No Going Back Now

Chapter 3

(Karle's POV)

We finally arrive at Applebee's and we wait to be seated.

The waitress comes over and brings us to a booth in the nonsmoking section. I can't stand the smell. We sit down and look at the menus.

"I'll be right back I'm going to go to the bathroom." JC says while getting up.

I see him stop by the waitress and start talking to her and a wave of jealousy crashes over me. He then goes to the bathroom and comes back to sit down. We order our food. He starts asking me about what I'm going to do for my birthday. "Nothing really.." I say.

His jaw drops. "You have to do something! Karle this is one of the biggest birthdays of your life!"

"Well I guess.." He interrupts me.

"No guessing about it! You are going to come to my house and I'll invite all of our friends and throw a huge party!" He says excited with a smile.

"Okay" I say smiling. Our food finally came and I couldn't help but still think about JC and that waitress.

A few moments later I see the whole staff come over to our table and start clapping their hands. "Happy happy birthday from Applebee's to you, we wish it was our birthday so we could party too! Woo!" They sing to me and hand over a little chocolate sunday.

JC smiles at me and I realize that's what he told the waitress. "Happy early birthday!" He says perfectly. I want to capture this moment in time and frame it forever in my memory.

We finish our food, we pay and then we go outside. It's around 8 pm and it's starting to get dark now. "Do you want to go for a walk?" JC asks calmly yet beautifully.

"Yea" I say and we start wandering the streets of Grand Rapids.

JC keeps quiet for a while and keeps looking down at the ground. "What's wrong?" I ask him.

"Nothing, I've just had a lot of things on my mind lately.. I don't know." He says kind of bummed.

"Well you know I'm always here if you need to talk" I tell him reassuringly. He nods and we head back to the car. "We should probably get home it's getting kinda late." I add, now seeing that it is 10pm and he agrees.

We get in the car and head home. We get there in about an hour and I walk up to the door of my house and realize I forgot my house key and my dad was out that weekend at a friends house probably having a good time and drinking.

I walk back over to the car, "JC I don't have a house key and my dad isn't home."

"You wanna crash with me tonight?" JC asks. He has a place of his own since he is now 18 and because his parents passed away when we were young.

"Yes, thank you." I say with a cute little smile.

We arrive at his house about 10 minutes later and walk through the door. JC's house is huge and beautiful. It has all wooden floors and chandeliers in every room. "Thanks again for letting me stay here."

"Karle you are my bestest friend in the whole world, so stop thanking me. You are welcome here anytime, you know that." He says half serious, half filled with laughter. His laugh is so adorable. It's like a cute little kids laugh.

"Okay" I laugh. "We should probably get to bed tomorrow is our last day of school." I remind him.

"Yea probably.. C'mon." He says leading the way to his room. We go upstairs to his bedroom, which is the size of half my house alone. "Well you can have my bed and I'll take that couch. I just put it in here a couple days ago."

"Okay, but do you wanna stay on the bed with me for a while?" I ask.

"Sure, no problem." He lays beside me and we face each other making silly faces back and forth. And we start talking about my birthday party and he says to not worry because he will have everything under control and he even said he would bake the cake all by himself.

The conversation settles and I close my eyes trying to sleep.

He stays there until he thinks I am asleep and says "Goodnight Karle" kissing me on the forehead. It surprised me and it sent an electric shock threw my entire body. Not a bad kind of shock but a good one. A shock that I would like to feel more often.

I whisper "Goodnight" soft enough so he wouldn't notice I was awake. I wanted so badly to tell him how I actually felt and to kiss him back. But I slowly fell asleep with a smile of true happiness on my face.

I really need to tell him how I feel soon. I can't hold it in forever. Maybe I'll tell him in a few days.. I hope.