Together, we were indestructible.
Or so I truly believed.
Years later I would often dream about going back in time to shake the living hell out of my seventeen-year-old self for the decisions I was about to make.
Chapter Ten
Roman
My senior year of high school, everything went to shit.
It started out better than I could’ve expected, giving the false illusion that Isabelle and I really did stand a chance despite my darkest, nagging fears. After I returned to the academy in Texas, I called her every single night. Her aunt gave her a pay-as-you-go cell phone once she returned to Vegas, so our conversations were less limited when she wasn’t home to take my calls on a landline.
And on Thanksgiving, my grandma sent me a ticket to Vegas.
It was on the condition that I fly to New York for a few days before the end of my break, but I didn’t give two shits what stipulations were involved. I’d submit to another round of my father’s beatings if that’s what it took for another chance to see my girl.
Originally I was going to surprise Isabelle and just show up at her apartment, but Grandma Caroline insisted that it would be bad manners to simply appear without making arrangements to stay with them. When I first told Isabelle she seemed hesitant, as if she was worried I’d judge her by where she lived. Then we started planning what we’d do the two and a half days I was there and her excitement grew.
My flight was scheduled to leave Christmas morning, but a freak ice storm delayed it for several hours, and my plane didn’t touchdown in Vegas until after dinner. I was pissed that I’d lost half a day of the already short trip, but my anger dissolved the minute I found her waiting for me by the baggage carousels, holding a small piece of paper with “MY ROMAN” written in her handwriting.
Breath caught in my throat, I allowed myself a moment to revel in the sight of my girl. She was anything but ordinary by then. Her smooth skin glowed with the same deep tan she had in Tahoe. She only came up to my shoulders, but carried herself in a way that made her seem bigger. For the first time I could remember, her dark hair hadn’t bleached over summer, and it hung in large, sexy curls that fell just past her tits.
Overall she was smaller than most girls her age, but the memory of exploring her slight curves and narrow waist had me all at once harder than the candy cane I had taped to the top of her present. Then she smiled at me, and the spark in her dark eyes made the noisy airport go silent. I loved her more than anything.
She launched herself into my arms and we collided with hungry kisses that elicited a few cheers and snickers.
“Merry Christmas, baby,” I whispered once we came up for air.
A soft cry slipped from her lips as she squeezed her arms around my waist. “I never thought I’d hear you say that to me in person.”
“Better get used to it,” I said with a quiet chuckle. “If I have anything to say about it, we’ll get to do this every year.”
I was aware that I was always making promises to her that could be difficult to keep, but I hoped by saying them out loud it would somehow help to make them true.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that she had driven by herself to get me. Things got hot and heavy in her aunt’s boyfriend’s car before someone from security banged on the window and told us to get moving. But she surprised me once more when we arrived at their tiny little apartment with the news that her aunt and Chris were working for the night. We had the place all to ourselves.
We spent hours making out before breaking in her sad little twin bed. Neither of us had slept with anyone else, so we couldn’t imagine the sex could get any better. I learned how to get her off on the Fourth of July, and managed to do it once again before I came in one of the dozen condoms stashed in my suitcase. I sang some of the songs I had written for her, and she made me pancakes in the middle of the night before we fell asleep in each other’s arms.
It was the best Christmas ever.
Early in the morning we showered together. Seeing her under the water like that had me painfully hard, but everything was a little too slippery, so we dried off and managed to get dressed before her Aunt Joey and Chris returned.
Though Joey was excited to see me, hugging me and giving me a t-shirt from the casino where they worked as a Christmas present, her boyfriend watched me with a suspicious glare. Balding with wrinkles around his eyes and a fat gut, he looked to be several years older than Joey, and seemed to play a fatherly role to both girls. He was nice enough to Isabelle, but there was something about him right away that left me uneasy. Simply put, he gave me the creeps.
The plans Belle made to show me around Vegas were forgotten once Joey and Chris went to sleep for the day. Instead we camped out on the couch in her living room for a marathon of Christmas movies, making out every now and then. I was just as content eating popcorn with her in my arms and singing along with the commercials as I would’ve been sightseeing.