Gem City

Chapter 15

“Wonderful Tonight” – Eric Clapton

The next two days were a blur. She had gotten a preliminary “yes” from her mom about homecoming after pulling out every persuasive strategy she could think of. There was the caveat of a “we"ll discuss this more later” that came along with the “yes,” but she would take it. She and Ethan spent every possible moment together. Every kiss, every inside joke, every conversation was committed to memory. She mastered the shape of his lips and the shade of brown in his eyes. Vanessa rolled her eyes a lot, and Luke came to the point of pretending to vomit, but they didn"t care.

Luke"s face was often arranged in mock horror or open disgust. “Seriously, Fisher, what has happened to you, man? You"re like a bowl of whipped cream over there, I mean, it"s hard for me to even watch.” Secretly though, Courtney thought Luke was kind of a romantic. At least when he was looking at Vanessa and thought no one was looking at him.

what“Simple solution- stop watching. It"s creepy anyway,” Ethan shot back, planting an overly dramatic kiss on Courtney"s mouth.

“Yes, pay attention to your own relationship. Over here. With me. Looking super hot today, in case you didn"t notice.” Vanessa scolding him was sort of their norm. Luke agreed repentantly.

Courtney had requested a small bonfire for just the four of them for her birthday. They already had enough cake to feed an army left over from Ethan"s house, and she just wanted to finish her summer like she started it. It was more than difficult to believe the trip was ending, but at the same time it seemed like she had known Ethan her whole life. It didn"t seem possible that they had only met a month ago. She cringed inwardly when she thought about explaining that to people. They were planning on trying to sustain a relationship over the period of a year when their entire knowledge of each other spanned only four weeks. She knew she shouldn"t care what anyone else thought, but imagined what she would say to a friend who told her the same tale. It wasn"t exactly supportive. This will be okay. He wants to do this with you, she told herself as they dragged out chairs and blankets to the fire pit.

This will be okay. He wants to do this with you,Courtney had bought a new outfit for the occasion: a short white eyelet skirt and a flowing coral tank top. She felt relaxed and like herself with Ethan"s arms around her. She knew she had to kid her mind into believing this was just another night, and not the last one, or she wouldn"t even make it through s"mores without breaking down.

“Do you know how incredible you look?” Ethan murmured in her ear.

“Well, now I do.” She smiled, pulling his arms around her tighter.

“Is it wrong that I want to steal you away from your last night with your friend and be alone with you? Because that"s all I can think about. I don"t want you to go.” He spoke plainly, and there was a look of refusal that was at odds the with reality in his eyes.

“Well, if it"s wrong, then I"m wrong along with you, but I think Vanessa has other plans judging from the movie marathon lined up later.”

Ethan sighed knowingly. “Yeah, I saw. I just wanted you to know where my head was. As long as I can be with you it"ll be all right.” He kissed her, and she didn"t know that she could ever get over the bubbling sensation in her core during that single breath before his lips found hers.

“All right, lovers, come over here,” Vanessa called. “I have some song requests for Ethan.” They begrudgingly rejoined the pair, and spent some time having a rather corny campfire sing-along to anything Ethan would agree to play. Luke was the worst singer by far, but always the loudest, until Vanessa made him take turns with everyone else. As the stars came out, Ethan declared he was playing his last song for the evening, and began a version of “Wonderful Tonight,” by Eric Clapton. It was one of Courtney"s favorites, and by the time he made it to the first chorus, silent tears were threatening to cascade down her cheeks. She tried to smile through them, but by the end she had watery streaks lining her face. Vanessa sat next to her and rubbed her back while Ethan finished.

“Come here,” he motioned to her. “I didn"t mean to make you cry, I"m sorry. I knew you liked the song,” he explained, gesturing for her to come and sit on his lap. Vanessa and Luke gave them some space, claiming they were going to pick a movie to get started. She buried her face into Ethan"s shoulder and tried to cry as ladylike as possible. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled the blanket over them both. “It"s going to be okay, baby, I swear. By this time next year you"ll be living here for real, and this time and this space apart will just seem like nothing. You"re the first girl I"ve ever met who I could see myself having a future with. Please don"t cry, these are all good things.” His fingertips traced the curve of her spine as he spoke.

