Free Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel

for about no minutes. I kissed Avery more fervently and let the thoughts in. Could I live without him? I didn’t want to, especially now that I knew what this was like.  To have to stop touching him, I would go insane with need. So, then, how was I going to tell him about the vision? I had no way of proving any of it was real. Even if I was right about Mom, it wasn’t like she was going to back me up and tell Avery the truth so I could keep making out with him.
    I gave us each a second to catch our breath and then went back at him. I needed more time to think, which was not the easiest thing to do with a beautiful boy’s beautiful mouth beautifully moving down…to review: Didn’t want to live without him, needed him, wanted him, had to tell him, no help from anyone. Conclusion: He was going to think I was crazy and break up with me like his dad wanted him to. 
    I ran my hands through his hair, concentrating, just in case I needed to remember the feel of it should I become a boyfriendless loser again. It was silky soft, tickling the spaces between my fingers.
    Ugh!  Stupid Mom and her stupid hereditary visions. Was Melody going to get them too?  Holy Christ on a cracker, the moral implications of Mel seeing the future were frightening.  And Dad, I didn’t have a clue if Dad knew anything.
    I hadn’t fully thought any of this out. What if there was more to this than I knew? I needed to talk to Mom first before I say anything to Avery. It couldn’t hurt to learn from her mistakes. Right? That could also be the right thing to do. 
    My most dangerous and defeating thought finally wormed itself into my brain. The Avery vision wasn’t going to happen for years and years. Tonight he was a hot fifteen-year-old boy with his arms around me in an embrace I never wanted to end. I had time to figure things out, time to develop a plan.  At some point in the future I could be strong. Right now, I wanted to be kissed.
    Avery ended the kiss, resting his forehead against mine, his eyes closed. “What did you want to tell me?”
    I brushed my lips back and forth across his.  I wasn’t ready yet, I needed to find out more about the vision before I could give him up.  “I wanted to tell you that no one, not my mom or your dad, can come between us.  We’re just going to have to be more careful when we’re around each other.”
    I kissed him hard again, longing to feel my whole body electric.  He responded, lying back on the bench and pulling me on top of him, grasping the back of my neck and pushing his tongue into my mouth.
    Clearing my worries from my mind, I finally let myself savor the moment. I was losing control, my body taking over and I loved it. Without hesitation I sat up, straddling him, and yanked my nightshirt off. 
    Avery put his hands up to say stop, but then, as if he knew he was defeated, he reached out and brought me back down to him.  I kissed his neck, my hands on his chest, pausing only to help push his shirt off over his head.
    Amazingly I didn’t hyperventilate; I was too busy feeling his bare skin against mine to even bother looking at him.  I had wasted enough moments looking.  He moved his hands down my back and grabbed my rear end.
    For a second I considered stopping and telling him that I needed to go home, that I didn’t know what I was doing out here half naked on a park bench. That I was sure I was going to hell for all of the things I wanted to do to him. But it felt so good.
    The headlights from a passing car flashed over us.
    “Whoa!”  Avery clamped his arms around me. We lie there nose to nose, looking at each other.
    I totally got the giggles. “Are you trying to shield me?”
    He grinned. “Um, don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you don’t have a shirt on.”
    I pulled away and slapped him on the chest. “You don’t either!”
    He grabbed my wrist, pulling me down. He kissed me, getting back into it, then he stopped abruptly and in a strained voice said, “We gotta go