My Wish for You (11 page)

I sat there
waiting. The phone seemed absurdly silent. I waited…and waited…and waited.
Eventually, I started bouncing in anticipation. Maybe he was thinking up
something really, really amazing. Or something that was romantic. Or elaborate.
Or…or—the phone finally vibrated and I jumped.

Hadn’t got
that far. Lol.

I sighed. Or he
could just leave the thinking up to me. Boys. Getting up, I walked around the
room. Tons of ideas ran through my head, but none held any real interest for
me. I realized I didn’t really want elaborate, or amazing; I just wanted to
hang out. To have fun, but not completely over the top. Standing by the window,
I glanced outside and it hit me. A camp fire. Perfect!

Well…how
about a campfire? We could get Chad and Cara and Brian and Alisha; and you and
I can go collect some firewood beforehand.

That sounds
great. What time?

Eeh! He said
yes! Wooh! Go me! Ahh
! I plopped myself down on the bed, wiggling happily.
I took a deep breath and sent my reply.

7:30-8:00?

Alright. I’ll
see you at your place?

I grinned big.

Yessir. =)

I’ll see you
then. :]

See you then.

I called Cara
and asked her if she was interested in having some kind of date night and she
was totally down. I told her to get Alisha to come with Brian too. She said she
would and that she would bring the s’mores fixings. I sighed happily, thinking
about what I would wear and how I was going to do my hair as I picked up my
book and settled down in anticipation.

***

I ended up in a
pair of shorts and black and white layered tank tops with a pair of black vans.
I had decided on wearing my hair back in a French braid with a small headband
keeping my bangs out of my face. Keeping the makeup light, I only put on a
little bit of cover up, eye shadow, and some lip-gloss. I put on a few rings
and bracelets to liven up my outfit, and then I was ready to go.

Impatiently, I
waited in the family room next to the front door. I was jittery and bouncy,
fiddling with the bracelets on my left wrist. I looked down at my book. I had
brought it downstairs with me to distract me from my nerves, but it was no use.
I was past the point of help. Sarah walked past me on the way to the kitchen,
stopping to look at me in my bouncy behavior.

“What’s up with
you? Hot date tonight?” she chuckled lightly, leaning against the wall.

I blushed
slightly, looking down at my shoes, then back up at her.

“Well, since you
asked. I
am
kind of going out with Lance tonight.”

She looked
slightly shocked. “Oh, wow, really?”

“Yes, really.”

“That’s good. I
guess. What are you guys doing?” She seemed hesitant in her answer, like maybe
there was something wrong with this picture. It unnerved me slightly.

“We’re having a
campfire with Cara and Chad and Brian and Alisha. You’re more than welcome to
come. I didn’t think about inviting you earlier. I’m sorry. It just kinda
slipped.” I felt bad about leaving her out and forgetting about her. I hoped
she didn’t take it too personally.

“Oh, no. Don’t
worry about it. I am just gonna stay in tonight and relax. Maybe take a bath,
read a few dirt magazines.” She saw the look of guilt on my face and smiled at
me. “No. Really. I don’t mind, Sam. It’s alright. Go ahead and go have fun. But
you do know that it’s not dark yet, right?”

“Yeah, I do.
Lance and I are going to go collect firewood beforehand.”

“Ah. Alrighty
then. Have fun I guess.” She turned and headed into the kitchen, leaving me
feeling guilty, but not for leaving her out.

There she went
with the “I guesses” again. It left me feeling off, like I was doing something
wrong. In all reality, maybe I was doing something wrong. It didn’t feel too
wrong though. I was all jumbled and confused. I muttered a short, sarcastic, “Thanks”
under my breath and tried to sort through my thoughts.

I wasn’t given
too much time to ponder it, because at that moment, my phone buzzed.

Hey. I’m
outside. Are you ready?

I looked at him
waiting by his quad and felt my heart flutter again. He was absolutely
gorgeous, even if he was just in jeans, a plain old t-shirt, and a zip up
hoody. My nerves abruptly calmed and I was completely excited for the night
ahead of me.

Yeah. I’ll be
right out.

