Last Summer Part 18

**Sorry for the wait! I've been uber busy! And for of those of you who didn't like the reason, I'm sorry but that's how it was going to be since I was brainstorming. And for all of the people who say that can't be it because Nikki's grandparents are friends with Caleb's, just wait and see. Everything will be explained in the end, I swear. And as for the whole love triangle thing, Caleb doesn't really seem like the kind of guy who would do that. At least, not in my eyes :) Thanks for all of the comments!!**

He stroked my face and it broke out in a timid blush. He cracked a small smile and said reassuringly, "You didn’t know."
"I should have known! The instant it happened I should have known, like ESP or something," I cried out, guilt fully taking over me. Nothing was going to be able to make me forgive myself.
He chuckled and then pulled me back towards him. It felt so good to be home, but I couldn’t forget what had happened to him. He needed me, or at least it seemed like he did. I needed him too, but not as much. Nothing had happened to me to that extent. Nothing like that probably will ever happen to me.
I pressed my face against his chest and took in a deep breath. His arms rubbed up and down my back and I couldn’t help but smile. Even through the hellish condition we had been put in, he could still manage to make me smile. He must have had magic powers.
I pulled my head back and then pressed a kiss against his clothed chest. I looked up at him-I had forgotten how tall he was-and then asked, "You live here now, right?" Then it hit me. Ava had told me that night that Pearl had met him on the beach in November. Usually, in November, Caleb would have been in North Carolina. But now he had to live here with his grandparents.
He nodded and then smirked, "Life on the beach…can’t get much better than that."
I lifted my hand and then ran it through his black shaggy hair. "I like your hair like this," I told him. Last summer it had been somewhat short and I hadn’t been able to run my fingers through it. Now I could and I loved the feeling; his hair was so soft. But then my fingers stopped mid-comb. "Billy."
He was four years old-had been three at the time-and he had lost his parents. Oh Lord. How was he dealing with this? He didn’t ever seem sad when I was around him this summer, but maybe I had overlooked it. Maybe I had been so hung up on the fact that I was hanging around Caleb’s brother that I hadn’t even checked to see how he was doing.

That one word sent so many emotions through his eyes that I had to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. My hand fell limp at my side and his hold on me fell. I must have hit a nerve. Dammit. Hadn’t I put him through enough already? "How’s he…he doing?" I stammered, looking at Caleb’s nose. I couldn’t fixate my gaze on his eyes, not yet anyways.

"At first…it was bad. He would run around the house sometimes, calling out for them. Almost as if they were playing hide-and-go-seek." Tears started burning my eyelids when he said this. But he continued. "That lasted about a month. Then it got to the point where he’d ask about them at least once a day. He thought that they went on vacation and would eventually come back. Now it’s to the point where it doesn’t even matter. He’ll see their picture throughout the house and not recognize them. He’s called my grandpa dad before."

This little statement caused my heart to shatter. Billy would never be able to remember his parents. I knew that I didn’t remember anything from when I was three, so why would he be able to? Even if my parents had died, I would want to remember something about them. But Billy wouldn’t be able to.

Tears started to form in my eyes and when I looked at Caleb, his were starting to fill also. Why? Why did this have to happen to him? There was no way on earth a guy like Caleb deserved to be put through this kind of pain. I deserved this more than he did.

I bit down hard on my lip; hard enough to where I wouldn’t be surprised if blood came out. But I couldn’t help myself. If I let up on my lip, sobs would start pouring out of me.

I walked right back into his arms and held on tight. He buried his face into my neck and kept a firm hold on my back. This was the moment that I realized exactly how much we depended on each other; how much I really did love him.

Time passed for I don’t know how long, but we never moved. I didn’t want to move and it didn’t feel like Caleb wanted to either. We were in each other’s embrace for so long that I heard the door crack open and I looked up to see who had walked in.

I saw his grandmother behind the door and once she saw us, a huge smile formed on her elderly face. This was what she had been waiting for all summer. She knew what had happened to him and she knew how much I had hurt him. She knew everything.

