The Best Year - 26. Chapter 26

As the night went on, and well after we found out that paint balls could hurt and leave a mark, people started to leave. Even Tim looked relieved to finally see the crowds thinning. We were some of the last ones left and Welker, to his credit didn’t try to round us up and herd us out the door at a reasonable hour. Instead, as the clock ticked towards one in the morning and the food ran out I yawned and absently rubbed at a red lump forming just below my right elbow from one of the paint balls. Tim had tried to coax us all out the door before his cleaning crew were to start coming in, but like teenagers no one left.

“Damn this was fun,” Derek said as he smirked at me until I stopped rubbing my war wound. “Connor, dude, you rock.”

“Thanks,” Connor muttered as he shuffled by with Olivia towards the front door. She outlasted all of the underclassmen by hours, most of them probably having a curfew. She probably had one too, but I realized that Olivia did whatever Olivia wanted to do. She smiled up at Connor proudly when my friends all started complimenting him on the idea, even if I suspected that it was her idea all along.

“You guys better sneak out of here,” Toby whispered and I glanced around to see the girls all hanging back to talk about something.

“Why?” I asked turning to look at him. He wasn’t looking at us though, but at something off in the distance. When I turned to see what he was looking at I saw Cindy hovering by the front door, pacing and looking at the clock above the opposite wall. She could probably see us where we stood gathered around the exit of the paint gun arena.

“Maybe I should go,” Luke said shaking his head. “It is nearly one in the morning.”

“She looks pissed,” Toby countered cocking an eyebrow. “What did you do to her Jack?”

“Nothing,” I grunted not wanting to think about the conversation I had with her while the guys were all in the bathroom. I didn’t want Luke finding out about it either, even if he had spotted her leaving for the food bar. I had played it off like nothing when I caught him eyeballing me as we suited up in padded gear. Derek had already shot me in the ass with one before I had an extra layer on and I was never more grateful for it as it made everyone laugh and forget about me.

“Yeah, I’d not want to be around that,” Derek said pointing towards Cindy. I quickly slapped his hand, the last thing I wanted was Cindy thinking that we were all down here talking about her.

“Allison,” Welker said popping out of the arena followed by two classmates still lingering around, “say goodbye to your friends.”

“Dad,” Ally groaned, but gave us all a quick wave goodbye.

“We better be going too,” Lily said hooking her elbow with Heather. “I told my parents I wouldn’t be too late.”

“Late to your parents is eight,” Heather joked sticking her tongue out at Lily as they started walking. Seeing me she dug her heels into the ground. “Jackson, want me to give you my sister’s number?”

“No,” I answered shaking my head.

“Okay,” she said shrugging as she studied me. Lily finally had to give her a tug before they both started walking again. Bailey didn’t wait around long after Ally was escorted out of the building by her dad and he definitely didn’t want to follow them out the door. I couldn’t imagine dealing with Welker, back when I dated Ally I just laughed at him when he wasn’t around and did what I wanted. I didn’t care if he liked me or not, I knew that it was a guarantee with girls that dads just wouldn’t. Cindy on the other hand unnerved me completely. Not that I wanted her to like me, she made that clear as water earlier. I was scared of what she would try and pull if she found out that Luke was dating me, that I wasn’t just some friend she hated him hanging around with.

Swallowing I watched as she made another small circle by the door until Tim walked up to her. She had stopped pacing, but still being by the front entrance I knew that I wouldn’t be leaving until well after she did.

“Here’s your chance,” Derek whispered nudging me with his elbow.

“Go out that door,” Toby added pointing to the emergency exit a few feet away. It didn’t say if an alarm would sound or not and I felt my heart rate pick up.

“Come on,” Luke hissed grabbing my sore elbow.

“Are you sure?” I asked as he smiled letting go of me when I woke up and started moving towards the door.

“Bye guys,” Toby called as the music cut off leaving the large expansive room eerily quiet.

