Page 9

Chapter 9

Graham

Ding dong. The doorbell at the Pritchett house is old school; it still made the traditional sound, and I hope they never change it. It calms me even though in reality, I’m so nervous that nothing will calm me down. Should I have flowers? What about lollipops? Cookies? I run through a list in my mind of all the things I could forget that would mess this up. No, flowers are in the truck along with lollipops. No cookies this time. Next time. Gotta save something for round two.

The door swings open and I look up, hoping to see Julia’s green eyes, but instead am greeted by Nathan’s smirking face.

“Oh, Julia,” he crows. “Your date is here.” I reach over and give him a high five. Date. That’s me. Finally. I turn towards the stairs and see Julia walking toward me. She has a smile on her face, which I hope is a good sign.

“Hey.” She smiles when she stops in front of me. I don’t know why since we have seen each other almost every day for the past nine years, but I expected her to be a little shy, maybe coy. Her broad smile surprises me, and I have to physically shake my head to get in the right headspace.

“Hi! Hey! You look great! Hi!” Okay, so I might have shaken my head a little too much. I clear my throat. “Are you ready to go?” Julia gives me a weird look and nods.

“See ya later, Nathan.” Julia waves as she walks out the door. I pull the door closed behind her but not fast enough to miss Nathan giving me two thumbs up, mouthing I’ll meet you there , with an exaggerated wink.

“So, I thought we’d go out to Fletcher’s field. There’s more to it but I want it to be a surprise. Oh, and first I wanna stop and get some hot cocoa?” I help her into my truck and wait for her to answer before I shut the door.

“Sure. That sounds great.” Julia smiles and I swear my heart skips a beat. I slam the door closed and walk around to get in the truck. We drive in silence for the next few minutes, and I’m wracking my brain to come up with something to say. Turns out that when I am on a date with her, after years of begging her to date me, I have no idea what to say. I am not this person. I love people and being social, talking, joking, whatever. And now, the moment I have been waiting for for the past nine years, and all I can do is open and close my mouth like a fish.

“Did you notice that the house down the street has a sold sign? It’s been empty for so long. I hope it’s a nice family. Oh! Or a cute old couple. I love old people!” Julia says.

I take a deep breath, so grateful that Julia’s brain is working. “Yeah, I did see that. My mom said she’s pretty sure it's a family. She saw a couple with a teenage girl and a little boy there last week.”

“Oh that's great. I’ll have to keep a lookout for a moving truck while I’m out running. Maybe I can meet her, show her around. Ooh! What if it’s Josie? That would be awesome. I should text her… Later.” Julia smiles shyly.

I look over and smile slightly, once again struck by her kindness. It’s not a big thing, but the best kindnesses are little, in my opinion. We pull into the coffee shack drive-thru lane and wait for the car in front of us to finish ordering.

“Remember when we went on that road trip to Yellowstone two summers ago?” Julia asks suddenly.

I laugh. “Of course! Nathan was sick the whole time. It was nasty.”

“Yeah, that was nasty. Remember the license plate game? We were trying to find a license plate that started with every letter of the alphabet. And your dad kept pointing out random cars. It was hilarious. I don’t think he really knows the order of the alphabet.” Julia laughs.

“I am totally sure he doesn’t. Sometimes on the weekends, my mom and I go into his office to help with alphabetizing files. It takes forever, and I want him to go all digital, but he swears he needs the paper backups.” I tap my fingers on the steering wheel, trying to let out a little of my extra energy.

“Do you remember what letter we were on?” she asks, glancing out of the corner of her eye. The car in front of us finally pulls forward, and I take a break from the conversation to order two creme de menthe hot cocoas. I pull out my wallet to grab my debit card, thinking about that trip. “Uhm, was it M? I feel like it was M.”

Julia’s eyes light up. “It was M! I love that you remember that.”

“Of course I remember. I remember everything about you.” I smile and watch her cheeks turn an extremely attractive shade of pink.

“Well, anyways,” she clears her throat. “I’ve been playing by myself since, and I am on Q. Not making much headway, sadly.”

“What? You’ve been playing without me! Uncool, Pritchett. Uncool.”

“I am trying to repent of my uncool ways by bringing you back in. Keep your eyes peeled for that Q!” Julia starts looking out the windshield intently, the smile on her face fading into a look of contentment. I watch her for a second before I remember I’m driving. I turn back to the road, letting us enjoy the silence. After another twenty minutes of driving, we pull onto a gravel shoulder, parking next to Nathan’s car.

“What is Nathan doing here?” Julia asks.

“Well, I needed a little help pulling this off and he graciously agreed to be your fairy godmother.”

Julia's eyes sparkle at me as she opens the door.

“Wait! Let me. Don’t forget, this is a date.” I jump out of the truck and run around the front to open her door.

