Meet You in the Stars

“It’s beautiful out here. I had never even been to the beach until I moved here,” I said. We were sitting in the sand, looking out over the water. Well as much of it as we could see since it was dark out.

“It’s my happy place. My whole life, this beach has been my happy place.”

We fell into silence, I was taking in everything. The feeling of the sand under my toes, the distinct smell in the air. I felt so good, so safe here. I could almost forget about everything that had driven me here.

“Hey, let’s go swimming!” Jimmy suddenly said and shot up to his feet.

“I don’t have a swim suit,” I pointed out.

“Who said you need one?” he asked and pulled his shirt over his head. I admired the tattoos spread across his torso. He unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans and let them fall to his ankles.

“I don’t think I want to do this.” There’s no way I was taking off my clothes. He had made sure I would never be comfortable in my own skin ever again.

“Come on, Avery, live a little!”

With a sigh I got to my feet, I was tired of letting a person that wasn’t even in my life anymore control me. So in one quick movement, I pulled my shirt over my head. As I slipped off my jeans, I could feel Jimmy’s eyes on me. He looked away quickly when I glanced up at him. I hoped it was too dark for him to be able to see my skin clearly. Surely many questions would arise if he did.

“Shit, this is cold!” I cried out and tried to back out of the water.

“No you don’t.” Jimmy grabbed my wrist and pulled me further into the water. His grip on me made me uncomfortable even though I knew he was just being playful.

We had made it to where the water was to my waist when suddenly I was plunged under the water. I surfaced, coughing and sputtering and Jimmy was sitting next to me with water dripping from his hair.

“Sorry, I tripped.”

“I don’t believe that for one second,” I said and splashed him with water.

“This means war!” he cried and then grabbed my ankle and pulled me underwater again.

He was laughing when I came back up and I jumped at him, pushing his head under the water. He wrapped his arms around my waist as he stood back up and I wrapped my legs around him without even thinking about it.

My heart was beating out of my chest when I noticed how close our faces were. He glanced down at me through wet eyelashes and it seemed like time froze for a few seconds.

I barely had time to realize we were falling before we hit the water. Jimmy had fallen straight back and plunged us both into the cold water yet again.

“Okay, okay I surrender,” I said when I broke the surface of the water again.

“I am the king of the water fight!” Jimmy screamed.

He moved closer to me in the water and his hands dropped to my hips. I tilted my head up to look at him, it seemed like he was lost in thought.

“I really want to kiss you right now, but I know it’s too soon for that. I don’t want to scare you off,” he said quietly.

“Come on, Jimmy, live a little.” The same words he had used earlier rolled off my tongue and I couldn’t believe I’d just said that.

He smiled and leaned in, capturing my lips in a short, gentle kiss that left me wanting more. When he pulled away, the loss of his touch mixed with the cool night air made me shiver.

“Let’s get you out of here,” he said and I followed him back to the shore.

We retrieved our clothes and set off for his car. When we made it there, Jimmy opened my door for me. I said a quick thank you and climbed inside. He got in on his side and started the car up. He reached to put the car into reverse so we could leave, but he paused when his hand was halfway there.

“Avery,” he said quietly and when I looked up his face was very close to mine. We stared at each other for a few moments before he kissed me again. The gentle kiss from earlier was gone. This one was more intense, more desperate. I found myself reciprocating that desperation in a way that surprised me.

I climbed over the center console and sat on his lap. His arms around my waist pulled me as close as possible. It had been a long time since I’d been this close to someone and it felt good. As scared as I was to open up to anyone, I could already see myself opening up to him. He was different from anyone I’d ever met before.

Jimmy broke the kiss, breathing heavily. “Do you want to go to my place?”

“Okay.”

I crawled back over into my seat and Jimmy got the car back out onto the road. I was so fucking nervous. Going home with someone I had just met wasn't something I did. This was moving entirely too fast, but I couldn’t bring myself to back out.

-x-

As soon as Jimmy let me in his house, he lifted me off the ground so I could wrap my legs around him. Our lips stayed connected as he carried me up some stairs and gently sat me down on a bed.

Everything was blur and soon enough he was lowering his naked body onto mine. His lips trailed from my lips to my neck. From my neck down over my breasts and to my stomach. He paused when he got to a section of scars on my lower abdomen. I hoped he would ignore them, but I couldn’t be so lucky.

“What happened?” he asked, tracing the circular scars with his fingertips.

“Oh, nothing,” I said quickly. I didn’t want to get into it.

“They look like cigarette burns.”

“They are, but can we please not talk about this?” I had come here to get away from all that and I sure as hell didn’t feel like discussing it now.

He stared at me for several long moments and I could tell he didn’t want to drop it. Finally, he sighed and sat up.

“How I about I make us something to eat? I’m really craving chocolate chip waffles!” he said. He got up and pulled on fresh boxers and a shirt. Then he rummaged through a drawer and tossed me a t-shirt and a pair of athletic shorts. I pulled on the clothes, giggling at how they were way too big for me then followed him downstairs.

Notes