This one guy had been following Lauren, Greta, and I and saying all this nasty stuff, trying to get a rise out of me.
I’d ended up yelling at him to leave me alone, that I wasn’t famous, my parent’s were, and that gave him no excuse to follow me.
He laughed in my face and I lunged at him, claws out. Lauren and Greta had screamed like a bunch of little girls.
He tried to press charges but my parents paid him off.
I hated that they had to clean up my mess, but I was also thankful not to have the incident splattered across my record.
“It sucks,” I finally finished.
He nodded. “I bet. I’m glad I don’t have that problem, but I’m boring so they’d probably fall asleep if they followed me.”
I shook my head. “You’re not boring. You’re the most fascinating person I know.”
He grinned at that and wiped his hands on a napkin. “You think so?”
“I know so.”
“Even though I’m obsessed with Pokémon?” His lips twitched with the threat of laughter as he waited for my response.
“That makes you a little dorky.” I held my thumb and forefinger up a smidgen apart. “But I still love you.” It didn’t feel weird to say the words now that we were a couple. I’d always loved Dean, and I always would, but the love that had once been the love of a friend was beginning to become more. So much more.
We finished our food and Dean gathered up our trash.
Hopping off the car, he pointed at me. “Stay there.”
I hated being told what to do, but for once I listened.
He tossed our trash in the back of the car and grabbed his guitar.
Sitting beside me again, he began to play.
I didn’t recognize the song, which was unusual, but it had a folk vibe to it.
Dean began to sing and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, leaning into him. I closed my eyes, letting the lyrics wash over me.
I tapped my feet in time to the beat and began to hum since I didn’t know the words.
I turned my head so I could watch him and saw that he had his eyes half-closed as he sang.
There were people who played music.
And then there were those who felt it.
Dean, he felt it, deep down in his soul.
I leaned my head against the side of his face and closed my eyes as the last notes of the song hung in the air.
When he finished he set the guitar in his lap and cupped my chin in one hand, drawing my lips to his.
He leaned his forehead against mine, and his breath feathered across my cheek.
“Six days, Willow. That’s all it took for me to fall irrevocably in love with you.”
He lifted his green eyes to mine, waiting for a reaction.
I had none beyond shock.