The Life You Deserve

Chapter 11: Summer Fun

AN: Thank you to everyone who has read and left a vote on The Life You Deserve so far :-) We have more mature content ahead, blame those hormones! But this chapter is pretty mild I'd say! 

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August 1985

This summer has been the best time of my entire life, El thought to herself as she walked hand in hand with Mike to the ice cream parlour for their first official date.

Their fingers were laced together and they walked slowly in time with one another as they laughed and talked, stealing loving glances at each other.

El had been thrilled at Mike's reactions to her new clothes so far. He seemed to really like the dresses and skirts if his wide heart eyes and gapping mouth meant anything. El felt a lot more confident in herself now that she had found her style and was enjoying the more girly things to life.

They were finally seated by the window, sharing a large chocolate sundae between them. El realised quickly how much she liked ice cream, chocolate in particular. Her eyes must have shown her excitement because Mike chuckled. "You enjoying this huh?"

"Mm hm." She beamed licking the ice cream off the spoon. Mike gave her a startled look and focused his attention back onto the ice cream. His reaction didn't go unnoticed and El immediately worried she had shown bad manners.

"Did I do something wrong?" she whispered to him, her eyes full of concern. Mike looked back up at her, surprised by her demeanour and quickly shook his head.

"No! You didn't do anything wrong El." He told her, giving her a reassuring smile that melted her heart.

"Then why did you look strange when I licked the spoon?" she asked him confused.

Mike went immediately crimson and prodded his spoon into the sundae, keeping his eyes down. He cleared his throat, still not looking at her. "Because...I liked it..." He mumbled.

El watched him in confusion. Why did he look embarrassed if he liked it? She looked at him more closely and realisation slowly started to seep into her brain. His embarrassment was the same embarrassment he had when they were interrupted in a private moment together. El thought about the few times they had kissed with their tongues and she found herself smirking as she realised why he liked her licking a spoon.

Mike hesitantly met her eye and El gave him a warm, sweet smile. "It's okay if you liked it. You don't have to be embarrassed." She told him honestly, feeling a surge of confidence flow in her blood.

Her boyfriend's eyes were as big as saucers at her revelation. His lips slowly turned into a relieved grin and he reached for her hand which was lounging on the table next to the sundae glass.

"I love you," Mike sighed happily, his eyes glazing over slightly as he stared at El. She felt her heart leap with joy just from how he looked at her. "I love you too." She told him, grinning so much her cheeks ached.

He squeezed her hand and looked at their entwined fingers. "I love you so much I find it hard to control sometimes. And I...I'm obviously very attracted to you El and it makes things kind of...difficult sometimes." Mike admitted, his cheeks rosy.

El felt herself blushing as she thought back to the talk with Joyce when she had started her period. Joyce had explained about attraction and hearing Mike admitting his attraction to her sent goose bumps up her arm despite the warm heat of summer. She was certain he was talking about sexual attraction.