I checked every room in the house one last time before I slipped out the back door to meet my almost-boyfriend, in the driveway. As I rounded the front of the house, I caught sight of Mark, fumbling with his sports bag in the backseat of his truck. Breathe, I told myself once more. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my hoodie, hoping my rocker look was cute, yet totally badass.

“Hey”, he spoke quietly as I got closer to him. “I brought you the medicine.” He grabbed a package of tablets out of his bag and handed them to me. “There’s only three in there, but they should help. Is your throat feeling any better?”

I quickly pocketed the drugs and leaned against his truck. “A little bit. The cough is still there, but my throat doesn’t hurt as much. How about you? Any better?”

He smiled and zipped the bag up again. “Not really. Luckily, I think I discovered the cure.” Mark grabbed another bag, this one smaller, from his sports bag and produced a flask from that. He unscrewed the top of it and offered it to me. “Want some?”

“I’m cool.” I wasn’t a big drinker, but I knew Mark was. He brought the flask up to his face, but quickly capped it again before he could take a sip, hiding it back in his bag.

“I barely felt a thing today. Luckily for me, hangovers aren’t really a problem, so I was able to function properly in school today.”

“Wait. You showed up to school hung-over?”

He smiled a semi-guilty smile as he shut the door to the backseat of the truck. “Um yeah. I downed the entire flask last night. It knocked me on my a**.” He walked over to the side of his truck, jumping up to sit on the side.

“So…” I started as I jumped up next to him, “That was why you were acting cute last night?”

Mark laughed a little bit, as though he didn’t know what else to do. “I guess.” He stood up and started towards the tool bench at the back of the truck. I followed in suit, sitting about a foot apart. We were barley sitting when I felt his arm go around my waist, pulling me closer. I tried not to smile as I rested my head on his shoulder, and when I felt his other arm wrap around me, holding me tight to him.

“But you’re not drunk or high tonight, right?” I asked, breaking the silence. I hoped he wasn’t on anything. For once, I wanted it to be me and him, not; me, him, and a bottle of Captain.

“Nope. I’m clean.”

“Good.” I settled into his arms more as I looked up at the stars. The sky was crystal clear, and the stars were shinning brightly against the black sky. We stared at the sky for a while, making small talk about school and friends and anything in-between. After a while, Mark sat up quickly, turning behind him towards my house.

“I’m just checking.” He assured me. “I don’t want your grandparents hating me.”

“I’m trying not to think about them or the consequences that’ll come if I’m caught. Everyone was sound asleep when I checked at about midnight, so we should be good.”

Mark slid down from the bench to the bed of the truck. “My neck is killing me.” He groaned. Again, I followed him, resting my head on his chest as he grabbed my hands, while wrapping his arms back around me.

“Would your grandparents tell your mom if they found out?”

“Probably. Think of how p***** she’d be when she came home from Florida and heard about this! Let’s also hope that Rory doesn’t find out either. Knowing him, he’ll tell my mom the moment she walks in the door on Monday.”

He laughed, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “I wouldn’t worry about Rory. If that little punk says one word, he’ll regret it.”

I tried to look up at Mark so he could understand my point. “You know, Rory still doesn’t like you. It wouldn’t really help if you did anything to him, even if he does deserve it.”

“I’ll take him to a couple parties, get him some girls. He’ll love me after that!”

It was my turn to laugh. “He’s 14; of course he’ll love you! Alcohol and chicks; that’s all he wants!”

“I know. I was once 14 too. Good times…”

I smiled, but the smile quickly left my face. I swore that I heard a noise coming from my house. I quickly pushed myself away from Mark, and looked into the windows of the dinning room. The lights that I had left on were still on, the computer’s screen was now dark, but other than that; the house was dormant.

“Everything okay?” Mark asked as I settled back down onto his chest. His hands slipped into mine, and my heart rate returned back to a semi-normal pace.

“Perfect.”

“That’s good, because if you look at those two trees over there, I swear you can see the outline of a teddy bear, or maybe even a frog!”

“Are you sure you’re not on something?” I asked sarcastically.

“Sam, I’m dead serious right now. Those trees look like a teddy bear frog!” I looked to where he was pointing, and I couldn’t see anything that resembled anything close to a teddy bear frog. All I was able to see was a tree with that looked like a three leaf clover.

“I have no clue what you’re talking about. I see nothing.”

“You need some imagination.”

“I have imagination! I’m a fiction writer. I have to have imagination.”

“I wouldn’t know. Someone keeps on forgetting to give me one of her stories.” I felt his playful glare on me, even though I couldn’t meet his eyes. I knew exactly what he was talking about; the piece I promised to give him had become a crumpled mess at the bottom of my backpack.