“Wear protection,” Derek said and I nearly tripped over myself half turning to glare at him while still sprinting to the door. Luke had to grab my shoulder to steady me and when we hit the door and it opened easily with no ding or siren blaring, we both took deep breaths of cold late autumn air smiling at one another like thieves as we continued tearing across the nearly empty parking lot to my car.

“Where do you want to go?” I asked after we got inside my car. I already felt freer out here, my nerves were still tingling through me though and when I looked over at Luke he was darting his head around searching the parking lot.

“I don’t know,” he answered turning back to face me.

For a brief moment I saw us barreling down the road by ourselves with no direction at all. Passing familiar buildings until we hit open fields and farmland between these small, dotted in the middle of nowhere towns. Driving until the gas hand ticked dangerously close to empty and find somewhere no one knew or cared about who we were. Every part of me wanted to ask him, but I knew if he said yes that I would do it despite all the consequences waiting for us back home. We wouldn’t be able to hide behind any lies or trees after a stunt like that. No one would believe anything else, but the truth.

Instead I started the car and took off towards home. Both of us quiet, I couldn’t help thinking that maybe I was bad for someone like Luke. I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking until we got to his driveway and his head darted towards his house. It was mostly dark, only the living room light and porch light illuminated the property. We had a head start on Cindy and Henry was probably asleep somewhere, tired of waiting for them to come home.

My house was completely dark, not even the porch light awaited us. When I got out, I reached into my pocket and used the light on my phone to light the way up the sidewalk to the front porch stairs. Luke stood quietly beside me, but when I handed him my phone he took it and held the light over the doorknob so I could find the keyhole to unlock the door. Dad’s car wasn’t in the driveway yet, but he likely would be home soon and like Cindy, we also had a head start on Mom.

“I can take you home,” I offered as the door swung silently open.

“No,” he said handing me back my phone. “I don’t want to go home.”

“Okay,” I said swallowing back a second rush of nerves.

After we got inside, I flipped the living room light switch as I kicked off my shoes. They were still damp and when I stepped I saw that my socks left wet footprints on the hardwood floor. Not wanting to make a mess of the place we both awkwardly danced and hopped on one foot at a time struggling to pull off our socks. I would have laughed if my heart wasn’t racing, but when our shoes were neatly settled against the wall and out of the way, I flipped the porch light on for Mom and relocked the front door knowing she would fuss about it being unlocked at night even if I expected her home soon.

With wet socks in our hands I led Luke to the laundry room on the second floor. It was more or less a small hall closet just large enough to fit a washer and dryer inside. There was little room for dirty or clean clothes, but when I opened it I saw that I had a pile of dirty clothes shoved inside. Shrugging, I opened the lid of the washer and started tossing my colored clothes in. When the pile was sorted I looked down at my shirt, in the light of the hallway it didn’t look like paint at all, but splotches of kool-aid in shades of red, blue, green, and purple. Tugging it over my head I tossed it inside and unzipped my shorts the weight of them taking them to the floor. Stepping out of them, I glanced over at Luke. He was clutching the bottom of his shirt, and only when I smiled, about to tell him that he could use the bathroom to change did he start stripping off his own clothes.

“You can take the first shower,” I said after we were both down to our underwear. He was wearing a pair of blue and white checked boxers that looked like something a man in his forties would wear. When he caught me looking I smirked and grabbed the soap from a small metal wire shelf hanging on the wall.

“What was that smirk for?” He asked as he reached up and propped himself against the wall by his hand as he watched me get the laundry ready to go.

“Your old man underwear,” I answered chewing on my bottom lip to keep from laughing.

“These?” He asked grabbing at the waistband of his boxers, slipping his thumb inside.

“Yeah those,” I answered the urge to laugh leaving me completely.

“I like these,” he said shrugging as he tugged them down until they fell to the ground. I felt my eyes widen as I nearly dropped the entire bottle of detergent into the washing machine. Laughing he stepped out of his underwear then snatched them up tossing them in with the rest of our clothes.

