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Excuse the mistakes

Picture of Reed's dolphin shirt on the side

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“Reed!”

I let out a quiet groan and opened my eyes slowly, and I saw Parker’s face pressed against my car window. I didn’t even jump. “If you’re trying to scare me, I’m too tired,” I declared through a yawn.

“Unlock the door,” Parker said after a moment, and he tapped on the window. I sighed but pressed the unlock button, and a second later, Parker yanked open the door. “You know homeroom starts in less than five minutes, right?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I do,” I replied curtly, “But I was trying to take a nap before it started, since I got almost no sleep last night… or the night before that.”

“What’s keeping you up all night?” Parker asked, leaning his arm against the top of my car and tipping his head down.

I hesitated for a moment. “If I said horror movie marathons on SyFy, would you judge me?” I replied, frowning. Parker burst out laughing, and I felt the blood rush to my cheeks in hot embarrassment.

“Move over,” Parker said, still laughing.

“What?” I replied, giving him a confused look.

“Move over to the passenger seat,” Parker clarified, gesturing with his hands. I was about to protest, but then I realized I was much too tired and lazy. So, I just flopped spastically over to the passenger seat, and Parker climbed into the driver’s seat. He threw his backpack in the backseat and turned my key in the ignition.

“Whoa, wait!” I yelled, suddenly coming to complete attention, “Parker, what the hell are you doing?”

“Look, Reed,” Parker replied calmly, and he turned to look at me, “You’re exhausted, and sitting in school all day is going to do you no good. Today’s a beautiful day, so I say we go to the beach.”

“You mean skip?” I demanded, and Parker nodded.

Instead of refusing immediately, I thought about it. Parker’s reasoning was logical, and who was I to argue with logic? Actually, the real reason I was considering skipping was because I’d never done it before, and despite always talking about how stupid it was, part of me wanted to try it out.

“Fine,” I said, throwing my arms up in the air.

“Really?” Parker asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

“Sure, why not?” I replied, shrugging.

Parker pumped his fist in the air in triumph, and then he switched my car into drive. As I leaned back in the passenger seat and debated how much trouble I would get in if my mom found out what I was doing, Parker pulled out of the school parking lot. A few minutes later, he drove onto the highway that would lead us to the beach.

“How exactly does this work?” I asked, pulling my knees up to my chest, “I mean, isn’t the school going to call my mom?”

“Nope,” Parker replied, and he held out his hand, “Give me your phone.” I hesitated before digging my phone out of my back pocket, and I placed it in Parker’s outstretched hand. He unlocked the screen, tapped the phone icon, and dialed a number.

Before I could yell at Parker for holding a phone while driving, he put it on speakerphone and handed it back to me. “Hold it close to my mouth, okay?” Parker whispered, and I nodded. A second later, the phone stopped ringing, and someone answered.

“This is Townsend High School attendance,” a female voice said, obviously bored.

“Hi,” Parker said, deepening his voice slightly, “My daughter, Reed Hadley, won’t be in school today. She’s not feeling well.”

“Thank you for calling, sir,” the woman said, and then the phone clicked as she hung up. I gawked at Parker and what he’d just done.

“Does that really work?”  I demanded. No, skipping school without getting detected couldn’t be as simple as calling and pretending to be your own parent.

“I’ve only been caught twice,” Parker said with a shrug, which was saying something since he skipped school once or twice a week. Although lately, he’d been showing up a lot more often in health class. Parker said it was because he needed a good grade, but I didn’t exactly believe him.

With the windows down and “A Rocket to the Moon” playing through my speakers, Parker and I drove down the highway until we reached the exit of the beach. Parker pulled off of the highway, and as we searched for a parking spot, I looked out the window at the beach.

Since it was the middle of a Wednesday morning, there was almost no one there, and it wasn’t disturbed. I hated the way beaches seemed to always be crowded by tourist families and wrinkled old people, so an empty beach was perfect for me.

Parker finally found a parking spot, and as he turned off the car, I started to feel a little nervous. I was alone with a guy I had developed feelings for, and if things got awkward between us today, Parker and I still had to ride home in the same car. That was twenty minutes of tense silence that I would possibly have to endure.

