Prey of Desire by J. C. Gatlin

yell to the girls from the driver’s side window. They
honked back and laughed. One blew kisses, and Ross’ buddy grinned and lewdly
flashed his tongue. Ross followed that with yelling again out the driver’s side
window. “Where you headed?”
    The girls
couldn’t hear him over the rush of the wind as they sped along the bridge. He
yelled again. But it was no use.
    His buddy
pushed him off him and nudged him back to his side of the car. He almost lost
control of the steering wheel, and the town car drifted into the girl’s path.
They blared the horn and girls erupted into squeals
and giggles. Ross leaned over his buddy again and yelled for them to follow.
That’s when his eyes made contact with the dark haired girl in the back seat.
    Her eyes
locked with his, and she smiled back at him.
    Ross
yelled something to her, just as his buddy threw his left arm out the window
motioning to the car-load of girls to follow. With both their heads turned,
eyes firmly planted on the red convertible, they were oblivious to the traffic
ahead. It had stopped on the bridge, and the Lincoln Town Car slammed into the
back bumper of the car in front of them.
    Metal
bolted with a loud thud and the impact threw both Ross and his buddy forward
into the steering wheel. It was a minor accident, but the rear-ended driver
leapt out of his car with his pants ablaze, ready to tie into the boys.
    The girls
in the convertible laughed and continued down the bridge. Except
for Kim.
    She
demanded that they pull over. She was worried about the cute guys in the other
car and wanted to make sure they were alright. So they pulled over to the
narrow shoulder on the bridge, and Kim got out of the car.
    Walking
back to the accident, she found Ross and his buddy. Steam was boiling out of
the radiator, as well as the ears of the driver with the dented back bumper.
Kim approached them and Ross introduced himself.
    He smiled
at her, and she smiled back.

 
    They were
speaking casually in the school hallways between classes at first; she would
wait for him after shop class and he would walk her home. By the semester’s
end, he gave her his class ring. She looped a gold chain through it and wore it
proudly around her neck to signify that they were now dating, officially.
    Kim
brought Ross home to meet her parents, and her father took an immediate dislike
to him. “He’s going to break your heart,” Kim’s father predicted. “He’s a
grease monkey and there’s no future with a grease monkey.”
    Kim
laughed and ignored her father’s warning. “We’re just dating,” she said. “I’m
not marrying the guy.”
    But her
father’s prediction came true, and Ross broke her heart –  for the first
time  -- during their prom night. She had planned to give him her
virginity in a beautiful hotel suite with rose petals on the bed; he wanted to
go bar hopping with his buddies. She vowed never to speak to him again, ripped
the necklace from her throat and flung his class ring at him. They were now
over, officially.
    Kim cried
to her friends and to her parents. But when she didn’t receive the support she
was looking for, she called her Grampa . He listened
to her carry-on over the phone for a solid hour, then calmly told her, “Life won’t get any easier, darling. But you’ll get a hell of
a lot stronger.”
    A few
weeks passed and Ross reconciled with Kim just in time for graduation. This
time, he didn’t give her the class ring. Instead, he gave her a Doberman pincer
puppy and told her he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of their lives
together. He wrote her a beautiful love letter, a poem really. And, it took
Kim’s breath away. She named the puppy Zeus and took both boys into her arms.
    “I can’t
believe you could write such beautiful poetry,” she gushed. “It’s so unlike you.”
    “You make
me a better man,” he said, kissing her. It was all the explanation she needed.
    Their
first summer after high school, that first summer as adults,