CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“I think beauty comes from within, and society paints a ridiculous picture.”
-Rachel Bilson
GIANNA
“Caleb, stop!”
“Come on, just one more time,” he begged.
“Ugh, fine! I should’ve known you’d have some sort of fetish, with all the piercings you have.” I lifted up my shirt for the hundredth time so Caleb could look at my navel piercing.
Dropping my shirt, my stomach was covered up again. “Was that so hard?” Caleb joked.
“No, but it was so annoying,” I teased him back.
“Admit it, baby. You got the piercing just for me to see, so don’t complain.” He wrapped his arms around my waist, kissing me sweetly.
“Not everything is about you, Caleb. I got it for me.” I acted annoyed, but gladly kissed him again.
We were in the kitchen after school on Thursday, making popcorn for the movie we were going to watch. “Everything about you is about me now, too,” he said as he grabbed two cans of soda out of the fridge.
How did I argue against that kind of charm?
“Whatever, sweet talker. Let’s go watch zombies eat people who can’t run fast enough.”
We watched Dawn of the Dead, so romantic. Caleb couldn’t keep his hands or mouth to himself during the movie. “Caleb, we may as well turn the movie off. You aren’t even watching it.”
“I’d rather watch you do a little dance for me.” He grinned wickedly. “Why don’t we go upstairs to my room?”
“Okay.”
His surprised face made me laugh. I took off like a shot. As I ran up the stairs, his pounding tread close behind made my heart race faster. He entered his room at my heels and I yelped as he picked me up in the air and tossed me onto his bed. In a move that rivaled dancer-like gracefulness, he landed gently on top of me. Threading my fingers through his hair, I urged him on.
I let one hand drop down beside my head where it landed on something sticking out from under the pillow. Twisting my head off the pillow, I yanked it out. Caleb didn’t notice because he was busy on my other side, making a trail of kisses along my jaw and down my neck. I lifted the notepad over his head.
Gasping at what I saw, it spurred Caleb to catch my lips with his. The boy could kiss, making me forget about the notepad in my hand. It dropped from my hand onto his back.
“What’s that?” He stopped kissing me to see what hit him.
“Your drawing pad.”
He shot up straight, snatching it out of my hand. “I’ll take that.”
Smiling as I guided him down for a kiss, I told him, “It’s too late. I already saw it.”
“It’s not supposed to be you,” he said, looking uncharacteristically embarrassed.
“Uh-huh, sure,” I agreed unconvincingly. “Can I see the picture of me again?”
“No.” He reached over to drop it in his nightstand drawer. I laughed inwardly. Like I couldn’t find it there when he wasn’t around.
Actually, I’d just get it now. I quickly opened the drawer, dug it out and rolled to the other side of the bed onto my stomach. I stared down at the still opened page. There was a picture of an angel that bore a remarkable resemblance to me. The angel wore a long flowing white dress and had thick white feathered wings. “I think it’s beautiful.”
He grunted, taking it away from me again to put it back in the drawer. “It’s nothing.”
That was the thing, though. It wasn’t nothing. It was everything. Being told you’re beautiful your whole life was one thing. Actually feeling like you were, inside and out, was something else. Until I met Caleb, I wasn’t sure beauty existed on my inside. With him in my life, I not only saw that beauty to my core, but also in my world around me. This drawing proved he saw that beauty in me.
I could tell he wasn’t comfortable with me finding the sketch, so I sort of changed the subject. “You’re a really good artist, Caleb. Why don’t you take art class at school?”
“High school art class is for pansies.” He laid on his side next to me with one elbow propping up his head.
I rolled my eyes at his assessment. “Art class is for artists and you should be in it.”
He gave me a look like I didn’t know what I was talking about. “I’m not taking art.”
“Fine, don’t take art at school, but how about a class outside of school? Come on, you might even get to do a nude drawing. Of a woman,” I hastily added.
He raised one eyebrow. “Really, naked chicks? Sign me up.”
Realizing he was only teasing me, I smacked him on the chest playfully. “Yeah, well won’t you be surprised when I volunteer to be the nude model.”
The chest my hand still rested on shook as he laughed. “It won’t be much of a surprise now since you’ve already told me.” He gave me a stern glare. “I’d drag you right out of there before you had the chance to drop your robe.”
“You’re not the boss of me,” I teased.
“No, I’d never pretend to be that. But, I’m your boyfriend and I say who can and can’t see you naked.” He kissed me on the tip of my nose. “And I say only I can.”
Typical boy, not willing to share his toys, not that this particular toy wanted to be shared. “Well, boyfriend, I have homework due tomorrow. I suggest you do the same. I’ll be in my room and you’re not welcome.” I was so glad tomorrow was Friday.
