We Were Here: A New Adult Romance Prequel to Geoducks Are for Lovers (Modern Love Stories Book 1) (5 page)

I knew I liked her.

“Okay. I’m in.” Next to Lizzy’s enthusiasm, Selah came off as monotone and as dry as a cracker. “You want to join us, Ben? We could take two cars.”

I made eye contact with Ben and gestured to my mouth.

He mirrored my actions and swiped at the lipstick. “No, that’s okay. I’m more into rap and hip-hop these days.”

He looked like the last person on the planet you’d expect to love rap, except maybe Tipper Gore. Why? He wore a tie, although it looked like it had been loosened and maybe even removed, then hastily put back on over his head. In fact, his shirt was untucked, too.

After saying goodnight to Ben, plans were made to make plans as we returned to our rooms.

Turned out Jennifer going or being upset about going was never an issue. Her boyfriend from home showed up to surprise her the next day. At first she asked me to swear I wouldn’t tell Gil, but that ended up being a moot point when he bumped into them in the lobby.

I knew Gil would be fine.

If anyone suffered, it was me having to listen to Jennifer moan about him then ask me a hundred questions whenever I hung out in his room.

Maybe I should’ve introduced her to Roger. No way. I didn’t need to walk in on their battle of world tongue domination every day. A battle to the death. Death by tongue. No, thank you.

“Interstate Love Song” ~ Stone Temple Pilots

“WHO ARE YOU
going to put in your sex hut?” Quinn asked as we sped south on the 5. The hills of northern California were parched and bleached golden by the sun. I already missed the forests around campus back in Olympia.

We’d been playing Quinn’s stranded on a desert island game for what felt like hours. Three huts. A different person in each hut. The rules were more complicated, but honestly, I couldn’t keep track. All I knew was I had to give the name of a celebrity I’d have sex with.

“Johnny Depp.”

“Nice, I approve.” Quinn held up his hand for a high five. “Which one? Current hobo, put a dollar in his cup ’cause he’s down on his luck Depp?”

“21 Jump Street.”

“Good cop, bad boy! Nice combination.”

Dark hair and warm brown eyes combination was more like it. I turned my head slightly to peer in the backseat where the guy fitting that description rested his head on the door frame. Wind from the open window lifted his hair and sun dappled his skin. When a sigh escaped me, I quickly clamped my lips shut, hoping Quinn hadn’t noticed.

His focus flicked up to the rearview mirror and then back to me. A single blond eyebrow arched in question.

I didn’t want to admit what was obvious. Instead, I turned my head to gaze out at flat fields of late summer corn. Gil had made out with my roommate. Probably more girls. Embarrassingly, it didn’t stop my crush on him.

“You know what word you probably don’t hear around here very often?” Selah leaned forward between the seats.

“What?” I twisted my upper body to face her.

“Moist.”

Lizzy’s groan from the back seat echoed mine. Squeezed in the middle between Gil and Selah, she’d been riding the hump for the better part of the trip because she was the most petite. And the nicest.

Gil snorted and opened one eye. “What is it with girls and that word?”

Sleep-faker. I’d have to remember that.

“It’s not only moist. There are a lot of words we don’t like,” I explained the crazy world of girls and words.

“Such as?” He leaned forward. “Educate me.”

Lizzy squirmed to lean her back against Selah. “Crutch, clutch, munch, crotch . . .”

“It’s the
uch
sound that bothers you?” Gill furrowed his brows together until I could easily imagine him with a unibrow. It wasn’t his best look.

“I’m fine with bunch.” Lizzy tucked a lock of her dark hair behind her ear. “And girls love brunch.”

“I hate the word pantyhose.” Selah stuck out her tongue. “Or panty. And hanky.”

“Crutch, munch, hanky, panty, clutch . . . crotch. This sounds like a Dr. Seuss book gone horribly wrong.” Quinn glanced at me with a sly smile. “You couldn’t make me clutch a moist crotch. I shan’t munch a panty, or pantyhose. No hanky or panky, not even with Glenn Close.”

“Glenn Close?” I gave him a dubious look.

“Rhymes with pantyhose. Plus,
Fatal Attraction
ruined me for all women.”

“That’s it?” Selah leaned forward again, shifting Lizzy toward Gil.

“Actually, it was Han Solo. Sitting in the movie theater with all my friends going wild for Princess Leia in her gold bikini, all I could think about was Han Solo. So gruff, so sarcastic.”

“Makes complete sense.” Gil agreed. “If you were going to be gay in space, he’d be a much better choice than Starbuck in
Battlestar Galactica
.”

After he came out to everyone, Quinn being gay didn’t feel like a big deal to any of us. Most of the time he and I had similar taste in guys.

“How much longer until we get to Berkeley? I need to pee.” Selah had the smallest bladder ever. Or maybe it was the giant sixty-four ounce cup of Diet Coke she bought every time we made a stop.

“I don’t know. You’re the one from Northern California.”

Selah glanced out her window at the flat, gold fields in the evening sunlight. “At least four hours. Too long. Next exit please.”

“Remind me what the plan is?” Gil stretched, and I stared.

