Mari wanted to stay too. She wanted to stay until he couldn’t take her insanity anymore and would kick her out. But she really needed to get home at some point too, preferably before the previously described Cuban-Mother-Freak-Out occurred. She went to stand by the door and couldn’t force herself to open it. The rain was no where near as bad as it had been earlier, but she was still hesitant to leave. She glanced back at him with a sad little grin and took the bag he had prepared for her. Her lips mouthed the words ‘Thank you’ anyway.
And then, there was no hesitation this time. The thing she’d been wanting to do since the first time they’d done it. It was still lingering in the back of her mind only to be accelerated forward by her imminent departure. She just stepped forward and closed her eyes and kissed him like how she remembered, and her lips tingled like before, and it was even more urgent of a kiss now that she wanted nothing more than to stay. But she had to pull away eventually, had to look into his eyes to make sure what she had done was okay, had to brush her hand against his one more time before saying, “I’m still keeping you on the phone with me on my way home.”
It would probably have taken her sister showing up for him to actually release her if he had decided to just try to keep her. At least her mom knew where she was considering the phone call, but it was probably best to let her go while she could. It wasn't as though she was really going all that far away that he wasn't going to see her again. It was a small island that wasn’t even going to require that he stalk outside the high school like some pedo.
The leaving kiss however had been less than expected when he was still half distracted with the umbrella and holding it and pulling her in was more likely to end up poking something with the end and hopefully without her wandering off a little just to get ribbed in the eye. They might look small, but those things could pack quite a punch if you hit them at the wrong angle. He just let her pull back and kept from asking her to stay. “Just give me time to get back inside first. Though I only really need a call to know you made it home without getting struck by lightning.” If she was going to be insistent though, then he wouldn’t argue any further. He could at least still hear her voice and possibly find out if she was the sort to try and keep him on the phone for hours to come... Probably until it was time for food again.
Mari just nodded and smiled. This was definitely going to be some interesting and possibly incredibly strange relationship at first. Mari being the one who knew nothing about boyfriends or dating or much less sex. And AJ, who was.... well... AJ. Surprisingly though, it didn’t frighten her in the least bit. She wasn’t entirely confident about any of this working out, but she wasn’t afraid of him hurting her or anything like that. Perhaps it was her overly trusting nature, but Mari believed in him and that wasn’t going to go away any time soon.
“See you later,” she said and started out toward the car. It was almost heartbreaking to leave him even though she knew she was going to see him again sometime. She only wished she never had to leave him and that instead of going home to her mother and sister, that she would be going home to him. They were lofty, girly goals and dreams, but Mari was lofty and girly and dream-oriented. As she slipped into her car, she looked at him through her rain-soaked window and just waved her fingers at him. Mari didn’t have the power to predict the future (yet), but she had a feeling that this moment was going to change her life forever.
And then she picked up her phone and dialed his number.