Page 93 of Wrecked

He turned to me, a cool calm on his face. “I’m so sorry. I was staring at your mouth, so I came up here to get it on paper.”

There was a ton of paper with half-started pictures of me. Even the worst was magnificent.

“You have to drive me home,” I demanded.

He didn’t have the same sense of urgency as I did, but he understood enough to get his ass up and drive me home.

“I can’t believe you let me sleep,” I said as we drove through the streets.

I had a ton of missed calls from my mom. I called her to let her know I’d overslept. It must not have calmed her because she was waiting on the front steps when I got home, her hand clenched on her necklace.

“I’m sorry. I just…I got in my head. I’ll make it up to you,” Brad pleaded.

I shook off my annoyance. He was a really good guy. The fact that letting me sleep in was the worst thing he had done as a boyfriend was pretty remarkable. We never even fought.

“I’ll call you tomorrow.” I leaned in and gave him a quick kiss.

I was grounded for a week. It wasn’t so bad because my grandma stayed over, and she provided some much-needed entertainment.

“When I was sixteen, I used to sneak out to listen to rock-’n’-roll with my friends. That Elvis knew how to shake his hips,” my grandmother said as we sat on my front porch.

I was unimpressed. “That doesn’t sound very rebellious.”

She lowered her eyes at me. “Neither does falling asleep on a couch.”

“I do plenty of things. My friends and I sneak onto the golf course to have keg parties. And we once broke into the school to—wait, are you goading me, so I’ll tell you all the bad stuff I do?” I said.

She casually glanced away.

My mouth fell open. “You traitor!”

With a shrug, she rested her hands on the top of her cane in front of her bent knees. “If you’re nice, I’ll show you how to make moonshine.”

I practically shot out of my chair. “Really?”

She shook her head. “Heavens no. You are so gullible. We need to work on that.”

A bouncing ball pulled our attention away from each other. Adam was walking over, dribbling a basketball into my driveway.

“Is that the boy you’ve been spending time with?” she asked.

“Yep.”

“He’s very handsome.”

I give her the side eye. “He’s also very much Brad’s best friend.”

She smiled and said, “Interesting.”

I stood up and waved toward Adam. “What’s interesting?” I asked out of the side of my mouth.

“Why is he here and not your boyfriend?”

I ignored her and walked toward the driveway. He was wearing cargo shorts and a T-shirt. His hair was combed, and he smelled like he’d just taken a shower.

“I heard you’re grounded.” He held the ball to the side of his body.

I crossed my arms and swayed. “Yeah, can’t go anywhere for a week.”