Broken Glass (5 page)

We were studying in the library one afternoon and Emily abruptly just blurted it out.

“Have you and Tyson been…?” her voice trailed off when she asked, as if she couldn’t say the word “sex” out loud.

“No,” was my honest answer. She didn’t believe me at first.

“Ava, seriously,” she replied, giving me a look. “You can tell me. It’s okay if you are…I just assumed you were. Me and Jake are. We have been since, like, the second month we were dating.”

“Are you serious?” I asked her, a little incredulously. I’d really had no idea.

“Yeah,” Emily admitted. “Are you and Tyson really not
—
?”

“No,” I told her firmly. “We really aren’t.”

“Have you at least talked about it?” she asked. I shrugged.

“Not too much,” I replied. “I mean, we’ve briefly discussed it here and there, but it’s never really come up as something serious.”

“You’ve fooled around though, right?” she asked. I didn’t know where this was going.

“Sure,” I replied, then lightly added, “Have you seen my boyfriend? I couldn’t just not physically take advantage of that!” It was a joke. I was hoping it would lead to a change in subject.

“Me and Jake talked about it before we did it,” she pressed on. “He’s my first, but I’m not his, and in the beginning, that kind of bothered me. But it’s totally cool.”

I just nodded, not sure what kind of response she was expecting out of me.

“I still can’t believe you and Tyson haven’t yet!” she went on. “From the way Jake talks, he’s so sure Tyson’s been…well, you know.”

“How is he so sure?” I asked her, frowning.

“I dunno,” she said simply. “Maybe you should ask Tyson about that.”

I did ask Tyson about it
that night, actually
. W
e were upstairs in his bedroom, watching TV while Tyson strummed on his acoustic, when I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“Have you been telling Jake that we’re having sex?” I asked, in an oddly high-pitched tone.

He looked at me and burst out laughing.

“Where on earth did that come from?” he asked, setting his guitar against his bedroom wall and walking over to his bed where I was sitting.

“Tyson, I’m serious,” I said, chewing on my bottom lip. “Have you been telling Jake that we’re having sex?”

“No, babe, I haven’t,” Tyson replied, his smile fading. “Why do you ask?”

“I dunno,” I mumbled, shrugging and looking down. Tyson sat down on the bed next to me. Now I felt stupid for even bringing it up.

“Hey,” he said softly, placing his hand on my knee and squeezing it gently. “What’s up, Ava?”

“Nothing,” I replied with a sigh, looking up at him again. “It’s just…something Emily said today. She was surprised when I told her we weren’t…you know. And I was thinking about it and we haven’t even talked about it that much.”

“Have you wanted to talk about it?” he asked me. “I mean
,
I didn’t think it was a big deal, Ava.”

             
“It’s not,” I said quietly, looking down at my hands. “I just…I dunno…”

             
“Listen,” he said to me, putting his hand under my chin and tilting my head up so that my eyes met his. “What does it matter if we are or not? Shouldn’t it be up to us
—
not anybody else
—
when we do? Who cares about Emily and Jake or whoever? It’s between you and me, anyway, you know?”

             
I nodded.

             
“I’m not a prude,” I spoke up. I suddenly felt the need to defend myself. He laughed.

             
“I know,” he replied. “But when it happens, it happens. Whether it be tonight, next month, or on your wedding night. Whenever you’re ready for it and whenever the moment is right, that’s when it’ll happen for you.”

             
God. Could he be any more perfect?

             
“Sorry, Tyson,” I whispered. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug.

             
“Don’t be sorry for saying something,” he said. “It’s all gravy, baby.” I managed a small laugh, feeling embarrassed. Suddenly, his hug turned into tickling me.

             
“Hey!” I exclaimed, falling back on the bed. He began kissing my neck and tickling my sides.

             
“Tyson!” I yelled, laughing uncontrollably.

             
“What? W
hat?” he asked, laughing, too
. He finally pulled away and looked down at me, breathing a little heavily. I was breathing hard, as well. We just looked at each other for a moment, and his eyes searched mine for some kind of answer to an obvious request.

             
I smiled suddenly, touching his face tenderly.

             
“I love you so much,” I murmured, kissing him on the side of his neck. He pushed my hair away from my face.

             
“I know,” he replied, quietly. “I love you, too.”

             
He kissed me on my mouth then
—
the passionate kind of kiss that makes you feel as if you’re floating away into some euphoric plane. When he pulled away, I realized that I was shaking. This
wasn’t our normal kind of kiss.
There was a hunger behind that kiss that I knew
could only lead to one thing.

             
“I-I want to,” I told him, my voice seeming so small.

             
“I know,” he said, and kissed me again.

             
And then it happened. My mother always told me that if I waited for the right person, then sex would be beautiful.
She was right.

             
We fell asleep in each other’s arms, and after an hour of dozing, I awoke with a head full of thoughts. Mainly, I wondered what was going through Tyson’s head. I was his first, as he was mine, and I hoped and prayed with all my heart that it’d been just as special and amazing for Tyson as it had been for me.

             
When he took me home that night, he
was quiet for the entire ride back.

