“I am so tired,” said Kris, and yawned to prove her point. She plopped onto her college dorm room bed, her books falling to the floor. “Sleep…”
“Don’t even think about it. You know you have a class in a half an hour,” a voice said from across the room. She was so tired, she couldn’t even register who it was.
“Wake me up tomorrow.” She closed her eyes. The person on the other side of the room walked over. Kris shifted uncomfortably, but was drifting quickly.
“WAKE UP!!!!”
Kris jumped, startled. She turned to face whoever disturbed her, and opened her eyes. She found herself staring into soft, caramel eyes of someone she hadn’t seen in a long time. “Zac!” she yelled in happiness, and immediately put her arms around him. “Oh my God, I thought you were Michelle.”
“Thanks…” She smiled and kissed him. “Get up.” He helped her stand, slowly. He knew better than to just pull her up.
“How’d you know I have a class in a half an hour?”
“I know everything. Come on, you’re ditching.”
“If I’m ditching, I’m taking a nap.” She tried to go back to the bed, but he held her back.
“No. You can sleep later. Right now we’re going to be doing something. I haven’t seen you in five months; you can’t blow me away for sleep.”
“Yes I can…” He pulled her arm.
“Come on.” She groaned and followed him out of the room. She closed her door and made sure it was locked before taking his hand and walking close to him.
“Why are you here, hun?” Kris asked, looking up at him. “You cut your hair again. It’s getting shorter and shorter, Zac.”
“Yeah, well, it’s going to eventually be at an actual boy cut. I’m just taking my loss in stages.”
“I think this cut makes you look really hot.”
“You think every cut makes me look hot.”
“Cause you are. You never answered my question. Why are you here?”
“We’re recording. I figured I’d drop by. We’re only an hour away, so I’ll be over as much as I can.”
“How’s Taylor?”
“Good. He just dumped his latest fling.”
“Who now?”
“Her name’s Ashley.” She huffed.
“Typical. Wasn’t the last one Noelle? Or one of those ‘I’m a dumb blonde’ names?” Zac rolled his eyes. “I swear that boy goes through girls faster than I go through purses.” She had a new fetish in purses; she had a new one nearly every three days.
“Yeah.” He looked at her purse. “I see you have yet another one.”
“I happen to be diverse in what I like to put my stuff in. I don’t have that many.”
“Because I convinced you to finally get rid of some of them. Like that God-awful straw thing. That is typical children in labor materials. I’m sure it was made by some ten year old and paid him a nickel.”
“You’re exaggerating. They got rid of children in labor; there’s no more in the world.”
“You are so sheltered.”
“I’m sheltered! You’re the one who didn’t know what a Polar Cup was!”
“I knew what they were, I just didn’t know what they were called, okay?” Zac put his hand up. “And that’s your name for them. I call them slushies.” Kris smiled.
“I’m just teasing you, honey,” she said, then looked down. “Do you know what today is?”
“Wednesday.”
“No, I don’t mean that.”
“August 27th?” he asked. “Is that what you’re looking for?”
“No…nevermind.” She looked away.
“What?”
“Nothing.” He shrugged it off and walked away. I cannot believe he forgot. He forgot our anniversary. Three years and he doesn’t remember anything. “Where are we going?”
“Out. You hungry? You best be…”
“Yeah, I am.” He led her to his car. His car was a Toyota Camry, and blue. He had to have it in blue. He could have been exquisite like Isaac and drive a Mercedes-Benz, or young and rich like Taylor, still with his mustang convertible (Now he had a red one). Zac was more simple, though. Isaac went everywhere in style, with designer clothes and expensive shoes, or he didn’t go at all. Taylor dressed nice, but more casual. Zac would go anywhere with jeans and a T-shirt of an old, faded away rock band. Currently he had on a white wifebeater (which he only wore when he was around Kris) and jeans.
“Where exactly are we going?” Kris asked.
“Here.” He pointed to a restaurant, then pulled in.
“Don’t tell me you pulled that out of your ass.”
“No, it’s been here the whole time.” Kris laughed. “No, silly, I have reservations and everything. That’s why I pushed you out of the dorm, so we wouldn’t miss them.”
“We are at a place that has reservations? I’m glad we dressed for the occasion.”
“If they don’t like it, they can kiss my ass. I’m paying them good money for it.” He got out of the car, and immediately opened Kris’s door for her. “See, I’m even being gentlemanly today.”
“That’s a first.”
“Shut up or I’ll close the door on you.” She got out. They went into the restaurant. Luckily, no one was near formal wear. Kris didn’t feel out of place with the rags she’d worn to class. “Reservations for Carter.”
“How many?”
“Two.”
“Follow me.” Zac took her hand and they followed the waiter.
“You put it under my name?”
“Yeah, and have them put down my name? People know who I am. They don’t care about you.”
“Shut up.” The waiter led them to a secluded table, and placed two menus down.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He walked off. Zac sat down, leaving Kris to pull out her chair and sit down herself.
