“Um, I think I am gunna be a cop Jemma Lee.” I said staring at the ground unable to look her in the eye.
“NICOLAI WAYNE HALE Get in here NOW!”
Ah, saved by the bell, or shall I say mom. I wonder what Nick was in trouble for this time?
Jemma watched as her brother retreated inside and then shot me a look fierce enough to start a forest fire, almost as quickly as it started the fire burned out and a tear rolled down her cheek. She sat down on the cold ground right where she stood leaving me feeling like a total ass. She just didn’t understand what it was like to be an eleven year old boy, eleven year old boys simply could not be fairy prince’s, not around their friends anyway. But I could not bare to see her cry so I took a seat next to her.
“I’m sorry Jemma Lee, I really do want to be a fairy prince with you I just don’t want Nick to know because he will steal all of my fairy dust. You know I won’t be a prince for long after that happens. Nick can be a jerk sometimes. You know that better than anyone.”
She sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes.
“Really Julian, really you wanna be a fairy prince with me? Cause fairy princes and princesses live happily ever after. Doesn’t that sound like fun Julian?”
I smiled and replied with confidence. “Yup, I definitely want to live happily ever after with you Jemma Lee.”
Jemma leaned in, placed a kiss on my cheek, stood up and started dancing. I loved to see my Skipper dance!
“What has him smiling like that? Did you two sneak in a quickie when I wasn’t looking?”
Brea strolled out of her room and Jemma laughed at her friend’s ridiculous remark.
“I would like to know that as well. One minute he is flipping pancakes and the next he is smiling like he just spotted Santa Claus.”
She turned to me and teased, “Did you see Santa Claus Julian? Is old St. Nick going to bring you a shiny new bike for Christmas?”
“Nope, I was just thinking about my first kiss.”
“Yup, I’m outta here!” Brea picked up her keys and walked towards the door. “I am meeting Jonathan, don’t wait up and no funny business.”
Jonathan had decided to stick around for a few more weeks after spending two days holed up at The Driskall with Brea. I had excused myself to the men’s room after showing Jemma who wears the pants in the relationship and she went back to the table. When she got back they were both gone and the check was paid. A few minutes later Jemma found a text on her phone that read “Boom Chika, Chica. Will text later.” followed by “Maybe”. Jemma took that to mean they got a room and were fucking like chickens. I am not sure how she deciphered that information from that one text but girl code was not exactly my second language.
“Well, I ask you to come see my murderous father with me and you start thinking about kisses with other women. Explain to me what to make of that Julian?”
“Not another woman sweetheart, you.”
I shut off the stove, wandered over to the bar stool where she was sitting and put my arms around her waist.
“Remember the day Nick got in trouble for painting Old lady Willis’s dog blue?” she nodded indicating that she did indeed remember.
“Well, you got upset with me because I was too much of a coward to tell Nick that I wanted to be your fairy prince....”
“I kissed you on the cheek.” she smiled, her eyes beaming with pure joy.
“My first kiss sweetheart.”
“Don’t be silly, that did not count as a kiss Julian, I was what, six? Plus it was on the cheek!”
I softly placed my lips on her cheek and rejoiced as her body weakened beneath me.
“It counts sweet heart, trust me, it counts.” I moved my lips to her other cheek. “It counts because you made my knees weak and brought a flutter to my stomach. I went home that day and told my mom I was sick, I thought I was coming down with the flu. Looking back on it there isn’t a doubt in my mind that you were my first kiss.” and the only one that has ever counted since.
“What do you say we go away for the weekend? Maybe head out to Galveston before it gets too cold? We can leave Friday and head out Sunday to see your dad?”
“Galveston sounds good, the dad part, um, not so much! Maybe we can just play that part by ear?”
“Anything you want sweet heart.” I said kissing her on the forehead.
I wasn’t going to push her into doing something she did not want to do even though I knew she was going to end up doing it anyway. She needed to see him in order to truly move on, it’s possible that I needed it as much as she did.
When Friday came along Jemma was a nervous wreck. I had no class on Friday so I stayed over Thursday and awoke to her screaming at the top of her lungs covered in sweat. It took me over an hour to get her calmed down enough to lay back down, another half hour of smoothing my hands over her auburn hair to get her to fall asleep. She chose not to tell me about the nightmare but it did not take a genius to figure out that it had to do with her dad.