" Chores around our home were crazy. Instead of assigning a kid a few duties, we all had one task. Mine for the year happened to be taking care of the horses.