1 day
At five till seven, there's a knock at the
door.
My mom beats me to it. She swings it
wide open. "Hello," she greets. She is
smiling like a mad woman.
I cringe at her weirdness and stand up. I
walk up behind her. I see that Parker is
on the other side of the door.
"Hi, Ms. Moore."
"You must be here to take Quinn out.
She kind of never goes out with friends
or people. She's always studying and I
always tell her to live a little."
"Mom, I'm right here."
"Oops. Anyway, she's always been a little
awkward. She came home one day from
fourth grade wiping at her lips because
some guy kissed her. I was laughing and
congratulating her and she told me that
a guy will just get in the way of the novel
she was writing." My mom begins to
laugh. Parker smiles a bit.
I groan.
"I'm still standing right behind you, you
know?"
Parker looks past my mom, at me. "You
were writing a novel?"
"She finished it," my mom says. "It was
pretty good."
"I'm gonna leave now." I push past my
mom and out the door. "Bye."
"Keep her out past midnight," my mom
yells. "That poor child made herself go to
sleep at, like, eight every night."
I roll my eyes, walking past Parker and to
his car.
"I'll try," he tells my mom. "It was nice
meeting you."
My front door slams shut and I let out a
sigh of relief.
"Sorry about her. She can get a little
weird at times."
"It's no big deal," Parker says. His face
lights up in a smile. "I'm sorry that I
almost got in the way of your writing."
"It's no big deal," I laugh awkwardly
before stepping into his air conditioned
car. I didn't realize it was so hot outside
until I felt this drastic change. It feels
nice.
"Have you ever been to a party?" Parker
asks while driving down my street.
"You heard my mom. I've never done
something like this."
"Not with Alexis?" he asks.
"Nope. We aren't the partying type. We
stick to binge watching Netflix. Movies,
TV shows, documentaries, whatever." I
shrug my shoulders, as if going to
parties never even crossed my mind.
But it has.
"Do you go to a lot of parties?" I ask.
"Not as many as people would like to
think. I've maybe been to three. Oliver
always invites me since him and Henry
are cousins."
"You only go to Henry's?"
"Yeah. His is probably the safest party
you'll go to." He sighs and pushes his
hair back. "I mean, there's no, like, drugs
and he keeps the noise level down."
"Okay," I say softly.
He parks the car on an empty street.
"I'm sorry," he says. His forehead falls
onto his steering wheel and he lets out
yet another sigh.
"What for?" I ask. Maybe I'm being brave,
but I'm pretty sure that I'm just not
thinking. I place a hand on his arm.
"Taking you here. I'd rather have taken
you to some place nicer but I promised
Oliver."
"It's all right. It's not an ideal place to
have a nice chat, but I've never been to a
party. It'll be . . . fun?"
"It won't be fun." Parker lifts his head
and looks at me. He smiles a little. "But
we can try and make it better."
He steps out of his car and makes his
way around it to my door. He opens it
and stretches out his hand. I grab it so
he can help me up. He, surprisingly,
doesn't let go. We walk around the
street corner and to a house.
People are in the yard doing who knows
what. We walk up the front steps to the
door.
"Ready for your first party, Quinn
Moore?"
"Ready as I'll ever be, Parker Finn."
He opens the door and the nasty stench
of alcohol overtakes me.
Loud but, like Parker said, not too loud
music blasts through speakers.
He leads me inside and does that weird
head nod greeting to a few of his
friends. We pass by the kitchen and he
offers me a drink.
"I don't drink," I say.
"I don't either," he laughs. "Want to go
somewhere quieter?"
I nod my head in response.
Still holding my hand, he walks to the
stairs and up them. He goes to a door on
our left and unlocks it with just his
finger.
"It's his sister's room. Henry doesn't let
people in it to . . . you know?"
"I get it," I say while we walk into it.
Parker locks it back up and sits on the
floor. I follow suit and sit facing him.
"Wanna talk?" he asks.
"About what?" I ask, while playing with
a loose thread on my pants.
"Life. How's it going?"
"Good. I mean, my mom has always been
crazy even before my dad . . . And I've
always been studious but it got worse
after that so she always brings it up as a
joke. That's what she was doing today.
I'm sorry about that."
"I'm sorry about your father." Parker
looks down at the floor.
"Thank you, but it's okay. I mean, we'll
never get over his passing but I don't
know . . ." I look down too, bite my lip,
and try not to cry.
"I'm sorry I asked to talk," Parker says.
"Don't apologize," I laugh. "We've both
been apologizing all night."
Parker scoots closer to me. He leans
towards me.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he says.
With each word, he leans closer and
closer. "Sorry." He leans his head down
and captures my lips with his own.
At first, it catches me off guard. But then,
I return the kiss. I've never really kissed
a guy before. I don't even know if I'm
doing it right. But I just follow his lead.
Our kiss deepens until I'm pressed
against some twelve year olds bed frame
and Parker's hands are just under the
hem of my shirt. I pull away.
I never knew that my second kiss would
be with the guy who was my first kiss
and would turn into some heated make
out session.
"I'm sorry," he whispers.
"I'm not like that," I tell him.
"I'm not either," he says, his voice almost
questioning.
"Oh," is all I manage to get out.
He stands up. "Oh?" he repeats.
"Well . . . There's these, um, rumors."
"That's what they are," Parker spits out.
"Rumors. I knew that you would've
heard them by now."
"They're not true?" I ask.
"No. I've had two girlfriends. Kissed one
of them, maybe, five times before she
broke up with me. She started talking
about me like - like that."
"I'm sorry."
"I should take you home."