I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It was kind of fun to write.
Please remember to comment so that I know what you think.
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“Wake up birthday girl,” my Mom sang happily as she rubbed my back to wake me. I groaned and rolled away from her. “Savannah, I made your favorite breakfast and I think Johnny is waiting on you at the pier.”
I shot straight up in the bed. I immediately realized my mistake and tried to cover, “Breakfast! What did you make?” I doubt she bought that.
“Toast,” she smiled slyly, “now hurry up so you can go fishing with Johnny.” She turned and walked out of my room closing the door behind her.
I looked around and saw that Georgia was still asleep. I tried to be quiet so that she could rest. I knew that she had been extra tired lately. The baby must be taking a lot out of her.
When I was done getting ready for my day I danced into the kitchen with the promise of dry toast and a quick retreat to the pier. What I got was pancakes, bacon, eggs, and milk. On top of that, I got conversations with everyone lasting at least an hour. Even Georgia got up to join the torture.
Meals and plans for the day were discussed. Chris had met some girl last time we were here and he was going to try to find her. Mom didn’t seem bothered by this. I took this to mean she was the girl and they were spending the day together. Whatever. Georgia said that she and Russ were going to go fishing for a while and then take a walk. They assured my mom that they would be back for my birthday dinner. Dad said he was going fishing with Johnny and his dad. This made the smile drop from my face. Mom said she was going shopping and then making my birthday cake. After everyone was done talking about what they were going to do today I got up to leave.
Georgia pulled me into our room with a swift tug. “I thought Johnny would be spending the day with you. You made it sound that way.”
“No, I only said he was going to kiss me. I have no idea if he really likes me or if he just said that. Georgia, I am so confused.” My voice began to shake and I could feel tears in my eyes. I looked at her like she had all the answers.
“Oh baby,” she said as she held my head against her chest, “you’ll figure it out. I wish I could tell you that boys and love are easy, but they’re not. It’s hard and I know you’ll get your heart broken…more than once.” Her face held the pain of the truth she was speaking, but her voice was light. I could tell that she wanted to teach me this lesson as painless as possible.
She held my head for a few more minutes, then she held me back. She looked me straight in the eyes and said, “just go out to the pier and meet Johnny now. I’ll keep Dad busy for a little while. If he kisses you, great. If he doesn’t, don’t get upset. Take it for what it is and don’t make too much out of it. Don’t put your heart in it and it won’t get broken.”
I nodded my head and Georgia walked out. I made sure my face was dry and snuck out the back door. As I was making my way down to the pier I reflected on what Georgia had said about love. It was sad. I know that Bobby broke her heart, but Russ had treated her so well. And now they were going to have a baby.
This was just too much for me to wrap my thoughts around. I didn’t even know I had reached the pier until I stepped onto it and felt the sway of the water underneath the planks. I looked around, but Johnny was nowhere to be seen. My heart fell. Yeah, I guess this is why Georgia had said to take it for what it is.
I sat at the end of the pier trying not to feel sorry for myself. I heard footsteps and felt the sway of the pier. I braced myself for Georgia to try to make me feel better.
“Hey Savannah.” It was Johnny. I couldn’t help the smile that broke across my face.
“I was waiting on you earlier, but I had to go eat breakfast at home. My dad’s going fishing with yours and they won’t be back until your party tonight. He just wanted to see me this morning.” He was out of breath as if he had been running.
My heart was soaring with the thought; he wanted to see me today.
“That’s okay, I just got here. My family wanted to have breakfast together today too,” was my reply.
“Well, my dad said he didn’t mind if I spent the day with you. He said he wouldn’t even tell your dad where I was until they were in the middle of the lake. I thought that was funny, you know your dad won’t come back then,” he finished with a laugh. We both just sat there for a minute until he broke the silence.
“Well, it’s your birthday, what do you want to do today?” Johnny asked as he pulled me to my feet.
“I don’t care. I was just going to hang out here,” I blushed.
