A Year of Her Life

Chapter 14

I laid back onto the wood of the pier keeping my feet in the water.  I closed my eyes and enjoyed the quietness.  I concentrated on the ducks in the grass near the pier and the gentle lapping of the water against the many surfaces around.  I relaxed losing myself into nothingness.

“HEY”

I shot straight up almost falling into the water.  I screeched and turned to see who had snuck up on me.

“Johnny, you scared me,” I breathed.

“Not my fault.  I’ve been sitting here beside you for like ten minutes.  You fell asleep,” he laughed while putting his hand on my shoulder.  His hand was warm and his touch made me giddy.

“Oh, sorry.”

“What happened to your head?”

“Um, I was running and fell.”

“What, you couldn’t wait to see me so you were running as fast as you could?  I knew you thought I was good looking.”  He raised an eyebrow at me making me blush.  I rolled my eyes.

“Is it that noticeable?”  I put my hand up to the huge bump on my forehead and instantly knew the answer to my question.

“It’s not that bad.  It gives you character.”  He chuckled at me.  “Did your dad say anything about you being with me earlier?”

“No, but he didn’t know.”

We both splashed in the water with our feet and talked comfortably for a while.  All seemed to be going fine until Johnny put his arm around my shoulders.  I instantly tensed up and became nervous again.  My thoughts were all over the place.  Why did he have to do this to me?

“I was talking to my Mom about you earlier,” he looked at me from the side of his eye with his head barely turned my way.  “Um, she said that after your next birthday I could kiss you again.  Would that be okay with you Savannah?”  He didn’t seem nervous to me at all, but I didn’t know what to say. 

I swallowed and opened my mouth to answer.

“Are you taking advantage of my sister?”  Georgia yelled as she walked up behind us on the pier.  “Well?”

That did it, the moment was broken.  The three of us played with our feet in the water for a while.  We made plans for next time we were all at the lake together.  Johnny wanted to have a bon fire and toast marshmallows.  Sounded good to us.  We all agreed.  Then, Johnny went home.  We were all leaving in the morning to go back to our real worlds.  But, we’d be back.

~~~~~~~~

On the way home Georgia and I snuggled up in the back seat of the van.  She teased me several times about catching me with Johnny at the pier.  I didn’t want anyone else to hear what she was saying so, I just giggled.

“He’s too cute Savannah.  And, I think he’s totally smitten with you.”  Her voice was low and secretive. 

“He is cute.  He said he was gonna kiss me after my birthday,” I looked up to Georgia almost hoping that she’d have something encouraging to say.

“Well, we’ll have to make sure you get a trip to the lake for your birthday,” she smiled and put her arm around my shoulders.

“Yeah, that sounds nice,” was my reply.

That was the only time we were afforded privacy for a conversation while in the van.  Russ turned around to flirt with Georgia and Chris was just, well, Chris.  Annoying plain and simple.

Russ took Georgia’s hand in his as he leaned over the back of his seat.  He intertwined their fingers as they both stared into one another’s eyes.  If it’d been anyone besides the two of them I’d have lost my lunch.  But these two were made for each other.  I just leaned as far away from them as I could get for the rest of the two hour ride.