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Chapter 31

For Creeks, Kisses, Speeches, and Hugs…

THEN

(Beth)

I took off my hoodie and threw it to the ground.

Leith stood in the creek wearing nothing but shorts. He opened his arms and waited for me to take off my jeans.

Yeah, it was the dead of summer and I had to leave my house in jeans and a hoodie.

I smoothed an easy lie that I was going to a friend's house to watch movies.

Whatever .

I'd do anything to get to Leith.

Even if that meant sneaking around three blocks and jumping into his car like we were in some action movie, trying to escape the cops. Which in some weird way we were.

Last weekend, someone saw me getting into Leith's car. They told everyone in school that I was a prostitute because of the way it looked with me getting into the passenger seat of the car and the way Leith took off. And I guess because he dropped me off later at the same exact spot.

The bitch who started that rumor… well… she had a nice bruise around her eye to look at in the mirror to remind her not to run her flappy lips about me.

But that was so last weekend.

I was all about this weekend.

About today.

About right now.

I kicked off my jeans and ran to the creek and jumped into the air.

I screamed as I did so, waiting for Leith to catch me.

When his strong and tanned arms wrapped around me tight, I went from screaming to laughing.

He spun around and tried to dip my toes into the cold water.

I hurried to bend my knees.

But that didn't stop Leith.

He started to run with me in his arms, going to a deeper spot.

Before I could scream again, he sat down, me on top of him.

Right there into the water.

And it was so freaking cold.

My body froze up as I threw my head back.

My skin tightened and shivered.

My chest was pressed against him, but that didn't keep the cold water from doing things to me.

Leith moved his left hand into my hair and made me look at him.

"Hey, angel," he whispered.

"I hate you right now."

"Kiss me then."

I did.

The water didn't seem so cold after a few seconds.

We sat there and made out in the middle of a creek for what felt like hours.

"I missed you this week," Leith said when he broke the forever feeling kiss.

He cupped my face, my hair in the way.

He was the only one who ever made me feel pretty when I was a mess.

"How many girls did you bang this week?" I asked him.

I had to ask to appease the jealousy.

And Leith played into it.

"Fifteen," he said.

"Only fifteen?" I asked.

"Slow week. I've been tired. Dreaming of you so much I can't sleep."

"That makes no sense," I said. "You have to be asleep to dream."

"No you don't. You can daydream."

"Oh, Leith," I said.

I stood up and Leith touched the back of my legs.

He stopped me from moving away, keeping me standing there.

I looked down at him.

He was too beautiful and sexy.

He made my head scramble.

"I'm going to get a drink," I said.

I walked to the edge of the creek and opened one of the towels Leith brought.

I sprawled it out and sat down.

Today I was just drinking water like a total loser.

But the sights were worth it.

Watching Leith climb out of the creek. Water dripping from his body. The way his eyes locked to mine. There was nobody that ever came close to what Leith made me feel. Even when I tried to hang out with other guys, it just didn't work. It didn't feel the same. It didn't feel right. I kissed a guy at a party two weekends ago when Leith couldn't hang out. I told him I was going to do it. He said he didn't care.

It was a terrible kiss.

I ended up bursting into laughter a few seconds into the kiss.

I couldn't stop laughing.

I fell back to the bed and the guy left the room, calling me a bitch.

The first thing I did then was text Leith to tell him what happened. He replied and said my lips were made for his.

And I believed it.

Leith fell to his knees before me and came down for a kiss as though he was reading my thoughts.

Yeah… nobody could ever kiss me like he did.

"Leith, look at that," I said as I climbed into the front passenger seat of the car.

I put my finger to the window and watched as the church doors opened and a group of people entered it.

"Think it's a wedding?" I asked.

"Maybe," he said. "People get married on the weekends."

"Did we just… outside of a wedding?" I asked, giggling.

Leith had his window down and was smoking. He grinned. "We're not that close to the church. Plus, I didn't want to stay at the creek with those assholes."

"At least they brought something to drink," I said.

"Speaking of which," Leith said. He reached to the back seat where we had just been and dug around for a bottle of water. "You need to chug this. And you need to eat something."

"I'm fine," I said.

"You think you're fine."

"I'm not drunk."

"No. But you can tell you've been drinking."

"Shhh," I whispered. "I love this feeling."

"Me too," he said.

He reached for my hand and we held hands tight.

We sat in silence as I chugged the water.

My eyes were glued to the church, waiting to see if I'd see the bride.

Leith made me drink the water and then we stopped so I could get something to eat. I grabbed a bag of chips at the corner gas station store, along with a bottle of soda.

Then he took the slow and sad drive back to the corner where he'd have to drop me off.

My heart sank a little when I saw the stop sign.

I lowered my head.

"I'll catch up with you later, angel," he said. "It'll be fine. Maybe we can hang out tomorrow."

I looked at Leith. "Oh yeah? How so?"

"I don't know. But we'll figure it out."

"I really like being with you, Leith. Can't you move back here?"

"I wish."

"I keep thinking about that church."

"The church? Why?"

"The wedding," I said. I shrugged my shoulders. "It's… kind of cool."

"It is?"

"Think about it. Two people. Forever."

