I Don't Want to Lose You (6 page)

             
“Hey, let me take a couple of test shots,” Ralph said.  “I'll get one with you and Theo.”

             
Suddenly Theo was right next to me smiling and I smiled back.  I thought it was a waste of time because I needed to get this checked off of my to-do list but I conceded.  Ralph stood a few feet away and got his camera ready.  Theo put his arm around my shoulder and I put mine around his waist and we smiled.   Ralph counted to three.  Click. The picture was taken.

             
Ralph said, “Another one.” 

             
Theo got behind me and wrapped his arms my waist.  “This feels nice,” he said in my ear as he put his chin on my shoulder.  I put my arms over his, as it felt like the natural thing to do and it did feel nice.

             
Ralph counted down from three to one. On one, Theo's head turned and I felt his lips kiss my cheek.  Click. My eyes suddenly bulged and my jaw dropped and I removed his arms.

             
“What was that, Theo?”  I asked angrily.  If Nathaniel had found out about his lips even touching me, Theo would have been beaten to a pulp.  I looked around to make sure no one witnessed it.  There were a few unrecognizable students walking on the second floor of another building so I had to hope they didn't see what had just happened.

             
Theo gave a toothy smile and said, “Let's go get your shot.”

             
I walked over to Ralph and demanded, “I want those pictures.”  I had completely forgotten that he was capable of giving me pictures and developing more copies, but it didn't matter.  After he got the shots I needed, I didn't get anything other than just that. 

CHAPTER EIGHT

             
It had been a long week at school and I was glad it was winding down and the weekend was within reach.  One of the writers for the school paper did her assignment horribly and I had to pretty much re-write the whole thing, but I was able to get it all to go to press.  Not to mention senior events were happening around campus and I probably did one thing too many, including wrapping up a fundraiser for the Honor Society.  I found a grassy spot under a tree near the classrooms, laid my sweater down to prevent grass stains on my shorts and sat down.  I closed my eyes and blocked out all of the noise of every one who was having lunch and their conversations and focused on trying to have some inner peace.  I had one more test to take and I had been stressing out studying for it.  It was nice to just have a moment alone.  And that was all I had.

             
“There you are,” Theo said as he sat down next to me.

             
“Here I am,” I said with a little bit of resentment for the intrusion.

             
“You’ve had a busy week.  It seems like every time I turned my head you were doing something.”

             
“Yeah.  I'm going to sleep well this weekend. How are you doing, Mr. Vice President?  I kept hearing Brenda say that she had Student Body meetings.”  Brenda was the Treasurer.

             
He shook his head.  “These meetings have been ridiculous.  All it seems like we've been doing is going over what we're going to do the next day when we discussed all of this last week.” I could hear the irritation in his voice.  He covered his face with his hands and shook his head.  “I tell you, if I didn't want to be the youngest Governor of California in history, I would stop bothering with politics right now.  Dealing with adults has to be much better than dealing with these people who don't take it seriously and like to waste time.”

             
“Because you're a man of action, huh?”

             
“That's right!”

             
I chuckled as he proceeded to get himself overly comfortable by laying on the grass and putting his head on my thigh.  He reached for my hand and kissed it and placed it right on his face. I contemplated leaving my hand sitting there lifeless because of the audacity he had to think that I was supposed to do this when he wanted me to.  But the softness of the hair on his sideburns called out to my fingers and so I gently massaged the edges of his face.  Content that I was no longer going to be stubborn, he closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

             
“I'm so glad you like my facial hair.  You have no idea how much this calms me.”

             
“I think I do,” I said. Quite often he would find me to do nothing but this.

             
“You know, I'm going to need you to do this even when I'm governor,” he said in matter of fact way.  “We can sit on the lawn at the mansion just like this.  I'll be stressing out over budgets and new laws.  This will be nice to come home to after a long, hard day of work.”

             
Say what?
  I stopped rubbing his face and he opened his eyes and turned his head to face me.   “Did I miss a memo or something with this news on it?” I asked.

             
He gave a wide smile and replied, “I thought you knew that I could see into the future?” 

             
I shook my head.  “All this time and I never knew.”

             
“I can tell you more if you want.”

             
“Please, educate me.  So I will be a government employee with the sole job of rubbing your face?  That’s all I’m good for?”  I asked defensively.  I was getting a little ticked off thinking he thought that was the only thing that I could do.

             
“No, you'll be my wife.” He cleared his throat.  “Well, as I said, I'll be the youngest governor in California's history.”

