When I got home, Mannie was sleeping. He looked so peaceful and adorable, his long, curly hair fanned out on the pillow. I slipped out of my shoes and laid down in front of him, my back pressed against his chest. "How was your day, baby?" he mumbled sleepily rubbing the side of my hip. "Hard." I yawned. "I'm gonna go take a shower and then we can go to sleep." I said gathering my stuff to shower. "Mmmmhhhmmmmm" he agreed with a mischievous smile like he had something else in mind. I took a quick shower so I could spend more time with MY MANNIE. I blew dry my hair and went back to the room. The minute I sat down on the bed he started kissing my neck, running his hands along my hips(we BOTH were enjoying this). He stopped suddenly. "Let's go walking" he suggested. "Where?" I said lotioning the rest of my body. "When you first moved here, you told me there was a dick a huge pond in this neighborhood. Right?" he asked. "Ya" I replied "But it's like a 2-hour walk from here." "Then I guess we'd better get to walking" he chuckled "Your parents wouldn't mind you going out on a midnight walk. Right?" he joked. "They're not home.......they took my brother and sister to Orlando on a "family vacation" for the weekend." I said coldly. "Ohhh" he said nodding his head profusely, obviously feeling uncomfortable. "Well......let's get to work on those emancipation papers!" he said eager to change the subject. "Alright" I said enthusiastically, even more eager to move on to a different subject then he was. We walked across the house t o my parent's office/ study and I sat in the huge leather rolly chair. I hadn't realized until then that Mannie had dragged my comforter and half of the billions of pillows I had on my bed, behind us with one hand. In the other he held a nearly empty carton of mini cupcakes I had brought him earlier in the day. "What are you doing?" I laughed watching him set up some sort of makeshift extra-wide bed on the floor. "Pretend. We're going camping!" he said bouncing up to sit next to me. "Okay" I giggled, loving the idea of playing pretend for the first time in a long time. He typed in websites, printed out billions of papers, and emailed my school counselors (who were probably sick of hearing about me well into the middle of their summer since I had practically begged for assistance putting together innumerable scholarship applications, EVERYDAY). Then we started looking at apartments in the area. We both loved Florida and he knew I didn't want to wander TOO far from my family. He paused at a condo with a huge atrium-like room in the middle, high ceilings and all. "I could play my guitar in there" he said, licking the frosting off of one of the cupcakes and passing the rest to me (like when we were kids). I popped the cupcake in my mouth and chewed quickly. "You play?!" I exclaimed eyes wide with curiosity. "Yaaa." he said looking at me warily. I bolted out of the room, I paused in the doorway yelling to him without looking back "Wait here!" I ran into my parents room, past their bathroom, into my dad's closet. I pushed boxes aside, moved clothes and finally found my dad's discarded hobby. I grabbed the guitar and ran back to the office without cleaning up the mess I made. "I remember my dad trying to teach me how to play this when I was little." I said out of breathe. "He said it was an acoustic or a bass or a ukulele or something. Just play it!" I exclaimed pushing it at him. "What should I play?" he chuckled obviously amused with my lack of "guitar education" "Ummm.........Maria Maria by Carlos Santana! I love the guitar in that!" I exclaimed "You know that song? Right?" I asked anxiously. "Yup, " he said calmly tweaking the strings of the guitar "It's one of my favorites." He started playing and I did my best samba-like wiggle around the room. I sang and he joined in with me "Maria! Mariaaaaaaa! She fell in love in east L.A.aaaa! To the sounds of the guitarrrrrr.....played by Carlos Santana." He continued playing and I kept on dancing. He played the end guitar solo (my favorite part) and I smiled like a lunatic. I must've been a sight to see, with my crazy smile and awkward dancing but he set the guitar down, walked over tome me and kissed me anyways. He grabbed my waist and pulled me close to him, he brought one hand up and we danced...... He let me go and he laid won in our "campsite". I sauntered over to the wide bay window and opened the curtains, revealing utter darkness, sprinkled with stars. "What are you doing?" he asked, muchly amused with me. "It wouldn't be camping if we couldn't look up and see the stars" I replied smartly, laying down next to him. You continue to amaze me, Jannie." he smirked. "And you as well" I witfully replied "Who knew MY MANNIE was a guitar genius!" I exclaimed. "Your Mannie?" he questioned raising an eyebrow. I giggled "Yes, MY MANNIE!" He smiled, it was his turn to look like a lunatic "I like the way that sounds, keep saying it." "My Mannie, my Mannie!" I said until I could control my laughter no longer. We both burst into childish laughter. After a while we calmed ourselves. "Mannie?" I whispered making sure he was listening. "Hmmm?" he mumbled, his voice shaking my whole body, as I was laying on his chest. "If this doesn't work out like we want it to, I want you to know that I'll always love you." I continued meaningfully. "Janielle!" he declared shaking my body again. "Listen to my heart!" he demanded. "You hear that?!" he asked rhetorically. "Just being near you makes my heart beat fast. Without you, I can't go on. Whether our parents like it or NOT, we NEED each other. It HAS to work out!" He spoke so sincerely that I could feel my own heart beating faster. We kissed and everything was right, in that moment. Mannie wrapped his arms around me, kissed my forehead and told me over and over again "I love you, I love you, I love you......." My eyes drooped and even in my dreams, I could hear MY MANNIE saying "I love you."
*HELLO AGAIN LOVELY PEOPLE!!!! THANX FOR READING!!! PLEASE INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO READ AND GIVE FEEDBACK! THANK YOU ♥REI YA
