*What I hope the future between me and this guy will look like, and what I hope he's thinking now. Hope you like it, very uplifting because it is a happy ending :)
He was acutely aware of her next to him, her entire body flush against his except for their ankles where they curved apart. He was also aware of the other body against hers on the opposite side of the cramped back seat. He didn’t have any negative orientation about the other guy, but he wanted this girl all to himself.
It had been a long day, and it was a little past dinner time now. She hadn’t eaten much, self-conscious about wasting food on herself. She always went to the bathroom after she ate, and when she came back her lipgloss was always a little bit gone and her eyes a little bit watery. They had went to his lake house somewhere in the southern part of the state. The entire day they were in the sun, on the water, playing stupid games. She hadn’t worn a two-piece. She said it was because she didn’t want her bottoms to come off, but he knew she was afraid they would laugh at her. She didn’t see how beautiful she really was. She never noticed guys flirting with her, staring at her, wanting her. And if she did she couldn’t believe it. She hated compliments because she thought they were making fun of her. He was determined to change that.
He wanted to be hers and her be his. They texted each other on a schedule, and she always called him “baby”, “sexy”, or something of the like. She didn’t know that every time he read that it lifted his heart, then shot it down when he remembered she was joking. He would text her right before he fell asleep. She claimed that it meant that she was the last thing on his mind before he fell asleep. She didn’t know that she would’ve been anyway. She texted him right when she woke up, and she never once forgot. She would wake up excited to read the text the night before, and sometimes that was her only motivation for getting up. She wanted to be his and him to be hers.
He stared out the window of the car, trying to forget that he could smell her hair and feel it brush his arm. He was trying to forget that she was pressed closer to him than before. He tried to forget that the only thing on his mind was that she had watched her put on chapstick a few moments before and could faintly smell it still on her lips. He tried to forget that he would do anything to taste it. But he couldn’t, no matter how many cars he counted or how many mile markers passed, she would always be on his mind.
She curled up her legs and laid them across his lap, just like she always did when they hung out at his house. Letting her head fall to rest on his shoulder, he closed her eyes and fell asleep, content with him near her. But before she was completely gone, she moved her hand the few inches it need and tangled her fingers with his. She tensed her body then drifted to dream of him.
His mom was driving and was not surprised. It was obvious that he loved this girl, and that his love was returned.
Twenty three years later, he was driving down the road after a long day at his lake house in the southern part of the state. His hand was still locked with hers, and the only piece of flesh not touching the other’s was the miniscule part of the finger covered by a band of gold. She turned around and saw a unknowingly gorgeous girl in the middle seat, and her son staring out of the window, gripping that girl’s hand for all it was worth. She was sure that he was never going to let it go. She knew from experience.