             
“Yeah, I got that part, but I missed how I'm there since I don't want a life in politics and how I'll be your wife,” I interrupted.

             
“But I'll need you.  You're a strong, smart woman who can control a room just by her presence and you can handle power without it going to your head.  Think of all the changes for the good you could make on your own as the State's First Lady.  I don't need a woman to stand behind me to support me.  I need a woman who will stand right next to me and make progress with me.  You're the only woman I know who can do that.”

             
I didn't know what to say as I never knew he thought so highly of me and my future potential.  What struck me most was that he never took his eyes away from mine while saying it as though he truly believed in every word he had just said.  What a good politician!

             
He turned back to a comfortable position and placed my hand on his face so that I could resume soothing him.

             
“Shall I go on?” he asked.

             
“By all means.”

             
“We'll have two girls.”

             
I removed my hand from his face.  “Wait a second.  I don't want daughters.  I already have a little sister and rather deal with boys.” 

             
“I have a little brother and rather deal with girls.”

             
I crossed my arms over my chest.  “I don't want two girls so I guess this little fantasy of yours is over.”

             
“How about a compromise? A boy and a girl.”

             
I huffed, rolled my eyes and uncrossed my arms.  “Whatever.” 

             
Why did I get so bothered over this?  It wasn't as though it was going to happen.  I had a boyfriend, I guess.  At that moment we had been off for about a week.  I resumed my duties on his face.

             
“We can name the boy after me and you can name the girl whatever you want.”

             
“A junior?  No, I don't think so.  I don't believe in that.  I think it takes away a child's ability to be an individual and not have to be in someone's shadow.  I'm all about a person having their own identity.”

             
He moved my hand from his face and turned to look at me.  “Am I bad shadow to be in?”

             
I thought about it for a moment.  No, he wasn't.  He had a good heart and any young man would only be a better man to be like him.  “No, you're not.”  I looked at my watch and noticed lunch was almost over.  “We'd better get up.  The bell is going to ring soon.” As we started gathering our stuff I asked, “You failed to tell me in your vision when these things are going to happen?”

             
“It'll be after I have my degree and I'll be a councilman or something by then.  I'll come back to get you.”

             
“And if I'm with someone else at the time?”

             
“I'll just take you away and that will be that.  Politics is full of scandal.  That will be ours.” He winked at me before he bent down to pick up the sweater I was sitting on.  Since I was wearing shorts it was easy for him to make an observation. “You have knees like my brother.  I think his knees are ugly.”

             
Did he say my knees were ugly?
  My jaw dropped and sounds came out of my mouth, but they weren't in the form of words.  It sounded more like pockets of air.

             
He grabbed my hand and kissed it and continued, “But somehow you make them work. I'll see you later.”  He gave me my sweater and got his things.  The bell rang and he walked off to his class.

CHAPTER NINE

              I had just finished doing the layout for the school newspaper and needed to see the pictures the photographer had taken for the front page article so that I could choose which one I wanted to use and type an appropriate caption for it.  He was in the dark room attached to the photography class and so I was given a pass to go over there.  I hated going to the dark room.  There had been rumors of people doing stuff that shouldn't be done in there, but I guess it was the best place since it was literally a dark room.  There were two rooms, the one in the front had sectioned off areas with curtains for negatives to be viewed and the other for the film to be developed and dry.  I was familiar with the dark room and its goings on because I had taken the class in my junior year.

             
I walked in calling the photographer's name since I didn't know if he was behind a curtain or in the back room.  It was dark in there with only dim, red lights to help see.  After calling his name three or four times, he answered and said that he was in the back.  He showed me the pictures that he had taken and I chose the one I wanted.  We discussed different possible captions and came to an agreement on one.  He told me that he would bring me the photo when it had dried. 

             
I left the back room and came to the front.  As I was passing the closed curtains to go to the door, a hand reached out and grabbed my arm and yanked me to the other side of the curtain.  I shrieked until I recognized Theo.  I put my hands over my eyes as I tried to bring my heart rate down.  He put his arms around me and whispered, “I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to scare you.”

             
“Well, you did.  Why would you-? Never mind.  I know you didn't mean to,” I said after I could breathe normally.

             
He let me go and stepped back, which wasn't far away.  There were about fifteen curtained areas and they weren't really meant for more than one person to be in, two if the curtain was open.  And there we were both of us in there.  “I wanted you to see these pictures I took and get your opinion.  I'm trying to figure out which ones are good enough to turn in for my assignment.”