Our Love is Born

Awestruck

My whole face flushed the same red as my cold nose, but I was spared by the loud and impatient beeps coming from their car on my driveway. Through the tinted glass, you could see Sam awkwardly bent over form the backseat and smashing the heel of his palm on the steering wheel, urging us to hurry up.

Josh sighed and hopped down my porch steps, me following shortly behind him. I pulled open the backdoor to see Jake, Sam and Danny crammed into the backseats together, all smiling brightly at me but Jake, who bore a pissed off expression. I frowned and turned to Josh who had the passenger door held open for me, a hand in front of him to help my climb into the car as he said "M'lady."

Looking back at the boys bashfully, I mouthed a sorry, took Josh's hand, and climbed into the car, waiting for Josh to hurry round and clamber into his seat. Sam's nimble fingers tapped my shoulders, and I turned to look at him in the back seat.

He raised his eyebrows at me, "Have the nerves kicked in yet?"

"A little bit.. how many people are in our year again?" I asked looking towards Jake.

He reached his fingers to his chin, "ehhh probably about 100, not too many." I sucked in a tight breath and smoothed my sweaty palm out flat on my jeans.

Josh peeked at me from the corner of his eye before clearing his throat and switching on the engine. Josh howled as the engine roared, clapping his hands once and shimmying his shoulders.

"Fuckin' love this car," he grumbled through his teeth, before, to my utter surprise, leaning over me to reach into the passenger door pocket. His head hovered dangerously close to my chest as he fiddled around with a few CD's that sat in the small space. The tight curls of his hair ticked my chin and his smell invaded my senses. Finally, he chose a CD and withdrew from my side of the car, smiling at me cheesily before opening the case and sliding it into the receiver.

After a short pause, the familiar buzz of a guitar played through the speakers, One of these days by Ten Years After started on the stereo and I couldn't contain my grin.

I only looked at him, to find him already glancing at me side on, pride written all over his face. Facing back to the road ahead, he began to move off. The boys in the back started chatting loudly between themselves, leaving Josh and I to make our own conversation.

I laughed, "I love this album."

"Have you listened to their self titled album too?"

The talk of music lasted the rest of the drive to school, which wasn't longer than 10 minutes due to the size of Frankenmuth. Josh pulled into an empty space at the school before yanking on the hand break, putting the gears into neutral and twisting the keys, cutting off the persistent hum of the engine.

I opened my passenger door, and slid out carefully, in attempt to save the car next to us from Josh's wonky parking. I swung my bag over my shoulder before shutting the door and walking to the back of the car where the boys had all conjugated.

Teenagers surrounded the parking space, some walking into the building, while others meandered around the car park. A few people looked our way, but none outwardly stared. I let out a sigh of relief. My mind had been manifesting a scenario of fear and anxiety for my first day, expecting attention, too much attention. But, to my delight nobody seemed to care.

"Shit parking, Josh," Danny commented, gesturing towards the car which sat out of place between the white park lines. Josh only smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders.

"At least I got you guys here in one piece," he joked, before joining his brothers in sauntering off towards the front doors. Swallowing heavily and trying my hardest to not think too deep into his comment, I followed in suit, through the front doors and into the building.