Gem City

Chapter 6-2

“I"ll have to be sure to let Ethan know that my mom thinks he looks like a "Holli-town" model.”

“ "Holli-town"? Like Hollister? That"s a new one. Your mom does like to make up words. I remember us spending forever trying to get her to say "bagels" instead of "bay-goes".”

“I do remember that. She totally still says "bay-goes" though. I"ll have to tell her it makes her sound old, that"ll make her quit.” Courtney grinned. She missed her mom, despite the incredible summer she was having. “Hey, do you think I am too sparkly? I used that new glitter puff thing from the mall. I want to look like a fairy, but not a disco ball.”

“Too sparkly? Is there such a thing for you?” Vanessa teased. “You look lovely, don"t stress.” It took Courtney a moment to realize what it was, but she felt something was amiss. Vanessa had told her not to stress, and she hadn"t. She hadn"t had a mental argument, or had to deep breathe, or felt that knot in her stomach for several days. She couldn"t remember a time she had felt so… normal. The doorbell rang, interrupting her self-reflection, and the girls bounded down the stairs, excited to show the boys the night they had planned. Courtney felt so elated at her lack-of-worry that she practically knocked Ethan over when she saw him, throwing her arms around his neck and giggling.

“Okay then,” Ethan smiled, stepping back to look at her. “Well don"t you look pretty, sprinkles?” Ethan said, trying out yet another nickname as she twirled her dress for him.

“Yes! Oh my gosh, yes, you can call me that!” She knew it was immature, but sprinkles were just as much fun as glitter, except they went on cake. She really liked cake. “However, does this mean you no longer think I could take you in a fight? Because I"m pretty sure I could.”

“Not at all,” he assured her. “I"ve just decided you can be kick-ass and sparkly at the same time. I still have no desire to piss you off enough for you to beat me up,” Ethan replied, grinning. Luke arrived shortly thereafter, and the girls made them guess the theme of the evening.

“Ummmm, crappy food and music?” Luke asked.

“I heard that, Lucas Miller!” Vanessa"s mom yelled from the kitchen. “You better not be insulting my cooking.”

“I would never, Mrs. Roberts, I didn"t realize you had prepared this feast. It will obviously be delicious then,” Luke said, sucking up.

never“Yeah, yeah, don"t overdo it,” Vanessa"s mom chided him. “You kids have fun tonight, but I swear to god if you get arrested going TPing I am not picking you up, got it? You"ll have to sweet-talk the sheriff by yourselves,” she warned.

“Got it,” they said together as she left the room.

“Ok now, take a real guess,” Vanessa scolded.

“Is that Kool-Aid? Like Purple-saurus? I loved that when I was a kid,” Ethan shared, pointing to a pitcher on the table. After he said that, the girls could see them looking around and coming to the same conclusion. “Is the theme, like, things we loved as kids?”

“Yes!” The girls yelled in unison. “Just wait until we get to the games and activities portion later.” Vanessa winked.

“All right, so it"s kind of cool,” Luke admitted with a half-smile. “You guys did good.” They sat down to enjoy their dinner, and swapped stories about their younger years. Courtney didn"t have a problem picturing Luke in his youth- he still acted like a child frequently, but Ethan? It was hard to picture him being an awkward tween, ever. Vanessa had to share the bug story from their camping trip with the boys, and everyone got a good laugh at Courtney"s expense. In mock retaliation, Courtney dug up a story of her own.

“Well, Miss Vanessa here wanted to prove she was more flexible than me when we were in the seventh grade-”

“Hell yeah,” Luke interrupted, grinning. Vanessa immediately punched him in the arm.

“Inappropriate!” Courtney declared. “Moving on. So yes, she tried to tell me that she could fit herself into her pillowcase. I, of course, being the responsible one, tried to talk her out of it, but she was set on accomplishing the task.” Vanessa was trying to look mad at the story being told, but Courtney could tell she was about to lose it remembering that day. “She got her head, arms, and legs all stuffed into the pillowcase, and her butt was sticking out of the end when she started having a panic attack because she couldn"t get out.” Courtney started cracking up. “She was rocking back and forth like a turtle on its shell, trying to get out of that stupid pillowcase, and I couldn"t even help her because I was laughing so hard I was crying.”

“It was terrifying! How dare you all get enjoyment out of my near-death experience?!” Vanessa yelled dramatically before breaking out into a smile.

“You know, if I"m not mistaken, I have a picture of this event that I may or may not have loaded onto my phone before flying out here,” Courtney said, grinning from ear to ear.

“Shut up, I will KILL you,” Vanessa threatened. Courtney had stopped being scared of Vanessa"s idle threats years before, so she pulled up the photo while Luke held Vanessa back. Luke and Ethan burst out laughing when they were finally able to visualize the ordeal.

“I like this chick,” Luke said to his girlfriend as she scowled. It took a few minutes, but she got over it and admitted it was one of the more stupid things she had done in her youth. They all calmed down a bit and mused about becoming seniors and where they wanted to be after high school. Courtney had early acceptance from several universities, but was struggling with the actual decision part, as usual. That summer was making her even more unsure. She was a different person here. She could have the chance to go to school with Vanessa, be back in Ohio, and get out of the desert. But that would mean leaving her mom and dad and her few close friends from Scottsdale too. The thought of not seeing her mom for months at a time was enough to send her into a tailspin.

