"We're going out for dinner," my mom called through my closed bedroom door.
I pulled the covers off of my face and glanced around the dimly lit room. I groggily reached for my cell phone laying next to my pillow and checked the time. It was already six in the evening which meant I must have been sleeping all day. I hadn't even realized that the last few days had made me so tired, but clearly a dozen hours of hiking had taken a lot out of me.
"Harley," my mother snapped. "Did you hear me?"
"Yes," I grumbled loud enough for her to hear. "I was sleeping, jeez."
I rubbed my hand over my face and began flicking through my missed messages from the day. My door flew open and I barely glanced over to see my mom giving me her best combination of a glare and a look of disappointment.
"You shouldn't sleep so much, you'll make yourself sick. Now get up, your father and I are going out with friends for the night."
I pulled my phone away from my face and gave her an annoyed look. "If you're leaving, then why do I have to get up?"
She huffed and put her hands on her hips. "Because I'm your mother, and you do as your mother says." I rolled my eyes. "And you need to finish unpacking and clean up this room. It's a mess."
I picked my phone up again and checked my social sites. "It's my room, no one has to see it." I waved my hand dismissively and heard her huff yet again. "Besides, it's just a few duffel bags. No big deal."
"Your ass will be grounded for days if this room isn't clean by the time your father and I return tonight," she said in a scarily sweet voice before turning around and walking out.
I grumbled at the fact that she never shut my door, but what did I expect? I heard her obnoxious heels clicking along the floor as she went, and I sat up in bed.
Pulling open my messages app on my phone, I sent a quick text to Dakota, saying, You ready for round two?
It was mostly a joke, but at the same time I knew that if Dakota was up for more than just hanging out, I would be too. I ran a hand through my messy bed hair and made my way to my bathroom to piss. After I washed my hands, I grabbed my phone again off the bed and headed to the kitchen, looking for something to eat. My stomach rumbled loudly and I grumbled right back at it, because I was just in one of those moods after dealing with my mom.
I heard the garage door closing, announcing that my parents had just left. Walking up to the cupboard, I took out a bowl and set it on the counter before getting out a spoon and heading over to the pantry to get a box of cereal. As I headed to the fridge for the milk, my phone went off in the pocket of my sweats.
I took the device out at the same time as I grabbed the jug of milk from the shelf. Checking the caller on the screen, I saw it was Dakota, and let a smile spread across my lips. The fact that he had called me so quickly made me think that maybe he was eager to see me, and for some reason that caused those butterflies that were apparently now living inside my body to flutter their wings.
"Hey," I said as casually as I could.
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line as I fixed my bowl of cereal, then Dakota said, "Hi."
I smirked to myself, easily picturing how awkward the guy probably looked wherever he was right then. "What's up?"
"Uh, were you serious?"
I lifted my spoon up to my mouth and paused before taking a bite to say, "Serious with what?"
"You know, your text," Dakota said vaguely.
I chuckled. "Yeah, of course," I said, not telling him that it didn't have to be like that. "Why?"
It was dead silent on the line for another few moments and then hastily he said, "Can I come over now?"
My smile grew just a little bit wider. "Yeah, you can come over if you'd like."
I swore I heard his breath hitch at that. Then he said, "I'll be there in twenty."
The line cut off before I could say anything more. I just sat there laughing for a moment because of his reactions. I scarfed down the rest of my cereal and cleaned up my mess before making my way back to my room.
I checked my hair in the mirror on my wall, but eventually gave up on it when I realized that the severe state of bed head it was in was not going to go anywhere fast.
I had just tossed my camping stuff in my closet so that my mom didn't rip my head off later when I heard the doorbell go off. Smiling to myself, but also feeling a little jittery on the inside, I went to answer the door.
As I swung it open, the first thing I noticed was the smile Dakota was trying and failing to hide. I questioned him with my eyes for a moment, but then I realized that he was staring at my naked chest. For some reason, I blushed. My mind had completely blanked on the fact that I'd never even put a shirt on; I had been too focused on speed cleaning my room.
I watched as Dakota's jaw slackened just the slightest bit and as I raked my eyes over his face, I caught sight of his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he swallowed.
Trying to shake off the feelings that sight stirred inside me, I gestured inside the house and asked, "You coming in?"
