Divine (26 page)

“
Sorry, you
looked like you were in deep thought.”

“
Yeah,” I
nodded, “I was just trying to get through takeoff.”

My mom squeezed my
fingers, alerting me to the fact that I hadn't yet let go of her
hand. “Are you doing okay?” she asked.

“
Yeah, I'm much
better. Thanks.” I squeezed back before letting go and turning
in my seat to face the window.

“
Take your seat
belt off,” my dad told me, “it will be more comfortable
if you're going to face that way in your seat.”

I reached down and
unbuckled the belt, feeling an instant relief that the tightness was
gone from around my stomach.

My
hand rested under my chin as I looked out the window and zoned back
out into my thoughts.
Blue is sad, red is angry, yellow is happy. Green just doesn't seem
like the right color for love.

That was when a
childhood memory hit me from out of nowhere. I remembered being with
my two best friends and we were probably eleven or twelve years old.
We were having a sleepover and my friend's dad had bought us a huge
bag of candy to eat, that of which we immediately opened and poured
out onto the floor to happily devour. Green had always been my
favorite color, so I took the time to pick all of the green ones out,
making a stash in front of me to eat.

“
Hey, you took
all the green ones,” my friend had said. “You know what
that means!”

I remember shaking my
head, completely oblivious to what eating all the green candies
meant.

“
It means that if
you eat all the green ones you'll be horny!”

We spent the rest of
the night laughing together at my desire for the green candy.

I
smiled and brought my hand up to the heat of my red face.
Could
that be what green means? It would make sense being the situation
that we were in when his eyes were that color . . .

A small giggle escaped
my lips and caught my mom's attention. “What's so funny?”
she asked.

I kept my face toward
the window to hide my flaming skin. “Oh, just thinking about
some fun times I had with the girls in Arizona. I can't wait to see
them.” That seemed to appease her curiosity.

Before I knew it, it
was time for the plane to land; my thoughts of Jonah really made the
time fly by.

We
got off the plane and took a cab to the nice hotel that we were
staying at for the duration of our trip.
When
we got in our room the first thing I wanted to do was call Jonah. My
parents were unpacking so I took the opportunity to step out into the
hallway where I could have some more privacy.

I pulled my phone out
of my pocket and turned it on, eager to touch his name on the screen
and be brought to his voice. After a few seconds of ringing his voice
mail picked up and I left a message.

“
Hi, Jonah, we're
here at the hotel in Arizona. Hey, look at that, I rhymed . . .”

What an idiot.

“
Uh, anyway, the
plane ride sucked at first but I got through it. Okay, well, call me
later if you want. Bye.” I hung up and walked back to our room,
feeling a little bummed out that I didn't get to talk to him.

“
Are you ready to
go get something to eat?” my dad asked when I opened the door.

“
Yeah, I'm pretty
hu . . .” I stopped mid sentence at feeling the vibration of my
phone ringing in the palm of my hand. Jonah's picture lit up the
screen with the sound of his incoming call. “Oh, hold on a sec,
Dad.” I stepped out into the hallway and answered, “Hi,
Jonah.”

“
Hey, sorry about
that; I was underneath a car.”

“
Oh, that's
okay.” I went silent with the oncoming redness of my face as I
thought about his green eyes.

“
How was the
plane?” he asked.

“
Um,” I
laughed quietly, “it was good.”

Jonah chuckled on the
other end of the line. “Are you okay? Why are you being so
quiet?”

I was having a hard
time talking to him with the image of his green eyes in my mind. Even
though he didn't know that I figured out what the color meant, I
still felt flustered talking to him.

“
Yeah, I'm fine.
I'm just a little jittery from the plane ride,” I lied.

“
Oh, okay. Well,
I'm getting your car tomorrow.”

“
You are? That's
awesome! I'm really excited.”

“
Yeah, I know you
are.”

A silence rose between
us. I started to think about our kiss from the night before, and I
wondered if he was thinking about it too.

A loud crash radiated
from the other end of the phone line. “Dangit Tommy, what are
you doing over there?” Jonah called out.

I pushed my ear harder
into the phone to try and hear the noise in the background. “What
was that?”

“
Oh, Tommy's just
dropping everything. He kind of needs my help. Is it okay if I call
you later?”

“
Uh, yeah, sure.
Whenever you want.”

“
Okay. Talk to
you later, Ashy.”

“
Okay, bye.”

I ended the call and
floated back to the room.

* * *

Much to my surprise our
two week stay in Arizona flew by. I had talked to Jonah every day
which made it a little easier being away from him. And, of course, I
called him twice on his birthday.

When it was time to
leave and go back home I was happy, mostly because I wanted to see
Jonah, but also because I missed the city. I never thought in a
million years that I would ever prefer it over the Arizona heat, but
when the plane touched down in San Francisco, I felt at peace.

“
Hi, I'm back
home,” I said excitedly to Jonah after hearing his deep voice
on the other end of the phone line.

“
Oh, good. How
did you do on the ride back?”

