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

"I wish you would stay."

He puts his bag in the backseat before tugging me into his arms. "I promised my dad I'd be home for dinner tonight."

"Oh." I try not to sound disappointed.

He cups my face and brushes his lips across mine. "Call you after?"

I nod and rest his hands on his waist.

He rests his forehead against mine. "I love you so much."

"I love you too, Will."

He kisses me again, and I pull back to watch him get in his car and pull away. Once he turns off my street, I walk back into my house. My mom asks me to set the table. My dad gets home just as I finish. It's probably a good thing Will isn’t here tonight. It gives me a chance to ask my parents about my curfew for prom. When Brian was a senior, he got to stay out all night. It’s only fair that they let me.

My dad disagrees. "Brian didn’t have a girlfriend, Sarah."

"But, Dad, that's almost worse. Don't you guys trust me not to do anything stupid?"

"Of course…"

"Well, why is it different for me then? Is this because I'm a girl? That's so not fair."

"Honey." My mom puts her hand on my arm. "Let your father and I think about it, and we'll let you know."

I relax. That means she's on my side. I avoid my dad's eyes because I don’t want him to get annoyed. As soon as I'm done eating, I excuse myself and hurry up to my room. I'm finishing my math homework when my mom peeks her head in the doorway.

"I talked to your father."

"And?"

"No curfew, but I wanted to talk to you first."

"About what?"

"Are you and Will…?"

"Mom!"

"Honey, don’t be embarrassed. I just want to know if you are being safe."

"We haven’t done anything, Mom."

She exhales. "Alright, well if you do."

"I will, Mom. I promise."

She walks over and kisses my forehead. "I can't believe how grown up you've gotten."

My phone starts ringing. "It's Will," I say.

She nods her head and walks out of my room, closing my door behind her.

"Hey, how was your dinner?"

"Good. My dad just said he never saw me anymore."

"Oh, That’s cool. I talked to my parents about prom."

"What'd they say?"

"I'm yours all night." I smile.

"I'm pretty sure they didn't say that," he jokes.

"You know what I mean."

"I do. So since I'll have you," he pauses, "all night. What do you want to do?"

"Maybe we could, um, get a room somewhere."

"You don’t want to go to any after parties or anything?"

I hesitate. "Do you?"

"No, but I'll do anything you want."

I pull one of my pillows to my chest and hug it, wishing it was him. "I only want you."

"You and me, all night?"

"Mm hmm."

"Let's go out to dinner tomorrow night?"

"What?" I laugh. "Why?"

"You're my girlfriend. Let me take you out, please."

"We're together every night already. You don't have to take me anywhere."

"I want to. Come on. I'll show you a good time."

I'm glad he isn't there to see me blush. "Alright, what time are you picking me up?"

~*~

Will drops me off instead of coming in after school. I want to surprise him for our date. There’s a dress my mom got me last year that I've never been brave enough to wear. It isn't fancy. It’s just tighter than the stuff I usually wear. I take my time getting ready and borrow a pair of heels from my mom. My dad's mouth drops when he sees my dress. He starts to say something but my mom shushes him, telling me I look beautiful. I gulp when I hear the doorbell. I can't even remember the last time Will didn’t just walk right into my house.

My mom tells me to wait while she goes to let him in. When I see him, I have to tell myself not to drool. He's just so handsome. His expression when he sees me makes me melt. When my mom and dad are looking away, he mouths wow to me, his eyes lighting up. My mom embarrasses me by taking a picture of us. From this angle, my parents can't see his hand slide down my back and over my ass. I almost laugh at how serene his face looks for the picture, considering where his hand is. Once we're outside, he looks behind us to see if my parents are watching before crushing my body to his.

"Damn, Sarah. Wow. You look incredible."

"You look pretty good yourself," I grin.

And he does in his tan slacks and blue button-up dress shirt. The blue matches his eyes, amplifying them. He walks around to open my door, waiting until I'm buckled to close it. As we drive, his hand is glued to my knee. It's silly, but I'm so excited about our date, our first official one. He takes me to a Mexican place with the best salsa. Once we're seated, we dig in until the server comes to take our orders.

"Brian took me to get on the pill," I blurt out.

Will freezes, chip midair. After a moment, he sets the chip back into the salsa. "For real?"

I nod.

He looks at the people eating around us before leaning towards me. "Does that mean..?"

I shake my head. "Not by prom, but after."

"Would you want to?"

My brows come together. "I thought we were going to…"

"No, I meant," he pauses, "without a condom."

"Oh," I spin my ring."Have you ever..?"

He shakes his head.

"Would you want to?"

"Only if you do."

I unroll the napkin and lay it across my lap. We both look up when the server comes. After he leaves, Will reaches his hand across the booth for mine. Once my hand is in his, he rubs his thumb back and forth across the back of it.

"I don't know, maybe."

He nods, lifting my hand in his to kiss it.

"Anything you want."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"What's it like? You