“That reminds me. Don’t make any plans for tomorrow night. We’re going to do number twelve on your list.”
“Number twelve?” I repeated, trying to remember which one that was.
“Yep, I’m taking you out clubbing and you, young lady, are allowed to get as drunk as you want but not so drunk you throw up in my Camaro.”
“I’ll say it again, Caleb. You have a way with words. You have to be the most romantic boyfriend ever.”
“I’m romantic,” he pouted.
Thinking of the drawing, I conceded, “I guess the drawing was pretty freaking romantic.”
“Damn straight, girl. Now tell me why you’ve never gotten drunk while you were out clubbing.”
“The only times I’ve gone to a club have been with the crew and I can’t get drunk if I need to perform. Afterwards, we always go to someone’s house to drink.” I shrugged. “I sometimes get tipsy then.”
“Is that the only reason?” he asked.
I don’t want to think about the most important reason I don’t drink at clubs. It was a year ago and I’m over it now, but not inclined to share. However, this was Caleb and I was beginning to believe I could tell him anything.
“Not the only reason. About a year ago, I went with some of the cheerleaders and football players to a club downtown. Some older guy I danced with bought me a drink and I was too dumb back then to realize what a mistake that was.”
Caleb’s unhappy expression made to want to stop the story there. “What happened after that?” he prompted.
“Don’t worry. Someone stopped him before anything bad happened. My drink was obviously drugged and he almost got me out of the club, but one of the football players stopped him.”
“Josh?” he guessed.
“Yeah, how’d you know? You have to understand Josh wasn’t so bad back then. He was a really nice guy. He’d been asking me out for awhile and after he saved me from being raped by that creep, I finally gave him a chance.”
Caleb made a disgusted face. “And that turned into a year-long relationship?”
“My heart never skipped a beat around him, but I was comfortable with him. It wasn’t until we were together for awhile that I started to notice he was becoming obsessive.” I didn’t like to think about Josh. “Anyways, that’s why I don’t drink at clubs. I don’t trust it.”
“At least the psycho did something right in his life. Don’t worry about tomorrow night. I’ll be there and we’ll have a good time.”
I liked the promise of that. “Okay, but who’s going to protect your virtue?”
“You can tread all over my vi
rtue if you want,” he offered while squeezing my hip.
“Um . . . nah. I’ll pass,” I teased him.
He pounced on me, caging me between his arms. “No girl can pass up on all this.”
“Ugh, like I need the reminder. Get off, I have homework to do.” Squirming out from under him, I escaped out of his room.
It was a good thing I’d left when I did because my mom was going up the stairs. Crap, I hadn’t even heard her come home. “Hey, honey, how was your day?”
“Fine,” I told her cautiously, recognizing from her tone she had something on her mind.
“Will you be cheering at the game tomorrow night?”
I should’ve known. “No, mom,” I replied in a harassed tone. I was tired of her asking the same question.
My mom put the false smile on her face that I hated. “You know I only want what’s best for you, honey. And I think-”
I cut her off before she could finish. “I know what you think what you want. I don’t have time to hear it again, so if you don’t mind, I have homework to do.” I quickly shut myself in my room before she could say anything else.
Checking the time on my phone, I saw it was after six o’clock in Houston. My dad should’ve been off work by now. Calling him, I hoped he’d pick up.
He answered with, “Gianna?”
Just hearing his voice made me feel better. “Hi, dad.”
“How’s my baby girl doing?”
“Good, except mom’s being a pain.”
“Cheerleading still?”
I exhaled a big breath. “Of course. At least she isn’t bugging me about quitting pageants anymore.”
“You don’t need judges to tell you if you’re beautiful or not.”
“Thanks, dad. That means a lot coming from a plastic surgeon,” I joked.
“Brat,” he said on a chuckle. “Now, when are you going to come down here to check out colleges? We never got around to it when you and Chance were here in July.”
Remembering, I laughed. “Yeah, because we let Chance decide what we’d do every day. I think I gained five pounds from eating so many donuts and cookies.”
“I get you guys for Thanksgiving this year,” my dad reminded me. “Your grandparents will be here from Florida and can watch Chance while we take off by ourselves.”
“Okay, dad, but I don’t know if any of the colleges down there can woo me away from Colorado.”
“Houston and I will give it a good try, Gianna. I’d like to spend more time with you.”
“You could always move back,” I suggested for the millionth time.
“Perhaps,” he said sadly. “I don’t like missing out on so much of Chance growing up.”