Quinn’s little hatchback didn’t have a lot of space. When a tall guy like Gil squeezed himself into the backseat, stretching became a contortion exercise. His long arms grabbed the back of Quinn’s seat. He rolled his neck side to side, his hair barely brushing his shoulders. There wasn’t room enough for him to stretch his legs, unless . . .

He twisted and threw a leg over Lizzy and Selah, then the other one.

“Listen, dude. If you’re going to lie across me with your stinky feet in my face, you could ask first.” Selah batted at his feet.

To escape her assault, he stuck his feet out the opposite window. “Better?”

“Barely. Don’t press on my bladder. Or I’ll ruin this Ford’s lovely upholstery.”

We found a gas station with a dubious convenience store and even more questionable bathrooms—the kind requiring a key and located on the outside of the building near an overfilled dumpster. Never a good sign. When Selah opened the door and a strong odor of public urine hit us, Lizzy swore she could hold it for a couple more hours.

“Don’t be a priss, Liz. Breathe through your mouth and hover.”

Lizzy and I made eye contact. Our expressions mirrored fear and disgust.

“I have an idea. Stay here and guard the door for Selah.” I slow jogged around the corner toward the store and found what I needed at the counter.

Returning from my mission, I handed Lizzy the yellow container of Carmex. “Here.”

“Soft lips are your biggest concern when we die from asphyxiation in there?” She picked up the lip balm with her fingertips.

“No, it’s super strong smelling. Put it on your upper lip and around your nose.”

“This is weird.” Frowning, she opened it up and dabbed a little on her finger, then sniffed.

“No, you need a lot.” I swiped a dollop and applied it liberally over my lips and under my nose. The spicy scent of Carmex filtered out dumpster and lingering bathroom odors. “See?”

“You look like you were slimed.” She copied my actions.

“So do you.”

“What is taking Selah forever in there?” I banged on the door. “Did you fall in? Selah?”

“I’m changing my tampon! Give a woman a second of privacy.”

“I didn’t need to know that. I never heard that.” Gil stood behind us, his hands covering his ears.

“What do you two have all over your faces?” He gestured in a circle near my face.

“It was Maggie’s idea.” Lizzy dabbed at the goop.

“Why?” He leaned against the cinder block of the gas station, crossing his arms in the nonchalant, cool guy way.

Selah burst out of the door. The bathroom smell followed her out like a toxic cloud.

“That’s why.” The answer was obvious, but I told him anyway.

He pushed himself off the wall and away from the stink. “What died in there?”

Lizzy gave me her wallet. “I’m going in. Send word to my parents if I don’t make it out. Their address is on my driver’s license.”

“Good luck!” I called out as the door closed.

“I need a Diet Coke.” Selah disappeared around the corner to the entrance.

“What’s with the goop?”

I forgot lip balm covered my lower face. “Trick I learned from my dad when we went fishing.”

“You fish?”

“Not really. But my dad made me a few times. With fishing comes cleaning the fish.”

“I know. All those guts and gore squishing out everywhere.” His mouth fought a smile.

I shuddered. “Exactly. He taught me the trick of putting lip balm by my nose. Totally helps block the smell.”

“That’s kind of brilliant. Is your dad a commercial fisherman?”

“No, he fishes for fun. My grandparents have a cabin on Whidbey. Lots of summers there meant lots of salmon fishing.”

“That’s cool. I grew up in landlocked Colorado, but my dad would take my brothers and me fly fishing.”

“You have brothers?”

“Two. One older and one younger. You?”

“Only child. I’d always wanted siblings. Instead, I had Cabbage Patch dolls.”

“Everything makes sense.”

I pouted out my bottom lip. “It does?”

“I’m teasing you. I’ve noticed you don’t like to be teased. That’s a sure sign you didn’t have to deal with it growing up.”

“Oh.”

He bumped my shoulder with his. Or more like his bicep to my shoulder. He stood much taller than me. His long arms and legs were thin, almost gangly, like he’d had a huge growth spurt but his muscles hadn’t caught up yet.

Spurt. Another word to add to the word list.

Lizzy exited the hell portal. “Your turn.”

“Wish me luck.” I handed her the wallet. “Don’t leave without me.”

“We’d never leave you behind, Maggie May.”

I scrunched up my nose. “Like the Rod Stewart song?”

Gil sang a few lyrics as he walked backward to the car.

Inside the dim bathroom, I wished there were a mirror on the wall. Not to ask it who was the fairest of them all, but to see how pink my face looked. My cheeks felt hot.

I wondered how obvious my crush was to everyone else. After he stopped sucking face with my roommate, we started spending more and more time together. We were in the same lecture with Lizzy and I hadn’t even noticed him for the first month.

Most of all, did Gil realize I had a crush on him? He asked me all those questions about my family. That indicated interest, right? Or maybe he was waiting on Lizzy. They seemed kind of close. I could ask her about Gil, but if she liked him, I didn’t know what I would do.

I was the last person back to the car. The others stood around talking and laughing.

“Shotgun!” Lizzy shouted.

“Same!” Selah and Gil said simultaneously.

“You want to hump or drive?” Quinn asked me.

I slowly blinked at him.

“Hump or drive? It’s a simple question.” Selah prodded.

I wished they’d stop saying hump. “I’d feel bad for making Quinn sit in the middle, but I can drive.”

Sitting next to Gil right now would be too much.