“Well, maybe I"ll come out to U of A, girl, I sent my application in a few weeks ago,” Vanessa admitted.

“Seriously?! Why didn"t you tell me that?” Courtney asked, shocked. She had never thought Vanessa would consider leaving Ohio.

“Eh, you know how my grades are, what are the chances I"ll even get in? It would be an adventure, though. I made Luke apply too, you know, just in case I need a boy toy while I"m there,” she said, nudging him.

“What the hell, guys? Are you just going to leave me here?” Ethan asked, half-serious.

“Oh stop, you big baby. Apply if you want. We can take the Gem City cohort to AZ,” Luke chided. Ethan looked contemplative.

“You all know I applied here too, right? Though I do love the idea of you guys coming to my world down there. It would be surreal. I got into UD, Ohio State, and BG.”

“Well la-ti-da, Miss Smarty Pants,” Luke joked. “So, it"s all fine and well to talk about this, but what I really wanna know is what are you two lovebirds planning on doing at the end of this month? Like, you do know you"re going home, right? Alllll the way across the-” Luke stopped when Vanessa elbowed him in the stomach.

“Keep your mouth shut, can"t you see they are in blissful denial? Leave them alone. Don"t even worry about it, you guys,” Vanessa said, trying to smooth over Luke"s very realistic question. An awkward silence hung in the air, and Courtney and Ethan looked anywhere but at each other. They tried to recapture the energy from earlier, but it could not be forced. “Okay, friends, I"m making an executive decision. This night was supposed to be all about reminiscing, and fun, and being young and maybe a little stupid, so I am going to give the two of you twenty minutes to deal with the elephant in the room, and then we are playing some juvenile party games and going TPing dressed as warriors of the night- do you understand?” Vanessa commanded sternly. “Luke? You and I can exchange words in the basement.” She glared at him.

Shit, s**t, s**t, Courtney thought as they left the room. She was not ready to have this conversation; she had only known him for two weeks. There were still over two weeks left of vacation; she didn"t want to imagine what it would feel like to leave him. “So, um, hi!” She was failing to sound cheerful.

Shit, s**t, s**t,“Hi, sprinkles.” Ethan smiled. “Can we go sit on the couch or something? These chairs are not nearly close enough.” They sank in to the over-sized sofa and he held her hands. Courtney leaned in to kiss him, thinking perhaps they could skip the “elephant in the room” conversation, but he pulled back. “I wanna know what you"re thinking. I had hoped we could push this off for a while, but as usual, Luke had to force the issue.”

Courtney sighed. “The only honest thing I can say is that I"m happier than I"ve been in… well, forever maybe. Can we just do what you said, put a pin in this until later? I know that sounds like I"m avoiding it, but, I don"t know.”

“Are you sure? I don"t want this to be something that"s hanging over our heads for the next couple weeks, I mean, I know that we are both aware that you"ll have to go home, I just don"t know what that means right now. I think you"re incredible. I don"t want you to go. That"s about all my brain can process at once.”

“Is it lame if I just say "ditto"?” Courtney laughed slightly. “I don"t want to force this into something it"s not, which is completely against my nature because I love labeling things- I literally asked for a label maker for my fourteenth birthday. But with you, and this, can we just be happy right now and deal with reality later?” Courtney asked, her eyes pleading.

“Well, we"re still teenagers, right? This is what we do- live in a fantasy world without consequences. Or so I hear from my mom,” Ethan replied with a smirk. “So, we"ll just agree that this is a conversation to be had later?”

Courtney nodded, her mind already feeling relieved. “So, are you going to let me distract you now?” she asked playfully, wanting the power back she"d felt at the pool.

“God, yes. Your legs in that dress are driving me crazy,” he flirted.

“Are you saying you want me out of this dress, sir? That does not seem very gentlemanly of you,” she scolded jokingly. She could tell he wasn"t sure if she was kidding or not, so she made him very aware of her intentions by climbing onto his lap so they were face to face. “Is this better?” she asked quietly, pushing down the wave of what did you just do that threatened to creep up.

what did you just do“So much better,” he murmured before brushing her lips with his and drawing her in. She became aware of the fact that the dress in question was very short as he ran his fingertips and down her thighs, making her whole body tingle. His hands slowly traveled places they hadn"t before, and her blood forgot how to circulate oxygen properly. He moved his attention from her lips to her neck. Since their encounter in the water that morning, she hadn"t been able to think about much else other than being with him. His free hand tangled in her hair and she felt her breath escape her.

“I"m just going to walk up these stairs VERY SLOWLY, in order to avoid the curse of my bad timing striking again,” they heard Luke yell from the basement.

“Oh my GOD,” Ethan groaned, letting his head fall back against the couch. Courtney slowed her breath and moved to stand up. Ethan pulled her back to sitting on his lap and said slowly, “I sort of need you to sit here for a few minutes if that"s cool.”

She almost snorted in a very unladylike manner at the implication. “You got it.” She was intoxicated by the fact that he wanted her too. They both concentrated on making sure they looked presentable by the time Luke made it to the top of the stairs. Any lasting worry about her upcoming departure was pushed down deep, and she was determined not to let the future ruin her present.