In My Defense

Sunshine

Chapter Fifteen

Ryan's mouth was electric against mine. The warm waves swayed us as the curve of my mouth moved passionately against Ryan's. My hands laced through his hair, his fingers dug into my skin.

This was amazing. I had only kissed one boy before this and that was a middle school dare. Two completely different levels of mouth-touching. This was amazing.

A roar surged through the atmosphere, making me jump from Ryan. Heavy, freezing rain began to pour down on us.

"Shit!" Ryan said over the rain and thunder.

I smiled and wiggled away from his grip so that I could wade back to shore. I began sprinting as soon as I could. I snatched my clothes from the now wet sand and rushed to the car. Silverstein was still playing when I opened the passenger door.

Ryan ran past me to the trunk of his car.

I heard trunk slam close, and moments later Ryan is I'm the drivers seat.

"Here," he said and handed me a blanket and a large T-shirt.

I wrapped myself in the blanket, shivering violently. Ryan leaned across and buckled my seatbelt for me.

My lips tingled. I licked my lips and tasted sea-salt and a bit of Ryan. I should be worrying about what'll happen when I returned home in a few hours. But I wasn't. I allowed myself to live in this moment for the short time I did have. I'd hold onto this forever.

Ryan exhaled deeply. "Are you cold?"

I nodded. I'm not sure if it was just me, but this was slightly uncomfortable. I wasn't really sure how these things worked. Was I supposed to say something about what just happened?

No. I'd say something completely ignorant and ruin the whole thing.

Ryan leaned over and outstretched his arm to turn on the heat.

"Oh! Turn this song up." I smiled to myself. This was the very first song I'd heard by Silverstein.

You are the fire

On my apartment floor

Sixteen stories

I'd rather burn than fall

I let my voice rise higher so that our voices blended. I was going at it an octave higher and, as far as I could tell, we harmonized great.

As the song came to an end, Ryan spoke, "I could listen to you sing forever."

My heart leaped. "Really?"

We slowed at a red light. Ryan gazed at me, his stormy eyes nearly obsidian. "Really."

His voice was low. The corner of his mouth went up as he accelerated. He was doing this on purpose.

Asshole.

I composed myself and asked, "Where are we going?"

"Home."

I smiled to myself. He hadn't said "my house." He called it home. And to be completely honest, Ryan's home was more comfortable than my own. For obvious reasons, but I wasn't comfortable in many places.

We pulled onto the freeway and I soaked up every lyric. Ryan was singing along and I grabbed his hand listening to his beautiful melody.

"I hope you know we're going to catch colds," I scolded.

"It was worth it, darling." He flashed me a dazzling smile that took my breath away.

We pulled onto Ryan's street and I began watching two droplets falling down the window. I watched as they inched closer to the bottom, racing to be first. It looked like the droplet on the left was nearing victory, but at the last moment, the one in the right accelerated and glided to the bottom with effortless ease.