“Ow!” she said, and reached onto her seat. She pulled out a small, unwrapped velvet case from under her. Curious and surprised, she opened the case. She pulled out a diamond ring, shaped into a heart. It was on a gold band, specks of silver surrounding the stone.
“Happy anniversary.” Kris looked up. Zac was smiling. She hit him. “Hey!”
“You planned this, didn’t you?” Zac nodded. “I thought you forgot all about it. I was about to kill you when I asked you what day is was.”
“I couldn’t ruin the surprise, Kris. But you were surprised, weren’t you?” She looked at her ring.
“Is this—”
“No!! It’s not an engagement ring.” She let out a breath.
“Thank God.”
“You know we’re never going to get married. Even though I love you very much right now.”
“Aww…I love you too, honey.” She put the ring on her right ring finger. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.” She leaned over the table and kissed him. “Your gift is back at the dorm. I wasn’t expecting you to come, I didn’t wrap it or anything.”
“I didn’t wrap yours.”
“Yeah, but it didn’t need it. It was in a lovely little case here. Yours is sitting in my closet in the bag from the store I bought it at.” She put the case by him. “Here, Happy Anniversary.”
“Just what I always wanted! A tiny box that I have no use for!”
“You don’t like my gift?”
“No,” he said, slightly laughing. Her mouth dropped, slightly shocked by his honesty. She grabbed the case.
“You are so bad! It’s a good thing it wasn’t your real gift.”
“You know I’d never do that if it was the real thing. This is just your leftovers. Put it in your purse, you can get rid of it later.”
“I have the entire world in this purse,” she said, and threw the case in her purse. “Purses break every law of physics. They’re bigger inside than they are outside. It’s strange the things I have in my purse. I think I have a pair of sunglasses of everyone I’ve ever met in there. I have like seven of yours.”
“Is that where my sunglasses always go?”
“I steal them off your face, wear them until you don’t remember I have them, then stick them in my purse. I’ve done it a few times.”
“Well there you go. I’ve found where they went. Now if I’ve lost them, the first place I’ll look is in your purse.” She put her purse on the table. It wasn’t very large, but it did hold a lot. She started digging.
“Let’s find out how many I have.” She stuck her hand in, and searched around for sunglasses. She pulled out a pair. “These are yours.” She put them on the table, then put her hand back in.
“Wouldn’t it be easier if you just dumped your purse out and looked that way?”
“No, cause then we’d have a very large mess.”
“I’ll help clean it up.”
“Zac, we’re in a restaurant. The dude is going to come back soon, I don’t want this huge mess on the table when he comes over.”
“Dump it out.” She gave him a look. “Just do it. I’ll send him away when he comes back.” She sighed and dumped her purse out on the table. “Holy shit!”
“Told you.”
He took her purse and looked inside it. “How do you fit all that in there? This purse is not that big.” She shrugged. “You’re right. It does breaks laws in physics.”
“Okay, help me look so we can get this cleaned up and back in my purse.” He looked at her, then searched through the stuff on the table. He found around six pairs of his sunglasses. She picked up a pair. “Are these yours?” He looked at them.
“No, those are Taylor’s.” Kris looked at the glasses. Zac realized what he said. “How long have you had this purse?”
“Longer than I thought. I haven’t seen Taylor since we broke up three years ago.” She smiled. “Hey! That was exactly three years ago!”
“Yeah, it was. I’ll give them to him.” She looked over the pile. It’d lessened quite a bit since she’d removed the glasses. “K, all that’s left is mine and Michelle’s.”
“How is she doing? I didn’t see her.”
“She’s great. She’s got this boyfriend that she wants me to meet later. She has yet to tell me his name. I think it’s Tyler.” Zac moved his sunglasses into a small pile and started putting things back into Kris’s purse. “I don’t want to be a third wheel, so you’re going to be coming with me.”
“Okay.” She grabbed a few things, throwing them into her purse. With the both of them doing it, it was going pretty quick. They were finished as the waiter was walking over. The only thing left on the table was the pile of Zac’s sunglasses.
“Hello. Can I get you started with something to drink?” He looked at Kris.
“Sprite.”
“Me too,” Zac said. The waiter smiled and walked off. Zac looked to Kris. “Do you think he’d want some sunglasses?” She giggled. “What?”
“Your face just completely lit up when you said that. It’s so cute…”
“And you’re laughing at that?”
“Well, yeah, I tend to laugh when things are cute.” Zac smiled. She looked down. “Oh! There’s a menu here!”
“Yeah, it’s been there since you sat down.”
“I guess I should check it out.”
“Well, we are in a restaurant and all…you might want to order something to eat…”
“I’m about ready to yell at that waiter. Where’s my pop?”
“This isn’t Johnny’s, Kris.” Kris smiled, remembering her favorite restaurant. She hadn’t been there in a year and a half. “You still call it pop?” Zac asked. “Even after living here for two years?”
“I go home during the summer. You know that.”
“And, of course, that’s when I come here. When you’re back in Chicago.” She sighed. “Five months is a long time, Kris.”
