Waiting on the Sidelines

“I bet you do,” I just smiled back. He looked over my shoulder to notice Tyler. He looked back at me briefly, a rush of understanding seeming to hit him.

“Hi, young man. I’m afraid I’ve been rude. Buck Johnson,” he said, reaching out to shake Tyler’s hand.

Tyler smiled and shook back right away, taken in by his charms. “Tyler Rawston, sir. Good to meet you. I’m friends with Nolan,” he said, leaning into me a little.

Buck just kept his grin in place, reaching in his pockets to get his keys, but careful to keep his eyes on Tyler the entire time. “This girl’s a special one now, you hear?” Buck said, his tone somewhere between kidding and dead serious.

“Yes, sir,” Tyler said, deciding that respectful was the best way to go.

Buck gave me one last hug before nodding at me a little. He knows more than I give him credit for, I thought.

Alone, Tyler reached down for my hand. I kept it low, below the table. Here I was, hiding it from Reed again. My life was a circle, and I was destined to play the same part over and over. “So, can I take you out?” Tyler asked.

“Sure,” I smiled. “I just need to finish cleaning up. Mind waiting?”

“Of course not. I’ll help,” he said, taking a pad to the grill and hurrying things along.

Sean walked up with Becky around his arm. He shook Tyler’s hand and then urged me over to the side a bit. “There’s a desert party tonight. We’re not going, but thought you might want to know. I know our boy will be there,” he just grimaced. I knew what that probably meant. I put my hand on his shoulder and just nodded with a tight-lipped smile to show him I was worried about Reed, too.

Becky and Sean left, and Sienna and Sarah weren’t too far behind them. Sienna was leaving for a weekend music camp in the morning, so I knew she wouldn’t be at the party. And Sarah didn’t like to go alone, so I was pretty sure she wouldn’t be there either. I would have preferred for someone to have been watching over Reed, but he was also a big boy. And he was distancing himself from me, on purpose. I needed to let that happen.

Tyler and I went through the drive-thru at MicNic’s for some frosty shakes to take back to my house. I called my parents and asked if we could just hang out in the living room and watch movies for a while, which of course they were thrilled to let us do. Any date that was happening under my father’s roof was preferred by him.

My dad had quite the collection of Adam Sandler movies, so we just picked from the home library for the night. Somehow, Tyler had never seen “Happy Gilmore,” which was my favorite of the bunch. We watched it and my dad found his way into the living room a few times to watch with us. Watch over us, I thought. Tyler was careful around my father. Not confident and respectful like Reed. He was polite, but I always had the feeling that he was wishing we were alone more.

My parents went to sleep at about 11 p.m. with orders that Tyler had to go home by midnight. Tyler questioned me about how hard that time was set in stone, and I told him that the odds were high that my dad had set an alarm just to make sure that we followed his rules. He grimaced a little at that.

Tyler took full advantage of the hour of alone time, however. Within minutes he had me on my back in a full make-out session on the sofa. My heart was racing from his potent kiss. I couldn’t lie, they were delicious. But I was also nervous. His hands were firm on my sides, but slowly sliding up my body. For the longest time he was careful to only hold my back and slide up to my face and neck.

When his hand finally slid up the back of my shirt, I felt both a thrill and a rush of nervousness through my veins, my heart double-beating somewhat. I wanted to experience this kind of closeness so badly. Even Sienna had serious kissing sessions with the two or three boyfriends she had. I was always the one hearing the stories, desperate to understand it all on my own. But I had also always fantasized that it would be Reed who was touching me.

Tyler’s kissing grew more intense, and he was slowly working from my lips to my neck, his hand sliding from my back to my sides before finally, softly caressing my breast. My breath hitched a bit at the sensation of it. It was more personal than I had imagined it would be, and a little thrilling at the same time.

He kept his hand there, his fingers teasing my skin softly while his kissing slowed, almost as if he was gauging my reaction. I wasn’t saying stop. But I wasn’t sure I was saying ‘go farther’ either. He met my eyes for a moment, and I caught a flash of those irresistible dimples as my hand grabbed at the back of his hair. I was in a bit of a trance staring at his lips, unaware of anything around us when he spoke.