After a just a quick second, she shut the door and then walked away. Caleb chuckled and then I looked up at him. He was beaming. It made my heart soar to truly see how much I meant to him.

I cracked into a smile and then did something I had been waiting to do for a year. I stood on my tip-toes and then pressed my lips against his. My reaction to how it would feel was something I had not braced myself for. The kiss was so sweet and emotional that it brought tears to my eyes.

Last summer Caleb and I had shared hot, passionate kisses, but this one was so much different. This one was something that I would remember for the rest of my life. The kiss was amazing, but I still couldn’t forget the reason that we were both so upset. The best way I could put it was bittersweet.

When we pulled apart, he rested his forehead against mine and murmured, "You have no idea how much I missed you."

I smiled at him, heart fluttering, and countered back, "I think I have an idea."

The upside to my grandparents being gone was that it meant there was no parental supervision. How would Caleb’s grandparents know that he wasn’t staying the night as Josh’s? My grandparents certainly wouldn’t know and call them like they had last summer. Gosh, it had been so embarrassing last summer. A couple of times, Edna and Bill or my grandparents had walked in on us lying in bed together.

But that wasn’t going to happen tonight. After he had told me about his parents, we had gone to the beach, but we hadn’t gotten into the water. We had curled up on a beach blanket together and just basked in being back together. We hadn’t even kissed since his house and it was amazing to see how much my self-control had grown.

Now, we were walking back to my grandparent’s house, hand-in-hand. Nothing had really been said, but nothing really needed to be spoken. We were both just content to be in each other’s presence and not be screaming at each other. I couldn’t believe I had ever tried to hate this guy.

To tell you the truth, though, I had never really hated him. I had tried with all my power to hate him, but it had never worked out. And now I was so glad. Because today had truly shown me how much I liked him.

As soon as we got back to the house, we went into the kitchen. I found yet another note taped to the fridge and of course it was from Tiffany. "Yes, I’ve given you another note! Dave surprised me with tickets to see my favorite band play tonight and I rewarded him with spending all day with me!! Lucky him, eh? He has work tomorrow though, so I won’t be sleeping over. Should be home by two. Wait up for me!"