“Nah,” he shook his head, “let’s do some stuff. It’s too cold to swim yet, so let’s walk to the store.”
Johnny and I spent the day together. Nothing seemed different between us. It was still just the easy friendship, no awkwardness. We went to the store at the main boat landing and bought bait and candy bars. Then we went to a houseboat that was never occupied and fished off the back of it. A few of our friends joined us, but left to eat lunch.
Johnny had bought us a small lunch of sandwiches and chips while we were at the store. We ate it on the porch of the house boat and then I laid out to get a tan while Johnny fished. At the end of the day, Johnny had five fish and I had two. I let him keep all of the fish so I didn’t have to clean them. I didn’t eat fish anyway.
We got back to mine around 4:00. We could see that my dad wasn’t back yet because his old truck was gone. I knew that at least one other person wasn’t back because the minivan was also gone. Johnny walked me into the house. And waited to see who was there.
“Hello,” I called. No one answered. “I guess they are all still out. They should be home soon,” I said to Johnny.
“Well, as long as we’re alone,” he put his hands on my waist and pulled me to him, “I think I should make good on my birthday promise.” He seemed uncertain and maybe afraid of my reaction. My heart began to speed as his face came closer to mine. Our lips touched softly and his hand rubbed my back. My first real kiss! I got the feeling that neither of us knew exactly what we were doing, so we just kept our lips pressed together. His lips were soft and warm. They seemed to fit onto mine perfectly.
Johnny pulled back with a smile on his face. I couldn’t believe that he actually kissed me. Johnny’s face was red. He stuttered his goodbye and said he would see me tomorrow as he turned to leave. I watched as he ran across the yard picking up his fish on the way. Then, I turned to go to my room, but I bumped into Georgia. She had been home the whole time.
“Well, I see Johnny does like my little sis,” she teased. I just nodded my head and went to my room. All I could do was scream inside my head, ‘HE KISSED ME, HE KISSED ME!’ over and over.
I sat on the bed trying to busy myself with a book I had been reading. I knew Georgia was close behind and I didn’t want her to make a big deal over the kiss; I was freaking out enough already.
“So, how was it?” Her face lit up with a smile as if she herself had just had her first kiss.
“Nice,” I replied shortly without looking up from my book.
“It must have been more than ‘nice’, you’re reading that book upside down,” she cut with a chuckle. I looked at her and then back at the book I had been ‘reading’. Sure enough, it was upside down. I’m such an idiot.
I turned the book right side up and glanced down at it before Georgia grabbed it away from me. “Hey!” I screamed trying to yank it back.
“You’re going to tell me all about it or I’ll tell Dad all about it,” she laughed with an evil glint in her eyes.
I stared at her for a second trying to decide if I really wanted to talk about it. I knew her threat to tell Dad was empty. She really didn’t talk to him unless she had to.
“I can still feel his lips on mine and my stomach is queasy,” I finally relented.
“Is he neat or wet and sloppy/”
“He wasn’t wet at all,” I rolled up my nose at her in disgust.
She looked at me strange and tilted her head, “Show me how he kissed you. You know, with your mouth. Did he press his lips to yours like this,” she held her hand to her lips and pressed her lips to it just as Johnny had done to me. “Or, Did he open his mouth? Like this,” she demonstrated this on her hand also.
“Ew, Georgia. Why would Johnny lick me?” My voice muffled as I pressed the pillow to my face. GROSS.
Georgia began to laugh almost uncontrollably. She stood up from the bed where she had been sitting beside me and walked over to the radio. She turned up the music that had been playing softly in the background. “Like a Virgin” by Madonna was playing. This just made Georgia laugh harder.
Georgia sat with me for a while and explained how to kiss for real. She had me kissing my own hand to show her I was actually getting what she said. She told me that I’d have to take the lead with Johnny if I wanted to kiss him for real. I kind of felt that I had kissed Johnny just fine. I listened to her advice with no intentions of trying to kiss Johnny again. I had been so nervous the first time I thought I might die.