             
“Ava, I want to tell you something,” he
finally
said, once we’d pulled i
nto my driveway. We sat in his
El
C
amino in the quietness of the night.

             
“Yeah?” I asked him.

             
“Six months isn’t a very long time,” he said, quietly, and for a slight second, I thought he was about to break up with me. My heart literally skipped a beat.

             
“But the way I feel about you,” he went on. “It’s like we’ve known each other for way longer than that, you know? I’m not freaking you out, am I?” I laughed, with relief, and shook my head.

             
“No,” I replied.

             
“Anyway,” he continued. “I love you, Ava. And you know how we talked about soulmates and stu
ff the first night we met? Well now that you’re in my life, I-I don’t want you to walk out.
” He was stumbling over his words, but I knew what he meant. I felt the same way, of course.

             
“Tyson, do you realize how amazing I think you are?” I asked him then. “You don’t have to explain yourself. I love you.”

             
“I love you, too,” he said, smiling. “And that’s what I’m trying to say, you know? I love you and I’m pretty sure it’s a lifetime kind of thing.” I laughed.

             
“You love me…infinity plus one, right?” I teased. “Was I that good in bed?” He cracked up and gave me a sweet kiss on my lips.

             
“Yeah, I gotta admit,” he replied. “I guess I’m your love slave now.” I lost myself in a fit of laughter.

4.

I didn’t tell Emily or Cassie or anyone else about what had happened between Tyson and me that night. It was something that I wanted to keep for
just
the two of us.

             
Both of our proms and college acceptance letters came and went, and we were still going strong, still together, loving each other more and more every day. Luckily, graduation fell on two different nights for us, and at Tyson’s graduation, I finally met his father.

             
After his graduating class threw their caps into the air, I ran down to Constantine High’s football field to congratulate Tyson. As I was cutting up with Tyson and Jake, I heard someone yell Tyson’s name.

             
“Ty!”

             
We all turned and saw Laura running down the field. She ran to Tyson and gave him a big hug, just as a man walked up behind her.

             
He was nothing like I’d imagined he’d be, though somehow, I just knew who he was. Tall, lanky, with thinning brown hair showing bits of gray, he wasn’t what I’d pictured ever being married to a woman as breathtaking as Tyson’s mom. But there was a kindness behind his tired eyes and his somewhat droopy smile, so I figured there was potential in there somewhere.

             
“Ava, you look so pretty!” Laura said to me then. I smiled.

             
“You’re the pretty one,” I repli
ed, eyeing her white sundress that made her look nothing short of an angel
.

             
“So this is Ava,” Tyson’s dad spoke up. I looked over at him and smiled, extending my hand. I was much more at ease with this man than I could have ever been with Tyson’s mother.

             
“Hey!” I said. “It’s so good to finally meet you!” He surprised me when instead of taking my hand, he gave me a hug.

             
“I’m Tom,” he said, returning my smile. “Ty, y
ou did good, son. She’s stunning
!” I grinned sheepishly.

             
“Thank you,” I told him, graciously.

             
“Ava graduated last night,” Tyson told Tom. “But I think I look better in my graduation digs, don’t you?”

             
I punched him playfully on the arm.

             
“You look like a Batman wannabe,” Laura joked. “Who has black graduation gowns? That’s so morbid.” Tyson retaliated this by giving her a noogie.

             
“What are you kids doing now?” Tom asked Tyson. I saw a different question than what he’d asked in his face and silently, I hoped Tyson would see it, too.

             
“Well, I was hopin’ I could get my dad to take some of us out for some grub, since I actually made it out of school alive,” Tyson responded, glancing over at me wit
h a wink. I smiled. Bingo.

             
“You’d be so lucky,” Tom replied, with a large grin. The same smile Tyson had. “Where do you wanna go?”

             
“Chinese!” Laura said loudly. “Ty, please!”

             
“Yeah, Chinese is good,” he said. “That okay with you, Ava?”

             
“Oh, of course,” I replied.

             
“Jake, you coming along?” Tom asked Jake.

             
“I can’t, Mr. Andrews, sorry,” he declined. “My girlfriend h
as ‘special plans’ or something.
”

             
“They’re very special plans!” Emily walked up to us then, giving Jake a big smack on his cheek.

             
“Let’s go, I’m starving!” Laura said.

             
“I just need to go by my car and get my purse,” I said.

             
“Nonsense,” Tom said, smiling. “It’s on me, Ava.”

             
So I went out to eat with the Andrews and I have to say, the food went down a lot easier compared to the dining out I’d had with Tyson’s mom a few months earlier.

             
That summer went by so fast, it’s like a blur in my mind now. Tyson and I spent nearly every waking moment together. He was scoring more and more gigs with his band all over Virginia and even North Carolina. I
was going to every show
that I could, while still managing to wo
rk a job at the local newspaper
once to twice a week laying out the ad pages.  When August came, it was time for me to move out of my mom’s house to go live in the dorms at Virginia State University. I wasn’t really nervous about it at
all because Cassie would be
my roommate and it was only twenty minutes away from Constantine a.k.a. Tyson.
Again, I was taking a full-time load of college classes and working part-time, but
Tyson and I made as much time as we could for each other.