Waiting for You by Shey Stahl

understand why, it was unnecessary and mean and it was
pissing me off with each word.
    I said nothing. I
wasn’t resorting to childish arguing. I did in fact know that it was my fault
and that it was that bad but I didn’t care to admit right then.
    Like the typical girl,
I started crying.
    Say a few mean words to
me and the tears flowed.
    “Damn it.” His hand
dropped to the wheel with force. “Don’t cry.”
    I couldn’t say anything
as tears constricted me.
    His hand reached out to
rub my back. “I’m sorry.” His voice told me he was sorry but his eyes said he
was still pissed.
    “I know.”
    I’m not sure if he
didn’t want to make matters worse or if he didn’t know what to say but instead
of speaking again, he started the car and got back on the road without another
word.
     
     
    It was nearing sunset, my favorite time of
day, when Dylan finally spoke to me again after the car disaster.
    “Have you ever been
skinny dipping?” His eyebrows waggled at the end, his tense mood shifting from
the bull incident. I learned right about then that Dylan’s moods shifted
quickly and usually without much warning. “I need to get my leg cleaned up and
San Luis Reservoir is around here,”
    I told him I had never
been skinny-dipping and that I would love to go. I’m not going to lie. His
comment about daddy’s money still stung but I get that he was upset and said
what came to mind. Truth be told, everything I did was with daddy’s money so in
actuality, he wasn’t lying.
    We’d been in the car
all day trying to make it to San Jose by sundown. The bull incident set us back
a little. Dylan had to spend an hour just trying to get the door to open—now we
both had to enter on the passenger’s side. I was not about to complain and was
in no position to complain.
    I wasn’t sure he was
serious about skinny-dipping or if this was just a topic to pass time, but when
he pulled down the long dirt road, I was sure he wasn’t joking. I was beginning
to understand, Dylan didn’t joke. What he said, he meant, which I found
extremely comforting. Most of my life people treaded around me because I was
the Mayor’s daughter. I wanted to know the truth and Dylan did that for me. He
told me the way it was going to be and I never had to second-guess.
    “You said you wanted to
go skinny dipping.” Dylan hollered from the water, his clothes in a trail
leading to the lake. “Get your ass out of the goddamn car.”
    Over his shoulder, the
sun was had nearly set, just a sliver remained peeking above the lake like it
would be swallowed by the water any second. Watching him, I smiled at here he
was trying to get me to try new things and be eighteen like I wanted to be and
here I was, fighting it.
    While Dylan held no
ounce of modesty, I was suffering from extreme stage fright. Having never been
naked in front of anyone since I was what like, five, I was beginning to doubt
this bucket list already. Shit has changed down there since I was five and
stage fright was with me in full force.
    What if I didn’t look
like he expected me to? What if the other girls he had been with had better
bodies? What if their boobs were bigger?
    “Fuck Bailey,” his irritation
was much more evident with each word, “today sometime.”
    “Make me.” I coaxed
buying myself some time for good measure.
    His eyebrow arched.
“You’re really going to challenge me again?”
    “Where are your
clothes?” I asked as I finally stepped outside the car, dragging my feet in the
black pebble rocks attempting to stall. I’m not sure why I asked where his
clothes were. I was staring at them in the scattered weeds that broke through
the dirt and gravel.
    “ It’s skinny dipping,” he groaned and threw his arms up as if to say I was taking too
much time deciding on this. “You don’t wear clothes.”
    “So I have to take all my clothes off?”
    “Fuck, have you been
living under a goddamn rock? Just take your clothes off and get in,