“Always,” Terra sighs. She has been obsessed with it since she was little. I remember her telling her mom she wanted to buy one of these stone houses one day. I wonder if that’s still a dream of hers.
“I’m hoping to buy in the next year,” I say quietly as we wander towards Gold Park. “Been saving up.”
The fact that I will likely be passed over for the captain’s position may limit my budget and I might end up buying a condo instead of a house, but I still want to own. I’d be the first in my family to do it. My mom has always bounced from rental to rental and my grandparents, who died before I was born, raised my mother in a motorhome.
“Here? You want to buy here? On this street?” she looks positively excited about the possibility.
“If something comes up and I can afford it, of course,” I reply with a smile. “Want to rent a room from me? I’ll need a roommate. I was going to ask Logan but you’re a much better option.”
She laughs tilting her head back, the moonlight glinting off her freckles. “How on earth am I a better option than one of your best friends?”
“Because my best friends don’t make-out with me when I do nice things for them,” I shoot back and she stops laughing so suddenly it’s jarring. Like somebody turned off the laugh track on a sitcom.
Her head dips down so now she’s looking at the pavement as we walk. “I’m sorry about that. I … it was a mistake. I was just so … overwhelmed. I mean, I lost it. But I swear I won’t, like, attack you again.”
“So you didn’t mean to do it?”
“No. I didn’t. It just … happened.” She nods her head, eyes still glued to the cracked pavement.
“You regret it?”
“Yes.” She says with such conviction that I can’t help but feel offended.
I stop walking. We’re at the end of the street now anyway. Our only option is to either continue into Gold Park or turn back around and take one of the streets that intersects with Free street and goes back down to the waterfront.
“You used to want to kiss me remember?” I say quietly.
She stops walking too, but a couple feet in front of me. Finally, she lifts her head. Our eyes meet for the briefest second and then she looks away. “No. I wanted you to kiss me. There’s a difference.”
“Oh?” I consider that. I guess there is, but to me a kiss is a kiss. She clearly isn’t a fan of my blasé response because when she looks up at me again her expression is a mix of fire and ice.
“Yeah Jake, believe it or not I didn’t want to force myself on you. Not at fourteen and not now.” The wind picks up and blows a strand from her braids, and she reaches up and tucks it behind her ear roughly. “You made it clear back then that I wasn’t your type, and it hurt. It was awkward and embarrassing but we got through it. I didn’t mean to make all those gross feelings come back. So can we just forget what happened?”
She turns and starts to walk way too fast toward another street but I hook her by the elbow and turn her back to face me. “I don’t want to forget it happened. In fact, it’s all I think about.”
She blinks. Repeatedly. And then pulls her arm from my grip. “Jake, don’t placate me.”
“Why the hell do you think I’m placating you?” I demand and now I’m getting pissed. “Do you think so little of yourself that you honestly don’t think I could enjoy a kiss from you?”
“You don’t want a kiss from me. You told me. To my face,” she replies, hands moving to her tiny hips. “I’ll never touch you.”
“Are you seriously holding on to a stupid childhood game?” I ask and take a step toward her. “I was a dumb, terrified kid. If I kissed you in that closet, your brothers would have beat the shit out of me and never talked to me again.”
“Okay, let me give you the benefit of the doubt on that one,” she snaps. “Fine. You were young and scared of my brothers. Needed their friendship. But then you dated my best friend.”
“Because you hated me.”
“What?”
“After that closet debacle you were a total nightmare to me. For years,” I remind her.
“So you date my best friend?”
“You cared?”
“Oh my God, Jake yes! I was…” she stops. “Why the hell do you think Aspen ended up wearing spaghetti?” She turns and bolts. She doesn’t head for the street this time, she heads for the park.
Luckily, two of her strides is one of mine—advantage of having a foot of height on her—so I reach her before she can disappear down into the dark woods. “Is this finally the truth?”.”
