“Hey! Do you want cinnamon rolls with the mocha? It’s on me!” Stella called from the counter when we entered the coffee shop, right behind her.
“You bet!” Trevor said with a half grin. One side of his face was starting to swell.
The coffee and the sweets did wonders to calm us. By the time I finished my drink, I was much more comfortable in my skin and Stella looked like she might be digesting the situation. It was difficult to tell with Trevor, because he seemed to take everything in stride. In spite of the bruises, he kept his tone light and the conversation interesting. Talking about movies and gossiping about school professors went a long way toward normalcy.
When we were done and the sun started to fall, it occurred to us that we were stranded.
Walking home was an option, of course, but it was a long walk so I didn’t feel too keen on the idea. Stella refused outright, and after a moment’s thought, she whipped out her cell to call for backup.
“Hey,” she said, her voice chipper as if nothing had happened. “I have a situation.”
A male voice rose on the other end, unintelligible, and she hurried to add, “No, no, I’m fine. Actually, we’re fine. I’m hanging out at our favorite cafe with Alice and Trevor, and I’ve just realized that I have no way to return home. That’s the problem.” A pause. “No, Josh's not around. That’s why I thought perhaps you could come and lend us a hand? Or a car, as it is.” Silence. Stella biting her lip. Then, a huge grin. “Thanks, Alex. You rock.”
“There,” she said, pocketing the cell. “He’s coming to pick us up.”
I burned with curiosity. The need to know what he’d said about Trevor being with us gnawed at my stomach almost like a physical pain, but I held back. The poor guy must feel enough of an object as it was, so we went back to talking about menial things—the sports season, how our school was doing in the local league, that sort of thing.
The door to the cafe opened not fifteen minutes later to a flushed Alex that rushed over to our table as soon as his eyes found us.
“Holy hell!” he stopped dead upon seeing Trevor's face and stared at him. “What’s happened here? Stella, I thought you said everything was okay?”
“It is.” Stella shrugged in a calculated show of innocence.
Alex ignored her and kept his eyes steady on Trevor. “So, how did you get that?”
Trevor held his gaze, but replied with a shrug. Protecting Josh? He’d not be so stupid! Stella's sensibilities, then?
“My fault, Alex,” she said after an uncomfortable moment of silence.
“You smacked him around?” He snorted, more amused than outraged.
“No. Josh got a bit more possessive than usual, and Trevor stepped in. Josh flew off his hinges.”
“Josh's a linebacker! Did you want to get killed?” Alex turned to Trevor with a new look in his eyes—surprise and perhaps a little bit of respect.
“To tell you the truth, I was hoping someone from the mall would break the fight before it got to that point,” he replied with a shrug.
“Man.” Alex shook his head.
“Do you want to have a coffee?” I interrupted, feeling bad that we’d just called on him as a chauffeur.
“Nah, I was in the middle of a family tea party, plenty of coffee to drink. I’ll just get you home and then head back before my grandma realizes I’m missing.”
We cleaned up our mugs and left the small shop. Alex's car was thrown haphazardly on the curb. He obviously hadn’t meant to stay.
“You tell me the route,” he said, clicking the doors open with the remote and looking over to Trevor. “I’ve no idea where you live.”
“I can walk a bit and get a bus, don’t worry about it,” he said, shrugging it off.
“Get in the car.” Alex rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to let you walk off looking like that. The ladies here would never forgive me.”
“Damn right we wouldn’t.” Stella grinned, jumping in the front seat.
“He lives close by my place. I’ll tell you how to get there,” I said, grabbing Trevor's arm and hauling him into the car with me.
He let me maneuver him, discussion ended, and it was I who gave the directions to the old neighborhood. When we arrived to Trevor's street, I told Alex to stop. “Okay, you can get back to the school turning to the right now. You can take it from there to Stella's.”
Alex looked back at me through the rearview mirror, surprised.
“Don’t you want me to drop you off at your place?”