“Yes, it is.” She sat back. “That’s probably why we’ve been together for three years. We don’t see each other every day. We do talk to each other every day, but we hardly ever see each other.”
“That’s why I didn’t let you sleep.”
“I’m still tired.”
“And you ordered a caffeine-free drink.” She shrugged. “When are we supposed to meet this guy Michelle’s obsessing over?”
“She’s not obsessing over him. Not yet at least. She rambles on and on about him, but I don’t pay attention, so I don’t know anything about him. But she wants me over at the dorm at five so we can leave and have dinner with them.”
“Then why are we eating dinner here? It’s four-thirty.” Kris made a face.
“You’re right.”
“You want to leave?”
“Yeah.” They got up and bumped into the waiter. Zac smirked.
“Sorry, you took too long. We’re leaving.” They left, slightly laughing the entire time. “Did you see the look on his face? I know he didn’t expect us to leave.”
“Well we did, so tough shit for him.”
“Yeah, and no sunglasses for him either.” Zac opened Kris’s door for her. “He only took about a minute, too. He was a pretty fast waiter.”
“Yeah, he was. Oh well.” Kris laughed and got in the car. Zac closed the door and went around to the driver’s side. Kris locked the door and smiled at him. He searched his pockets for the keys, but couldn’t find them. Kris held them up and jingled them at him.
“Open the door, Kris.”
“No.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“You didn’t pull out my chair for me.” He gave her a look.
“I did that for a reason. I didn’t want you sitting down when I was right there. It would have ruined my plan.” She raised an eyebrow. “Open the door.” She shook her head. “Kris!”
She scooted over until she was behind the driver’s seat. She started the car. “Oh no, you are not driving my car.”
“You can’t stop me.”
“Kris, stop it.”
“I’m just playing, hun.”
“You’re horrible. I hate you.”
“Now you are definitely not getting in this car.”
“It’s my car!” he whined.
“Whining will never get you anywhere.” He put out his lower lip and looked at her with his big caramel eyes. After no response, he lowered his head, and started to walk away. Kris melted. She opened the door. “Never do that again.” He smiled and waited for her to scoot back to the passenger’s side.
“I knew that would work.”
“That’s why you can never do it again.”
“Oh come on, Kris! It’s the only way I can get what I want. I know you soften easily, especially to me and my gorgeous self.”
“Oh shut up, you just happen to have nice eyes and luscious lips. And a buff body. And a cute ass. And you’re sweet. Please stop me, I could go on forever.”
“No, I want to hear how perfect I am.” He shut off the car, realizing they could be there a while. “What’s with the ‘luscious lips’ thing? I have yet to hear that one.”
“You haven’t heard that? Never?” Zac shook his head. “Oh my God. If you go to any web site about you, somewhere it mentions your lips. Every one. Do you not do that or something?”
“No, I do. It’s fun to see what situations I’ve been put in, but I have yet to read that.” Kris shook her head. “So what’s so great about them?”
“Oh God they’re so incredible. They’re just thick but they’re soft and they’re just so kissable. I do remember telling a few people that I would kill to suck on those things for a while.” Zac gave her a look. “What?”
“You would kill to suck on my lips.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t kill anyone. We’ll leave it to just, ‘I want to,’ okay?”
“Okay.” She looked at his lips. “Come here.”
“Why?”
“You got me revved up. I need a kiss.”
“No, you just want a kiss. You don’t need one.” She gave him a look. “Fine.” She moved over and kissed him. It started out simple, but she kept thinking about what she’d said, and with every passing moment it grew more and more intense. She was fiercely making out with him, like she’d never see him again and she’d have to leave her mark on him. It was making him a bit worried.
“Kris…Kris, stop.” She pulled away.
“What?”
“You’re scaring me.”
“I’m sorry, I tend to get that way.”
“You tend to do a lot of things.” He looked at her. She sat back. “But—but damn…” She smiled. He had to admit, he was impressed. “Even though you’re scaring me, we have to do that again.” She laughed.
“If I could get that passionate from just explaining your lips, imagine me during sex.” He thought about it.
“Oh my God…” He nearly quivered. “Can we have sex yet?”
“Not until you’re eighteen. I don’t need trouble.”
“You know what I want for my birthday.” She laughed. “Why do you have to be older than me? Why?”
“Cause you need to learn to be patient.” She smiled, slightly laughing. “Come on, we got to get back over to campus so we can go out with Michelle.” Zac started the car and pulled out. “I still can’t get used to you driving.”
“I’ve been driving since I turned sixteen, get used to it already.”
“Well Zac I don’t see you that often. And when I do see you, it’s not for very long. So, I don’t have very many chances to see you drive.”
“Oh well, I’m doing it now.” He glanced over. “Shut up now, okay? I’m trying to drive.”
“You just don’t want me talking, I get it. You don’t like the sound of my voice.”
“No, I think you have a beautiful voice.”
“How bout when I’m singing?”
“That’s another story.” She grinned.
“What? You don’t like my singing?”
“Hell no.”
“Hey!”
“Sorry, you suck.”
“Shut up and drive.”