Part 1- Jake

I called her one more time. I had rung the door bell and even knocked. All the lights were on in the house but there wasn't a car parked in the driveway. I took hold of the brass doorknob and turned it. The door opened and I walked into the open townhouse. I smiled when I saw sixteen Natalie Dakota Carlyle, my steady girlfriend of 8 months sleeping face down on the worn leather sofa. Her hair was flattened down the back of her large gray sweatshirt that concealed her petitie torso. I smiled at the fact that she was wearing the jeans I bought for her for her birthday. They fit her perfectly.

The flat screen tv was blaring in the background. I looked for the remote but the coffee table was covered in coffee cups and glasses full of half melted ice. I shook Natalie's shoulder softly. She didn't wake up.

I shook her a little harder. Her head turned to face me, her eyes closed. Her beautifuly thick, dark eyelashes flickered open. Her deep navy, ocean blue eyes stared up at me.

“Hey Jake,” she smiled at me.

“I missed you,” I leaned over and hugged her closely. I had been in Southern California for the past 5 days, visiting colleges, going to the beach and vacationing. I had missed her like crazy. I only had tonight with her before another long week of school. “So where are your parents?” I asked softly.

“Out, I think,” she murmured in a sleepy tone.

“You okay, babe? You look exauhsted.”

“I just need to wake up a little,” she yawned. I sat down on the sofa next to her feet.

For a second I worried that she wasn't happy to see me. That maybe in those 5 days I had been away she had forgot about me and found someone else. But the truth was she never looked truly happy. I've seen her pretend but never had I seen a real, lively gleam be drawn from her eyes. I remembered first seeing her.

The gym was filled with lots of students watching the boys varsity basketball game. I wasn't focused on the court though, my eyes went to the sidelines. The cheerleaders doing all sorts of crazy stunts and amazing flips. One particular girl with sparkly blue eyes and shiney brown hair being thrown intot he air(In later what I found out was a twist cradle).In just that second I knew that she was strong, imagintive and effortless. From that moment on I knew I wanted her. Days went on and I realized she was everywhere. At lunch, in my gym class playing basketball and volleyball, around the whole highschool campus in between classes.She seemed to be a very outgoing person. She was friendly and funny. I asked her out and we went on date after date. Out for pizza, to the movies, to college basketball games and out to dinner. As I got to know her deeper, beneath her dazzling smile and wide blue eyes, I noticed she was different. She was appreciative, polite, everything you wanted your girlfriend to be. But she was challenging, she wasn't one hundred and ten percent communative. It was almost like she was hiding things. Mostly I thought that because she was this way, that she needed me. Natalie needed me to love her and be someone that she could trust.

Weeks went on and we got more serious. She was only a sophomore and I was a senior. Yet she was perfect. Her age didn't change anything. We got along so well. At times I felt as though that Natalie was older than me and that in some ways, she was more serious than me. That her mind and thought was broader and more mature than my own. I knew we would last. And here we are several months later. Dakota squeezed my hand and I snapped out of it.

“Do you wanna go out?” I asked. She shook her head.

“Let's just hang out.”

She grabbed my hand and led me up the cream-carpeted stairs to her bedroom. The first door on the left. I took in all the details of her room I had missed. The walls of her room were completely blank and painted pure white. Her princess-like bed was covered in breadspread of espresso and champagne colors. All the mahgony wood on the matching furniture looked as if it had all been polished. It was almost like a hotel room, so clean and in a way empty. It felt hard to believe that this room was lived in, that it had been home to someone for 15 years. The window in front of it was cracked open so the cool almost-december air flooded in, adding a chill to the room.

I shut the door quickly and grasped Natalie's neck with my left hand, I held her face with another. I kissed her cherry red lips softly and warmly, which is what I wanted the whole time we were apart. I want to touch her soft skin and kiss her.

Part 2 Natalie

I woke up the morning we were going back to school. The clock read 7:00. My parents had already left for work. I felt like a complete mess and I only had 20 minutes. The smell of artificial heated air filled my bedroom. A headache started in the back of my head.

I got up and stood in front of the full-length mirror. My big navy blue eyes were bright but started to throb. My deep espresso brown hair was dark and straight but still slightly highlighted with golden blonde pieces from the summer. After showering, and putting on subtle make up, I dropped my toweland stood naked in my closet, looking for something to wear.

Jake's car beeped from the driveway and I raced to the front door grabbing my bags on the way. I ran out of the house and into the cold, crisp late fall air. Jake smiled at me. I smiled back, even at the ungodly hour of 7 am. He walked toward me and hugged me close, tightly. I pressed my hair to his chest, feeling him squeeze tight.
Part 3- Jake

When the warning bell rang for homeroom at 7:35 I didn't want to let Natalie go. I had missed her so much. Seeing her and holding her made me feel so much better, like that the year wasn't almost a quarter year over. She looked so good today, maybe because I hadn't seen her that much in so long. She wore a dress type shirt gray that cut off at the top of her ribs and then black to her thighs. She had on tight, dark wash tight jeans, sexy ankle length boots and a jacket. Nope, that was her. She really did look good. Usually we didn't display this much affection. But, I couldn't help myself to stop kissing her.
I burried my head one last time into her head to smell her firmiliar muky, floral perfume.

“Go to homeroom, ok?” I told her. I kissed her one last time. She waved goodbye and dissapeared behind the corner.
****



I got out of business management class, the only one Natalie and I shared besides lunch and gym, and drove home alone. Now I was sitting uncomfortably in a hard wooden chair in front of my desk. It was 3:15, Natalie just started cheerleading and had practice until 5. Usually I felt bad because I was carrying such a big course load, with AP Stats, AP Euro and AP Composition and Literature as my main classes on top of soccer we hadn;'t had much time to hang out. But now that soccer was over I had time to maybe go over her house after dinner. I chewed on my pencil, trying to work on my composition essays as I stared at my wall of photos. I smiled at one in particular.


Part 4-

It was a lazy august night, the sun had set the sky was a deep indigo and the warmth of summer hugged my skin as we walked through the park. We settled down underneath a tree in a patch of grass.

“C'mon let's take a picture,”Jake smiled at Natalie. Her big beautiful blue eyes shined up at him and her smooth, milky white skin stood out in the darkness of the night and shadows of the trees. She leaned her head into Jake's and a snapped a picture with the small silver camera quickly. Her head slid down onto his chest. Jake laid there, his face in her hair, holding her small delicate hand, smelling her apple cider shampoo.

“I love you,” Jake mumbled into the top of Natalie's head. It was the first time he had actually said it to her. He had thought it for awhile but never verbally told her. Natalie looked up and Jake, her cherry-red lips hanging open and her thin black eyebrows arched up.

“I love you too.” She whispered.

To be continued...