She Dims the Stars(25)

Her lips are pressed together, and her cheeks are bright pink as she takes it from me with a quiet thank you. As she turns to walk away, I stop her and slip a granola bar on top of the towel. “Let me know if you need anything else.”





She’s gone for twenty minutes, and in that time, September has changed, grabbed something to eat, and left with Cline for the boat. When Audrey returns, it’s just the two of us and she’s a little calmer, a little less edgy.

“They went to the dock to get the boat ready. I said we’d meet them there in a few,” I tell her as she stops just outside the extinguished fire pit. “We can go whenever you’re ready. No rush.”

She’s staring at me, holding all her stuff, still and unwavering. We’re in a silent stand-off, neither of us moving.

“Why are you being so nice to me, Elliot?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, taking a step forward. She inches back a step and stops, staring at me curiously.

“Like, from the minute we met you’ve been nothing but nice to me. You haven’t said a mean thing once. You haven’t made me feel bad about myself. You don’t say anything about these.” She lifts her bag into the air and shakes it, making the bottles inside rattle. “You’re willing to drive me places and let me sleep next to you. You come running when I’m getting attacked by people-sized moths. You do really nice shit for me for no reason at all. Why?”

“I don’t know. Maybe my mom just raised me right?” I’m struggling to figure out why she’s asking me why I’m just simply being a decent human being.

“You don’t even really know anything about me. We’re practically strangers.”

“That’s not true,” I counter and take another step forward. “I think I know plenty about you. Enough to know that I like you. That you make me laugh, and I like being around you.”

Her body stiffens and she huffs, walking forward to get by me and into the tent to put her stuff away. I follow, unsure of exactly what it is that’s happening or what I’m supposed to say right now. “Are you freaking out about the jump or something? You’re acting weird.”

“Am I? Again, you don’t really know me, so you don’t have much to go off of, do you?” She’s shoving her bags into the corner of the tent by her pillow, and I can see her hands shaking as she rises to her feet.

“If I don’t know anything about you, then educate me. Because in case you haven’t figured it out, I want to know you, Audrey. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have taken the time to drive your ass all the way out here and pushed you to do the shit your mom did so you could figure out whatever it is that you seem to be missing. If I’m not making myself clear, I’m not doing this for me. I’m doing this for you!”

She closes the gap between us faster than I can blink, before I can even take a breath, and she has her arms around my neck, pulling my face down to hers, pressing her mouth against mine. I’m stunned for a moment, and my reaction time is slow, because just a second before, I was filled with anger, but now Audrey has her body pressed against mine, and her tongue is tracing my lower lip. I’ve forgotten what I was even mad about in the first place.

I pull her tight, wrapping an arm around her back and leaning down to pick her up under her butt. She wraps her legs around my waist and kisses me deeper, a tiny moan escaping when I squeeze her closer. She’s crushed against my chest, her little dress bunched up over her thighs, as I step forward and kneel down to lay her on her back atop the sleeping bag bed we’ve made our own for the last couple nights. Yanking from my back, she has my shirt up over my head and flung over to the side within seconds. Her hands roam my skin as she kisses me again, and I press into her touch, letting her fingertips skim and press, fingernails lightly scraping down my sides.

“I lied,” she says breathlessly, pulling away to look between us and then leaning in to press a wet kiss to my neck.

“What?” I’m barely holding myself off of her, and the more she touches me the harder it’s getting. Pun intended.

“When I told you in the diner that I don’t find you attractive. I lied. Jesus, Elliot …” The backs of her fingers sweep across my stomach and lower until they brush across the top of my swimming trunks, and I’m lost in my attempt at control. My hips dip forward, and I roll into her, my teeth nipping at the soft skin of her shoulder. The friction of sliding against her makes me squeeze my eyes shut and I exhale by her ear, gripping the sleeping bag at her sides.

Pushing up to my knees, I get better balance and find her mouth again. My hands roam her sides and push the fabric of her cover up higher until it’s shoved under her breasts, and I break away from kissing her only long enough to help her lift up and discard it next to my shirt. The feel of her skin against my own, even with the material of her bathing suit between us, is making me feel off kilter in the best of ways.

I look at her face, and her cheeks are flushed pink, her eyes half lidded, lips parted and puffy. Audrey is a beautiful girl, but right now she’s downright erotic. She cranes her neck higher when I lean down to kiss her there, her back arching and breasts pressing against my chest as she squirms beneath me. Her hands are in my hair, on my neck, tugging and pulling as I descend to her chest. She begins to shake when my mouth hovers above the swell of her left breast.