Here & Now by Melyssa Winchester, Joey Winchester Page B

obviously not that big of one for him.
    “What about classes?”
    “What about them? I’ll explain to my professors that there’s somewhere important I need to be that day and deal with the fallout after. It’s one day. It’s not like I’m dropping out.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yeah, baby I am, but are you sure this is what you want to do? Because if you’re still thinking you need to do this for me, don’t do it.”
    “I’m sure. I want to do this.”
    “For you or for me?”
    “For both of us, and my parents.”
    “Alright then. It’s settled.”
    When I focus on the food in front of me, ripping off small parts of the bun before eating it, pecking at it almost the way a bird would, I feel his arm brush against mine and look up to a sea of the warmest shade of brown I’ve ever laid eyes on.
    “You’re not going to fight me on this?”
    Shaking my head as I hurry to swallow the bite of burger bun I just ripped off, my cheeks heat.
    What he’s asking, I should have seen it coming. I fight everything. Tooth and nail, balls to the wall, I never give in on anything I have an opinion about very easily. It’s another reason why my mom backed down so easily last fall. If I was willing to fight for Dillon then there had to be something there worth fighting for.
    I’ve also used it a lot on him over the last year. His going away and me setting down the once a month visitation is clear evidence of that. I saw what I wanted to see, what I believed at the time was the right thing for him and I ran with it, arguing the entire way even though deep down I knew it was like he said. He would have wanted to see me more.
    “No. I won’t fight you on this because I want you there.”
    “Good, because just like the doctor’s appointment last week, you’re not going to be able to keep me away.” He pauses, leveling me with a soft smile, one that barely lifts his lips, but that resonates through me because of what it means. “Will you do something with me?”
    “Does it involve illegally tagging a public park?”
    “No, but the way you make illegal sound, I might have to rethink what I was about to ask.”
    Smiling back, he squeezes the hand he now has wrapped around mine and pulls me toward him. Shifting my body as it makes contact with his, I allow myself to fall easily back into his arms until I can feel his breath on the side of my neck, but still have an unobstructed view of his lips. 
    “What did you want me to do?”
    “This Saturday after the game, I want to do something with you.”
    Doing something with Dillon could mean one of a million things. Before he went away in August, we managed to go to the zoo, the movie theater, walks on the beach, even seeing the small carnival when it set up shop in the mall parking lot. Most nights we stayed close to home, either watching a movie at his place, or hanging out with my mom at mine. It makes it hard for me to figure what he might want to do with me now.
    “Define something.”
    “I want to take you out. Not to the movies or any of the other stuff we’ve done, but really take you out. I want you to get dressed up, I’ll do the same and I want to take you to dinner.”
    Well that’s new.
    “Why do you want to do that? We can just as easily come back here and have another picnic.” I turn and say as I motion with my hand toward the food laid out in front of us.
    “Because we’ve been together a year and I’m so shitty at the whole boyfriend thing that I’ve never actually taken you on a real date.”
    “You’ve taken me on lots of dates.”
    “Not the ones you deserve.” he admits. “I said I wanted the whole damn world knowing what you mean to me and whenever I take you out, it’s always somewhere where there aren’t a lot of people or we’re shrouded in the dark making out. You deserve better than that.”
    There’s always been people around when we’ve gone out and even though he hasn’t always been the most open with his affection in