Slip silently in and out of one another’s bedroom in the dark of night. Compose long, aching love letters about your forbidden love. Pretend to be friends all day at school, but during lunch, slip into one of the locker rooms and make out—kiss until your mouth is raw and your body is so full of yearning you could explode from a single touch.
I do everything I can to make her happy, to achieve a smile on her beautiful face. She’s lost her mother and father, and her legal caretaker is an absolute monster, so I cultivate her smiles, water them, give them sunshine and pray they will grow. Katelyn is a treasure, with beauty unmeasured, and I know someday she’ll know it too, once we escape this godforsaken hellhole we call home.
Wainscott Hollow. Our prison. Our gilded cage. Our forbidden love sanctuary.
“Heath! Wait!” Kat hollers down the hall of the commons of Fairmont. We are finally seniors. We’ve survived. We’ve almost made it.
I turn and wait for her to reach me. She’s got a white baby doll dress on and rain boots. Of course, she does. I did see a twenty percent chance of rain in the forecast.
“God, it’s hard to run in these. Want to go to Vitelli’s for pizza after physics? Then I can drop you back off for football practice?”
We have one class together senior year-physics. I’m on the varsity football team while Kat does math club and environmental crusaders. Our season is over, but we condition train the rest of the year.
We still share the same hybrid hatchback, while Henry roams around town aimlessly in his parade of luxury cars that have gotten him a few dates with girls who’ve had so much work done they’ve added twenty years to their faces.
“Sure, I thought we were doing handball tonight and then picnic dinner by the dunes?” Kat is sometimes chaotic, but her busy schedule keeps her happy, so I go with the flow.
“Found out from Duncan O’Hannah that Henry invited people over tonight. Some guys he graduated with are home from college. I guess Eddie Lind is supposed to go, too.”
“So what you’re saying is that instead of having one drunk asshole to contend with—”
“We’ll have like a dozen. If I had a close girlfriend, I’d ask if I could spend the night.”
“You can spend the night at my house,” I tell her as we fall into a similar pace.
“Depends on where you live,” she tells me, batting her lashes.
“In a hovel called Wainscott Hollow. It’s a sad little shack by the sea.”
“Sounds romantic,” she teases.
“If you like gothic horror in your romance.”
“And drunk frats boys,” she says dejectedly.
I take a quick gander down both hallways to see if anyone is watching, then I grab her chin and stare deeply into her ocean blue eyes. “Be annoyed but not scared, Kat. Don’t ever feel scared. I won’t go to practice tonight if you want. If it makes you feel better, I won’t let you out of my sight.”
“I guess they’re not all so bad. Eddie Lind has been decent before. There’s just something about rich white boys gone wild that spells trouble in Montauk.”
“I promise to keep you safe,” I tell her, placing a chaste kiss on her forehead.
“Don’t give them any material, Heath. They’d take that and run straight to the mayor, the tabloids. It would be front-page news.”
Kat walks into her calculus classroom and sits at a desk. I hop on the desk next to her and glance at the clock. Five minutes until class starts.
“I’m sick of hiding. I’d love to show you off,” I tell her quietly. My cock surges just looking at her lips and knowing the magic and beauty that is Kat and which she only reveals to me.
“We’re so close, Heath. Just a couple of more months, and we’ll be out of here.”
I know Kat better than anyone, and by “out of here,” she means Fairmont and not Wainscott Hollow. No matter how much I love her, I don’t think she’ll ever leave here.
The math teacher walks in, and Kat immediately looks nervous. “Hey, Ms. Cecil. My brother was just leaving.”
“Not a problem, Katelyn. A math whiz like Heath is always welcome in my classroom.”
Kat smiles at Ms. Cecil and pulls her burgundy sweater with the Fairmont insignia closer around her shoulders. She gives me a quick nod to tell me to scat.
A surge of shame runs through my veins as I excuse myself and walk out of the classroom. The poor teachers imagine a wholesome scenario of me helping Kat with her homework, when really, we’re making out any second we can steal to be alone.
I turn and look at Kat when I reach the door. She gestures for me to go as another student walks into the classroom. I’ll never get enough of her and I know, no matter what happens to us, I’ll never want another woman like I want her. I’ve taken her far, but Kat is still a virgin, and I’ve been waiting for the right moment.