Page 7 of Barbed Wire Fences
A few minutes later I’m inside a cozy mom-and pop hardware store that has just about everything you could ever need.
“Can I assist you in finding something today, ma’am?” an older gentleman standing behind a register asks me.
I’ve clearly forgotten how everyone here addresses each other as sir or ma’am, regardless of your age so when the question first hits my ear, I look around to see who he’s talking to despite him looking directly at me.
“Oh, ha,” I laugh easily, “No, thank you. I know what I need.” I offer a warm smile that I hope comes across as confident and belonging. People in small towns get suspicious with outsiders and the last thing I need is to draw attention to myself and set off the small-town gossip mill that seems to keep Whitewood Creek alive.
He nods politely but watches me closely as I continue to navigate through the rows of hardware and tools adorning the shelves of his tiny shop. Near the back I reach the section where the bathroom items are stocked – toilet seat covers, plungers, bowl cleaner andbingo– a weird, green plastic flexible grabber tool with a claw on the end.
It doesn’t look like it will retract very far, but I figure Bentley’s bone couldn’t have gone that deep down the hole. I turn to bring the device back up to the front but in my movement, collide unexpectedly with the hard chest of someone who’s silently walked up behind me.
“Oh, no!” I cry out, dropping the claw to the floor, where it pings and bounces off the cracked linoleum like an alarm before finally coming to a rest. Thankfully, the cheap plastic doesn’t break, but the noise draws a few curious eyes my direction.
“Whoa. Hey there,” strong hands land on my shoulders and squeeze, steadying me. “I thought that was you, Jael,” the voice says.
Looking up finally, I lock eyes with two big blue irises and avery,familiar head full of blonde, shaggy hair.
“Owen?” I ask. He looks almost identical to the eighteen-year-old boy that I'd known ten years prior however, now he's grown at least an inch in height, and his body has filled out with more mature, bulky muscles.
Looking at him now, I’m thrown back to my senior year of high school as if no time has passed…
???
“Hey, babe,” Owen slings his arm around my shoulders easily as we make the walk down the hallway of our high school.
Class has just been dismissed, and it’s another beautiful spring day in Whitewood Creek. With only a few weeks left until our senior graduation, the excitement over summer plans, long days of lake swimming, and no class is thick in the air as students exchange their jeans and sweatshirts for t-shirts and shorts.
“Hi,” I say, reaching up on my tiptoes to brush a kiss against his lips. “Are you playing in that senior pickup lacrosse game today?”
“Yep, headed there now.”
“Only a few weeks left until our graduation. Do you have any plans for this summer?” I ask, my voice full of hope that his plans will include me before I leave for college in Virginia.
“Other than spending the whole summer making love to you?” he winks, and I feel a flurry of nerves shoot through my stomach.
Owen and I have been seeing each other for a few months now but have yet to go all the way. Although he’d been understanding at the beginning of our relationship, the topic of when we’re going to do the deed has become a reoccurring theme that he brings up almost daily as we approach our summer and the end of our time together before we part ways.
And it’s not that I’m holding out for any specific reason; the thought of my first time being with Owen, makes me excited, but also terrified that I’m going to embarrass myself. I don’t know what I’m doing, I’ve never even given oral before, and I already know that Owen is way more experienced than me.
Will he laugh? Will he be embarrassed if I suck at doing the things he wants to do this summer?
“Why don’t you pick a date you’re comfortable with?” he says, grinning, his voice softer now. “It’s not as scary as you think it is. Once your first time is out of the way, it’s much less painful.”
I bite my lip and nod gently. If sex is painful, I’m not sure how much I’m going to enjoy doing it all summer like Owen seems to want. My friend Lainey told me that though the first time isn’t usually great, and at times a bit awkward, it gets better with practice.
“Okay… how about graduation night?” I offer.
He smiles. “I’ll hold you to it.”
???
“Hi Jael. It’s been a while,” he says, dragging me back to the present and grinning down at me as he stoops low to pull me in for a hug. The scent of his cologne on his work shirt instantly takes me back to being eighteen in the back of his old beat-up Chevrolet, where we used to park and make out while overlooking the miles of green pastures that surround our small town.
It surprises me that a twenty-eight-year-old man would still be wearingCurvecologne, but the scent stirs up a sense of nostalgia in my chest, reminding me of the innocence of my younger years and the carefreeness of those days gone by.
“It has been a while…” I start. “What are you doing here?”
He chuckles. “You know, some of us never left Whitewood Creek. I got a job working construction for the city of Whitewood Creek. I'm here picking up a tool for today's project that my boss needs.”