“I’ll get out here. It’s just a five minute walk, really,” I said, trying to sound confident.
They were nice enough to buy my offhand statement.
“Thanks for the ride,” Trevor said, pulling open the door.
“Anytime, man.”
“Thanks, Trevor! See you tomorrow!” Stella called, twisting in her seat to wave at us.
Or at him, I guess.
As the car sped away, though, she shot me a look that said, Prepare to be drilled for information later.
No helping that. I could deal with the interrogation, but I couldn’t deal with just leaving now. “Aren’t you going to tell me that you can get home without help?” I took a deep breath, turning to Trevor.
“No. You know I can. If you’re here, it’s because you want to be.”
“Or because I have a hidden agenda?” I teased.
He met my gaze then, his deep blue eyes searching and his expression pensive. “Do you?” He was intense, too intense for me to handle.
“No,” I breathed. Any banter left in my system beat a hasty retreat.
Trevor reached out, tender and insecure, and touched my cheek just as he had done the previous evening at the park. “This feels too genuine to be a fake, Alice. I can’t believe this is a lie, no matter how hard I try not to get my hopes up.”
It was difficult to breathe. The world had slowed down, faded out, disappeared into a static background to him, to him touching me ever so slightly. To us.
I tried to smile.
"You're the one getting my hopes up now," I said, trying to lighten the mood and failing miserably. My voice caught in my throat and came out shakier than I wanted.
He flattened his palm against the side of my face and I saw his Adam's apple moving as he swallowed. His eyes were dark as the ocean depths, but then again, it could be because we were on the far side of dusk and everything looked pretty dark.
Still, I placed my bets and took a step closer, right into his personal space. Without conscious guiding, one of my hands rose to the base of his neck.
His thumb caressed my cheekbone, and I realized that I had never wanted to kiss someone as badly as I did then. It was a physical need, so intense that it hurt.
It would hurt much worse if he pulled away, so I prayed he wouldn't move aside, wouldn't turn this into another chaste kiss like he had done yesterday. And I tilted my face up, closing my eyes.
His lips were cool, firm, slightly chapped and trembling against mine. The contact was just barely there, the softest caress, and I felt trapped between the need to stay like that forever and the need to press further into him. After an agonizing second, his hand slid to the back of my head and he sighed, deepening the kiss with the same gentleness it had started.
My head swam and the world crashed back around us, the night breeze and the sounds coming from the homes and the smell of his shampoo mingling with the warmth of his skin.
It was a perfect kiss, bruises and all.
He pulled back reluctantly when we both ran out of air. We stood in silence, trying to recover, both of us too scared to break the moment with words. Then, Trevor leaned in again and left a small peck on the corner of my lips.
"There's school tomorrow and your parents are going to worry. Come on. I'll walk you home."
I nodded and started to follow him before his words registered. When they did, I stopped dead. "No. I want to make sure you are okay and that you take care of those blows. I'm coming to your house."
"It's nothing too serious. It just needs a bit of ice or something."
"I'll put the ice there, then."
"Trust me, I want to have you at my house right now." His voice dropped, growing husky. "I want to have you in my room, and I want to have you fussing over me. But it's Sunday, past eight p.m., and I can't be selfish."
"You should," I said, back to being breathless.
He shook his head.
"Your parents are going to hate me without me giving them any reason. Besides, my dad's home; he'll do plenty of fussing. Even if it won't be the same, you can stop worrying about the bruises."
Bruises had become the very last thing on my mind, but I tried to recover and nodded. There was truth to what he said, after all. It was going to be difficult for us and we shouldn't go looking for extra trouble.
The word "us." I wasn't surprised at how natural it came to my mind.
"Okay," I relented. "Can I come over tomorrow to listen to your playing?"
"You can come anytime," he said with a smile.
We reached a sort of compromise then. He walked me home, but I held onto his hand the whole way. I didn't want to let go.
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