As if he was in a bit of a trance, with his eyes glued to my broad chest, he slowly crossed over the threshold. Rolling my eyes, I reached out and took hold of his arm, the muscles firm and the skin warm beneath my hand. I pulled him the rest of the way into the house and shut the door behind him.
If I had to blame the reason for why I pulled Dakota closer to me so that we stood chest to chest on something, I would say it was all his fault. I was only human, and when someone as god forsakenly gorgeous as Dakota was, just stood in front of you with nothing but want and lust in their eyes...I really didn't think I could be held totally responsible for what would potentially follow.
I watched Dakota's lips part with a small gasp and I felt my heart begin racing. Before I had the chance to do anything, Dakota brought his hand up to the side of my neck and crushed his lips down onto mine, kissing me so surprisingly roughly and thoroughly that by the time I pulled back I was panting for air.
Somehow through the endorphins rushing through me, I managed to furrow my brows. I frowned at him a little when what the harsh taste on his tongue was finally clicked inside my head. Staring straight into his seafoam eyes I said, "Have you been drinking? You taste like beer..."
Dakota's heavy breath fanned across my face as he minutely shook his head. "Not really. I had one bottle with my dad and uncles. No biggie."
My forehead creased further at that. "It's only seven o'clock."
The dark-haired boy shrugged and threw me a wide grin. I had no intentions of buying it, despite the fact that he was giving it to me for free. When he noticed I was still frowning, he twirled a curl of mine around his finger and said, "Eh, it's okay, they're like that. 'The more you drink, the more of a man you are,' or something like that. It's just this dumb joke they have."
My body stiffened against his after hearing that. I definitely did not like the sound of it, but Dakota intercepted my thoughts by grabbing the back of my neck and pulling me back in for another kiss. And I couldn't even help it, within seconds, I had nearly completely forgotten what we had even been talking about. Dakota seemed to have some sort of special fog that he could throw over my brain that rendered it useless.
"Enough talk," Dakota said quietly when we parted. His lips brushed against mine as he spoke and all I could wonder was where on earth this confidence had come from. "I thought we were gonna, you know..."
I smiled, but pulled back to put a little distance between us. I suddenly felt like I really needed to think more clearly. And I had a feeling that we should be taking things a lot slower than my text to him earlier had implied. So I said, "Well, we could do, you know, but we could just hang out, too...if you were up for it."
What had me pleasantly surprised, because I was so used to things leading straight to sex, was that Dakota simply smiled at me and nodded his head. I could tell by the shyness in the way his lips were set, that he genuinely didn't care if all we did was play video games or something. The thought had my throat caught with butterfly wings to the point that I couldn't even respond. I just grinned like an idiot and pulled him after me and towards my bedroom.
Once inside the room, I shut the door behind us and Dakota walked around looking at things while I turned my television and game console on.
"Do you wanna watch a movie or something?" I asked, picking up a few DVDs. I heard Dakota hum and turned back to look at him. He had a distracted look on his face that I found oddly adorable. "Dakota?"
He quickly turned back to meet my gaze. "What's up?"
I smiled. "What are you doing?"
"Your room is...weird."
I snorted. "Thanks?"
"Sorry. It's just...it definitely doesn't look like a normal eighteen year-old's room." He gestured at the blank walls and the severe lack of any personality that seemed to be the theme.
"I'm not surprised," I said, sighing. "My mom's a dictator. Hardly anything in here is the way I want it."
He raised his brows and looked back at me. "Wow. She's strict?"
"Not exactly. She's particular. For some reason she's obsessed with the need for every square inch of our house to look as if no one even lives here. Unfortunately that includes my room as well." Dakota chuckled and I waved him over, wanting to do just about anything besides talk about my mom at that moment. "Okay, so do you feel like action thriller or horror?"
He stopped beside me and looked down at the two cases I held in my hands. He hummed in thought, then tapped on one of them. "Thriller sounds good."
"You got it."
*******
Only part way through the movie I'd put in, my body was already hyper aware of how close Dakota was to me. We were scooted all the way to the top of the bed, both of us sitting upright and leaning back against the headboard. But Dakota was situated so close that his knee which was slightly bent was nearly resting on top of my thigh. And his upper arm was pressed tightly to my own.
