Unconditional

“Open it!”

I hear him ripping the paper open and then silence where I assume he’s reading. “You’re in.”

“Holy shit!” I got into Harvard… My eyes widen and tears spring to my eyes.

“You did it, baby.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you.” I smile. “Thank you for pushing me and…everything.”

“Mads…” He trails off, probably feeling uncomfortable under my gushing and I continue before he can ruin the moment.

“Don’t make a joke. Don’t ruin this. Cal, I think…I think I might want to go away…for school.”

“I think that’s smart. You’re brilliant, Maddie, and going somewhere like Harvard will open you up to so many more opportunities.” It’s hard to gauge his reaction over the phone, but I hope he doesn’t think that I want to go anywhere without him.

“I don’t even necessarily mean Harvard though…I just…I think I need out of Oregon. But…” I stop. “I want you to come with me.”

“To Harvard?”

“Anywhere. I don’t want to leave here without you.” He’s silent so I take the chance to continue. “Think about it, how are we going to be together here?”

“I mean we can’t exactly, but I don’t know if me coming with you—”

“Why? No one outside of here will know our past unless we disclose it. But we can go out on dates and touch in public. We can…take those steps that we won’t be able to do here.” Mainly your ring on my finger and your baby inside me. I press my legs together as that fantasy fills my mind.

“We can talk about it.” My eyes widen and a smile finds my face, thrilled that he doesn’t push back. “What are you doing Friday? Do you want to come over after school? I can meet you.”

I lean forward, his implications clear and my sex responding to it. “Oh?”

“Yeah.” His voice is low and husky and I can picture him sitting in his chair, legs spread, his hand rubbing his dick as he thinks about all of the things he wants to do to me.

“And just what should I tell your mother, who seems to think I can’t be within fifty feet of your house without risking pregnancy.”

“Do what I did when I lived there.”

“And what’s that?

“Make something up.”

A SOUND OF A LOCKER slamming breaks me out of my aggressive sexting with Cal. My heart is racing so fast, pounding in my chest and between my legs as I read the borderline obscene things Cal is saying…and what I’m replying. I almost drop my phone before turning to my best friend who’s staring at me like she knows exactly what I’m doing. Cal and I downloaded one of those messaging apps, so that we could be more colorful in our messaging, and so far, we’ve been taking full advantage.

“What are you doing?” She raises an eyebrow at me before taking a sip of her coffee that I know she skipped second period to get.

“Nothing.” I slip my phone into my bag and tighten the ponytail at the back of my head nervously.

She crosses her arms in front of her chest and leans against the row of lockers. “Really? Because you look guilty as hell.”

“You just scared me that’s all.”

“Mmmhmm. So, you’re coming to Melanie’s party tomorrow, right?” I press a hand to my forehead and groan. Fuck, I forgot about that and I want to see Cal. “Madeline Elizabeth, it’s her birthday! You’re telling me you forgot?”

“No.” I shake my head. “I didn’t forget I just…it slipped my mind that’s all.” There’s only so much I can stay focused on between school and ballet and a very sexy boyfriend who claims most of my free time and all of my thoughts.

I’ve been at Margie’s three days and I’ve only seen him once since I moved in. He came over under the illusion of “staying for dinner” before the two of us made out like teenagers on the couch after Margie went to bed. Of course, not before strict instructions to behave, and that Grant would be awake watching television in the basement. The fact that he could pop up any moment had us keeping things slightly PG. And by PG, I mean, his hand was up my shirt at one point as I straddled him. It reminded me of how things started between us and the memory made me weak in the knees.

I was hoping this weekend, I could convince Margie to let me stay at a friend’s house one of the nights. I hadn’t planned on lying to Margie, but I also wanted to spend time alone with Cal and she had made it pretty clear that “high schoolers don’t get to spend the night at their boyfriend’s house.” Apparently, Cal isn’t really my guardian anymore, but someone I need to be guarded from. Him, his hormones, and mine too. “Mads, Cal used to panic about what would happen if you got pregnant in high school when the boys started coming around and taking notice.” Confusion finds her face. “Not quite sure how this works now.”

I understood. Cal isn’t the same Cal anymore. He didn’t even call me Mads anymore. And ironically, I called him Daddy now.