Page 16 of Amore
“Don’t you want your first time to be, I don’t know, special?”
Lucy started to walk again. “You know I’ve had a crush on Teddy since freshman year. It’s my last chance.”
I felt like I needed to talk her out of it, but I also knew Lucy and knew there was no reasoning with her. Once she had her mind set on something, she went for it, just like when she made a three-tier cake for my sixteenth birthday, which she nailed, but we also had leftover cake for days.
“All right. I guess … good luck?”
Teddy wasn’t a bad-looking guy and had a nice body, but I didn’t want my best friend to regret her decision. She should want her first time to be with someone she loved.
I’d wondered if that would be the case with me. The guy I loved wasn’t going to be in New York with me.
Was the coming week my last chance to tell Luke how I felt? Should I tell him?WouldI tell him?
“You should consider losing your V card too,” Lucy said.
“You’re crazy.” I laughed.
A few doors away from Miller’s, she stopped walking again and turned to me. “No one goes to college a virgin, Frankie.”
My brow furrowed. “Yeah, right. A lot do.”
She laughed. “Besides us, who else are virgins that we know?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but I couldn’t think of anyone. Even though we weren’t popular, we knew plenty of people who were hooking up. I only had a week left, and there was no way I was going to sleep with some random person at a party. There was only one guy I would consider being with, and he was my best friend’s brother.
And younger than me.
And my best friend, too.
* * *
The rest of the week,I thought about how Lucy got together with Teddy at Miller’s party. It wasn’t that I was jealous of her. I thought she’d made a mistake. But I knew if I didn’t take my chance with Luke, I would always wonder how he felt about me.
Over the years, there had been times when I thought he was flirting with me, but then I would tell myself he was just being my friend and being nice. For example, he would always give me the last piece of candy or cake or pie or whatever instead of taking it for himself. And after he got his license, he always brought me my favorite drink from Sonic after basketball practice on Saturdays. He would bring it to me without Lucy knowing by sneaking into my treehouse where he knew I would be doing homework.
It was after midnight, and Lucy was sound asleep next to me, but I couldn’t sleep. My plane to New York was leaving in a few hours, and my parents and I had to be in Nashville early to catch my flight.
Me:You up?
It didn’t take long for Luke to reply:Yeah. What’s up?
Me:Meet me in the treehouse?
Luke:I’ll be right there.
My heart raced. What was I doing? I started regretting asking him to meet me at my treehouse. Was I seriously going to tell him I was in love with him? Maybe I wouldn’t tell him, but deep down I knew I would regret it if I didn’t. It was Luke. Even if he didn’t feel the same way, I didn’t think he would laugh in my face or anything. He would probably smile and say something like, “Aw, Franks. That means a lot.”
I quickly left my room and made my way toward the backyard. Walking outside into the sticky August night, I closed the backdoor softly behind me, so I didn’t wake my parents or Lucy. I climbed up the wooden steps and into the middle of the treehouse. I had decorated it with a beanbag chair, white fairy lights, a daybed, and a TV that only played DVDs because the Wi-Fi didn’t reach. Everything was powered by an orange extension cord that ran along the fence from my house. It was like my room, but smaller and super cool at night.
After turning on the little lights, I sat on the daybed and wrung my hands. I was still nervous. My mouth was dry, my palms were sweaty, and my heart hadn’t returned to its normal speed since I’d texted Luke.
I heard the gate to my yard close softly, and a few moments later, Luke climbed up the ladder.
“Brought you something to drink.” He handed me a can of root beer.
“Thanks.” I took it from him and popped the top.
“Nervous about tomorrow or something?” He sat in the beanbag chair in the corner opposite me.