“He has Scott,” I blurted out without thinking and added, “Sorry, dad.”
“It’s alright. I know he’s close with Scott.”
“You really could move back, though.”
“Your mom,” he began and left it at that. She’d never forgiven him for divorcing her, even after she married Scott. Whenever he came to visit she acted hostile. “I guess it’d be worth dealing with her to see my children more often.”
“We are so worth it,” I boasted, wanting to put him in a happier mood. “Guess what?”
“What?” he played along.
Dying to tell him about Caleb and me, but not enough to risk my mom finding out, I only told him, “Scott’s son came to live with us.”
“The delinquent?” he asked.
Play it cool, Gianna. “He’s not so bad,” I said lightly. “He’s actually really nice to me and Chance.” I couldn’t resist tacking on, “But mom creeps him out.”
My dad started laughing so hard I was afraid he’d have a stroke. Not that my dad was old enough for that. He was still only in his mid-thirties and, in my opinion, the coolest dad ever.
I got off the phone with my dad feeling much, much better.
CALEB
Friday after school, Gianna and I stopped by the house to each pack a bag for the weekend. She asked if we should invite any of our friends from school or any of the crew, but I wanted it to be just me and her. So often when we were together other people were around. I wanted her all to myself tonight.
It was embarrassing when she found the drawing yesterday, but I was over it now. I had trouble telling her how important she was to me, so hopefully seeing that drawing clued her in. She let me know a few times how unromantic I was, so maybe tonight I’d work on that.
The plan was to drive to my mom’s place and get ready there. Then we’d go out and have a good time. She couldn’t miss ballet tomorrow since she skipped last week to go camping. After ballet, she was going to practice with the crew and they’d do their thing tomorrow night.
Instead of her spending the night Saturday night at Jared and Cece’s house, I planned on talking her into staying at my mom’s with me. If she still insisted on keeping with tradition and staying at their house, I hoped Cece’s bed was big enough for three. No way in hell was I letting her stay in the same house with Jared if I wasn’t there. She claimed he’d respect our relationship, as long as I didn’t fuck it up, but if he got desperate enough he’d probably try something.
I knew I sure as hell would try to steal her right out from under another guy.
Going into Gianna’s room, I found her zipping up her duffel bag. I took it from her just as she was throwing it over one shoulder. “Let’s go.”
After I put the bags in the trunk, Gianna ran around to the driver’s side before I climbed in. “Can I drive, Caleb?”
“No, we’re taking my car,” I told her.
“I know that and I want to drive your car.” She clasped both her hands together. “Please?”
“No way, princess. I don’t let anyone drive my car.”
“Pretty please,” she wheedled.
In answer, I moved her out of the way, pointing her in the direction to go around the front of the car and smacking her ass to get her going.
“Oh okay,” she said pathetically with her head down. She walked around the car and got in on the passenger side. She sat in her seat dejectedly as I started the car.
She looked so adorable when she was sad that it was making my chest tight. “Fine! You can drive! But if you even fail to use a blinker, you’re pulling over and I’m driving.”
She clapped her hands together. “Yay! Best boyfriend ever!”
Instead of getting out of the car, she climbed to my side as I opened the door. I thought she would maybe give me a reward for being the best boyfriend ever, but all I got was a push to help me out of the car.
“Get out and go around,” she ordered excitedly. That was all the thanks I got for letting her drive my baby?
Feeling weird, I sat in the passenger seat for the first time. She had a big grin on her face as she hit the gas. I grabbed the dashboard. “Slower, Gianna.”
She glanced sideways. “Slower? Really? I always took you for a harder and faster kind of guy.” Now she flirted with me, when I couldn’t touch her for fear she’d crash my car.
“Don’t try to distract me with your naughty words, seductress. I’m watching the speedometer and I better not see you go a mile over the speed limit.”
She turned the radio up to drown out the end of my lecture. By the time we reached the parking garage near my mom’s place, I was relieved Gianna respected all road signs and speed limits. However as soon as she parked, I snatched the keys out of her hand.
I retrieved our bags from the back. “I hope you enjoyed that, because it won’t happen again.”
She pressed her body against mine and licked my bottom lip. “Are you sure?”
“Very,” I managed, staying strong.
She rubbed her chest against me and repeated, “Are you sure?”
“Mostly.” I was getting so turned on now.
She grabbed my hand and put it on her chest. “Can I please drive your car again, sometime?”
“Oh hell yeah,” I practically moaned as her hand went to
the front of my pants.
She laughed and darted away. “That’s what I thought, master player. You’re too easy.”
“Only around you,” I mumbled to myself, watching her ass as she walked ahead of me.