My first romantic short story. Feel free to tear it up :]
Kerrah looked out the window of the passenger seat of the car and at the mahogany trees that lined the street. They moved quickly behind, like they were blowing away in the light August breeze. The only light came from far away streetlights and distant city lights behind the trees. The sound of honking cars traveled from a highway and faintly touched her ears. The car radio played, almost silently, a song as light and slow as the breeze outside. Her dark hair was tied in a messy and low bun to keep what remained of the summer heat off her neck. Wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, and her favorite boots, she could feel the air caress her face.
A hand lightly landed on top of hers and she turned to smile at the driver of the car.
Justin looked at his girlfriend from the driver's seat of the car, one of his hands gripping the steering wheel. Her black hair was tied in a loose knot and she smiled at him, her hand under his. She was slouched low in the seat, her head tilted back, relaxed. He looked back at the dark road, slightly illuminated by headlights. A few cars cruised by; their headlights momentarily lightning up Justin's face.
Kerrah's smile was imprinted into his brain, the only image he could see when he closed his eyes. It was the same smile she wore when he first saw her, on an evening much like this one, in July. A block party at his neighbor's house was where he had first met her. She had only just moved in, a few days ago, with her parents. She'd walked confidently through the screen door that led to his neighbor's backyard, trailing her parents and elder sister. In her hands she held a plate of multicolored petit fours that her mom had made. She wore denim shorts and a flowing, white, strappy blouse. Standing with the rest of the neighborhood's teenagers, he watched as she set the plate down on the table of food that had been laid out, murmur a few words to her mother, and walk towards them.
Kerrah thought that the warmth of Justin's hand against hers reminded her of the warmth of a cookie, fresh out of the oven. It was a small piece that made up her summer, developed from helping out at her mom's bakery. Her mom, a renowned pastry chef with a dream of opening her very own bakery, had previously worked in a high-class restaurant. Upon moving to the suburbs that surrounded the city of Trenton, New Jersey, she'd opened up a bakery and allowed Kerrah to spend her summer afternoons helping her mix the cake batter and carry heavy sacks of flour to and fro. It was the smell of the cake frosting, the taste of the cookie dough, and the warm, sugary air about the kitchen that had made up most of Kerrah's first summer in New Jersey. The sugary feeling had been there the whole time: In the New Jersey breeze that had first welcomed her, underneath the covers of her bed, on shopping trips with her older sister in the city, and every moment she spent with Justin. It had started with the petit fours they had eaten, side-by-side, at a neighborhood barbecue two months ago. She had spent most of the night with the girls in the neighborhood, getting to know them and making a mental note of their names. Dakota, Jessica, Mina, Niamh... She realized only later in the night, after dinner, that she hadn't eaten a single one of her mom's petit fours, her favorite of her mom's desserts, all night. She walked over to the almost empty food table, and scanned the rows of plates and bowls for her mom's colorful pastries, finally spotting it on the end. She grabbed a napkin and reached for the very last pastry on the plate at the same time another hand reached for it. She looked up, startled. She'd been so engrossed in getting the last petit four that she hadn't seen the dark-haired boy reaching for the same dessert. She had a feeling that he'd done the same.
"Oh, um...Sorry, go ahead," he mumbled.
"No, no, it's alright. I've had them before. You should try them, they're delicious." The boy smiled.
"Your mom made them right?” Kerrah nodded as he continued. "You know what? Let's split it." He grabbed a plastic knife from the basket of plastic cutlery and sliced the baby blue square in half, taking a half for him. Kerrah reached for the other half. They both bit into the fluffy cake and smiled as it melted in their mouths.
"I'm Justin by the way," he said, after swallowing.
"Kerrah," she replied. And then, she smiled.
Watch out for Part 2 (Coming soon) if you enjoyed this. :]
. This story has a lot of potential!