“You know, I didn’t forget.”

“You’re just never going to give it to me, are you?”

I smiled slightly. “We’ll see.”

Without warning, Mark quickly got up off the bed of the truck. I quickly got up too, as I watched him have a coughing attack. I knew he had strep, and I probably had it too, but what was the point of ending the night now. I’d probably been exposed to it earlier in the week when we went running together.

As Mark’s coughing ended, I realized that the knit beanie I had been wearing was no longer on my head. I started to look around the back of the truck, but with the hat being dark purple, there were very little chances that I was to find it by sight.

“What are you doing?” Mark asked as I started the search using my hands. I needed my hat. The night air was cold for May, and I would be limiting my chances of strep if I wore a hat. Or I could at least cover the mess that was my hair at the moment. I didn’t really want Mark to see me with a mess of blonde curls; all tangled together like a ball of yarn.

“My hat fell off.”

“Oh really?” I could hear the slyness in his voice. He made his was towards me, grabbing me from behind. “If I find it first, I’m keeping it!” He whispered into my ear.

“Mark! No! I just got that hat back from my friend.” I tried to break out of his hold, but I was only able to move slightly. He quickly let me go to set off his own search. I used my hands to fumble over the contents in the back. My hands soon touched a piece of fabric, turning out to be my hat.

“Found it!” I said out to Mark. I slouched the hat back onto my blonde hair, smiling at my triumph. Soon, Mark was sitting in front of me, and before I knew it, my beanie was off my head again; this time in Mark’s possession.

I quickly pounced on his chest as I tried to grab at my hat. He slowly moved backwards ‘til his back hit the bench, and my hat was back in my hands. I hadn’t noticed how close we had gotten during the battle over my hat. I was facing him now, his arms holding me down on his chest; our faces, closer than they had been all night. He’s going to kiss me! The thought ran through my head with excitement and nervousness. But I was wrong.

He moved his body so he was sitting up, and then without warning, scooped me up into his arms. My arms quickly went around his neck, holding on tight. The world was quite as we looked at each other. I buried my face in his shoulder, enjoying every moment that I was with him. He was there. All the months of talking and wanting to be with him, were finally coming to a climax. We were together.

I slowly lifted my head, to look at him again. His eyes, narrowed in on mine. I smiled, and before I knew it, he was leaning in and so was I. Our lips touched. I was shocked by how fast it all happened. His lips were still on mine, but I was lost in the confusion. I had never kissed anyone before, and I knew Mark had had a few girlfriends in his past. Thoughts swirled in my head. Am I supposed to be opening my mouth? What is he doing? Should I copy what he’s doing? When did I close my eyes? What is happening?

Within a matter of seconds, we pulled apart. We looked at each other again and smiled. “Well I better get home. It’s like 1 in the morning.” But he didn’t get up. He continued to cradle me in his arms. Soon enough, his lips were back on mine. I tried to process what was all happening, but I was taken away again. The kiss was so different than I ever thought it would be, yet I wanted more.

We broke apart again, this time for good. We jumped out of the back of the truck and onto my driveway. I leaned against the side, as he strapped down something in the back. When he was done, our arms were around each other and we stayed wrapped together for a while. Soon our lips found each other again. The kiss lasted what seemed like a few seconds. When we broke apart, I started towards my house, and he to his truck.

“I’ll see you later.” I called out to him.

“Okay. I’ll text you tomorrow, well technically later today.” He yelled as he got into the drivers side door.

“I figured. Later.”

“Later.”

I made my way around to the back of my house, and I quickly slipped in the door without a sound. Everything was fine. No one was awake, and Mark’s headlights had just reached the bottom of my driveway. As I walked around my house, turning off all the lights that were still on, I continued to smile to myself. The night had turned out better than I hoped. In fact, it was one of the best nights of my life so far.

When I finally reached my room, I checked my phone. I noticed that the Facebook Messenger Icon was at the top of my screen. I made my way back down the stairs to the computer. Logging myself on, I checked to see what the message was.

Mark Stevens. Clicking on the message, I read what had been written. “So I’ve been thinking about this song everyday for a while now. I think it fits tonight.” A link to YouTube was attached. I clicked on the link, which brought me to the page for the music video of “I Wanna”, by The All American Rejects.

I listened to the song, smiling to myself the entire time. It had been one of my favorites for years now, and I had to agree with Mark. It did fit the night. When the song ended, I retreated back to my room, where I feel asleep singing the song over and over again in my head.