I lock the door behind me and fix myself up. I re-button my shirt that had been undone last night, I wash my face with cold water, and I re-do my messy braid. I sit on the edge of the bathtub and check the time. Nine o’clock. I remember hearing that breakfast starts at ten, so I have some time before then. I run a warm bath and get in. I stay there staring out the window for about twenty minutes before getting out. I look for a towel, but find a robe instead. I put my underwear and bra on and the robe on top. I unlock the door, and step out. I look around to see if Sam is still there, but he isn’t. The bed is made and there are clothes folded on the bedside table. I walk over to the clothes and look at them. Since they are all I have other than my dress, I they’ll have to do. A tight white t-shirt, a dark green men’s sweater, black leggings, white socks, and black running shoes. I can’t wear a tight shirt! At least I have a big sweater. But there’s nothing to cover my legs because the leggings are way too tight for my taste. Oh well, better than wearing a dress. Since there is thirty-five minutes left until breakfast, I think I’ll explore a bit. The hallway is dark, and the doors are all closed except one. I stick my head inside. Empty. What am I expecting there to be? I walk further down the hallway away from the stairs. A door is slightly ajar so I peek in. I see my sister’s long, curly brown hair so I open the door to wake her up. “Oh gosh,” I say quietly to myself. I was not expecting what I see now. I tiptoe to Sasha’s side of the bed and tap her on the shoulder. “How was your sleep?” I ask with a bit of a giggle when she wakes up.
“I should be asking you the same thing,” she smiles. She turns over in her bed and taps Nathan on the shoulder.
“Don’t wake him up!” He jumps in the bed when he sees me covering up his body with the blankets. He pulls them off my sister, revealing her naked body.
“Nathan!” She yells as she gets back under the covers.
“I’m guessing you guys had fun last night.” I laugh.
“Yeah,” Nathan says with a nervous laugh. I start thinking. “Why does she have that look on her face?” He asks Sasha.
“That’s her thinking face,” she tells him.
“Penny for your thoughts,” he says to me. I laugh because Sam said the same thing to me last night.
“I was just thinking how much you and Sam are alike when you’re embarrassed.”
“We are brothers after all.”
“So why did you wake me up?” My sister asks me.
“I wanted you to get ready for breakfast,” I lie. I actually want to tell her what happened.
“Okay, thanks butch.”
“Why do you call her ‘butch’?” Nathan asks my sister.
“It suits her since she’s a tomboy.”
“I would’ve nicknamed her beauty,” he says as he winks at me. I blush a bit.
“Nathan! Are you hitting on my sister?”
“That makes total sense ‘cause he’s four years older than me,” I answer sarcastically.
“Well he’s four years younger than me, butch. So he could actually choose either of us,” she says. I just laugh.
“I’d rather have someone my age and someone not so bold, so…” Nathan looks a bit hurt. “I’m sorry, Nathan, but would you rather date someone older than you, or younger than you?”
“Older but-.”
“I figured as much. So, I’m just going to leave and let you two get ready.”
I walk downstairs to the kitchen. Nancy is already awake and making breakfast. “Can I help you with anything, Mrs. Peca-” I correct myself. “I mean, Nancy.” She laughs. “I’m sorry, I’m just not used to calling you or your husband by your first names.”
“Don’t worry dear, I’m fine with either. I don’t need any help right now, but thanks for asking,” Ms. Pecanhogen says with a sweet smile.
“I’ll see you at breakfast.” I turn to leave.
“Actually Chloe, someone requested that they eat alone with you in the greenhouse.” Sam, I think.
“You have a greenhouse? That’s so cool!” I am actually really excited. I love plants.
“Yes, it is…cool,” she smiles. I giggle a bit because her saying the word ‘cool’ sounds a bit awkward. “Run along dear.” I smile as I leave the room.
I still have fifteen minutes to waste before breakfast. I’m not familiar with the house and I don’t know where to go, so I sit on the stairs. I hear footsteps coming towards me, so I look in their direction. “Can I talk to you please?” Sam says looking at my lips. He leads me into the living room and closes the doors as he did the first time he kissed me. “I’m sorry for this morning. I don’t know what came over me.”
“It wasn’t really your fault. It was mine, because I wasn’t comfortable with it. Other girls would probably go all the way, and I mean all the way.”
“It was my fault, not yours. I shouldn’t’ve pushed you to do what I was asking you. I’d much rather have you kiss only my lips than any other girl go all the way.”
“Why is that?”
“You really don’t see how much I like you, do you?” I open my mouth to respond when he presses his lips on mine.
During breakfast, he tells me about his school and how some of the kids call him ‘gay’. “Well, I know what we can do to prove them wrong,” I say. I reach into the back pocket of his jeans.
“Chloe, what are you doing? Did you forget that the walls are glass?” I get what I want.
“I wasn’t doing anything like that, I was just getting your phone.”
“Why?” I kiss him and take a picture of us.
“There’s the proof you need.”
“Thanks. We really do look good together,” we both smile genuinely. He turns his phone off and puts it on the table. “I’ll show it to them at school.”
“Why not show them now?”
“How?”
“You have Facebook, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want everyone seeing it.”
“Okay, then…do you have some way of contacting them?” He searches through his contacts and points to a name. “If you can persuade him that I’m not gay, then it’ll affect the others because he influences the rest.” I click on the guy’s name and type, ‘this is Sam’s girlfriend. Stop calling my boyfriend gay, because he’s not and you’re a jerk so back off.’ I send the picture with the words. Sam reads it and smiles. “You called me your boyfriend.”
“Well it sounds more persuading than saying, ‘hi I’m just a random person who kissed Sam to prove he’s not gay’.”