Feeling more nervous about being naked around someone than I ever had before I pulled down my boxer briefs and quickly tossed them into the wash. Not wanting to be naked, I didn’t waste time closing the lid and pressing the start button. When the washer started up I closed the hall closet, thankful that I hadn’t turned on that many lights along the way. Fighting the urge to bolt to my room I stopped in the middle of the hallway, on either side were open doors. One led to the bathroom and the other to my room. I already told Luke he could have the first shower, but he hadn’t made any move to step around me and enter the bathroom.

“Well,” he said forcing me to look from the darkened short hallway ahead of us to where he stood.

“What?” I asked swallowing hard. We were both half covering our junk with our hands, standing the few inches apart the hallway allowed. If was anyone else, Derek, Toby, we would be laughing our asses off. Here though, all I felt was the dryness of my mouth and the pounding of my heart in my ears.

“You are going to move so I can get by, right?” He asked smirking as he looked past me to the bathroom door.

“Oh, right, fuck,” I muttered taking a quick step back.

“You can come too,” he whispered, his smirk falling from his lips replaced with what looked like apprehension.

“Okay,” I responded letting my hands fall to my side as I led him into the bathroom flipping on the light and closing and locking the door behind us.

Still nervous and unable to look at him, we danced around one another so that I could turn on the hot water and get the shower running. It was a cramped shower, not really made for more than two people at all. The overhead shower was a new addition, so at least we wouldn’t be fighting for the hot water.

“Coming?” He asked again a small smile on his face. It was enough to settle some of my nerves and I slowly nodded and stepped into the shower with him.

“Cramped in here,” he grunted when my elbow knocked against his side. The accidental touch sent waves through me down to my crotch. Feeling my face getting hot and knowing it wasn’t because of the warm steam of the shower I kept my eyes averted from him completely.

“Want me to get out?” I asked and shuddered when I felt his fingers lightly touched my chest. The sudden touch brought my attention from watching the water cascade out of the showerhead to him standing under it. His short blond hair was plastered to his head, still too short to get into his eyes. The dark brown of them in stark contrast, but his arm and dusting of chest hair seemed darker as well now that he was wet.

“You’re so nervous,” he said smiling as I swallowed again. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” I groaned and heard Luke laugh as stray drops fell on my skin. He had taken a half step towards me, his fingers still on my chest making small circles that was driving me crazy. I watched him move his hand up to my shoulder and allowed him to pull me into the gentle shower above us. I felt his lips graze against my jawline as our hips met, our erections sliding against one another’s thighs.

“Is this okay?” He asked as I stiffened against him, the breath rushing from my lungs. I could feel the tingle of goosebumps against my skin despite the hot water and the warmth of Luke against me.

“Am I bad, for you?” I asked just as Luke’s lips began moving from my jawline up towards my lips.

“What?” He asked, his breath sliding against my cheek. He took a step back and I hated the absence of him.

“Am I bad for you?” I repeated as he reached up and moved his fingers through his hair until it stuck straight up so the water stopped running down his face.

“No,” he answered smiling.

“How can I not be?” I asked feeling slightly better that he was still smiling.

“Why do you think you are?” He asked and I noticed that his eyelashes were long, that water dropped from them and landed on his cheek.

Not wanting to bring up the conversation that happened with Cindy earlier, I just shrugged and we both stood in an awkward silence. I hated that I didn’t know what he was thinking, but his eyes never left mine and I was too confused and scared to look away from him. I just knew that I needed to hear the truth from him. That I was bad for him, but that he didn’t care right now. I didn’t know what Luke’s plans were after we graduated and if I could easily fit into them, we hadn’t done a lot of thinking about that, or at least I hadn’t.

“No, I think you’re good for me,” he answered shaking his head slightly when I opened my mouth to speak. “And I’m good for you, too. You make me feel like I’m finally being myself and that I’m not afraid. I keep you out of trouble.”

