Blue Moon of Kentucky

Chapter 15

"Peggy Sue," Loretta muttered through gritted teeth. "I wanna talk to Elvis, so mind your own business, yes?"

"No," Peggy Sue shot back. Elvis couldn't help but smile at the response, though Loretta found it anything but amusing. "What did Elvis give ya?"

"Peggy Sue, go away."

Meanwhile, Elvis tried to look past Loretta and Peggy Sue to determine whether her parents were at home or not. "Are you gonna meet me after church tomorrow?" he asked. "Where we used to–"

"Yes!" she exclaimed and a feeling of warmth spread through Elvis at the way she said it. It let him know that she did in fact miss him as he had missed her.

"There's a bunch of things I gotta tell you," Elvis said. "All the things that happened at school and– are you gonna listen to the Opry tonight?"

"Of course. I always do."

"Loretta!" Another scream from inside. Little Betty Ruth Webb, as far as Elvis could tell. As reluctant as he was to end the conversation already, he said, "I'll see you tomorrow."

She beamed at him in response. "You sure will."

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Normally, Elvis enjoyed church but this time he found himself counting down every second of the service. He tried not to glance at Loretta, who was sitting with her younger siblings.

It took all the strength within him to not run out the door the moment the service was over. Instead he walked in between his parents, took a deep breath and said, "I'm gonna go off with Loretta a bit, alright?"

"You are?" Gladys' voice was full of surprise. "Are you kids friends again?"

"We are." Elvis nodded vigorously. "We made up and everything."'

"Then go," Gladys said. "And tell Loretta that I miss havin' her over for cooking lessons."

"I will." And with that, Elvis was off to find Loretta. She stood with a few friends/cousins, all of whom stopped and stared when Elvis approached.

"Hi, Elvis," said Loretta's cousin Marie, with a smile that Elvis couldn't really place. He chose to assume that she was glad to see him.

"Hi, Marie," he returned the greeting. "What have you been doin'?"

"Not much."

Elvis nodded in understanding. There wasn't much to do in the hollers.

"Elvis is in high school," Loretta said. "He give me his jacket from the school. It's got a tiger on it."

Warmth spread through Elvis' body at her words. It sounded as though she was proud of that fact. Marie, too, looked rather impressed as did the rest of them.

"They do that in Paintsville?" Marie asked.

"Sometimes," Elvis said. "I just wanted to do it..."

"But you two ain't..." Marie trailed off, leaving him to fill in the blanks.

Unfortunately for Elvis, the words stuck in his throat. Loretta, however, responded in his place. "Yes, we're goin' with each other now."

She didn't stick around for anyone's reaction, instead she grabbed Elvis by the arm and pulled him along with her. They ran and ran until they reached their usual spot, panting heavily when they finally did plop down on the ground. Both their minds drifted back to summer. It was so hard to imagine the sweat that plastered their hair to their heads, the soft wind fluttering their thin clothes.

It was Elvis who broke the silence with the words. "I'm fifteen now."

Loretta's response came after a brief pause. "Yeah."

"I remember way back when you said that fifteen was old enough to marry in Kentucky. Ain't it?"

"Yes," Loretta dragged out the word. "But I think that's for a girl, not a boy. You're just...how do I know that you ain't gonna change your mind and go with someone else?"

Elvis hesitated, striving to assure her however he could. "Cause I been with someone else and I didn't like it much."

"Did you kiss her?"

Elvis pulled a face. "Yeah, I did. And she was... it just wasn't that nice. I liked it more when you and me kiss."

"I liked it too." Loretta regarded him with a smile.

"Did you kiss him? That-"

"Horace?" Loretta cut him off, sounding outraged. "No, I wouldn't. He's a big ol' turd that's what he is. I gave him chocolate for our date and he hardly said thanks. Then he called me a whore, whatever that is-"

Elvis gasped. "No, he didn't."

"I tell you, that's what he said to me. Then he called me a special kind of ignorant cause I didn't know what that is."

"That's a rotten thing to say."

"Who are you tellin?" Loretta exclaimed, her frustration obvious. "I wish I ain't gone out with him at all. I had to beg my mommy and daddy to and then it was like... that. Though I reckon that I got to see a real nice picture with Gregory Peck in it."

"Twelve O'Clock High?" Elvis asked. "I seen it."

"You did? Who'd you go with?"

"By myself," Elvis mumbled, lowering his head. Loretta's hand landed on his arm and when he looked up at her, her face was guilt stricken.

"It's not your fault, Loretty," Elvis said quietly. "I done wrong too. We done wrong cause we wanted to be with someone else, and it bothered you that I was doin' it and it bothered me that you was, right?" He looked at her for some sort of confirmation.

"It bothered me somethin' awful," Loretta confessed. "I wish you wasn't that young so-"

"I'm not that young," Elvis snapped without meaning to, instantly regretting it when Loretta's hand slipped from his arm in response.

"You're younger than I am," Loretta said. "Your mommy won't let you get married till you're done with school and the thing is that I'm gonna be real old then. Twenty-one."

"That's an adult," Elvis offered. "One of us might have to be an adult anyhow, to sign papers and everything. And my mama likes you real well, so maybe she'll let us get married before that."

"She won't," Loretta dismissed him on the spot. "She always says that you gotta finish school first."

Elvis didn't respond, instead he pressed a kiss to the curve of her neck, his breath warm but his lips cold. "My hands are bigger than yours already," he said. Pressing his hand against hers, Elvis forced both their fingers to spread apart. He lifted them before her eyes, palm against palm, to show her that his hands were strong enough to shelter hers.

"I'll get you a ring," Elvis promised. "One that's a promise that we're gonna get married one day."

Loretta smiled at that, and to Elvis, there had never been a more beautiful sight.

"And Loretty? Tell Herman to stay outta our business cause all he does is cause trouble."

Loretta laughed.

There was a comfortable ease that seized them, a level of understanding that only they were privy to.

Everything was once again right in Elvis Presley's world.

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Author's Note: Yes, the whole Barbara Jean/Horace thing is definitely over and the kids came to their senses. Yay? I'm sorry about the breaks being off center. I tried to center them but somehow wattpad will not let me for this chapter *sigh*.