Break Your Heart (2 page)

Two

              “You have a great voice,” Gina began, “what song was that?”

Grant picked up a single leg, setting his foot atop the hood of the truck and leaned back against the windshield.
““Break Your Heart”, by The Barenaked Ladies. One of my favorites”

“I don’t think I have ever heard it before,” she admitted. Gina had a way with boys. Usually they chased her. And while sometimes at a loss for words when caught by one she liked, she had never felt this nervous and excited before.  Grant was nothing like the boys she knew at school. He was a man.  Although only a
Yeahr older than her, he could easily be mistaken for twenty-five. His features were mature, with broad shoulders, defined muscles and a chiseled face. His eyes told a story of history. Nothing good, nothing bad, just history. Something rarely taken from the eyes of an eighteen Yeahr old.

“
Really? You know who Barenaked is right?” he questioned, taking a pull from his beer.

“
Yeah, I’ve just never heard that song before, that’s all.”

She was sweet.  There was something about her that made him smile. She was beautiful, no doubt, but it was her
innocence that caught him off guard. Grant often found himself tangled in romances with older woman. Mostly college age, sometimes older. Girls his age just didn’t appeal to him.  They were never deep enough in thoughts or theories to hold his interest in even simple conversations. But something about this girl seated next to him was different. “Where you from?” He asked, taking note of the soft flawless skin on her face.

She bit her bottom lip and turned back to look at him. 

“Lawrence.”

“You go to Neil High?”

“Yep,” she replied, biting her bottom lip again.

Grant stared at her mouth, feeling his blood rush through his body every time she bit down. “
Yeah, what grade?”

“I’ll be a senior this fall.” She pulled her knees up to her chest, planted her feet on the hood of the car and wrapped her arms around her legs.

“Enjoy it. It will go fast, trust me,” he paused. “Lawrence is a big town,” he stated, taking another drink.

“
Yeah, there are two thousand kids at my school…a world away from Kipshaw.” Gina could feel her throat growing tight and her mouth drying. She couldn’t place what she was feeling but it was overwhelming. Excitement, anticipation and disbelief all at once. How one person, one stranger, could have this affect on her in a few short moments baffled her.

“Good old Kipshaw. It has its advantages.  The sad thing about Kipshaw is most everyone who grows up here stays here. Although, not a bad place to come back to, it’s simple. That’s hard to find today.” Grant finished his beer and tossed the empty bottle to the ground.

“You sound like you're ready to move on.” She peered over the edge of the truck and down to the ground, noting three empty bottles tossed below.

“Yep. I leave in ten days.” He
brought his wrist up closer to his eyes taking view of his watch realizing the time. “Nine.”

“Where to?”

“London.”

“Are you not going to college?”

“I am. DePaul, in Chicago. It’s a gap Yeahr program through the International Business College. We start there for six weeks of classes and then travel through five different countries immersing ourselves in their culture and learning their business environment first hand.” He rambled on about the opportunity as if he was reading a brochure.

She couldn’t tell in the darkness but she th
ought she may have seen him roll his eyes. “You say it like it’s a bad thing to have such an amazing experience like that!”

“It’s not. I wanted to travel the world and my dad wanted me to go to college. A c
ompromise at its best.” Grant leapt off the truck, bent down and picked up the bottles below him.  He held up a finger towards her and headed to the deck to toss the empty bottles into the garbage.

Gina watched him fade away into the dark of the night, then reappear again as a blur in the floodlight. She couldn't help but stare as he made his way back to the truck with two cold beers clenched in his hands. 

Grant sprung up on the hood next to her with ease, opening a beer and handing it to her, and then opening his own.

“Thank you,” she paused. “So, how long have you played?”

He looked at her as she spoke...not staring, but fixed.

It sent a wave of uneasiness over her. She cracked a

smile and giggled as an attempt to mask how exciting and nerve wracking his presence made her.

“Since I was born. My dad plays.”

“You’re good.”

“I’m okay. You play?”

Gina giggled again.
Enough with the giggles, G!
She wondered how ditzy she must sound from filling in all her awkward pauses with nervous laughs. She regained her composure and settled the childish smile on her face. “No.   Music isn’t my strong point.”

“What is your strong point?”

“Hmm. Good question. I guess I really don’t know.”

“Come on, everyone is good at something.”

“Is that so?”

Her confidence and wit struck him. “Sure,” he paused, deciding where to take the conversation, “everyone is capable of being good at something. They just don’t try.”

“Really?” she replied, taken back by his declaration. The Gina she knew began to emerge, allowing a level of calmness to return.

“
Yeah, really. I just think a lot of people don’t try.”

             
“Not everyone can be as naturally talented as you, Grant.” She smiled at him again feeling more and more like her witty self as she settled into the conversation.

             
“This is true,” he mocked. “So?”

“So what?”

“So, what’s your strong point?” He paused, and then looked back at her with his lips pressed together and the corner of the left side of his mouth lifted. “Or don’t you try?”

She shot him a half annoyed, half amused look. “Okay fine, dancing, I guess.”

“What kind of dance?”

“Ballet, jazz, tap. I love it all. I spent a lot of
Yeahrs in the studio while I was growing up.”

He was quiet.

Gina peered back at him watching the moment before her, trying to decode what he was thinking of her words. 