“I get you into trouble,” I countered blinking away the water in my eyes. We would be running out of hot water soon.

“So?” He said smiling. “Maybe I needed to get into trouble, if that led to this right here. I never thought I’d be here, standing here in front of some guy I liked. I thought I would be alone, that maybe I deserved to be alone somehow because of… Anyway, maybe you’re not good for me, but you are who I want.”

Breathing unsteadily, I couldn’t think of anything to say and feared that my voice would fail me if I did. Instead I rushed forward and closed the distance between us. The water was just changing from hot to warm and I felt Luke stiffen and moan when his back slid against the cold tile wall. His hands slid up both of my sides sending a shudder through me as he came to life and began to kiss me back.

“Jackson!” Mom yelled a moment before she knocked on the door. The sound of her voice sent me sliding backwards until I was under the spray of the water. Luke seemed to freeze into place still against the wall as I fumbled around until I was able to shut the water off and open the shower door.

“What?” I said walking, dripping wet to the cupboard and yanked out two towels. I quickly handed one to Luke and he wrapped it tightly around him as if he thought Mom could magically see through walls and knew that he was here.

“I mean really, you had to know that I was right behind you,” Mom said from the other side of the door. “And what did your father tell you about shenanigans?”

“Mom,” I groaned slipping on the wet floor until I found the bathmat where Luke stood.

“I’ll see you two in the living room,” she said and we both stood silently and listened to her footsteps fading as she took the stairs back down to the living room.

After we figured the coast was clear we opened the bathroom door and scurried across the hall to my room closing my door behind us. Luke still looked like a deer caught in headlights, his cheeks flushed, his muscles clenched.

“Damn,” I said as we did a small dance around one another in my room, me trying to get to my dresser for clothes and Luke, not being able to stand still.

“Yeah,” he muttered not realizing that I wasn’t talking to him.

“Well that happened,” I offered hoping to get him calmed down a little before we faced off with Mom down in the living room. All thoughts about her coming home had left me after we stripped in the hall before our shower.

“Shut up,” Luke groaned as I handed him a pair of clean boxer briefs. He dropped his towel and quickly slid them on. “Just don’t talk.”

“Alright,” I said chewing on my bottom lip to keep from laughing as I fished out my own pair of boxer briefs and two pairs of shorts and t-shirts.

When we finished dressing I led the way down the stairs to the living room. Mom was still dressed in what she wore to chaperone the party, her hair still a mess of color and frizz from drying without a good brushing out. Unlike me, she looked exhausted and ready to pass out on the chair.

“Sit,” she ordered pointing to the couch. She took Dad’s chair across the coffee table from us, the only light in the living room was from Dad’s reading lamp beside his chair. If we were in a smaller room, it probably would have looked like some interrogation room at a police station. Glancing at Luke after we sat as far away from one another as physically possible on the couch I was glad we weren’t, he would have definitely confessed.

“Mom don’t overreact,” I said my face flushing when she turned her attention to me.

“Cindy is home, by the way,” Mom said reaching up and pulling a stringy strand of her hair behind her left ear. “Followed right behind me and when I stepped through the front door I hoped there would only be one teenage boy in my house.”

“Mom,” I groaned sliding further down into the couch turning to see that Luke was still sitting straight and rigid on his end of the couch, not even blinking.

“I told you both that you needed to be careful with her,” Mom continued turning her attention to Luke. “I’m not trying to scare you, but please Luke, it is going on two in the morning. She waited for you, Tim and I checked everywhere.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I know I should be more careful.”

“Don’t be angry with her,” Mom said, “when you go home, don’t pick any fights.”

“I won’t,” he mumbled, his cheeks flushing a deeper shade of red.

“It won’t always be this hard,” Mom added and I noticed her voice fall. Looking over at her, I watched her wipe away a tear that Luke didn’t see. “And I know I’m not your parent, I know, Luke, I’ve known for awhile now and I want you to know that this is a safe place for you.”