Throughout all of the occurrences of today, I had forgotten about my best friend. I may not have hated Caleb, but I knew for a fact she did. She had told me straight to my face. She was not going to take us being together again very well. Oh well; she was just going to have to deal with it. I just got Caleb back and there was no way on earth I was letting him go again.
"How’s that going, by the way?" Caleb asked me. He was sitting on top of one of the counters, chugging a bottle of water, eyes sparkling. His eyes hadn’t stopped glistening since we had kissed earlier. "Tiffany being here?"
"Pretty good, I guess. I haven’t really seen her around lately; about a week ago she met the love of her life." I grabbed a bowl of grapes out of the fridge and then placed them on the island in the middle of the kitchen. My grandparents loved to cook so their kitchen was something that looked like it came straight out of a Home and Garden catalog.
He asked me, "Was that the guy at the club?"
I nodded and then popped a grape into my mouth. I asked him, "Do you know him? His name is Dave and he’s rich and he’s an Aries and he’s in medical school." I smiled and then added, "His family is in the oil business too, if that helps."
Caleb laughed and then asked, "Tiffany tell you about him?"
"She was in love with him by the time she got home from their first ‘date’. I don’t even know if it was a date. All they did was make out. She said they talked about their goals and stuff, but I really doubt it. Tiffany can’t keep her hormones in check for five seconds."
He nodded and then a cheeky grin appeared on his face. "She did seem a little forward when I met her. But yeah, I know him. From what I’ve heard, he’s a genius, but he’s a player too. Hot girls always hang around him."
I walked over to where he was sitting on the counter and placed my hands on his knees. "Does that make you a player? You hang around with Ava and Pearl all the time and they’re gorgeous."
He rolled his eyes at me and said, "They’re dogs compared to you." Then it was my turn to roll my eyes at him. There was no way that was the truth, but he continued anyway. "How’d you know their names? I know you met Ava, but I never told you about Pearl."
"That night, at the club, after you had walked off, Ava came up and talked to me. She mentioned Pearl and Josh."
His cheeks then turned a cute shade of pink. "Caleb, you’re blushing," I pointed out, teasing him. He was embarrassed about the whole punching Todd fiasco. It was funny, because I was usually the only one in the relationship who blushed. I reached up to touch his cheek, but he grabbed my hand before it touched his skin. He squeezed it and then held onto it.
He smirked and then asked, "What’d she tell you? It wasn’t anything rude, right?"
I shook my head and reassured him, "She’s actually really nice which made me hate her more. I had thought you two were dating until she told me otherwise."
"Nik, I didn’t even think of her that way. Or Pearl. They’re just really good friends. I know you’ve heard bad stories about them, but they’re really good people. Yeah, Ava got pregnant, but she didn’t have an abortion. She lost the baby in a car accident. Yeah, Josh was involved in drugs, but he quit because he started going to church."
I smiled at the use of my nick name and then I scolded myself for thinking so bad of them. I had called his friends whores and drug addicts to his face and now I find out they’re good people. Why on earth would Caleb want to be with such a judging girl? I mentioned, "Ava said you never stop talking about me."
His face broke out into another blush. I giggled and then jumped onto the counter so that I was sitting next to him. "I never stopped wishing that you were there with me. I didn’t want to ruin your junior year though and I knew dealing with me would do that. And then I found out that I did ruin your junior year."
"Wait…what?" I asked him, baffled. I had never told him how much it had affected me. I mean I had told him that he hurt me, but I had never mentioned to what extent.
He grabbed my hand and then asked, "Can we talk about it later? Oh, and just so you know I’m staying the night."
"Yeah, I kind of figured," I said cheerfully. Truth be told, if he didn’t spend the night, I would probably go crazy. I just got him back and there was no way he was leaving me for twelve hours.
He asked me, "You hungry? I know it’s late, but we can go to the diner by Big Frank’s ice cream place. You do owe me an ice-cream, though, since you stood me up." Even though he was smiling as he said this, I still frowned.
I couldn’t believe I had done that. It just added to the guilt that I was feeling. He grabbed me by the chin and then forced me to look at him. He gave me a guilt-easing smile and then said, "Hey, I don’t blame you."
"You should, though. I was such an ass."
He laughed and then bent his face to meet with mine. My heart started pounding as I felt his breath fan around my face. He whispered against my lips, "I was too."
That made me back up. I placed my hands on his chest and pushed him away gently. There was no way I was going to let him call himself an ass. "Don’t even start that," I told him. "You are the most selfless person I know. I’m the selfish one, I don’t deserve you, but for some reason, you think I do and what’s crazy about that…"
He broke off my rant with his tantalizing lips. We were both sitting on the counter in the kitchen and it was so sudden, so amazingly surprising. I twined my arms around his neck and made it last longer than he had meant for it to. When he did pull back he murmured, "I love you, whether or not you’re an ass."
I blushed and told him, "I love you too."
"Good, now I’m hungry. Let’s go." He hopped off the counter and then helped me get off. We walked around to the key hook by the front door and then he grabbed his car keys. He grabbed my hand as we walked across the street to get to his car and then grabbed it again once were in his car.
He slipped in one of his many mix CDs and I smiled. This had been our favorite from last summer. He drove a blue truck which he had told me he had worked his ass off to get. He wasn’t the type of guy who drove a car; he had said it made him feel girly.
My grandparents had spent tons of money on their house for three reasons: 1) the beach was ten feet away from their backyard 2) it was cute and it had a spare room for me 3) and it was only a mile away from town. So that meant within seconds, Caleb was pulling into a parking spot at a Taco Bell.
My stomach rumbled just from the mere sight of it. Even though Taco Bell wasn’t exactly fancy, it was delicious and cheap; my favorites. Caleb must have remembered. When he asked, "You still love this place, right?" I knew that he did still remember. Good Lord, he was perfection. How did I deserve him?