“Okay,” Parker said, handing me my car keys and opening the door, “Let’s go!”

“Alright,” I replied, grabbing my Ray Bans from the glove compartment, and I climbed out of the passenger seat. I locked the car after Parker closed his door, and then we crossed the parking lot to the beach.

As soon as my feet hit the sand, I pulled off my flip-flops and held the straps in my hand. My feet sunk in the warm sand as Parker and I walked towards the water, and I enjoyed the feeling of my feet being exfoliated. Amanda Bynes was right; there’s no need for a pedicure if you have sand.

“So, is this what you do when you’re not at school?” I asked as we reached the waterline.

“Not exactly,” Parker replied slowly. I frowned and glanced next to me to ask what he meant, but Parker wasn’t there. I was about to call out for him when I was suddenly scooped up from behind in someone’s arms.

I screamed and dropped my shoes and car keys, and my head snapped up to see Parker’s grinning face. “Parker!” I screamed, “What are you doing?”

“We’re just going for a little swim,” Parker stated, and that’s when I realized that he was running into the water.

“No!” I yelled, silently thanking God that I’d left my phone in the car, “Parker, I swear to god, don’t—”

But it was too late.

Parker pitched me up in the air, and before I could even take a breath, I was submerged in cool water. My body jerked in shock, and I quickly pushed of the sandy bottom of the ocean and resurfaced. I was so cold that I couldn’t even get a big enough breath to scream. In all honesty, the water off the LA coast wasn’t that cold, but for someone who hadn’t been in it in a while, it was a bid temperature difference.

Parker was standing in the water a couple feet away, laughing, and my eyes narrowed. If Parker wanted a water war, then he was going to get one.

“Oh, Parker!” I called in a sing-song voice, and then I lunged at him with a loud yell.

*

“Your total is $23.75.”

I watched as Parker pulled some cash out of his wallet, which wasn’t soaked since he’d left it in the car, and he handed it over to the teenaged cashier. She’d perked up as soon as she’d seen him, but Parker had barely given her a second glance.

We’d ended up playing in the water for a couple hours before realizing that we didn’t have any clothes to change into. I refused to go into my car soaking wet and sandy, so Parker had offered to buy a change of clothes at one of the boardwalk shops. I was happy with that, since it was his fault we got in the water in the first place.

So, now, I was holding my wet, sandy clothes in a plastic bag, and I was wearing a blue t-shirt with a dolphin on it, as well as a pair of green mesh shorts that had a weird fold in the front that made me look like I had a dick. It wasn’t the most flattering outfit, but I wasn’t going to make Parker buy something more expensive just so that I’d look good.

However, if I looked funny, Parker was drop dead hilarious. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt that had flames all over it, and his shorts were a little too short. It was really, really hard not to laugh at Parker whenever I looked at him.

The cashier handed Parker his receipt, and I couldn’t help but notice that she’d written her phone number on the bottom of it. For the first time, I felt a surge of jealously, and my eyes narrowed at her as Parker and I walked out.

“Thanks for the clothes,” I said, nudging Parker with my elbow playfully.

“Thanks for skipping school and letting me take you to the beach,” Parker replied, throwing his arm around my shoulder casually. My skin grew hot where he touched me, and I had to do something to distract myself from the way my stomach flipped.

“No problem,” I said, smiling nervously, “I had fun in the water.”

“Yeah, me too,” Parker said, glancing at me, “Most girls would have freaked out if I’d thrown them in the water, but you didn’t.”

“Nope,” I replied as we reached my car, “I just attacked you. Were you scared?”

“Terrified,” Parker stated, and I laughed. I unlocked the driver’s door, and I climbed inside the car before Parker could try and get into the driver’s seat. Sure, I’d let him drive here, but I was driving back, seeing as the Grouch was my car.

Parker muttered something under his breath about wanting to drive, but he walked around the car and sat down in the passenger seat. I smirked to myself and the engine roared to life as I turned the key. Then, I pulled out of the parking lot and drove towards the highway.