He smiled when
he saw me walk out the front door. I returned it gladly and bounced toward him.
When I got to him, he leaned down slowly and grabbed my hand, kissing it
softly, smiling against my skin.

“Where to, m’lady?”
he asked in a very kind, gentleman-like voice. I beamed at him, laughing daintily.

“Well, kind sir,
we would be off into the woods.” I pointed towards the woods with my free hand.
He intertwined his fingers with mine and pulled me with him towards the trees.

“So, I hope that
that wasn’t too corny or anything. I just kind of always wanted to do that to
someone.” He glanced back at me as we walked through the trees picking up
pieces of wood as we went. In fear that we would get lost out in the woods, I
made sure we didn’t go too far in and that I could always see the campsite from
where we were.

“No, it wasn’t.
I actually thought that it was very cute. I thoroughly enjoyed it.” I bent down
to pick up another piece, smiling up at him. We had kept the conversation light
as we walked through the forest, talking about school, hobbies, favorite
movies, and whatnot. He was a senior. He liked comedies, the stupid, funny ones.
He surfed and played with his dog a lot. He was sweet.

But was he what
I wanted?

Ever since my
conversation with Sarah, I had been second-guessing my decision. Maybe I shouldn’t
have said yes to Lance. Was that somehow betraying Sean? Sean had a girlfriend
though; he was off the market, despite our few run-ins. So, I should have been
completely free to see someone I liked. I heard Lance vaguely as he said
something to me. Then he repeated himself, then again, a little bit louder,
pulling me from my thoughts.

“Look. I can see
the first star.” He balanced his pieces of wood in one arm to point up toward
the darkening sky. My eyes followed in the direction he was pointing and sure
enough, through the trees shone a bright little star in the dusk night.

“Did you ever
use to wish upon the first star that you saw in the sky?” he asked me.

“Yeah, I did.” I
smiled at that, pausing. “What did you use to wish for?”

“Most of the time,
it was for something like a bike or board.”

I looked up at
his hopeful face. He looked back at me briefly before looking back up at the
star. He closed his eyes for the smallest fraction of a second before opening
them back up and looking at me, obviously wishing for something.

“What did you
wish for?” I asked him softly.

“Don’t you know
that if I tell what I wish for it won’t come true? But, if you really wanna
know, I guess I can tell you.” He looked back at me with softness in his eyes. “I
wished that I could manage to get this gorgeous girl to kiss me.”

I blushed and
glanced down slightly before gazing back into his eyes.

“And who would
this gorgeous girl be? Should I be jealous?” I asked coyly.

He took a step
towards me. “I think she knows who she is.”

Feeling
flattered, I blushed a deeper red as he took another step towards me, tilting
his head down close to mine, stopping barely in front of my lips. Yearning to
kiss him, I leaned my head up to him and he closed the gap between us, kissing
me softly. I kissed him back with gentleness so I could take everything in: the
way his lips felt on mine, the cool summer night air, the stars starting to
twinkle up in the sky. It was all wonderful. Sighing happily, I dropped the
wood kindling in my arms and wrapped them around his neck as he kissed me with
more passion. He dropped his too as he enveloped his long arms around my waist,
pulling me close, wrapping us in an atmosphere of perfection.

Chapter Fifteen

“So, what did
you use to wish for?”

It took me a
second before I realized what he was talking about. We were picking up the
dropped pieces of wood, and when I realized it, I sighed in realization.

“Ah. Well. Ummm.”

I picked up the
last piece and stood up thinking. What
did
I used to wish for? And then,
as if I ran into a brick wall, it hit me. All those years. All those years, I
had wished that Sean would recognize me as more than just a friend. That he
would notice me and maybe want to be with me. I felt that same pang of guilt
that I’d felt when Sarah was talking to me earlier. It wasn’t about Sean, and
me wronging him. It was about Lance, and the fact that it wasn’t fair to him
that I had feelings for someone else.

“Ya’ know. The
usual things. Clothes, toys, those kinds of things,” I said lightly, trying to
hide the dismay I felt. With guilt rising in my gut, I pushed my epiphany deep
down inside. I couldn’t deal with it right now. It was too late into our plans
to come to a conclusion like that. Undoubtedly, I would have to deal with it
later. It wouldn’t be fair to him.

