They turned and strolled back toward the marina, meeting Butch and Jenny walking from the other direction. Jenny’s hair was sort of messed up and Lia wondered if she and Butch had been making out. Dari hadn’t even touched her except to hold her hand, but as the other couple approached, he casually took his arm and put it around her waist. Why now? Why hadn’t he done that while they were walking along the bank? Perhaps he thought she might object but with Butch and Jenny there, she would feel safe, wouldn’t feel like he was rushing things.
Lia couldn’t even suspect what a battle Dari had fought with himself when all he wanted to do as they’d walked along was grab her and kiss the mortal life out of her. And it didn’t help to know that was probably what Butch was doing with Jenny. But he didn’t want to scare Lia off by making her think he was that kind of guy. It was even hard for him to talk in a normal voice. He’d never met anyone as sweet and nice as Lia, and had certainly never been with anyone so beautiful. He didn’t want to mess up a good thing by coming on too strong.
Making their way back up to the cars, they all decided they would cruise together the next Saturday night, and when they got to the Mercury, Lia unlocked the door and Dari opened and held it for her. She got into the seat and looked up at him with his arm lying across the top of the open door. He reached down and kissed her, deeper than he had done in the movie theater, and she thought she would surely melt into the seat.
And Dari thought he wouldn’t be able to walk back to his car. His legs felt like willow branches and he was about two feet off the ground. He wanted to go on kissing Lia, but a yell from Butch brought him back down to earth. Forgetting there was anyone else in the world except Lia, he finally realized he had to go.
“See you at school. And I can’t wait until next Saturday,” he fairly whispered to her. He didn’t trust his voice.
“Yeah. Me, too. Oh! Thank you for the movie. I had a really good time. See you, Dari.” She was so rattled by the kiss that she almost forgot to thank him. That would have been real nice of her, to let him go without even a thanks. And she backed out of the parking space and sped away, her heart beating as fast as the engine was revving in the powerful Mercury.
“Well?” her mom said as soon as she walked in the door. “How it go? I see you still here so he not steal you.” She smiled at her daughter and Lia thought her mother was as excited as she was. Lia sometimes forgot that her mother was only sixteen years older than she was. May Li had said that she and Taylor had married when she was fifteen, so she had to be just sixteen when Lia was born. She sat down on the floor at her mom’s feet anxious to tell her all about Dari.
“Mom, he’s wonderful. I’ve never met anyone like him.” Then she giggled. “I’ve never met any boy before now. I wouldn’t let myself. But he’s different. He’s… He’s…”
“Wonderful, you say. And makes you feel like queen. The way he looks at you, you melt down in puddle and his kiss set flames running up and down body. You not want to ever, ever leave him.”
Mylia gave her mother a skeptical glance. “How did you know that? You don’t know Dari.”
“True. But I know your father, and it does not change. Every generation think these new feelings, but they been going since start of time. If they not, none of us be here,” and she held out her thin arms, palms up, shrugging her shoulders. She smiled at her daughter, who was blushing, and knew that this boy was special for Mylia. Although Mylia had only known him for a short time, she was already fascinated by the boy. God, how she’d love to meet him! But that was impossible. They could not have him come here to this place. She would not bring shame to her Mylia.
Four
All that week, Darian would find Mylia between classes, walk her to her next class, and then at lunch time, he, Lia, Butch and Jenny would walk around the campus of the school. If it rained, they stayed inside, standing in the hallway, and Lia met a lot of the kids she went to school with. She hadn’t planned on that, but she didn’t realize how popular Dari was.
She had some trouble with him pestering her for her phone number, but again, she used the excuse that her mother didn’t allow her to have phone calls, and her number was unlisted. What else could she do? Couldn’t she sneak a phone call to him when her mother was out or something? No, her mother never went anywhere unless Lia went with her. Actually, her mother went nowhere except to the doctor. She thought once of giving him a fictitious number, but as sure as she did, someone would have that number. So she resorted to driving to a payphone and calling him every once in a while, telling him she just happened to be out. More and more she hated lying to Dari, but she couldn’t tell him they couldn’t afford to have a phone installed.
That Saturday night, they met downtown; she parked the Merc, and climbed into the Chevrolet with Dari, Butch and Jenny. They cruised up and down the streets, and Darian sat a little taller in the seat, thinking every guy was staring at him with envy. And Lia seemed as if she were a dazzling butterfly who had left the cocoon. She acted so very different than she had the past Saturday night when he’d first seen her. And when he drove her back to the Merc at the end of the evening, he grabbed her to him and kissed her as if there were no tomorrow. He couldn’t stop kissing her. He wanted to drown in her large blue eyes and in that luscious mouth. When she finally pulled away from him, she laid the top of her head down onto his chest, her fists folded at his waist.
“Dari, you’ve got to stop doing that! You make me feel all weird inside.”
“It’s supposed to, Lia. Has any other guy made you feel this way? Because no other girl has made me feel half of what I feel for you. I’ve never…”
She raised her lavender blue eyes to him. “Dari, I have to tell you. You’re the only boy I’ve ever kissed. I never saw one that I even wanted to kiss before you. You’re the only one, Dari.”
And he grabbed her again, feeling like he’d been given a special gift. God, this girl was completely his. No other guys. No guy had ever made her feel what he did. How could he stand that? It made him feel like he was flying up around the moon somewhere. He’d never let her go. Never!
And so it went. They dated exclusively and Darian asked her if she would be his steady girl. She said she would because there were no other boys that she would even consider. Darian was in her every waking thought and invaded her dreams. She attended his football games, usually with Jenny, Francie, Lil, Barb, and some others from time to time. Afterwards he’d walk her to her car and did not want to let her go. Dari was falling deeper and deeper in love with Lia, and she with him. It was as if no one else existed for them when they were together. Fall turned to winter and soon the New Year came, and Dari asked Lia to come to his house for a party, as he had one every New Year’s Eve.
“I’d rather be alone with you, Lia, but my friends all expect me to have the party. I’ve had my friends over every New Year’s for the past couple or three years.”
“I can be there for a while,” she told him, “but I have to get back home by eleven at the latest.” Lia could not tell him that her mother wasn’t feeling too well and she had to be there to make sure her mother had her medicine on time. Her mother might sleep through the time for her medicines and she could not let that happen. If she told Dari why she had to be home, it would bring up too many questions she wasn’t prepared to answer.
He’d take what he could get. She’d never allowed him to come to her house because of her mother, but always met him to cruise, to go to a movie, or anywhere else