As I drove, I tapped my thumb against the steering wheel, and I reached for the radio to turn it on. Apparently, Parker had the same idea, and our fingers touched. Now, Parker and I held hands at school all the time, but this time was different. There was a feeling of electricity, and I snapped my hand back quickly.

“Whoops,” I said, quickly playing it off.

“No worries,” Parker replied, and I couldn’t tell whether or not the strain in his voice was my imagination or not. Parker turned on the radio and The Ting Tings came on. “This is a throwback,” he commented, and I nodded.

“This used to be my jam,” I said, and Parker raised an eyebrow. I smirked and started to sing along to “Shut Up and Let Me Go”; very poorly, might I add. To my surprise, Parker started to sing along as well, just like with “Grace Kelly”.

As the song ended and a string of commercials came on, my grin stayed firmly on my face, and I let one of my hands drop absentmindedly from the wheel to the center console between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat. A few minutes later, I felt skin against mine, and I glanced down quickly to see Parker’s hand next to mine, but not holding it.

Yes, I might’ve been hyperventilating internally. Don’t judge me.

I had no idea if the silence between us was awkward for him, but it sure was for me. Now that I’d officially accepted the fact that I was really starting to develop feelings for Parker, I found that when I wasn’t distracted, I was freaking out about him in my mind.

That’s what I hated about liking someone you are friends with. It just seems to complicate things and makes me stupid. God, if I just told Parker how I felt, maybe it would be easier to figure things out.

Finally, I reached the school parking lot. Parker and I had left the beach with enough time to drop him back off at his motorcycle and leave before getting caught by any school personnel. I pulled up next to Parker’s motorcycle and put it in park.

“Well,” I said, turning towards Parker, “I had fun today. Thanks for convincing me to skip.”

“Anytime, Reed,” Parker replied, winking at me. He grabbed his backpack from the backseat of the Grouch, and then he climbed out of the passenger seat.

As I watched Parker shove his bag of wet clothes in the small compartment on the back of his motorcycle, I bit my lip. Maybe it was the fun I’d had all day that was motivating me, but I was about to make a very dumb decision.

I stretched over to the passenger seat and rolled down the window. “Hey!” I called, climbing halfway into the passenger seat so that I was closer to Parker.

“What’s up?” Parker asked, and he leaned down so that we were face to face.

“Can I tell you something?” I asked, and I could feel the nerves twisting around in my stomach. I wasn’t completely sure I was being sane at the moment, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

“Yeah, go ahead,” Parker said, flicking some hair out of his face.

“Well,” I drawled, thinking of a good way to put how I was feeling, “I, um... You… I think…”

I had no idea what to say. Parker was making it hard by looking at me with his warm, intense brown eyes, and I tried and failed at swallowing the dry lump in my throat. Obviously, words weren’t going to happen at the moment, so I needed to act.

Without thinking, which was probably a bad idea, I reached up and placed my hands on either side of Parker’s face. Then, again without thinking, I leaned up and pressed my lips against his.

This kiss was unlike all the other ones. Why? It wasn’t fake. To me, this kiss was very real, and it was my attempt at telling Parker how I felt about him. I was pretty sure Parker could tell that’s what this kiss was about.

After a few moments, I pulled away from Parker and looked at his face. Instead of looking into it, or even disgusted at me kissing him like that, Parker just looked shocked. That’s when I realized how much kissing him was a mistake.

“I’m so sorry,” I muttered, and I scrambled back into the driver’s seat. I switched the car into drive, and just as Parker started to say something, I took off. I made an illegal u-turn, which was probably highly unsafe, and I drove out of the school parking lot, leaving Parker behind.

I wasn’t going to talk myself down because Parker didn’t respond to my kiss, and I wasn’t going to badmouth him either. I wasn’t one of those girls.

However, I was one of those girls who was going to go home and devour ice cream and other fattening foods.

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Sorry it's been so long. I was going to update last night, but my mom, sister and I all went to see Wicked! And then, I was going to update this afternoon, but my whole family went to see Jurassic Park on the IMAX! My sister's never seen it, and she hates scary movies, so it was hilarious watching her freak out.

Also, I got my cast off!!! I'm in a medical boot now, so I can actually walk on my foot! I'm just so excited :)

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