Shelly

I didn't know that having someone hold me was what I needed until Tanner did. We didn't speak as he just hugged me and I reciprocated. I had never hugged a boy before so I felt awkward as my chest was pressed against him but I didn't dwell on that.

Instead, I focused on how we were doing something wrong. We would get into major trouble if our parents knew. I didn't care though, he was what I wanted in that moment. I grasped him tighter and he put his hand on my head, securing me on his chest.

Eyes closed, I took a deep breath as it was relaxing. Rubbing my head into his chest like a cat, I felt him laugh. I pulled away to look at his face up close. There were tiny dark freckles from the time in the sun, only they were turning light from the time we spent apart. Almost like he was a flower wilting away and I had been his water.

"What?" Tanner asked as he looked down at me.

"Nothing, just...happiness overload," I breathed a laugh.

"Same, now shh, and let me hold you."

And I did. We spent a few minutes more holding each other. It felt nice and weird that I didn't know what I was missing until he jumped over. My heart sped up at the sight. One second we were just talking, I was crying, and then a silhouette was jumping over my fence. I snuggled up to him again, aware that we only had so much time together like this.

"Shelly?"

"Huh?"

"Leave with me."

"What?" I pulled away again.

"Let's go. Travel, we can pick up jobs here and there, we can still go to school because almost everything is online."

"My mom Tanner," I slowly moved my head in a no.

"Humph," he groaned.

"I would love to but I can't leave her. My dad did that and I'm not my father. Yes, it's not the same thing but still. She lost one love, she's not going to lose her only child now."

And I was certain I didn't want to leave her like that. She deserved the same kind of happiness like I did. But gosh leaving with Tanner and just living seemed fun and exciting. But my mother comes first.

"Okay, maybe once you hit college. It's natural to leave for college. And hopefully, this is all blown over," he sighed.

"That's fine. A year left," I smiled at him.

His cognac eyes had only looked darker as the only light was from the sky but my eyes had adjusted to the darkness. I reached a hand up to run a hand through his hair. He tugged mine with the tips of his fingers and my head was pulled back. I scrunched my nose as it took away my sight of him.

But then he leaned down. Tanner knew what he was doing as he skipped my mouth and went to kiss my cheek. Then he laid his cheek against mine and I felt my face warm up. Biting my lip, he trailed tiny pecks from my ear up to the corner of my mouth.

And then pulled away. With a gasp from me, he kissed my forehead but it didn't hurt like when my father did it, and grabbed a chair. Using it, he jumped back over. The entire time, I just stood there thinking about how he was close to kissing me. My hand went up to my mouth, softly touching them.

"I'm your stalker," he whispered to me.

"And I'm yours," I whispered back.