I had my arms crossed firmly over my chest, not trusting myself enough to stick to my guns and get through the movie without jumping him. And as it turned out, it wasn't me who I had to worry about. Dakota was the one whose eyes I could feel boring into the side of my face as I desperately tried to focus on what was happening on the television screen.
Dakota was also the one who broke every last shred of my resolve and tentatively reached out a hand to cup my cheek, effectively turning my head so that I was meeting his green eyes with my blue ones.
"Hey," I whispered, because for some reason the air between us felt fragile and I didn't want to shatter it by speaking too loudly.
"Hi," he whispered back. He smiled shyly at me, his gaze flitting between my eyes and my mouth repeatedly. It was doing horrible things to my self-control. "You seem tense."
I chuckled. "I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Mhm."
"I feel like you haven't breathed in about ten minutes," Dakota said, smirking at me as if he had an idea as to why that was.
I rolled my eyes at him, but didn't respond because I wasn't sure how to. But then his eyes regarded me with more adoration than I thought I had ever seen before, and it snapped something inside of me. Before I had a clue what was happening, I had a hand firmly embedded in his dark hair and my lips were hungrily fixed on his.
In a flash that left me breathless as we kissed, Dakota had moved so that he was straddling my lap. In the next instant, he pressed his groin against mine and there was absolutely no chance of hiding how aroused I was.
His hands roamed over my chest that I had only just covered with a t-shirt before the movie had begun, and when his thumb brushed over my collar bone, I visibly shivered beneath him, a gasp escaping my lips as I involuntarily broke our kiss.
"Sorry, did I do something wrong?" Dakota asked, eyes wide and pupils dilated as he stared down at me.
I shook my head quickly. "No, not at all. The exact opposite. Just...I was trying to keep things slow." I gestured between the two of us. "This is so not slow."
Dakota laughed. "I don't care," he said. Then he suddenly glanced away, a generous tint of pink rushing to the surface of his cheeks. I was confused by the change for a moment but then Dakota's voice grew quiet as he said, "I actually, uhm...I thought we were gonna have sex tonight. Maybe."
Instantly, I grinned up at him. I seriously could not believe how cute he was, nor the fact that he was even here right now, sitting on my lap and having steamy makeout sessions with me. It was literally a dream come true for me.
I brought my hand down from the back of his neck and found his hand, twining our fingers together. Strangely, I actually felt a little nervous with him, but I couldn't seem to figure out why. Brushing the feeling away as best I could, I said, "You want to have sex with me?"
"Don't be an idiot. Obviously."
I smiled. He was still blushing. "I'm just kidding. But on a serious note...are you really sure about that?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"I don't know, maybe because you're a virgin?"
"I didn't care last week, don't care this week."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, but I mean...I feel like you should care. It's kind of a huge step."
"Harley..."
I glanced back up at him curiously. "What?"
"You know how I feel about you. Why wouldn't I want to have sex for the first time with someone I love?"
Although my breath was successfully caught inside my throat at his words, my brain knew he had somewhat of a point. That was ideally how it was supposed to happen. Except in this scenario it was a little more complicated than that.
Seeming to sense the cause of my hesitation, he said, "It's okay that you don't feel the same. It doesn't make me feel less comfortable with the thought of having sex with you, though. In case you were wondering."
"Let's just...wait on that," I said. Because for some reason, I wasn't comfortable with it. Dakota was so innocent in terms of intimacy and I didn't want to rip that away from him completely. I felt sort of protective over that side of him and I didn't want to completely fuck him up because I was too horny to care about how it might affect him. "For a little while, yeah?"
Instead of answering, Dakota just leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. It wasn't long before the kiss turned more passionate, and just when it was getting to the point where I was questioning my last suggestion I'd made about waiting, Dakota pulled back, breathless and beautiful. He smiled down at me and slid off of my lap to sit beside me once more.
"Okay, deal," he whispered, turning his attention back to the movie that we had previously forgotten about.
I was still staring at him in awe a minute later, unable to fully wrap my head around him, when Dakota squeezed my hand that he was holding. I found the gesture as reassuring as I did sweet, and I smiled to myself as I followed his lead and tried to focus back on the movie.