He chuckled.

“I pretty much
think that everyone wished that way.”

When we made our
way out of the woods, a small fire was already started. Cara, Chad, Brian, and
Alisha were already sitting and talking. As we put the pieces of wood into a
pile, I gathered that they were talking about parties. Brian was talking about
some party we had gone to a few months back as Lance and I took our seats on a
log and Lance wrapped his arm around me. I shivered slightly, finally noticing
that there was a chill to the air. Lance noticed as well. He slid his jacket
off and held it out for me. I slid my arms through the sleeves gratefully,
feeling the warmth.

As I listened to
Brian, I realized that it was the same story I had told Lance the other night. I
chuckled to myself silently. Lance looked down at me with a curious glance and
I just shook my head and told him to listen.

“So then, we
slip through the door as quietly as possible. Just when I think we’re in the
clear, Sam slams the door, waking our parents up. Needless to say, we both were
in huge trouble.”

“Oh, that is
not
how that happened!
You
slammed the door. You were drunk. Someone got a
little too carried away with some shots. It was not my fault.” I interjected,
appalled.

“It was too. You
totally—”

“You know, you
guys said that in almost the exact same dialogue. No joke. When you told me
that story, Sam, I think you said like the exact same thing,” Lance said,
astonished.

“Well, we are
twins,” Brian and I said at the exact same time. We looked at each other and
laughed, the rest of the group following suit.

“Really?” Lance
asked. “You don’t say.”

Brian said
something about being older than me and I was about to protest when I felt my
phone vibrate.

Don’t look
now, but guess who’s at the window
?

I ignored Cara’s
warning not to look and glanced sneakily towards the cabin. And who did I find
standing at his window? Sean. He was looking down at us…no, at
me
…with a
pained expression on his face. I locked eyes with him. Something felt
different. I couldn’t be sure of what, but the atmosphere felt different. And
in that moment, I wanted nothing more than to be upstairs with him. I felt that
pang of guilt again and I tore away from his stare.

“And if Sam hadn’t
slammed that door, we would have gotten off scott free and I would not have had
to spend the next month and a half in my room.”

“Woah, woah,
woah there, mister. This story needs to get set straight.”

Everyone was
watching us as we bickered. Lance was rubbing my lower back lightly in a
soothing kind of way, almost like he was trying to calm me out of doing
something stupid. I looked up at him and smiled to let him know that I was
okay. He smiled back, but there was distance in his eyes. Something was off.

“You’re not
gonna beat the crap out of him again, are you Sam?” laughed Cara from the other
log, practically sitting on Chad’s lap. Lance looked slightly alarmed as Cara
said this. I sighed and looked forward.

“Beat the crap
out of him? Her? She’s like a pixie. He’s like, what, twice her size?” Chad
asked, disbelieving. I had to say, I was slightly offended; size was not
everything.

“Oh, you’d be
surprised,” piped up Alisha. Brian shot her a look and she blushed deeply. I
liked Alisha a lot. Would I have picked her for my brother? Definitely not. Not
that she was a bad person or not good enough for my brother. They made a great
couple. She was just so quiet, and he was so…not. There was no better way to
describe them rather than polar opposites.

“Anyway, I think
that we need to call in some unbiased opinions here,” I interrupted.

“And who would
that be? Everyone who was there was wasted.” Brian looked at me defiantly.

“Sarah.” I
returned his look of defiance, knowing that I had the trump card, and he knew
as soon as I said it that I was right. I smirked at him slightly as I proceeded
to rub it in. “Remember, she was sick that night and didn’t want to go out.”

“Whatever. Where’s
the stuff for the s’mores?”

“No, no, no. Why
don’t we give her a little call?” I insisted.

***

“What was so
important that I had to leave my night of relaxation?” Sarah complained as she
walked out of the cabin towards us. Her hair was wet and she had a disgruntled
expression on her face.

“Who was the one
who slammed the door the night that we got caught sneaking in?” Brian and I
asked almost in unison. Everyone chuckled lightly as Sarah’s face got even more
annoyed.