Paper Hearts by Shey Stahl

Author:Shey Stahl [Stahl, Shey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shey Stahl LLC
Published: 2022-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

31

WHEN HE TOOK MY VIRGINITY

The following month, I graduate from Savannah High School, get accepted to the University of Georgia with Arya and cry, because I’m not sure I want to go. Hazel and Becca both went there, and though I never want to follow in their footsteps, it’s the college I got a scholarship to. I should go, right?

But you don’t care about any of that crap, do you? You want to know about Ender and me, huh? Has our relationship changed since prom?

Yeah, I guess in some ways it has. He doesn’t come to my graduation because he’s working—and he doesn’t want to see my dad—but I do get a text from him saying: But I could stop by later and take that gown off with my teeth if you’d like?

That’s all wishful thinking, because we are, in fact, hours apart. But not for long.

The summer starts like every other summer has. I arrive at Aunt Leslie’s and quickly find myself at the newly remodeled James house. I spend the day on the water with Arya, catching up. She’s pissed at me with how often Ender comes to see me, but then I remind her she’s usually with Roman.

Ender arrives hours later, having been in Gainesville where he’s apparently been working for the last month installing granite countertops.

I’m giddy at his arrival, unsure what this year is going to bring. I’m eighteen. Legal. We’re at the lake and I’ll finally have what I’ve always wanted. Him.

We meet outside later that evening, the summer day cloudy, suffocating humidity in the air and a darkness to the west of the lake.

“Summer before college, huh?” he asks, taking in a deep breath at the sight of me. We haven’t talked much about college. In fear maybe, but we didn’t talk about it.

“Crazy, huh?” I bump my shoulder into his as we walk out his front door and step foot on the pebbled stone pathway that leads from the front porch to the concrete driveway. Flowers surround us, all bursting in bright red, yellow, and pink. “I’m not thirteen anymore.”

He chuckles, his hands in his pockets as he leans into the railing, his gaze gliding down my body with a hunger I haven’t seen in months. “No, you’re not, Hads.”

I smile shyly.

“Dinner?”

“With you?”

He nods. “Arya’s out with Roman, why not?”

Yep, Arya and Roman are dating now.

“Okay.”

He winks, takes my hand, and we head toward his truck.

“Why didn’t you go to college?” I ask once we’re in his truck.

“Because my dad wants me to.”

I roll the window down in his truck enough to draw in a breeze. “So you won’t because he wants you to?”

“It’s not for me.” He shrugs, sliding the key into the ignition.

I wonder how much of anything isn’t for Ender. Will someone like him ever define a relationship with marriage?

“What are you going to do this fall?”

“Well, certainly not college,” he answers, annoyed. No one is going to tell Ender James what to do and that’s especially the case for his dad.

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