Summer Girl

Summer Girl - Chapter 23

Chapter TWENTY THREE 

The next morning was the most awkward of my life.

   Waking up with Harley was actually pretty great - he was just waking up when I opened my eyes, and getting a morning kiss from him was just perfection. Still, he was sweet and gentle, and he continued to show affection for me almost constantly. Sure, it was all still fresh and new. But he knew how to make me feel like the only girl in the world.

   For a few minutes, I forgot about Max. I forgot about the night before, the chaos, the hurt. Immediately, upon remembering, I felt dread, a weight on my shoulders so heavy I felt like I was being crushed.

   "It's pretty crazy how much you care about my brother," Harley smiled sweetly, pulling his t-shirt over his head.

  "What do you mean?" I asked, sitting up.

  "When you first woke up, you were happy to see me. You were calm. But now you're freaking out again," he explained. "You're thinking about Max?"

  I nodded, standing up. I had slept in my clothes, which now felt all stretched out and weird. "He's just..." I let my voice trail off.

  "I know. He's Max. He has an impact on people. But with you... it's more than that."

  "He didn't give up on me, even when he should have. He changed me. You did, too," I told Harley, walking around the bed to hug him.

  "I didn't give up on you." He shook his head. "I swear."

  "I know you didn't," I whispered into his chest, holding him close.

  "I loved snuggling you while we were sleeping," he changed the subject.

  "It was... amazing," I agreed.

  He kissed me, and I kissed him back. My stomach growled. I pushed him up against my bedroom door, still kissing him. Now, I knew what I was doing, at least some what. It wasn't as if Harley was complaining.

  "Mmm," he groaned.

  I grinned and pulled back, looking at him. He kept his eyes shut for a moment longer. His eyelashes were long an he had some freckles on his nose. Seeing him so close up, I could see his imperfections. There was a scar on his top lip. A scratch on his forehead. I wanted to kiss everything on him.

  "Why do you like me?" I asked him, smiling.

  His eyes opened, but he looked confused. "What?"

  "It's just odd to me, that you like me. I was a weird, awkward girl with no friends, who had never kissed a guy -"

  "I don't like you. I love everything about you. I love how you care about things, how you care about me, Max. I love how you are stubborn, yet you do things for other people all the time. I really love that I was your first kiss, because it made it special, it made it mean something."

  "Harley."

  "Yeah?"

  Our faces were so close, our noses were practically touching. I leaned even closer so our bodies were against each others. He kissed me, hard, and used his tongue to tell me he meant it. I kissed him back, and was just about to pull him back over to my bed when I heard a noise in the hallway. Suddenly I remembered that Clara and her boyfriend were there, in the beach house. I snapped out of my trance, in which I was about to start an intense make out session in my bed, and pulled away from Harley.