“You didn’t have to do that, but thanks. I’ve always loved how my dad opens the door for my mom. It’s sweet.” The sound of a car door opening makes us break eye contact. Julia glances over her shoulder.

“Fairy Godmother! It’s so nice of you to come.”

“Yeah, don’t call me that. Are you ready? Let’s do this. I have my headphones, a snack, and a soda. I’m good to go.” Nathan shakes a grocery sack at us.

“Cool. Come help me take the tarp off the back of the truck.”

“Tarp?” Julia says. “I didn’t even notice one. What’s under there?”

“A whole new world.” I wink at her as I pull the tarp off with a flourish.

***

Julia

The back of the truck has an old queen size mattress crammed into it, covered in what looks to be the rug that used to be in the Kealoha’s front entrance. On top of that, there are two folded blankets, a bunch of random throw pillows, and a stuffed monkey. As I stand there, trying to process what Graham has done for me, tears spring to my eyes, and my jaw drops in shock. I cover my mouth with my hands and turn to Graham.

“A magic carpet ride?” I whisper. I knew that it was on the list. I knew that he was going to try and complete the list. But I had entirely underestimated him and how much time and energy he was willing to put into this. Graham shoves his hands in his front pockets and shrugs sheepishly. It is a little out of character for him to be bashful, but he should do it more often. So, so cute.

“It was on your list. Oh, and this.” He grabs the stuffed monkey from the bed of the truck and a lollipop out of its shirt pocket. “Shall we?” I take the lollipop out of his hand and he hands me the cups of hot cocoa before vaulting himself onto the mattress. Geez, that was attractive. Graham leans towards me, holding out one hand, a small smile on his face. “Do you trust me?”

I laugh a little, passing him one of the cups. He takes my hand and pulls me into the truck bed. I lean back on the pillows and watch him get comfortable while I make a decision. I’m going to do it—lean into the date. I promised Chloe, but I’m doing it because I want to. So for tonight, I won’t fight it.

He glances over at me, double taking before giving me a curious look. “What? Is everything okay? Do I have something on my face?” Graham starts wiping frantically at his face.

“No, no, you look great,” I reassure him. He drops his hands and a smirk grows on his lips.

“How great?”

“Oh geez.” I shove his shoulder and he drapes his arm around me. I let myself relax into his side, breathing deeply. His scent tickles my nose in the best way and I find myself burrowing a little deeper. He squeezes my shoulder and smiles at me with a look of hope and maybe a touch of confusion in his eyes.

“Okay. Let’s do this?” He squeezes me and knocks on the back window. Nathan starts the car and “A Whole New World” from Aladdin starts playing. I smile to myself and take a sip of my hot cocoa.

“Not bad, Kealoha. Not bad at all,” I whisper.

Graham squeezes my shoulders again—who knew I really like that?—and lets me go. He leans back, putting his hands on the back of his head, and smiles at the night sky. I start humming along with the song, wishing I was confident enough to sing out loud.

“Ooh! Are we singing?” Graham sits up tall in excitement and belts out the lyrics. Horribly. I’ve heard him sing before. I know he’s good at it—well at least not this bad, so this is hilarious to me.

“Oh my gosh! Stop! Just stop. That’s so bad.” I cover his mouth with my hands and feel a jolt of electricity. Graham’s dark brown eyes flick toward my lips and back up to meet my eyes, a question obvious. I let my eyes linger for a minute before looking away. Out of the corner of my eye, a light flashes through the sky.

“What was that?”

Graham looks towards the sky. “Hmm. What could it be?” he asks with an exaggerated curious expression. I spent the next 20 seconds glancing between Graham and the sky, excitement building in my chest.

“It was a meteor. There’s a shower tonight, and we lucked out with a mostly clear sky.” Graham leans forward, pointing. “Look, there’s another one.”

I whip my head around, staring intently at the sky. The song ends, another Disney song starts up, and Nathan keeps driving around the field for about thirty minutes. I only see a few more meteors, but every time I do, I smile and point them out, asking Graham if he saw them. Each time, he smiles a little and says yes, but I feel his gaze on me the whole time. A cloud moves over the majority of the sky, and I turn to hug Graham.

“Thank you so much! That was so cool! What a fun coincidence!”

“It wasn’t a coincidence. Number seven. Take me to see the lights. I wasn’t exactly sure what you meant, but I thought this would count.”

I pull back from the hug and press a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you. I loved it.”

Graham’s hands flex against my back and I catch him looking at my lips. Should I let him kiss me? No, that would be mean. I can’t do that. Well, I could but I shouldn’t. In the middle of my debate, a huge splash of water sprays into the back of the truck. Nathan slams on the brakes, making us fly forward and Graham hits his head on the window.

“What the?” Graham rubs his head. He grabs me, trying to pull me out of the pillows and blankets and away from the water crashing on us. He looks over the top of the truck, his mouth dropping, and mutters under his breath, “Irrigation sprinklers.”