Young Blood

Chapter Twenty

  I awoke entangled in Ritchie’s arms, the sun pouring in through cracks in the building’s structure. I turned over to face him and I smiled, my eyes struggling to keep open. Ritchie was so warm, his body heat melting with mine. The blankets were kicked up and tangled around the two of our legs and bodies, so the warmth of Ritchie was what kept me from freezing my arse off last night. Apparently my shifting had woken up my lover, and Ritchie’s eyes slowly opened up not long after mine.

  “Hello, sweetheart,” I laughed, kissing his nose. “Sleep well?”

  “Yes, I did.” We both leaned in and he kissed each other’s lips, a taste that was now quite familiar at this point. Ritchie’s lips tasted like buttercream and were always warm, a taste that seemed to linger on my tongue even when he wasn’t around. It was a taste I had fought to cleanse my mouth of when Ritchie told me he wanted a break.

  “Did you dream anything in particular?” I gazed into his eyes lovingly, brushing a few strands of his chocolate brown hair out of his eyes. He chuckled at how feminine I was acting, and I chuckled back.

  “God, we’re like a married couple,” he laughed.

  “For your information, we are a married couple.” I smirked.

  Ritchie sighed, the smile fading. “I wish we could actually get married. The day we can legally be together will be the happiest day of my life.”

  “Oh, Ritchie,” I kissed him on the lips once more, his taste filling up my mouth when I felt his tongue creep in. It wasn’t a slutty, sexual kind of tongue-kiss, but rather an in-love, finally together one. It didn’t really make sense, but it’s what I felt. Most of the time, the emotions I felt for Ritchie didn’t have an explanation. But that was just another part of Ritchie that made me love him.

  “Come on, luv,” Ritchie sat up, eventually standing up and extending his arm for me to grab. I took his hand and stood up with him, the two of us walking back to his car. We hopped in, not caring about our mess in the gazebo or the fact that anyone might see us together as we drove back into town. It was a long drive back but neither of us minded, simply enjoying each other’s company.

  “I’m hungry George, I hope you don’t mind,” Ritchie said, pulling into a convenience store parking lot. He parked and hopped out, going inside to buy a few snacks and scratch tickets. He came back out and tossed me a bag of crisps, opening his own bag and finding a coin for his scratch tickets. I personally never found any interest in scratch tickets, but Ritchie liked them, so I watched with interest.

  Ritchie wrapped an arm around me, scratching off the numbers. I dazed out, grabbing handfuls of chips and watching Ritchie’s eye movements as he scanned up and down the ticket. His eyes widened for a moment before they looked at me.

  “Did you win?” I asked, my mouth full of chips.

  “Nah,” Ritchie’s eyes went sad. He sighed. “Hey, about we go for a drive around town?”

  “Yeah, that’s fine.”

  We drove off back into the center parts of town close to where Ritchie taught and I attended. I watched the university as we drove by, wondering to myself when we’d go back. Class was going on as we drove by, and I thought about how Ritchie had skipped teaching two days in a row. I feared quite a bit for his reputation.

  The car came to a sudden stop and I realized we were in the parking lot.

  “What are we doing, Ritchie?” I asked as Ritchie parked, opening his car door and jumping out.

  “I’m going in to quit. Be back in five minutes.”

  “What?!”

  Before I got a single answer Ritchie was inside the building, no doubt following his word. Why in the world would he quit? He had only started teaching a short while ago, why would he give up such a wonderful job opportunity?

  When Ritchie came back no less than five minutes later he had the widest grin stretched across his face. We drove off in silence for a few minutes until I turned to him and faced him, biting my lip. “Did you really quit?”

  “Of course.”

  “Oh..” I frowned. “Why?”

  Ritchie pulled over onto the side of the road. I watched his expression as he turned to me, his eyes wide. “Remember when I told you I lost that lottery ticket?”

  I nodded.

  “I lied. The prize is dinner for two anywhere in the world. Guess where we’re going?”

  I immediately threw my arms around Ritchie, kissing him all over. “We’re gonna get married, baby! In Spain!”

Two weeks later

    “You lucky son of a bitch,” John hugged me goodbye. “I really am gonna miss you. Come back and visit okay?”

  I smiled, hugging him back. “I will. But it’ll be a few months.”

  “George!” Paul ran into my arms, tackling me with his hug. “Send letters! When John and I save up enough money we’ll join you there, okay?”

  John laughed. “I already told you I’m not into marriage. Even if we do end up actually getting married I’m not calling you my husband or whatever. You’ll always be my Paul.”

  Paul smiled and kissed John on the lips for what seemed like the first time in a long time. I don’t recall ever seeing them kiss as passionately as they were now. Under their breath I heard them both whisper ‘I love you’ to each other and I nearly melted.

  “Come on, George.” Ritchie wrapped his arm around my waist, kissing my cheek. “The flight leaves in two hours. I don’t want to be late to enjoy the rest of our lives.”

  Paul smiled, a very quiet ‘awww’ escaping his lips. John smiled too, resting his head on Paul’s soldier.

  “I love you guys,” I called back to John and Paul, embarrassingly letting a tear slip from my eye as I watched them wave.

  Ritchie and I walked with our luggage and he helped me pack it into the car. We both got in, driving off. I watched as John and Paul waved once more, the two of them kissing each other passionately. I smiled to myself, looking at Ritchie and smiling more. We were finally running off and getting hitched in Spain, a place where it was actually legal for us to love each other. As we arrived at the airport we looked at each other and smiled, ready to begin the rest of our lives.