Last Summer Part 15

It turns out that I hadn’t even been needed across the street in the first place. Billy stayed in bed the entire time except for once when he had to pee. So basically, all the trip did was confuse me and make me feel completely uncomfortable. Caleb so could have watched Billy.
As soon as his grandparents got home and in through the front door, Caleb was downstairs, ready to greet them. He looked at me and as soon as he did, I blushed. He had seen me want to kiss him and then he had run away. I was such an idiot.
It took some convincing and a peck on the cheek for Edna and Bill, but within fifteen minutes, I was within the safe walls of my grandparents’ house. It made me feel so much better to be here than twenty feet across the street. At least I didn’t have a moody hot guy upstairs. I placed my keys onto the shelf and then saw a note taped to the mirror in the foyer.

I could easily decipher Tiffany’s handwriting-not many people in the country dotted their I’s with smiley faces-and rolled my eyes at her typical behavior. The note said, "Hey, Nikki! Look, I met this totally yummy guy today because a package for your grandparents actually went to his house and he had to bring it over here and ended up asking me out for a day at the beach. Nikki, this guy was totally beautiful. I should be home by eight and if not…don’t wait up!"
I laughed quietly to myself and then crumpled the piece of paper into a ball. I tossed it into the air and let it fly into the garbage can. The house felt weird without her here, especially since I was about to get ready for a date. Even in Chicago, Tiffany would always act as my makeover extraordinaire before going somewhere. Never in a million years, would I have thought she would give up dressing me for a date. But I guess that was what happened when you got to Florida. The sun was probably getting to her.

By six o’clock, I was ready to go. For some reason, getting ready myself made me even more nervous. Tiffany always made everything seem so calm and now that she wasn’t here, it gave me more time to think about the date-and all the possible mistakes of going out.
Currently, I was sitting on the counter in the kitchen, mindlessly chewing a piece of banana to calm my butterfly-filled stomach. Even though I tried my hardest not to, I kept glancing out of the window towards Caleb’s house. I wondered if he had been as affected as me by what had happened. I mean, he had completely baffled me and pissed me off at the same time.
And since the world is out to get me and everything, as I took one of these glances out the window, I saw a black Ford Escape pulling into his driveway. I had never seen this car before and something about it gave me the willies. When Ava got out of the driver’s seat, I understood why.
Wow, so Caleb mustn’t have been upset with Ava seeing as how she seemed perfectly happy as she walked to their front door. God, she was gorgeous. I hated her. The blonde girl and the other guy were probably still in the car. I hated the four of them-Caleb included.

The door across the street opened and Ava came face-to-face with Caleb’s grandma. I giggled as I saw the frown cross Edna’s face. I loved that lady. The two exchanged few words and soon Edna disappeared from the doorway. I noticed that she hadn’t even invited her into their house like she always did with me and just about everyone else. Wow, Edna must really not like her.
Then Caleb appeared in the doorway and I prepared myself for the worst. I thought that maybe they’d kiss hello or he’d give her that smile he had given me last summer. But to tell you the truth, he didn’t look any better than when I had seen him earlier. In fact, he looked worse from where I was sitting. Granted the view wasn’t perfect or anything, but I was positive he was still in his holey pajamas.
What’s even better was that he didn’t give me any indication that he liked her as more than a friend. Even though it was clear the two were dating by the way they were always together, they didn’t act like it now. What pissed me off was that I was actually happy about that fact. If they had done something all lovey-dovey, then I would have regurgitated the banana.
All of a sudden, the two beautiful humans across the street turned to face me. My head jerked around to where they couldn’t tell I had been watching, but I just knew that Caleb was smirking. Or maybe he was frowning; I could never tell anymore since he had been having constant mood swings.

When the front door to our house swung open, I realized what they had been staring at. A black BMW had just pulled into our driveway, with a cute guy in the driver’s seat. He blew a kiss towards the front door where Tiffany was probably standing and then peeled out of the driveway.
Caleb’s eyes followed the car as it disappeared down the road and then looked into our kitchen window. His eyes caught mine, but only for a second. He was the first one to turn away. Wow, I must have really pissed him off.
"Nikki!" Tiffany squealed, obviously having not seen me sitting on the kitchen counter. "I just had the best day ever!" By the looks of her, I could tell. Her lips were red and her blonde hair was unkempt. Obvious signs of serious lip-locking. She worked fast.
"Really now?" I asked her, causing her to turn to face me. She quickly made her way over to me and then placed her hands on my legs.
"His name is Dave, he’s in medical school, he’s an Aries, and his family is in the oil business. Did you see him through the window? How delicious is he? I mean, really? He’s hot, rich, works hard, and did you see that car? I think I’m in love, Nikki!" she then finally took the first breath of air since she had walked through the door.
She looked at me and noticed the signs that I had a date: some make-up, hair flat-ironed, and perfume on the side of my neck. "Oh yeah! Todd guy is taking you out! I so totally forgot! Wow, am I horrible best friend or what? By the way, you look totally hot. He won’t be able to take his hands off of you! Is that a new top? I really want to borrow it-it makes your boobs look amazing!"