"You know, a lot of marriages aren't forever."

"Oh, shut up. You fucking ruined it."

I opened the car door and Leith touched my arm. "Hey. Kiss me one more time, Beth."

I leaned across the car and kissed him.

It lasted a little while.

I broke the kiss. "Goodbye, Leith."

"Hey. I would fucking marry you, Beth. Right now. I would go into any church in the world and fucking marry you."

I laughed. "How romantic."

We kissed again and I got out of the car.

I walked down the sidewalk and refused to look back even though I heard the engine of his car drive off into the distance.

It hurt to hear him go but the feeling from everything made up for it.

I walked the three blocks back home, twirling and looking up to the bright blue sky. I even tried looking at the sun a few times, which was stupid because it burned my eyes.

I shielded my eyes and ran up the driveway and punched in the code to open the garage. The old door growled as it opened and I ran to get into the air conditioning in the house.

The door opened for me and I let out a scream, thinking a burglar had broken into the house.

Nope.

It was my father waiting for me.

And he looked angry.

"Do I need to make coffee to sober you up?"

"I don't need coffee," I said. "I'm not drunk."

"Bethany."

"Father," I said.

He grinned quickly and stopped. "This isn't funny."

"I didn't say it was."

"Look at how you're dressed."

"I'm in a hoodie."

"Where are the rest of your clothes?"

"It's a bathing suit," I said. "You know, those things people wear when they swim?"

"Ashley doesn't have a pool."

I swallowed hard.

Crap.

"And you smell like dirty water."

"You don't smell so great yourself," I said. "I thought you were working."

He laughed. "I wasn't born yesterday, Bethany. I know how these things go."

"What things?" I asked. I put head to my hand as I sat at the table.

My father hooked his fingers into his police belt. He tried to look taller than he was. Staring down at me. He could be mad at me but he could never hate me.

"Where were you?" he asked.

"I was with friends."

"Just friends?"

"I was at the creek. We were swimming."

"The creek," he growled. "Did you know that kids have drowned there?"

"I'm not a kid."

"Like hell you aren't. You're a damn kid, Bethany." He walked to the table and pulled out a chair. "The creek?"

"It's fun. We swim. Jump around. Talk. Laugh. Curse."

"What else?" he asked.

I felt my face burning hot.

I smelled like the creek. I had alcohol on my breath. I had the smell of Leith on me too.

I had no idea what my father knew. Or what he was trying to scare me into admitting.

"I was out having fun," I said. "I came home. Early. Okay? Everyone was drinking. They started to get drunk. That doesn't interest me. So I left."

"From the creek," he said. "You walked?"

I sat frozen.

"Dammit," he growled. "The creek. Don't think I don't know what that means. Or what part you were at."

I pushed from the table and stood up. "Fine. Ground me. Take everything you want from me. It's summer. There's nothing to do. I had fun today."

He stared at me. "I thought him moving away was going to be a good thing for you. I thought me bringing him here that night would end it all. But it didn't. Because now he has a car. Does he drive around drunk?"

"No," I said. "Never. Why would you just assume that?"

"Because I know teenagers."

"Because that's what you did?" I threw at him.

He scowled. His fingers twitched. But my father would never raise a hand to me. Ever.

"Bethany…"

"What?" I snapped.

"I've seen a lot of accidents with teenagers and drinking."

"He wasn't drinking," I said. "I swear on it. First off, he's not stupid enough to do that. And, fine, you think that's me lying. But I'm not. And second off, if he ever tried to drink and drive, I would crush his balls under a jagged rock."

My father winced. "I don't want you talking about his…"

"What?" I asked.

Now my father was getting flustered.

He backed away a little and rubbed his face. "You lied to me, Bethany."

I stood up. "Be fair. Would you have let me go to the creek if I told you the truth?"

"No," he said.

"See? What choice did I have?"

"Why him?"

My father turned around.

He didn't mean to ask that.

And I wasn't going to answer the question. Because if I did and told him how I really felt about Leith it would blow up into something else. Nobody would believe how I felt. We would be told we were too young, which was fine. Honestly. It was fine. But I wanted to see him. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to… everything with him.

"You lied about where you were going," my father said as he turned back around. Going from looking like my flustered father to serious cop. "You went to the creek. Which is dangerous, Bethany. And you were drinking. Imagine if you were drunk and slipped and fell? And you hit your head. And you ended up in the water. You could have drowned. Then what? Do you think that's the kind of call I want?"

I didn't reply.

He was going on one of his famous speeches. So I just had to ride this one out.

"And then getting into that guy's car. I don't know a thing about him."

Then maybe you should have talked to him more instead of always harassing him.

"Do you know if he was drinking when you weren't looking, Bethany? Boys… guys… girls… teenagers…"

My father turned away again.

I understood.

He lost his wife.

He was afraid of losing me but didn't want to say it out loud to scare me.

I walked to my father and hugged him.

He didn't move an inch.

"I'll go to my room," I whispered. "And I'll stay there for the rest of my life."

My father chuckled.

I walked away, head down, my mind swirling with so much.

Maybe the drinking had a little to do with it.

But it was mostly Leith.

Oh, who was I kidding, it was Leith… it was always about Leith.

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