“Thank you,” he muttered glancing up to face her and taking a short look over at me.

“But if I know this, Cindy won’t be far behind me figuring things out, she may already be suspicious,” Mom continued clasping her hands together. “I’m not doing this to scare you, but to prepare you for what might happen. You need to be ready for questions, Cindy has made it no secret that she doesn’t think Jackson is a suitable influence on you.”

“Thanks for that, Mom,” I offered rolling my eyes. “Can we stop talking about this now?”

“I’m almost finished,” Mom said sitting back in her chair. “Now about tonight.”

“Oh god,” I groaned hoping to disappear any moment.

“I don’t want to walk in on you two doing, doing what you were doing anymore,” she said blinking rapidly as if trying to shake the thought from her memories. “I know you’re young and the urges are there…”

“Mom!” I yelled as Luke fidgeted in his seat. “We’re not, we’re not…”

“All I’m going to say is,” Mom said, “be more discrete and use protection.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about, I doubt I’ll ever forget all this,” I countered cocking an eyebrow. “Can Luke and I be excused?”

“You can,” Mom answered, “I’ll be taking Luke home.”

“I can walk,” Luke said as he stood. I looked up at him, but he was looking all around the room except at Mom or me.

“It is two in the morning,” Mom said grimacing.

“Believe me, it will be better if I just walked,” he repeated stepping around the edge of the couch. “I’ll see you around, Jack, thanks Grace.”

“Luke,” Mom said as she stood she held up her hand. “If you need to talk to someone.”

“Yeah,” Luke offered smiling slightly and I watched him walk over to where he left his shoes and forced his barefeet into them despite them being tied.

“I’ll walk you out,” I said quickly rising from my seat. “Mom, go to bed.”

“Don’t be long,” Mom said, “your father will be in soon as well and I don’t think you’d be prepared for a second lecture especially after working all night.”

“Yeah,” I said as I followed Luke outside barefoot in the cold closing the door behind me.

“I don’t think I’ll be seeing you for a while,” Luke said holding up his hand when I started to talk. “At least we’ll have school, I think.”

“Don’t go,” I said leaning against the railing. “Mom will be getting ready for bed, just sneak back in with me, don’t go home to whatever is waiting for you.”

“I need to get this over with, your Mom is right,” Luke said sighing. “I’ll probably still be grounded by the time I graduate college.”

“I’m sorry,” I said stepping out of the glow of the porch light feeling a bit exposed by its light. Looking towards the trees, the leaves had fallen off them just enough to allow for light from Luke’s house to make it through.

“Don’t apologize,” Luke countered giving me a half hearted smirk.

“Alright, I won’t,” I said smiling when he laughed.

“See you around, he said giving me a short wave.

“See ya,” I said grabbing for his arm as he turned to leave. Only managing to graze it with my fingertips, he stopped anyway, but missing his arm held me back from kissing him. He looked like he was about to take the longest trip of his life and I wanted to say more than I did, but I also knew that we didn’t have the time.

“What?” He asked his face half illuminated by the porch light.

“See you Monday,” I answered feeling completely lame. I hated thinking that a kiss would be the last thing that he wanted from me, but it being the one thing I wanted to do before he walked away.

“Yeah,” he said nodding and I watched him turn and walk down the stairs, crossing his arms against the cold night air. I was too tense to notice that my toes were freezing and that I, too, didn’t have enough clothes on to be out here. He didn’t stop to look back as he crossed my yard and disappeared into the forest and when I could no longer see or hear him crashing along, I walked back inside and up the stairs to my room. Collapsing on my bed, I sighed and lazily pulled the covers over me to warm myself back up, suddenly exhausted. I was beginning to realize just how many things were still in our way. How shit could come crashing down around us, but seeing Luke step off my front porch I knew what I wanted. I would just have to fight for it.