“Yeah. I just thought that you meant it,” he says sadly.
“Girlfriend has a nice ring to it.” He looks sideways at me and smiles.
“Girlfriend it is then,” he smiles as he checks his phone. He laughs while looking at the screen.
“What?” He shows me the texts. ‘Your girlfriend is hot. Does she have a twin?’ ‘No.’ ‘Does she have a sister at least?’ ‘Yes but she wouldn’t go for you.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘She graduated from university, and she has a boyfriend.’ ‘I’m up for a challenge. See you at school dude.’ Sam wraps his arms around my neck and kisses me. I pull my mouth away after a couple of seconds to say, “Sam, what are you doing? Glass walls…remember?”
“Thank you so much! You’re the best! Now I won’t be afraid at school anymore,” he says completely ignoring what I said. He hugs me.
“To hell with glass walls,” I say as I ram my lips into his.
A couple minutes later I hear knocking on the wall near the door. I turn my head quickly to see that it is my sister. I wave at her to come in. Sam and I seem innocent enough as we sit side by side on a bench. He has his arm over my shoulder and he starts to pull it away as my sister opens the door. “Don’t worry,” she says to Sam, “keep your arm around her. She likes it.” I blush because it’s true. I like any physical contact we share to be honest. He drapes his arm over my shoulders again. “So, how did it go last night?” She asks us. Sam stays quiet obviously not knowing how to respond.
“It was fun,” I finally say.
“It sounded more than fun,” she smiles.
“You could hear us?” Sam sounds horrified.
“I didn’t hear Chloe as much as I heard you,” she laughs a bit, and so do I. Sam doesn’t do anything. I think he’s embarrassed.
“What exactly did you hear?” I ask wanting to know what the other guests would’ve heard as well.
“Just a couple of moans, and a really loud bang as if something fell.”
“We fell off the bed,” I say.
“Seems like you guys really got into it,” she says giggling.
“I supposed we did,” I say as I hold his hand and give it a slight squeeze. He squeezes my hand back. “So what’s the plan for today?”
“Well, I can see that you two have your own plans in mind, so I’ll let you get back to enjoying each others company.” She leaves. I stand up. “Come on,” I say holding out my hand to him.
When we get to the front door I tell him to put his coat and boots on. I have my running shoes that were set out for me this morning. I open the door and run outside. “Wait for me!” Sam is still putting his boots on. I run around the corner and climb a sturdy looking tree. I hear the door close and I sit motionless. He appears to follow my large footprints left in the snow until he is under the tree. Really confused, he says, “Chloe, where are you?” I wrap my legs around a branch, and let go with my hands so that hand upside down above him. “Boo.” Startled, he jumps.
“Oh my god,” he says laughing.
“So do ya wanna join me?” I ask still upside down.
“Ugh, no thanks.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not a big fan of heights.”
“I’m not coming down,” I say playfully as I cross my arms.
“Then I’ll have to get you down.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I say stubbornly even though I am still playing around with him.
“Wanna bet?” He takes a step forward, puts his hands on my cheeks and looks into my eyes. He looks funny upside down, I think as I smile. “I will do anything to keep that smile on your face.”
“Then kiss me.” He kisses my smile. I put one hand behind his head and pull him closer to me. I put my hand down the back of his shirt and he shivers. “You’re hands are freezing.”
“That’s what happens when it’s cold out,” I say jokingly. He laughs. He places his lips back on mine. Oh gosh, I’m slipping. I try to pull myself back up the tree, but I can’t. I fall about six feet into a pile of snow, so I’m not hurt at all. Sam’s worried look disappears after I start laughing. “I told you I’d get you down.” He smiles as he holds out his hand to me. I grab it but instead of pulling myself up, I yank his arm and he falls on top of me. I scan his rich brown eyes. He leans forward to kiss me, but I stand up, forcing him off of me. I really wanted to kiss him, but I would like to save the kiss for another time. I wouldn’t want us to kiss too much resulting in each kiss having less emotion than the last.
We get inside and warm up by the fire. “Do you want to bake something?” I am really surprised he asks.
“Sure.” We walk to the kitchen and get the ingredients out to make chocolate chip banana bread. I get the flour, bananas and chocolate chips, set them on the table and turn to get eggs from the fridge. Sam looks for the measuring cups as I get a bowl and start mashing up the bananas. He grabs three eggs, and one ends up on the ground. “There goes humpty,” I say. He cracks up and has to sit on the ground to catch his breath.
By the time we combine all the dry ingredients we are getting silly. He takes an egg in his hand and cracks it on the top of my head. “Oh, you’re gonna get it.” I get two eggs; crack one on his cheekbone, and the other on his forehead. He takes a handful of flour and whips it at my face. “Ow, you got it in my eye you idiot!” I didn’t actually get any in my eye. “I’m so sorry, are you okay?” I take some chocolate chips and drop them one top of his head. “I can’t believe you fell for it!” I get some more chocolate chips and stuff them in his mouth. “Thanks,” he says as I he licks his lips. I pick up some more chocolate chips and bring them to my mouth. “Are you going to be a lady and offer them to me?” He asks trying to sound like a child.
“In your dreams.” I bring them closer to my mouth. “You’re not going to get them.” He takes a step towards me and I instinctively shove them in my mouth quickly.
“Do you really think that’s gonna stop me?” He wraps his arms around me and presses his lips on mine. He sticks my tongue in my mouth and fishes out the chocolate. I feel his tongue tickle the inside of my mouth. My body goes numb, and I don’t fight him because his lips are irresistible. When there is a bunch of melted chocolate in his mouth, he pulls away and says victoriously: “I told you I’d get them,” as he teasingly punches me in the arm. I roll my eyes and laugh.