Ocean Eyes

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"At the first kiss I felt something melt inside me that hurt in an exquisite way. All my longings, all my dreams and sweet anguish, all the secrets that slept deep within me came awake. Everything was transformed and enchanted, everything made sense."

~Herman Hesse~

Parker wasn’t kidding about having to work right when we got back. As soon as we pulled into his driveway he bid me goodbye and left to change. Eli and Gemini, awkwardly wrapped around each other, mumbled a tired farewell. They were going to crash on her couch.

I, in the meantime, was working up the courage to do something that would either embarrass the hell out of me or make me eternally grateful.

I was going to tell Parker I loved him.

The thought of doing so had me fidgety and nervous, and I was wide awake when I should have been exhausted. I still didn’t feel myself from whatever illness had come over me, but I wasn’t collapsing every three feet.

“How was the trip?” Aunt Theresa asked me as I entered the house. She was sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee, although it was nearing two in the afternoon. She was still in her robe and slippers, too.

“Fun,” I said, dropping into a chair. “Although, it rained the whole time.”

Her lip curled. “Bummer.”

I shrugged. “I had a good time, though. A lot happened.” That was a huge understatement.

“Yeah?”

“Uh-huh.” I looked around. “Where’s Willis?”

She laughed. “Sleeping. Thoroughly enjoying his last day of no work to the maximum extent. Thanksgiving break will do that to some people.”

“Oh, my God,” I muttered, the thought just suddenly coming over me.

“What’s wrong?”

“We didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving,” I muttered. “We didn’t have a meal or anything.”

Aunt Theresa frowned, staring into her coffee mug, and then snapped her fingers. “No, you had dinner with Eli’s parents, right?”

I gave her a droll look. “That hardly counts.”

She shrugged, poising her mug by her lips. “Close enough,” she mumbled, and took a sip.

And now on to the real reason I needed to talk to her. I had never searched out anybody in my family before on relationship advice and here I was asking Aunt Theresa. Yes, I was at that much of a loss. “Aunt Theresa?”

“Yes?”

 “Can I ask you a question? Or maybe it’s an opinion . . . I’m not sure. But I need help because I’m really confused.”

A smile played at her lips and she pushed her coffee away, folding her arms on the table top before tilting her head at me. “Boy trouble?”

I blushed. “How did you know?”

“Woman’s intuition,” she said, and then added, “plus, I was a teenage girl once, too.”

I bit my bottom lip. “So can you help me?”

“First of all, who’s the guy?”

I lowered my eyes to the table. “Parker,” I whispered. Theresa made an amused snort of some kind, drumming her long nails against her mug.

“Well it’s about damn time,” she stated, and I looked at her, shocked.

“W-what?” I stuttered, unsure of what else to say.