The day I turned eighteen, I moved out of my foster parents’ house with a bag full of my belongings before the sun had even risen, and I kept my promise to Frankie: I never looked back once I closed the door behind me. The day before that, Frankie and I had signed the lease to rent a cottage on Pier Street. She didn’t turn eighteen until the twenty-first of January, a week after I did, but her mum allowed us both to move in together before that because she knew we were the real deal. Her boyfriend, Dr Michael O’Rourke, was our landlord. Frankie liked the man, she just never knew how to act around him because he had always been her family’s GP, but he was a good guy.
Having a place of our own was better than anything I could have imagined.
Frankie and I had been dating almost three years to the day when we moved in together, but as far as our relationship went, we had never gone all the way physically. I wanted to, I had wanted to have sex with her since I was fifteen but she wasn’t ready for that step in our relationship so we waited. We kissed and touched and she let me finger her once, but full sex had never happened until the night we moved in together.
It was a memory that I would never forget.
“Frankie!” I hollered. “Babe, did you buy tea-bags when you went shopping with your mum?”
“Yeah,” she shouted from the bathroom. “They’re in the tea caddy.”
I paused. “We have a tea caddy?”
“It’s next to the sugar-pot.”
“We have a sugar-pot?”
Frankie’s musical laughter flowed down the hallway when she opened the bathroom door. I turned my head and watched as she walked into our kitchen looking good enough to eat. She had her long, curly auburn hair tied up in a high ponytail, she had a fitted green T-shirt on and a pair of black leggings. She was barefoot and wearing the most casual outfit a person could wear, but to me, she looked like a goddess. Knowing I was alone with her, and would sleep in a bed with her, was making my head – both of them – spin.
“I bought a set for coffee, tea and sugar when I was in Tesco.” She pointed to the brown pots that were near the kettle. “I filled them up already.”
I reached over and grabbed the pot that had ‘Tea’ written across it in bold, white letters. I took out two tea-bags, closed the pot and put it back before I grabbed two mugs and flipped the kettle on. I smiled when Frankie’s arms slid around my bare waist and her head rested underneath my shoulder blades. I was being a little unfair to her and I knew it. I was starting to fill out a little, my shoulders were broader and my body was lean and I knew Frankie liked it best when I was shirtless and now that we lived together I planned on being shirtless a lot.
“If I get any taller,” I commented, “you’re gonna need a foot stool to hug me.”
She reached up and pinched my nipple which made me yelp and her laugh. When I turned to face her, I looked down and snorted. I was eighteen and was already six foot four, she was a week shy of eighteen and topped the measuring stick at five foot even. She was an itty bit of a thing and I loved it. There was no woman more feminine to me than Frankie.
“You’re not allowed get any taller.” She stated. “I think my growth spurt is over.”
Laughter bubbled up my throat.
“You grew two inches the year you turned sixteen and have capped off at five foot nothing. That isn’t a growth spurt, Frodo, that’s a growth stall.”
I arched back when she jokingly pretended to bite me.
“Don’t start with me, Groot,” she warned. “Remember how much closer I am to your dick than your face and which one I can slap first.”
I shuddered. “Messaged received.”
She snorted then turned and helped me put away the rest of our shopping. After making and drinking our tea, we got to work. Once the perishable food was stored in the fridge and freezer, we took some time deciding on where everything else would go. I made the mistake of putting cups, bowls and plates into the top cupboards. I forgot my girlfriend was a hobbit so I had to take them all out and put them in a floor cupboard. When everything was put away Frankie beamed and hugged me for the hundredth time that day.
“I can’t believe we live here. Together. We’ve leased this place, we both graduated school, have jobs and pay rent and bills. We’re actual adults. It’s terrifying. I love it.”