She slowed her breath and dried her tears on the blanket. “I can"t decide if your optimism is endearing or annoying.” She laughed in spite of everything. “I will try to get on board with the positivity.”

“Good. And obviously it"s endearing, I mean, look at this face,” he said, giving her a cheesy smile. Feeling lighter, she laughed softly and curled back into him. She made mental notes of how his arms felt around her, how his heartbeat sounded with her head on his shoulder, and how his scent reminded her of pine trees in late fall. An audible sigh escaped her.

“I guess we should go inside?”

“One minute, I want to give you something while we"re alone,” he confessed, pulling an envelope out of his pocket. “I sort of wrote you a letter. Well, it"s part letter, part rambling, part song lyrics.” She took it from him and turned it over in her hands. “Don"t read it now, I just, I was afraid I wouldn"t be able to get out what I needed to say tonight, and I wanted to make sure I wrote it all down.” She held onto the sealed letter and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“I love everything about you.” His eyes shone briefly when she made that declaration.

“Well, I don"t know if that"s entirely true, but you bring out a better side of me than I"ve shown in a long time. Maybe ever. You"re very good for me.” He brushed a few stray curls out of her face. She smiled as he kissed her.

“So, if this is the present portion of the evening, does that mean I can give you yours?”

“You got me a present?” Excitement lit up his face.

“I did!” She grinned. “Stay here, I"ll be right back.” Courtney skipped to grab the package from the basement, put the letter in her purse, and avoided Vanessa"s raised eyebrow. She promised they would be in momentarily. She took in the sight of Ethan as she walked back out, stretched out, looking at the stars. She sat down beside him, and she handed over a rectangular package wrapped in craft paper. It had never occurred to her how to wrap a present in a manly way, but she figured it would work. She had written his name in sharpie on the front and decorated it until black-markered designs took up most of the space.

“This looks cool,” he commented. “You want me to open it now?”

“Yes, now, "hence the gift-giving," ” she repeated with a gleam in her eye. He laughed and opened the package, careful not to disturb the design she"d made. He took out a distressed leather-bound notebook, running his fingers over the cover. She"d had his name branded into the bottom corner. He flipped open the hand-cut pages and noticed what she had created. The first three pages were already full. She had printed several three-by-three pictures of the two of them from their adventures: night canoeing, mini-golfing, and singing together at the festival among others. She had written her memories from each event in sharpie as decorative word-frames around each photo, filling the paper.

“This is… I don"t even have the words, Court, to explain what this means.” He almost sounded choked up.

She reached for his hand. “Well, I"ve seen you scribbling lyrics on random scraps. I thought you might want to keep them in one place,” she explained. “If the photo part in front is too uncool for people to see, you could always take it out and keep it somewhere else.”

“Uncool? This is, like, the coolest thing anyone"s ever done for me. If anyone thinks I"m lame for worshipping the ground that you walk on, they can screw themselves.”

the“The ground that I walk on, huh? I kind of enjoy that.” She laughed. “I"m glad you like it. It makes me happy. However, it does not make me happy that this night is almost over, and we should probably head inside. On the plus side, though, there"s cake in there. I didn"t really get to eat any the other night.” She struggled to keep her tone casual.

“Hey, I offered!” he protested, taking her hand and starting towards the house.

“Eh, I was preoccupied with your hot body.”

Ethan struck a “serious male model” pose. “This old thing? I just had it lying around, you know.” Courtney giggled and they made their way into the basement. It was sort of weird that talking about having s*x wasn"t at all weird. If anything, she felt like this version of their relationship had been waiting in the wings the whole time until she"d been ready. It felt…safe.

Vanessa hadn"t waited for them to start the first movie, and she and Luke were partway into The Breakfast Club when they walked in. Her friend didn"t even comment, which made Courtney think she and Luke had needed a moment too. Ethan took it upon himself to bring down massive pieces of cake for everyone, and they sang her "happy birthday." She didn"t even know what to wish for when she blew out the candles, other than for the next year to fly by so that she could find herself there again.

The Breakfast Club