I placed my hands on her shoulders in an effort to calm her. It looked like she was about to combust from excitement. "Breath, Tiffany, it does wonders."
"Speaking of breathing…Dave is the best kisser in the whole wide world! Like have you ever had that feeling where your legs turn to jelly and you hear your heart beat in your ears? That’s what happened to me and at first I thought I was having a stroke, but then I realized that maybe Dave is the one, you know?"
I had had that feeling before when being kissed. But seeing as how I had never kissed a guy before Caleb, I had thought that was how all kisses went. I guess I was wrong. Maybe you didn’t always feel like that when getting kissed. But Caleb wasn’t the one for me obviously, so maybe that was how I felt when anybody kissed me.
"You got that all from one kiss?" I asked her, and then hopped off of the counter. I tossed the banana peel in the garbage can and then made my way over to the fridge.
As I dug around in the fridge for a bottle of water, Tiffany said, "Well it wasn’t one kiss, more like fifty, so that’s got to mean something, right?"
I wheeled around to face her after grabbing me some hydration, and then gasped, "You made out with a guy you just met?"

She rolled her eyes and then exclaimed, "Did you not just hear me?! He’s hot, rich, sweet as all get out, smart. Nikki, he told me that I was beautiful! No guy has ever told me that before. All of them say ‘you’re hot’ or ‘man, I want to kiss you’ but never has a guy called me beautiful! Love doesn’t always take years or weeks to form. In the movie Aladdin-classic Disney, okay?-he sees Jasmine in the marketplace and then BAM! He falls for her immediately."
"I know, but you don’t even know the guy," I reminded her.
"Nikki," she said softly. "Love isn’t math or science. It doesn’t take forever to develop like some people think. Why wait weeks or months when you can live in the now? I’ve been with a lot of guys-you know that-but I’ve never felt like this before. Usually, we’ll make out and that’ll be that. We don’t talk; nothing. But Dave told me all about his goals and his dreams and then asked me about mine. And then we made out. You see? Total difference!"
I laughed quietly. "I wish it were that easy for me."
"It can be. Maybe you just haven’t found the right guy yet," she told me and then hurried out of the kitchen. She was probably on her way to take a cold shower or call Dave or something.
As soon as she was out of the room, I murmured out loud, "Or maybe I have." I looked out of the window once more and noted that Caleb was no longer outside. Maybe if he gave me his reason for abandoning me, I would forgive him. I doubted it, but maybe there was a really good reason he never talked to me.
I hated to admit that I did really miss him. And what Tiffany had been rambling on about kind of made sense. When Caleb had kissed me last summer, I had felt exactly like she described. My knees had gone weak; I couldn’t think straight, I had to hold on to him for dear life. Was that love or had it just been a delusion of the heart?
Okay, I really needed to stop thinking about this. My head was starting to hurt. I glanced over at the clock on the stove; fifteen minutes until Todd was supposed to show up. I could have a mental breakdown and recover in fifteen minutes, right?

Todd drove a red Jeep Wrangler and it instantly made me like him more. I had always wanted a Jeep but my parents had never let me have one; saying that they were too dangerous and that the insurance was too expensive. So it had been no Jeep Wrangler for me.
Just like a gentleman, he parked the car in the driveway, got out and walked to the door. Most jerks nowadays just pulled along the side of the road and honked the horn. But Todd didn’t. He pushed the doorbell and sent an echoing ‘ding dong’ throughout the house.
I slid off of the counter in the kitchen-yeah, I had never left the kitchen since Tiffany’s love lesson-and then made my way over to the door. I pulled it open and saw Todd smiling at me; just like I had seen in my head when I had talked to him on the phone.
"Hey, you ready?" he asked me, grinning.
I found myself grinning back as I said, "Definitely."

