“Let’s forget all the noise for right now, okay? Let’s just enjoy us. We finally get to be together, Penny.” He turned on the light so that I could see him.
He had that just fucked hair that I loved so much. He finished buttoning his shirt.
I looked around at the closet. It was a complete mess. “James, do you think maybe we should pick some of this up?”
“Eh, I don’t work here anymore. Let’s get the hell out of here before someone finds us.” He grabbed my hand and opened up the door a crack. He pulled me out after him and we ran hand in hand through the hallway. Classes had started and no one was around.
A few students walking along the green turned to look at us as we ran to his car. He opened up the door for me and I quickly got in. He closed it and ran around to his side. As he turned his key in the ignition he leaned over and kissed me again.
There had been so much stress in our relationship. It finally felt like we were allowed to be happy. We were acting like two teenagers in love. And that’s how I felt. When I was next to him, I felt like anything was possible.
“Truth or dare?” he asked and looked at me.
I looked into his eyes. He was giving me a challenging look. I didn’t want to go back to his apartment. I didn’t want to ever have to face reality. I wanted to get as far away from here as possible. “Dare.”
PART 3
Wednesday
It seemed like with every mile we drove away from the University of New Castle, James grew more and more relaxed. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from his face. I was still processing the fact that he had quit his job. For me. Every few seconds he would turn his head to look at me and his smile would grow even brighter.
“What are you staring at?” he finally said.
“You.”
He rubbed his thumb against my palm.
“What now?” I asked.
“Well, do you have a passport?”
“No. I’ve never needed one.” I really wish I had a passport.
“You’ve never left the country?” He turned to me again. He seemed to think I was joking.
“I have. I’ve been to Canada. But I didn’t need a passport.”
“That’s because going to Canada doesn’t really count as leaving the country. So where have you been? I want to take you somewhere new.”
I turned and looked out the window. “I haven’t really been that many places.” I watched the colorful autumn trees passing by us in a blur before turning back to him. “I’ve pretty much stayed on the east coast. Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. Oh, I’ve been to North and South Carolina. And New York of course.” I squeezed his hand. “And Florida a few times to go to Disneyworld.”
“Disneyworld?” He smiled at me.
“Yeah, I love Disneyworld. Everyone loves Disneyworld. Don’t look at me like that.”
He laughed and turned his attention back to the road. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been.”
“You’ve never been to Disneyworld?”
“No.”
I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “Well, maybe you should let me take you to Disneyworld.”
He laughed. “This is my dare. I’m taking you somewhere. Not the other way around.”
“So, where are we going then?”
Instead of saying anything, James put on his turn signal and took an exit that I was all too familiar with. It was the same exit I’d take if I was going home. I thought we’d be staying on I-95 until we got to the Philly airport.
“Aren’t we going to the airport?” I asked. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.
“We are. I just wanted to make a quick stop first.”
Oh God. Not my house! “I don’t know. I haven’t decided if I want to make that speech on Friday yet. So we can’t go anywhere that far I guess. And I forgot that I really should be studying for my Stat test. You know what? Let’s just turn around. Let’s spend the day in your apartment. Don’t we have to get stuff ready for your brother anyway?”
“Ellen will get everything ready for Rob’s visit.”
“I forgot, I think I have a psychology test tomorrow too. Oh geez, we better get back.”
“You chose dare, Penny. Who backs down from a dare?” He drove down Concord Pike and put his turn signal on again.
No, no, no! “You know what? I actually think I’ve been around here before. There’s this cute little diner right down the street. I’m starving. Do you want to stop and eat?”
He lowered his eyebrows slightly. “Penny, you’re a terrible liar.”
“What? Psh. Professor Hunter…”
“You really should stop calling me that.” He turned into Windy Park.
My neighborhood. I took a deep breath. “How do you know where I live?”
“Oh, is this your neighborhood?” He looked over at me and raised his left eyebrow.
“James, pull over.”
He continued to drive down the street and stopped at the stop sign before turning onto Smith Lane.
“James!”
He turned the corner and pulled to a stop at the bottom of my street.
“Penny, you’ll be lucky if your parents don’t already know. It’ll be better if they hear it from you. You said you’d call them…”
“And I will call them. I can’t do this in person.”
“You can.”
“James, I can’t.” I dropped my head back on the headrest.
“We need to do this. Today.”
The way he said we made me feel slightly better. But not better enough to tell him to drive up the street to my house.
“You don’t have to do it alone. I’m going to be with you. I’ll even do most of the talking if you want.”
“I feel like that’ll make it worse. I need some air.” I opened up the car door and stepped out into the sunshine. It only took a second before he was standing beside me. He didn’t say anything. He just leaned against the car and stared at the manicured lawn in front of us.
I sighed and leaned against the car too. “Who uses a dare to make their girlfriend disclose their illicit affair to her parents? You’re super lame. How about you dare me to give you head at that diner I told you about a minute ago? Or maybe we can join the mile high club on an airplane?”