Page 78 of Summer, in Between
‘What are you writing?’
‘You can’t read?’The bunny tail dances across my skin, so light I can barely feel it.
‘Yeah, sorry, you’re going to have to spell it out for me.’
‘First word, five letters.’The frond moves across my back.‘D.R.E.A.’he says, ‘M.’
‘Dream.’My eyes close, the sun toasting my eyelids.
‘Second word, four letters.C.O.M.E.’
‘Come.’
‘You’ve got it.Third word, four letters.T.R.U.E.’
‘Dream come true,’ I say.And yes, he is.I never want this summer to end, these slow moments.Once school goes back, when Year Twelve starts, what then?
‘Never dare dreamed, ever me, ever you, ever more, your heart my core, my dream come true, my dream come true.’He whispers the lyrics into my neck, his breath below my ear, his hand on my lower back, his fingers slipping under my waistband.How is it possible that my skin hasn’t turned to butter?
The blossom brushes against the top of my spine.
‘Still writing?’I want to grind my hips into the sand beneath me.
‘Yep.’
‘Let me guess again?’
‘Nope, not this time.’
‘Why not?’
‘It’s a secret message,’ he says.‘If I tell you I’ll have to kill you.’
‘Right now, you’re killing me anyway.How secret is secret?’
‘Not secret at all.It’s really pretty freakin’ obvious.Let’s see if you can figure it out.First word.One letter.You ready?’
He trails a long line down my spine.
‘I or l?’
‘Since when is “l” a word?’
‘Okay, I, first word is I.Right?’
‘Right,’ he says.‘Second word.Four letters.’
Another long shiver moves down my spine, followed by a wide, slow circumference of my back.Next, he moves from my left shoulder to my sacrum and back up to my right shoulder.
‘L.O.V.’
‘I’m not done yet.’He moves the bunny tail across my back from side to side.The breath leaves my chest.‘Did you get that last letter?’
I roll over and reach for his face, but he leans back.
‘So, we have first word I, second word is brought to you by the letters L, O, V, and?’he says.
‘Is it maybe E?’I can barely get the words out.
