Him by Carey Heywood (reading strategies book .txt) 📕

I throw my arms around him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

He pats my back. "Just know Will probably won't like the dress I pick out for you. I'm thinking something ankle-length with a built in hoodie."

I pull back and glare at him. "Brian, be serious."

"Fine, go get your purse. We can go now."

I run upstairs to grab my purse. He's waiting for me in his car. He turns off the radio the second I have my seatbelt on. Brian is usually all about his tunes. I turn and look at him. He looks nervous.

"Everything okay?"

He pushes out a breath of air. "I'm actually happy we have this chance to hang out tonight. I know you and Will are getting serious, and I wanted to talk to you about that."

I blush. He isn’t. He wouldn’t. Oh my God, I think he's going to try and talk to me about sex. "Brian…"

"I know you probably don’t want to talk about this. Trust me. This is the last thing I want to talk to you about, but you're my baby sister, and I have to know. Have you and Will, well, you know?"

"No!"

He exhales. "Are you going to? Prom?"

I spin my ring and look out the window. "This is so embarrassing."

"You don’t think this is embarrassing me?"

I glance over at him and have to hold back a laugh. He’s sweating. "I just, I don’t know. Don’t be mad."

He head whips towards mine. "Mad? Why would I be mad?"

"Ugh, Brian! You are not making this easy."

"Fine. Shutting up. Please continue."

"Will doesn’t want to rush me…"

"Otherwise, I'd kill him."

"Brian!"

"Right, shutting up."

"I think I want to, you know, do it." I wait for him to say something. "Brian?"

He holds up a finger so I wait, in silence, in his car, after just telling my big brother I want to have sex with my boyfriend.

It feels like forever before he replies. "I think you should go on the pill."

"Will you help me?"

"Dude, you even notice we're not headed to the mall anymore?"

I look around and realize I have no clue where we are. "Where are we going?"

"Free clinic. You're getting on the pill."

"Brian, how do you know where the free clinic is?"

He shrugs. "Not my first rodeo."

"Eww."

He just laughs and pulls into the parking lot of a small brown building.

"Are you going to come in with me?"

"Sure."

After I'm signed in, we wait thirty minutes before the physician is able to see me. Brian waits for me in the waiting room during my exam. My doctor is a woman. I think I would have been so embarrassed if it was a guy. She talks to me about STDs and how my pills will not protect against them and to use a condom as well. She puts some in a bag with my pills. She also explains when I should start taking the pills and how long I need to be taking them before they're effective. Brian stands up and walks over to me as soon as I walk back into the waiting room. I giggle when I realize the staff probably thinks he's my boyfriend. Gross.

"You okay?" he asks.

"Let's just get out of here."

Once we're in his car, he turns and asks again.

"I am. Thanks for taking me. It was just weird."

"I love you, Sarah, and I really don’t want to be an uncle anytime soon."

I punch his arm. "I love you too."

"Still feel like," he takes a deep breath, "dress shopping?"

I grin and nod.

He rolls his eyes and heads towards the mall.

~*~

"So what color is your dress?"

I close my locker. "Not telling you."

He grabs my hand. "I just need to know what color corsage to get you."

"Oh, I thought you—never mind. It's black."

He chews the corner of his mouth. "Do they have black flowers?"

I laugh and stand on my tip toes to kiss him. "Black goes with anything, silly. We can pick whatever color we want."

He holds the door open for me as we walk out to the parking lot. "So what color corsage do you want?"

I cringe. "I don’t know. White or red. What do you think?"

He slips my backpack off my shoulder and tosses it with his into the backseat of his car. Closing the door, he leans me up against his car, pressing his hips against mine. "Anything you want," he whispers in my ear as he kisses my neck.

"I want you."

He lifts his head and looks in my eyes "I'm sorry. I missed that."

I blush but hold his gaze. "I want you."

He dips his head to kiss me. "You got me, Miller Lite."

"Will," I sigh.

His brows come together. "What?"

We turn our heads when someone shouts hello across the parking lot for us get a room. Will kisses me again and reaches behind me to open my door for me. When we're both in his car, he turns to me and asks if I'm okay.

I look down at my ring and spin it before I look up at him. "Do you want to, you know, have sex with me?"

His eyes widen. "Of course, but I don’t want you to feel rushed."

"I don’t," I watch as he closes his eyes, "want to wait."

His eyes pop open and snap to mine.

I say it again. "I don’t want to wait."

His mouth is on mine, his fingers threaded through my hair. A tap on the driver's side window brings us back to earth. Our school's track coach motions for us to hit the road. Will nods, adjusting his shorts before he starts his car.

Once we're on the main road going towards my house, Will speaks. "Are you sure?"

Yes. We’ve only been dating for just over a month, but it’s Will. There is no other person on the planet I would trust more for my first time. Besides, how many people can say they lost their virginity to someone they had been in love with for over six years?

"I love you.."

He takes my hand and kisses my knuckles while