He ended up taking me to a cute little restaurant right on the beach. It was called Bahaman Mama and was the kind of place where you sat yourself and the people working didn’t check on you every five seconds.
Todd ended up getting us one of the best tables in the entire place; outside on the deck to where we had a marvelous view of the beach. The sun was just now setting and the orange tint it cast on the water was magnificent. Add some lights surrounding the overhanging roof and a little Beach Boys music and it was like you were here with us.
Like a gentleman, he pulled my chair out for me and then walked over to his side of the table. "Wow," I murmured, throwing a quick glance out towards the water. "I live here three months every year and yet I’ve never seen this place."
"You’ve missed out," Todd teased. "My uncle actually owns the place. I come here at least once every two weeks. The chicken fettuccini is to die for."
"Hmm…" I thought out loud and then was interrupted by the waitress. Her name was Diane and she looked to be a little loose if you caught my drift.
Her brown hair was cut in a stylish bob and she was wearing red lipstick that looked really good on her. She couldn’t have been older than twenty. Was every girl in Panama City better looking than me? I mean, come on, there was Ava, that blonde girl she hung out with, and now this Diane lady.

She pulled out a notepad and then asked Todd, "Can I get you something to start with?"
He cast a look at me as if telling me to order first and I told her, "I’ll have a coke, please."
"Two cokes and can we get some breadsticks?" he asked her.
"It’ll be out in a few," she replied quickly and then walked away. And as she walked away it seemed as if Todd looked at her butt. Well, she was gorgeous. Just like every girl here, except for me, of course.
"So you live in Chicago?" Todd started, obviously looking for an easy conversation starter. Well, lack of conversation had been something I was nervous about, so I was glad he had taken the initiative on that.
I nodded and then he asked, "What’s it like? I’ve never been out of Florida."
"Cold and windy," I said bluntly, laughing a little. Chicago was so different from Panama City and that was why I loved it here so much. Instead of cold, dry weather, the air was hot and humid. Most people hated it because of the frizzy hair, but I loved it. It was just another excuse to go swimming.
He laughed along with me and asked, "So it’s way different than here?"
"Way, waydifferent," I clarified, smiling. Todd was so easy to get along with and I liked that about him. I could tell that there wasn’t going to be a lack of conversation. "But what about you? Living here has to be amazing."
He nodded and then grinned. "Definitely. The only downside is hurricane season. We’ve had to rebuild our house three times in fifteen years."
"Yikes. I’ve never been in one before, but I have been in my fair share of blizzards. You can’t leave your house for days and the power usually is out."
"Damn," he muttered and I laughed. He asked, "Is snow as fun as I hear?"
"I, for one, don’t like it. Like at first, I loved it. It glitters, how cool is that? But after a week of it, you’re ready for it to go. I’ve tried convincing my parents to move down here since my grandparents live right off the beach, but their job is up there and that’s the most important thing to them."
"Got it, no snow," he joked and then smiled at me.
"What about you? What’s your story?" I asked, noticing how I was slightly leaning towards him across the table. But I didn’t stop myself.
"My story, eh?" he asked, drumming his fingers on the tabletop. As he thought silently, a new song came through the speakers and I recognized it as "Falling In Love In A Coffee Shop" by Landon Pigg. I had always loved this song and I found myself quietly humming along to the soothing music.

After a second, he started to talk. "I was born here, but I don’t know who to. All I know is that my mom was thirteen when she had me and so she could never take care of me. I was put up for adoption and luckily was adopted by my parents within the first year. Since then, I’ve lived with my parents in the same house for eighteen years."
"Wow," I murmured, feeling for him. It must have sucked not to know who your real parents were.
He smiled reassuringly at me and then joked, "But its all good, right? What about you? You live in Chicago and your grandparents live here? What else?"
I was just about to start when we were interrupted by good ‘ole Diane. She placed a coke in front of each of us and then a plate of delicious looking-and smelling-breadsticks in the middle of the table.
After taking our order, she left and Todd motioned for me to start. He grabbed a breadstick and started nibbling. I said, "My life’s really not that interesting. I live with my real parents and I’m an only child. My parents drive me nuts so every summer, I come and stay with my grandparents. I’m going to be a senior this year at a high school where gangs make up the majority of the student body. I’m probably the only girl at that school without a tattoo."
He laughed and then teased, "I bet you have at least one. Or wait…what about a piercing?"
"You’ll never know." We were flirting and I was damn proud of it. Screw you Caleb.