Page 161 of As the Rain Falls
I sneak into the gymnasium and cut through the court until I find the back door past the east benches. It’s usually kept wide open. The lock was broken during my first year at Sainte Madeleine, when some of the older kids decided to pull a prank on our then soon-to-retire soccer coach. Dad always says he’ll fix it, but he never does.
There’s an abandoned parking lot right behind it. Nobody drives through it anymore; it’s not easily connected to any of our main streets, but Caleb is doing it for me today.I find him sitting in his cousin’s black Citroën, windows down, allowing me to hear the melody of Dominican music playing on the radio.
“Hey, baby.”
He opens the door, wind blowing his black hair back, and steps out just in time to catch me in his arms. Caleb spins me around so fast, and a giggle bubbles out of me. I feel good today. This feels nice.
“Stop, you’re making me dizzy!”
He grins but lets me go, and my feet hit the ground again as the scent of his cologne fills my nose. I pull his chin down so I can kiss him real good, my fingers twisting the cotton fabric of his uniform. His hands press against the sides of my face, and a smirk stretches across his lips. We kiss again and again.I feel dizzy.
“I missed you today,” I admit, trying to sound casual about it. I don’t want to be too desperate about needing to see him all the time. Boys don’t like clingy girls. “Where were you?”
“I skipped. José needed help with something. That’s why I have his car.”
His lips brush against mine, and my head tilts up on instinct, chasing after him every single time. Caleb just smiles.
“José‘s your cousin, right? The one who dropped me off that one time?” I push a strand of hair behind my ear. “And the one with the bleached hair?”
“That’s the one.” Caleb kisses me again, pulling my lower lip between his teeth before sucking my tongue into his mouth. He sits in the driver’s seat and invites me in. I drop my backpack over the passenger seat and lean closer, sitting on his lap. “Precisely.”
Caleb is a really good kisser when he wants to be. The problem being, he usually doesn’t. When we’re making out, he tends to go too fast. It’s too urgent. Kissing, grabbing, pressing my hips down against his.
“Slow down,” I whisper, pulling my head back. But I move too fast, and the side of my head hits the rearview mirror. Pain pricks my scalp, where my hair clips press against my skin, making me wince.
“Shit!” he pauses, reaching to touch the back of my head in soothing motions. “Did that hurt?”
“What do you think?” I snap, closing my eyes shut.
“Let me back the seat up.” Caleb kisses my cheek. I sense the car shift forward. “Here we go. Now you won’t hurt yourself trying to kiss me.”
I press my hands against his chest, feeling embarrassed. “Just let me breathe for a second.”
“Okay.”
The sun is coming down, bright orange light spilling across his tan skin. I breathe deeply, playing with the zipper of my sweater, trying to ignore the way he unbuttons his pants.
“What did you do today?”
I blink, feeling a bit caught off guard.
Not because it isn’t nice of Caleb to ask, but because he never does. He never, ever, tries to keep conversation going.
Caleb is a kisser, not a listener, which is precisely why, instead of waiting for my answer, he pulls me in again. His lips are now against my neck, and his hands are traveling underneath my shirt.I feel his palms pressing my underwear.My toesimmediately curl inside my Converse. It’s a reaction I can’t control. It’s hard to keep up with which ones are good or bad. I feel like I am always fighting for breath, like he is strangling it out of me one kiss at a time.
“I…” I trail off as he tries to unclip my bra. I touch his wrist, intertwining our fingers together, a silent reminder to get him to slow down. “Alice and Angelina keep arguing in Lit. It’s distracting.”
“Angelina?” His eyebrows shoot up with surprise.
“Yeah.”
He chuckles, “God, she’s just a psycho!”
“I mean, she just lost Lucia,” I remind him, keeping my tone flat. “And we’re reading Shakespeare. She has a lot to be upset about.”
“Right.” Caleb snorts. “Alice seriously needs to get fucked, though. It’ll take the feistiness off her.”
I grimace. “You’re so fucking gross sometimes.”
