"If it was up to me and there were no consequences to our actions I think we wouldn't leave this bed until breakfast tomorrow, but, sadly, life goes on even while you are cozy. So. Let's go."

"Yeah I think my parents would start calling me if I stayed out too much longer. There would be problems." 

Follow her down the stairs? 

Down the stairs and grab the skates and out the door John's bike is still right where he left it!

"Hmm," she says, as he approaches his bike. "One moment, please."

And she puts down her skates and walks up to John and wraps her arm around his waist and puts her other hand on his face and kisses him passionately.

Kisses good. He pulls her into him and kisses her deeply (though aware this time that they are in public and shouldn't let things escalate. He wants to though. Oh, how he wants). 

It is possible that she gets a tiny bit carried away.

Okay more than a tiny bit.

Okay she's gonna stop kissing him any minute now.

Aaaany minute...

John is very caught up in it too, but he's the one worried about getting in trouble if he's not home. 

So...

Eventually...

He pulls away from the kiss and breathes and smiles at her. "I should really get going," he says, voice full of regret. 

"Okay."

She pecks him on the cheek and lets go and sits down to get her skates on. She's pretty efficient about it; it only takes a minute.

She's practiced! All he has to do is get his helmet on, he doesn't even have to unlock and relock his bike like normal. He's ready when she is. 

"All set!" She skates off cheerfully toward the road.

John follows behind. It's a lot darker out now, but he's doing his best to be careful. 

Rosy is totally fearless about navigating the woods in the dim twilight. They're her woods.

It's pretty clear she's not having trouble. He likes her confidence. He likes a lot of things about her. 

Funny, she likes a lot of things about him too!

Anyway. At the edge of the woods she turns to him and grins. "I shouldn't kiss you again, we'll be here all day. See you later?"

"All evening, even," he says with a smirk. "Monday, maybe? At or after school? Not tomorrow, I've got homework. We can text about it."

Bounce bounce. "Sounds good!"

"All right," he says. "I'm off, I guess?" He doesn't want to leave. He probably should, but he doesn't want to. 

"Bye!" She waves.

"Bye!" He waves back. He's still not leaving, apparently. 

"If you don't go home I'll start making suggestions for how else we could be spending our time and then where will we be?"

"...having a very good time?" Also in a lot of trouble. Okay, he should probably leave. "Alright, okay, I, um, see you later!" he says, before biking off. 

"Goodbye! I love you! You dork!" she calls after him.

(He's still not sure how to respond to the line, but it's probably ok if he doesn't say anything?) "Goodbye!" he calls as he bikes away. 

Good morning my love!

That was a really good date. I liked all the parts of it. Honestly the movie was the most forgettable, even though it was a good movie. You're just much more interesting than dystopian hijinks. I have definitely spent a lot of time since then dwelling on happy memories that took place in my bed.

Anyway and relatedly, I found a story I think you might like! I have a lot of thoughts about it—literary, philosophical, and sexual—but I want to let you read it before I start yammering, in case I accidentally spoil something important by talking excitedly about worldbuilding and characterization and which things I found hot. So please read it at your convenience, and let me know what you think! 💖

John gets the email somewhat later than that, he's not up quite that early. 

He's still not sure how to deal with the "love" thing. (She doesn't seem to be having a problem and for some reason that also makes him feel uncomfortable.) And he blushes a little bit at the thing about the memories in her bed. (They were mostly good memories. He wishes he could have done a little better, but...) 

And then he starts reading. 

And then he stops reading, because he probably needs to get some homework done first and he's expected for breakfast and he still needs to write at least some of a response here. (Even he is... very interested in what's going on and happening next.) 

Morning, Rosy,

he writes, after dithering far too long about the appropriate greeting (she said "love" and he still doesn't know what to do about that...) 

I also had a really nice time! I'm glad you enjoyed our bedtime escapades, I really enjoyed them as well.

He probably shouldn't say anything about how he wishes he hadn't messed up. 

As for the story, well, I haven't gotten too far into it because I need to do some homework and not spend all day reading this. I'm only 3 chapters in. And I probably won't get a chance to read the rest until later, since I should probably not daydream about this while doing homework.

He's already going to though, isn't he. 

And I probably won't get a chance to read the rest until later, since I should probably not daydream about this while doing homework. But at least so far, I can very much see the similarities between the goings-on in the story and the situation we're having here in real life (though I still can't believe this is real life, but also I probably shouldn't go into detail over email. Is it ok to go into detail over email? I'm going to err on the side of caution). In both cases, there's an extremely clever girl, giving themselves to an unsuspecting boy. And then the boy has to figure out what to do about that. 

It's also pretty, well, hot, especially the beginning of chapter 2. The rest of it is mostly, well, hot in an intellectual way -- setup, as it were. Not that that's not hot on its own, but it'll be even hotter later, I bet. Which I should read when I have more of a chance to properly enjoy it. 

Do you want to meet tomorrow? 

That's not too soon/forward is it? He hopes not

Do you want to meet tomorrow? Not today, I have homework (and I should read more of this, well, interesting story), but tomorrow I should have some time afterschool. My dad is, well, dropping hints that I should be going to see you more. He was very amused by how late I came home. But he wasn't mad about it, at least.

And thank goodness for that. Mom was a little bit concerned, but dad gave her a look and everything worked out ok. 

But he wasn't mad about it at least. So if I hang out with you for a couple of hours after school somewhere, I think it'll be ok. I just have to text them, now, and get home to get my homework done. 

He stares at the letter for a while, makes a few small changes, changes them back, dithers, finally presses send, and goes down for breakfast, doing his best not to check his phone every five minutes. (He doesn't really succeed at that.) 

I would love to meet tomorrow! I appear to have produced several pages of notes on my thoughts about this story, and I don't think I'm done saying everything I have to say. I can't wait to talk about it with you. I also can't wait to kiss you again.

Mentioning certain things over email is usually fine, but I appreciate your caution and I think it's reasonable.

Please imagine me sitting at my computer jangling like an old-school alarm clock with the suppressed urge to unleash a torrent of literary analysis. ⏰ But in a cute, happy sort of way, not an upset impatient way. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story! Shall we meet at your locker tomorrow after school?