Page 6 of If the Stars Align
I was sure Dex would kiss me again that night.
But he didn’t.
“Just wait and you’ll see,” Dex says from his swing, his eyes still shifted away from me. “You’re going to have your pick of boyfriends soon.”
I shake my head. “I really don’t think that’s true, judging by my experience in high school.”
“Sunny, most guys in high school just wanna fuck around,” Dex tells me. “And honestly?” I look over at him. “I think they know better than to waste your time. You’re too mature for them now but trust me—you’re the type of girl they want to marry one day.”
I search Dex’s face for any hint of levity but there is absolutely nothing light-hearted about the way his eyes are fixed on me right now. He looks dead serious.
And I’m speechless.
My mind is racing, trying to come up with some sort of response, when the first few droplets of rain fall from the billowy clouds overhead. I look up. “Oh no, I think it’s about to?—”
I’m cut off by an earsplitting crack of thunder that parts the heavens and unleashes a spectacular, unexpected summer storm.
Whatever moment we were beginning to find ourselves in is immediately washed away. Dex and I look up at the sky, thenturn to look at each other through dripping wet eyelashes, the corners of our mouths upturned in stunned amusement as we get more and more drenched with each passing second.
“Race you back to the car!” Dex yells with a grin as he starts jogging backward. When I’m about to catch up to him, he picks up speed and starts to turn around.
“Oh no you don’t!” I shout over another earth-shattering clap of thunder. I reach out and grab his shirt to turn him back toward me, but he hooks his arms around my waist, and we end up in a heap on the wet grass, with me on top of him. We’re laughing so hard there are tears streaming down our cheeks—or maybe raindrops, it’s hard to tell.
“All those times we raced to the swings when we were kids…you were letting me win, weren’t you?” I ask between giggles.
Dex grins. “A gentleman never tells.”
As our laughter dies down and we begin to catch our breath, I become more aware of the rhythm of his heart beating against mine, of our chests rising and falling at the exact same time. Of the closeness of our lips—the closest our lips have been since our first and only kiss.
Dex tucks a strand of wet hair behind my ear. “I’m gonna miss you so damn much, Sunny.”
“Me too,” I answer back instantly.
As the rain continues to crash down on us, Dex looks at me in a way he’s never looked at me before and, for the first time, the possibility of something new hangs in the electric air between us. And it doesn’t feel awkward at all, even for the several seconds we’re both silent and gazing into each other’s eyes. Itfeels so normal, in fact, that it takes an actual effort to keep my lips from landing on his—like I’m resisting a magnetic pull—and I wonder if I should even bother trying to fight it.
But before I get the chance to decide, a bolt of lightning illuminates the sky, accompanied by another roar of thunder so loud it sets off a nearby car alarm.
“We should get home,” Dex says as he rolls us over. He pulls me up and keeps my hand in his as we run the rest of the short distance to his dad’s car.
Shivering in my soaking wet tank top and shorts, I crank up the heat and turn to face Dex as soon as he slides into the passenger seat. “Maybe you should drive back,” I yell over the heavy splats of rain pounding on the car so loudly, you’d swear it was raining pennies.
Dex considers, but shakes his head. “You’re going to have to drive in weather like this at some point anyway, and I’m right here, so don’t worry. Just drive more slowly than you normally would, and give yourself extra room to stop in case the roads are slick.”
I nod and start driving us back to my house. If it weren’t for the weather and having to concentrate so hard on what I’m doing, I’m sure my mind would be going a hundred miles an hour, desperately trying to make sense of what just happened. But right now, my singular focus is getting us home safely. And thankfully, I do.
“Well played,” Dex says when I pull over. As usual, I park a block away from my house, and Dex and I switch seats on the off-chance my mom is home from work and waiting up for me.
“Are you ever going to tell your mom you started driving again? You can’t keep it a secret forever,” he says as he adjusts the rear-view mirror and starts rolling forward.
I shake my head vehemently. “Not unless she has a lobotomy. You know how much she worries. I mean, you have to admit…sheisa little nuts.”
Dex laughs as he pulls into my driveway. The lights are off, which means she’s still at work. “Your mom isn’t nuts,” he says. Then his smile fades as he reaches for my hand. “She just loves you, Sunny.”
I glance down at our interlaced fingers and, without warning, tears start to fall from my eyes, like the sudden summer rain that has us both sopping wet.
“I don’t wanna say goodbye, Dex.”
There’s so much more I want to say…but it feels like the timing isn’t right. So I settle for only that.
