“What YOU went though? Oh, right. I was in a coma, had spinal injuries and everything else. I ended up in a wheelchair for two years—you came out with not a scratch on you, but you are the one who suffered?”
“See? I knew you blamed me! When they said you wouldn’t remember anything, I felt such guilt. You had all these problems; I had none. I was driving. I was sure you would hate me for ruining your life. It was wrong to run away, I know that now, but at the time…. I almost drove off a bridge, I was such a mess.”
She grabbed my arms then, and looked at me intently, but then let go of me.
“Julia, I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t bear it, after seeing you in all that pain, to know you would wake up and hate me. I was going to come back about a month later, but that’s when Dad told me you didn’t want him or Lucy to tell me anything about you. You cut off all contact. So I knew you didn’t want to see me. Of course you thought the accident was all my fault.”
“The hell I did! I never blamed you for the accident! What we were doing was dangerous as hell and it was my fault as much as yours!”
For a minute I just stared at her, thinking about what she’d said. “Wait,” I said. “You remember the accident?”
~ ~
Did you ever ask someone to marry you? It’s like you’ve just jumped off a cliff, not knowing whether you’ll land in deep, welcoming water, or a field of boulders. My heart was going like mad. Julia is a kind person, and she didn’t make me wait.
She pulled my hand up until I stood and then threw her arms around me. I could feel her jumping up and down a little bit. “Yes, yes, yes!” she said. She was laughing, I was laughing. I touched that delicious little mole beside her mouth, and then I kissed her. We were both gasping with joyful laughter, so it wasn’t a long kiss, but what it lacked in length it made up for in sweetness.
“Nick, I have always wished…. I mean I always hoped that somehow, someday, we’d be together, but I never thought it would come true!”
“Me too! I thought I was just the big brother who drove you crazy.”
“Ugh,” she said. “Don’t say that brother stuff. And yes, you did drive me crazy. Still do.” She pulled my head down to hers, and this time our kiss left nothing to be desired.
“Let’s go home, Jule. I want to get the conversation with Dad and Lucy over with, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I don’t want to keep my mom in the dark about this. And now she’ll have a wedding to plan!”
A wedding! This was all happening so suddenly that I felt disoriented for a minute as Julia and I ran to the car. But then I looked over at her on the front seat, and she gave me the most beautiful smile, and I knew that wherever that girl was, that was where I wanted to be. We were young to get married, it was true, but Julia was my home and that was all there was to it.
We’d been driving for about five minutes when Julia unbuckled her seatbelt so she could slide over next to me on the front seat of the ancient sedan I had then.
“Julia, that’s dangerous. You should put your seatbelt back on.”
“Oh, it’ll be okay. I can’t do this from way over there.” She put her arm around me and started to kiss my neck. It made it hard to want her to go back to the passenger side. She had one hand in my hair and one on my chest. I had put a loose shirt on over my bathing trunks, and now she unbuttoned the shirt and slipped her hand inside, onto my chest. It made me wonder about something.
“Hey Jule. This is maybe none of my business, but have you…. Have you ever had a serious boyfriend before?”
“No, not really.” She kissed my ear. “I kind of had a crush on this totally hot, unattainable guy. No other guy could come close.”
I laughed. She really knew how to make me feel good. I don’t know why I had to know this, but I did. I said, “So, you’ve never been with anyone else?”
“Well, I dated of course. I mean I tried to stop thinking about you all the time, but— Wait. Are you asking me if I’ve had sex?”
“Uh, yeah, is that too personal?”
She laughed. “You do remember asking me to marry you, right? I’ll tell you anything. No, I have not had sex. I managed to graduate from high school still a virgin. Probably the only one.”
“No way are you the only one. And Jule?
I’m glad. I’m glad you didn’t find someone.”
“What about you?”
I was afraid she would ask that. “Uh, I have. I haven’t been really serious about anyone, but in college…. It’s like everybody hooks up. It’s expected.”
“That’s cool,” she said. “At least one of us will know what to do. I’ve never even…seen one.”
“We’ll have to do something about that,” I said, and gave her a big fake leer and a wink.
Julia’s hand, the one on my chest, was moving lower. She kissed my neck again, and her hand reached my still-damp bathing suit. Slowly, her fingers grazed my cock outside the fabric. I felt the blood slam into my cock, making it rise to attention. She increased the pressure of her fingers, and gripped me lightly. “Is this right?” she whispered.
I could barely breathe. “It’s great, Jule.” I turned a bit to kiss her, trying to keep one eye on the road.
She gave my cock a squeeze, then let go and turned around on the seat. She arched her back and reach behind herself with both hands to unhook her bikini top.
“What are you doing?” I said, alarmed, though of course I knew what she was doing. “Anyone driving by will be able to see you.”
“Eh, this road’s pretty deserted.” With that she removed the swimsuit top and put it on the seat. Her breasts were creamy white, in contrast to the light tan she had. Their shape was perfect, and they moved a bit with the motion of the car.
“My god, Julia. You’re so beautiful,” I breathed.
She leaned towards me and caressed her own breasts, lifting them and pushing them together. She brushed her pale pink nipples with her fingers.
I couldn’t resist. I reached towards her, anticipating the smoothness on my hand.
Just then, the car started to jolt. I’d let the car drift off the road. Too fast, we were approaching a huge tree. I didn’t even have time to brake or turn the wheel.
Everything ended in the sound of shattered glass and the scream of twisted metal.
Julia
“Yes, I remember the accident!” I shouted in Nick’s face.
“How much of that day do you remember?”