“
Ugh,” I
sighed, “I felt really sick, but I'm much better now that my
feet are back on the ground.”

“
Well I'm glad to
hear it. I have something to make you feel even better, though. You
want to take a guess at what it is?”

“
Hmm, I'm gonna
go with, my car?”

“
Yep!” he
chirped happily. “I fixed the problems it had so now it's ready
to go. When do you want it?”

With the phone glued to
the side of my head, I looked at my tired reflection in my bedroom
mirror. The plane ride had really done a number on me; I looked
horrible. It was already close to nine o'clock in the evening and as
much as I wanted to see Jonah and get my car, I didn't think I could
muster up the strength to make myself look presentable to him.

“
You know, I
would love to see you tonight and get it, but I'm just so exhausted.
What about tomorrow?”

“
Yeah, Ashy,
tomorrow's good. Actually my mom had told me to invite you over to
dinner one of these Sundays, do you want tomorrow to be that Sunday?”

“
Sure,” I
smiled into the phone. “I would love to have dinner with you
guys.”

“
Okay then,
sounds good. I'll let you go so you can get all your stuff put away.”

“
Okay, thanks.
Let me know tomorrow what time you want me to come over.”

“
I will. And
hey,” he quickly added, “I really can't wait to see you.”

I looked at the
reflection of my grin in the mirror, relieved that he couldn't see
how goofy he made me. “I can't wait to see you either.”

The sound of his shy
laugh hit my ear and made me shiver with the yearning to see him. Two
weeks was way too long to be away from him; I never wanted that to
happen again.

“
Well, goodnight
Ashy,” he offered quietly.

“
Goodnight,
Jonah.”

* * *

I had my mom drop me
off at Jonah's mom's house since I was getting my new car and would
be able to take myself home. Jonah told me that dinner was going to
be around five, but we wanted to see each other so badly that we
planned to meet there by noon.

We pulled up to her
house and sat quietly in the driveway, looking over the quaint little
abode. The outside was painted a faint yellow and had soft blue trim,
a perfect compliment of colors. It had a simple look to it, with a
little patch of grass in the front that had a single birch tree in
the middle.

“
This is a cute
little house,” my mom said.

“
Yeah, it is.”

I turned in my seat
with the sound of a car pulling in behind us. “Yay! He's here!”
I announced as I unlatched my seat belt and flew out of the door. I
was more excited at seeing Jonah than seeing my new car.

He opened the door and
got out, looking as sexy as sin in his sunglasses and tight black
t-shirt. He moved his glasses to the top of his head and grinned
wildly at me. “Hey!” he called out with a rush of
excitement.

I fled straight into
his arms and breathed him in as he lifted me up from the ground with
a close hug. “Man, I missed you,” I said quietly next to
his ear.

“
I missed you,
too.” He lowered me to the ground and looked at me with yellow
glowing eyes.

“
Hi Jonah,”
my mom interrupted. With all the excitement we pretty much forgot
that she was there.

Jonah looked around me
to see her face. “Hi Beth. How was your trip?”

She jerked her head in
surprise at seeing the yellow glimmering of Jonah's irises. “Oh,
it was good. Wow, Jonah, your eyes really
do
sparkle.”

He dropped his arms
from my waist and put his hands up to rub the color away. “Yeah,
they do that sometimes,” he joked with a touch of
embarrassment; he didn't intend for her to see them.

I looked over at the
white Honda next to us. “Is this it?” I enthusiastically
buzzed, obviously knowing that it was in fact my car.

“
Yep, here she
is. Do you like it?”

I climbed into the
driver's seat and looked over what was now my new car, taking in the
black interior that still had the smell of newness in the fabric.
“It's so clean,” I admired. “How on earth did you
get this for three thousand dollars?”

“
It had some
major mechanical issues that the previous owner didn't want to pay to
have fixed. But I was able to take care of them so that wasn't a
problem. And Tommy detailed it for you, actually.”

“
Wow, this is
wonderful, Summer,” my mom complimented as she opened the
passenger's side door and sat down on the immaculate seat. “Jonah,
thank you so much for doing this for her.”

He stood next to my
open door with his hand on the roof and leaned in over me to see her.
“You're welcome; she deserves it.”

I looked up and smiled
at him with appreciation. “Yeah, thank you.”

He smiled back and went
into excitedly pointing out the car's features. “Start it up
and turn on the stereo,” he told me as he crouched down next to
me.

The car started
perfectly when I turned the key, and emitted a low vibration that
obviously wasn't from stock pipes. I reached over and hit the power
button on the stereo and watched as green lights danced around on the
display. “Oh cool, it's green.”

“
I knew you would
like that,” he said happily. “Now turn up the volume.”

I
spun the silver knob and brought the stereo to life. “Wow! This
is awesome!” I
shouted
over the rumbling bass.

“
It's a little
much for me,” my mom blurted out above the sound.

I turned the knob to
lower the volume and laughed loudly at her remark. “Oh Mom, get
with the times.”

“
I
am
with the times. I
just don't want my eardrums to be blown out.”