Grant
turned back to her with a sly smile. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

She stared back as his deep green eyes
caught hers leaving a stillness to resolve between them. Gina felt her heart begin to bump harder and quicker in her chest. She danced from thought to thought of nothing trying to find something of value to say, or perhaps do.  Her mind seemed to be lost in a dizzying wave of excitement taking anything of value for a spin into an irretrievable state.

“There you are!” A voice shot out from the dark. 

Gina let out the breath she had been holding in anticipation of the next words or move from Grant. She squinted her eyes struggling to make out the face of the silhouette approaching.

“Hey,” Gina replied as she recognized Julie stumbling towards her. Julie was making her way through the back yard with one of the girls from the deck they were chatting with earlier and a guy she had never met but remembered seeing a few times before.

“How’s it going?” Julie screamed in a slur.

“Fine….” She
looked over to Grant wide eyed, noting the large joker’s grin on his face.

“How much have you had to drink, Jewels?”

“Oh, I don’t know. A few. But I’m okay…” Her focus on the conversation appeared to be non-existent as she began to look around the yard. “I can’t drive us home, so do you mind if we sleep here?”

“I thought that was the plan. Where though?”

“Here!
” Julie screamed in a slur.

“I know here, but where here?”

“I don’t know, we’ll,” she paused, looking around with confusion. “Umm. I don’t know what I was just going to tell you.  But anyway, I’ll be in the house when you two are done here,” she winked.  Julie and her trio quickly turned away disappearing into the night.

“Wow.” Grant laughed.

“Yep, wow.” Gina replied.  “Do you know who that guy was?”

“Bob.”

“Should I be worried?”

“Nope. Not unless Julie’s really a man.” 

Gina looked back to him with a blank stare.

Grant tilted his head to the side waiting for the answer to surface for her.

“Oh, he’s gay?”

“Yep.  He just doesn’t know it yet.”

“Ah, I see.”

Grant began telling stories about Bob which turned into stories about other kids from Kipshaw. The conversation smoothly transitioned to Gina divulging her high s
chool tales as well as some tidbits about her family. Time disguised itself as minutes moving quickly when in reality, they had been talking at rapid speed for hours.

              “It’s already 2:00 a.m.” Grant stated as he rubbed his eyes trying to confirm the time on his watch.

“Really? We’ve been sitting here that long?” She
became suddenly aware of how comfortable she now felt with Grant. Her nerves had slipped away leaving only an overwhelming feeling of excitement.

“Almost four
hours,” he confirmed.

The bonfire had faded, l
eaving the back yard barely lit by night sky. He jumped down from the truck and reached his arms out to her.

With no hesitation, she surrendered to his hands, allowing him to grasp her by the waist and lower her to the ground. As her feet felt the earth, she looked up to him, instantly
absorbed in the eyes that had captivated her all night. The amazing combination of blue and green reminded her of the depths of the ocean right before sunset.  She hadn’t realized during the night just how tall he was. She was five foot four and barely crossed the pectoral line of his chest, guessing he had to be over six feet.  Gina could sense her heart pounding through her chest and wondered if he could feel it as well.

Grant
peered back down at her as he tightly held her close to him. He lowered his head close to her face slow and soft enough for his lips to brush against hers. He pulled back with caution to take in her reaction, uncertain if he should have kissed her.

She nervously slid her tongue over her top lip and looked down and away from him. 

Grant could feel his breath growing shorter as he peered at her with admiration and anticipation.  He raised his hands to gently grasp her face, lifting her eyes back to meet his.

Simultaneously, they carefully moved into each other
surrendering to the moment, kissing under the dimly moonlit night.

As she pulled back breathlessly, Gina allowed her head to fall onto his chest as she enjoyed the feeling of him holding her tight. “I don’t know where Julie went,” she finally spoke.

“I saw her go into the tent with Kristal and Peg.” He pointed over to one of the four tents pitched in the back yard. In sync with the rules of the party, everyone stayed until morning.  There were people sleeping in tents, sleeping bags on the deck and a few in the house. It was a perfect summer night to slip into a sleep under the stars.

“Well…” Gina said slowly, “I guess, I should go join her.”   She began to bite her lower lip lightly as she often did in moments of uncertainty.
You could stay with him,
she thought to herself.
Really Gina, that sends the right message, you just met him!

“You can stay with me.” The words echoed out of her head. He spoke so confidently about the proposal acting as if it weren’t a big deal. 
Maybe it’s not a big deal?

“Where?”

“I have some pillows and a sleeping bag in the back of my truck. We can put the seats down, there will be plenty of room.” Before she could answer, Grant took her hand and led her towards the truck. He opened the door to the back seat, climbed in and pulled a lever flattening the seats.  Pulling out two large sleeping bags, he unzipped them both, laying one across the surface and one on top, for cover. 

“After you,” he motioned through the open door. She denied herself the ability to allow rational thoughts and questions to surface in her mind. Instead, she climbed up into the truck and slid in between the two sleeping bags settling her head into the pillow against the back of the front passenger’s seat.

Grant climbed over her and situated himself into a sitting position with his legs tucked into the covers. He reached down to the bottom of his t-shirt and pulled it off over his head. His bare chest and back exposed to her, sending a wave of uneasiness through her body. 

She couldn’t help but stare at the defined muscles that ran down his torso. This was the first time Gina had ever laid her head down next to a man for the night and certainly the first time she had laid herself down next to a shirtless man.