After we had talked about kissing for a while and how I had to watch where he put his hands, Georgia became serious. The childish kidding was put aside quickly as she turned to me.
“Sav, have you had that dream again since my birthday?” She seemed so sad.
I smile and answered, “no, not one time, why?”
“Well, I just wanted to check. You know I’m going to have to tell them soon…about the baby.” A single tear rolled heavily down her cheek. She looked away quickly. A soft knock came on the door and Georgia wiped the tear and put on a fake smile.
“Yeah,” I called.
The door opened and Russ poked his head in. “Georgia, let’s go walk. I think we need to settle some things.” He walked over to her and tugged her from the room. “We’ll be back in about an hour, Savannah.” With that, he closed the door and they left.
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Mom got home about fifteen minutes before everyone else. She had bought the cake instead of making it. She sat it on the counter and went back to the van. She came back into the house carrying a package wrapped in bright paper. Ah, the gift. Now, I’m excited. Chris came in with bags of take out food. I knew they would be together. I decided that I should come out of my room and make myself known.
“Hey. What did you cook for dinner while you two were out?”
My Mother raised her eyebrow and glared at me, “Don’t be a sassy pants. You know Chris and I weren’t together. He went to see that lovely girl he met last time.”
“Right. Well, I’ll be in my room.” I walked back to my room and turned the music up. I would wait on dinner to be ready before coming out.
~~~~~
Dinner turned out to be nothing special. Dad talked about his fishing trip with Johnny’s dad. I’m sure everyone else spoke about their days, but I was just silently thinking about mine. Well, one part of mine in particular.
Johnny and his family came over after dinner to eat cake and drink coffee. I opened my gift from my parents. It was a skirt and sweater. They were very nice. Georgia gave me a gift and said it was from her, Russ, and Chris. I opened it and it was beautiful. She had given me a journal book with a note from her:
Sav,
This is so you can keep up with your dreams.
It’s up to you do decide which ones to chase and
which ones to chase away.
Love you
I ran my hands over the cover. It was a light blue fabric with yellow and bark blue butterflies in a garden of yellow flowers. I opened the book to see light blue lined paper waiting to be filled.
Johnny’s family gave me a box of gourmet chocolates in a gold wrapped box. They looked delicious. I thanked everyone for the gifts and told them how much I liked them. I didn’t tell them, but the journal was by far my favorite.
After the cake and gifts, Johnny and I snuck out to the back yard. We sat on the bottom step. So, we had privacy but only if no one looked for us.
“Savannah?”
“Yeah?”
I looked at Johnny to see what he was going to say. When I did he quickly pressed his lips to mine. Again, his lips were perfect. Then, he opened his mouth. Suddenly it didn’t feel gross. I wanted to kiss Johnny for real. So, I did. That’s right, I kissed him. It was a real, open-your-mouth, arms around his neck, hands rubbing my back, head getting light, thoughts getting lost, knees getting weak, breathless kiss.
We both must have liked it because we stayed kissing for a while.
“Well, isn’t that sweet,” Chris laughed from beside us. We jumped apart and we both wiped the left over first time kiss from our mouth and smiled.
“Johnny, your mom’s looking for you. She says it’s time to go home.” Chris gave me a wink and went back in.
“We’re leaving in the morning savannah. I won’t be able to see you again until we both come back. I’m going to miss you,” Johnny said with a sweet smile on his lips.
“We’re leaving too. We should be back soon, so…” I trailed off as I heard Johnny’s mom call for him from the front yard.
He leaned in and pecked me quickly before running off. I turned and went into the house so I could relive the last part of tonight for the rest of the night.
Tomorrow we would go home. Once we were home, I knew Georgia would tell our parents about the baby.
I knew she would be a great mom; she had been my mom for so long. Somehow I doubted that our parents would agree. I dreaded their reaction to Georgia’s news.
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Next chapter will be Georgia spilling the news. How do you think the parents will react? With Dad be typical him and blow up or sweet and understanding? Will Mom swoon over the grandchild she's always wanted?
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