concern.”
“The hell it isn’t. Until you’re 18, you are my responsibility. You will not be making bad choices under my watch young lady.”
Once again, the ‘Young Lady’ title was shoved in my face. Don’t adults realize that speaking to the teenage youth takes an ounce of finesse?
I nodded my head just once, followed by the roll of the eyes. The glass landed hard in the sink and I was done speaking for the time being.
“Dmitri, you ready?” I asked him, prompting that we were leaving, and now.
If there was anything I had learned in the past four weeks, it’s been that arguing with Aunt Olivia is absolutely pointless. She is bent on making sure I feel like I’m a child and understand that as a child I am restricted to limits.
Luckily, she didn’t stop me from walking out the front door. Dmitri followed slowly, made a quiet comment to my Aunt and closed the front door behind him.
“Maybe I should just go home. I don’t want to cause any problems between the two of you.” He suggested.
I took in the site of him standing on the porch of our house. Just before, when he was about to kiss me, he’d said that I had the power to derail him from his every choice. Staring up at him this very moment had me questioning that.
“Let’s go for a walk.” I suggested, testing his statement.
“Why not, maybe the fresh air will get your mind off of what just happened?” he countered quickly. Walking past me and heading for the road.
Funny how he would want me to forget the one exciting thing that has happened to me in the past few weeks. I’d never thought before to ask him where he lived, and as he was walking I suppose I just assumed he lived close by but then I recalled his car from the other day.
“Car ride?” I asked, fishing for the information.
He turned the moment he reached my gate, “Sure, why not. I only live a block or so away.”
A walk, then a car ride. Sure, why not. It would also shine some light into his family life, something we hadn’t talked about.
Taking the first few steps, my compliance forced a smile on his face.
After about a minute or so of trekking up the sidewalk in silence, Dmitri gave me a sideways glance.
It felt like he was taking his time, waiting for the right moment to bring something up. My reaction to this behavior has always been the same: “Spit it out.” The command followed by a giggle of my own.
He chuckled, the softness returning to his features, and everything seemed normal again, “I’m sorry about earlier. I guess I lost my head.”
Instinctively, I asked, “Are you referring to our ‘Almost’ kiss?” God knows I wouldn’t mind stopping the walk to pick that up where we left off. Not that I would ever admit it to him, however.
Without looking over to me, “Yeah, that. We probably shouldn’t go that route.” He started, “I mean, look at your Aunt’s reaction to me. She obviously has some issues with you spending time with boys.”
“She has issues with everything, Dmitri. Don’t take it personally.” My eyes dropped towards the path, the concrete under our every step seeming ancient. “She is just very over protective. It has to do with my mom’s death.”
“Are you sure about that?” he asked abruptly, clearly regretting having said it. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”
“I am curious why she reacted that way when she saw you. It was like she has something against you, but she doesn’t even know you.”
“Like she said, she’s seen me around.” The way he repeated Olivia’s statement left me unnerved.
“Here is me.” He interrupted my thinking, pointing to a two story house on the top of a perfectly manicured hill of lush green grass. It was gorgeous.
“Wow!” was all I could muster.
I followed behind him as we walked up the driveway. He stopped at his car but my sight was set on the house. By the looks of it, his family was well off.
I’d never noticed the house before, and it could be because