Love, Your Secret Admirer

Chapter 7

Once I was done with the fifth revision of my civil disobedience essay, I noticed what a mess I was.  My hair is a hard, curly mess from semi-washing it in the sink at school, my eye looks gross, and I smell disgusting.  I get up and walk into my bathroom to take a shower.

Once I get out I smell like my coconut shampoo and conditioner.  I go into my room and put on a green v-neck and gray sweats.  I take my blonde hair out of the towel it’s wrapped up in, comb it, and put it back up in the towel.  I go to my desk and play solitaire.  I'm about to start my third game when I hear a knock on the front door, but I let someone downstairs answer it. 

I’m about to win the game when my mother sticks her head through my bedroom door.  “Janeen, there’s a boy for you downstairs,” she says, with a huge grin on her face.  Confused I take my hair out of the towel and walk downstairs.  At the front door I see Zach standing on my porch.  He’s wearing a white t-shirt under his letterman jacket with a pair of black jeans.   I stop dead in my tracks and my mother runs into me.  “What’s wrong?” she asks.

“What’s he doing here?” I ask her.

“He came to see you,” my mother explains like it’s obvious.  Which, I guess it kind of is.  Why else would an eighteen year old boy come to my house when I'm the only teenager who lives here?  I look again and Zach is still standing there on my porch.  Zach is on my porch.  Stephanie is going to freak.  I walk the rest of the way downstairs and go towards the front door.  When Zach sees me a huge smile spreads across his face.

“Hey,” he says.

“Hi,” I somehow manage to squeeze out of me.  I wait for Zach to say something else but he’s just looking behind me.  I turn around to see my mother, father, Sarah, and Jefferson standing behind me.  I look at them as a way to tell them to go away.  When they finally get the hint they walk off acting like they were just passing by the front door.  Jefferson lags behind everyone else, though, and looks at me with a wary look.  Finally he just glances at Zach and walks away.  I turn around and sheepishly smile at Zach, step onto the porch, close the door, and lead Zach away from my house.

“Sorry,” I say hoping he won’t try to run away in terror, “they get a little excited.  I don’t usually have boys coming to our house to see me.”

“Well, that’s good.  I wouldn’t want to have to hurt anybody to talk to you,” he says with his crooked smile that makes me feel like I’m going to melt and seep into the cracks of the sidewalk.  And did he just say that?  Did he just say that he’s glad that boys don’t usually come to see me at my house? 

He did.

I just smile at his comment.  He grabs my arm and stops me.  I turn to him and he’s looking, with great concern, into my left eye.  Totally forgetting about it I quickly put my hand over it, then wincing because of the pain from the contact. 

“What happened?” he asks.  He takes my hand and lowers it so he can look at my eye.  He barely grazes my eye with his thumb, afraid he might hurt me.

“Um, well, it’s really embarrassing,” I say.

“Just tell me,” he says, still grazing my eye.

“Promise you won’t make fun of me?” I ask.

“Promise."

“Well, I was running and I fell and I accidentally punched myself in my face,” I finally tell him.  I wait for him to start laughing so uncontrollably, that he'll fall down with tears running down his face. 

But he doesn’t.  He just stands there smiling.  “Really?” he says trying to keep himself from laughing.

“Yes,” I say punching him in the arm and walking away, pretending I was really mad at him.

He starts chasing me.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it,” he pleads.

“I know,” I say as I continue to walk along the sidewalk. 

We are standing in front of Stephanie's house when the wind picks up and I put my arms around me.  I should have grabbed my jacket.  Suddenly I’m engulfed by warmth.  I look up to see that Zach has put his letterman jacket around my shoulders.  I put my arms through the arm holes.  That’s when I feel Zach’s fingers intertwine with mine.  He stops walking and pulls me toward him.  Instead of kissing me like I thought he was going to do he just hugs me, which I personally much rather prefer. 

I can feel him burry his face in my, now dry, curly hair.  I burry my face in his chest, taking in all I can of him.  He smells like chlorine and I love it.  I can hear his heart beating.  I close my eyes and just stand there.  We stand there for a really long time until a car drives by.         “Woo, Janeen.  Get some!” I hear Tiffany and Larissa’s voice come from the passing car. I can feel Zach laughing.  I do the same while turning into one hundred different shades of scarlet.

I start to let go and I look up at Zach and say, “I’m so sorry.  Again.”

“It’s totally fine,” he says smiling.  I can feel my self starting to sink into the cracks.  “I should probably get you home.”

“Sure,” I say, realizing that I was holding my breath.

He grabs my hand with his ring hand and intertwines his fingers with mine.  While we walk home I notice that he is rubbing my knuckles. 

“What are you doing?” I ask him, laughing.

“What?  I love it when people do that to me,” he says still smiling.

We walked back to my house like that, hand in hand, with Zach rubbing my knuckles.  When we get to my porch I take off his jacket and offer it back to him.  “Keep it,” he says.  He walks up to me and I back up until my back is to the door.  He puts his hand on the door, over my shoulder, and leans against it.  He is looking into my eyes so intently that I thought I was going to die right there.  He starts to lean in and I close my eyes, anticipating his lips to meet mine.  I feel them so close to mine, but they aren’t touching yet.  Then all of a sudden the door disappears from behind me and I fall on my butt in the entry way of my house.  I feel Zach fall on top of me then, just as quick, I can feel him hovering over me.  I look up and see his arms on either side of me and his legs on either side of my hips.  He’s propping himself over me.

“Janeen, are you okay?” he says with urgency and concern in his voice.

“Yeah,” I say.  Suddenly I find the whole thing hysterical and start laughing.  I see Zach start laughing too.  Pretty soon we are both laughing so hard that tears are rolling down our faces.

I hear my father clear his throat.  I look over and he’s standing next to us with the door knob in his hand.  Zach and I quickly stop laughing and get up.  We are standing in front of my father who is staring at us, stone faced.  “Janeen, I think you should give Zach back his jacket, it’s not cold inside,” my father says.  I take off Zach’s jacket and try to give it to him once again.  This time he takes it, but I can tell that he’s not happy about it from the scowl on his face.  “Say goodnight, Janeen,” my father says taking my arm and dragging me into the house.

“Goodnight, Zach,” I say, sad that our night together is over.

“Goodnight, Janeen,” Zach says, then looking at my father he adds, “Good night, sir.”

“Goodnight, Zach,” my father says.  Before my father closes the door, Zach sneaks one more quick glance to me and waves.  “What were you doing out there?” my father says sternly to me once the door is closed.

“Nothing we were just talking,” I say walking up the stairs.

“Be careful, Janeen,” he yells after me.

Author's Note: Please comment and tell me what you think so far!!!!  Please just do it....