By Kali
"See you then..." I hung up the phone with a manic grin on my face and did a little dance across the linoleum floor of the kitchen.
"Whats up with you?" Jess stared, raising an eyebrow as she poured some orange juice into a glass.
"Nothing..." I smiled, patting her head before skipping up to my room. "If the doorbell rings, its for me!" I announced in a shout down the hallway, before retiring to my room to write for a bit.
Instead, I sat down on my bed and stared out the window, giggling to myself. I felt like a schoolgirl, blushing at every word I thought he might say, thinking of what I'd say back and what we'd do. "I've gotta tell LC..." I thought, jumping to my feet which made a loud slap as their bare soles hit the hardwood floor. I ran down the hallway, poking my head into each room, until I ran into Jules downstairs doing laundry. She smiled at me sweetly, the kerchief on her head holding back her dark hair. "Hey Jules, you seen LC around?"
"Hmm...nope...she said she was going out and left really fast, I think she was avoiding us..."
"She went to get food for meee...." Mel moaned. From the hall I could see her lying on the couch in the sitting room holding onto her stomach, dramatically playing out her death due to starvation.
"Dammit." I stomped my foot on the floor just as the doorbell chimed lightly.
"I'll get it!" Mel jumped straight off the couch and started walking towards the door. As she heard my footfalls behind her she walked faster until the two of us were clambering for the doorknob.
"I've got you now!" Mel shouted, grabbing a handful of my hair lightly and giggling.
I could feel my bra strap sliding down my bare arm and my paisley dress becoming completely disfigured as she and I wrestled for the door. Finally I pried her off, holding her back with my leg as I swung the door open.
"Hey!" I breathed, smiling as I still held Mel back, bracing myself by holding onto the doorframe.
Paul half smiled, not sure of what to make of my messed up hair and clothes and the redhead behind me still stubbornly trying to get to the door.
"Your um...thing..." he pointed at the strap that had fallen halfway down my arm and blushed.
Swiftly I yanked it up, smiling awkwardly before breaking away from the stranglehold of the moment to invite the poor boy in.
“This is shit, y’know?” Red leaned against the back of the couch, sucking on a cigarette while eyeing us with philosophical optics. “I mean, I haven’t fucking slept in…” she looked at her bare wrist and back up at us. “Days, mate, days. Haven’t smoked up in days either…” With that, she wandered down the hall in the direction of the stairs, dragging her feet and scuffing up the polish on the hardwood.
“Right.” I smiled, clasping Paul’s hand and admiring the softness and warmth as his palm molded into mine.
“Yeah…” his eyes scrunched up into nickel slots as he giggled while following me to my room.
My nerves tingled, on edge, as I fumbled with the old record player I’d found covered in a blanket of dust in the bottom of a closet. I couldn’t, for the life of me, get the needle positioned properly in the shiny grooves of the black vinyl that spun in taunting circles every time I lifted the arm up.
“Need help?”
The muscles in my back suddenly grew taut as I stood straight up and felt the breath sucked from me and into him, his body heat radiating through me. I gulped and felt saliva slowly flood against the insides of my cheeks as my body responded to the slightest touch of the, [to use one of Red’s favourite terms], “aura” of another person.
“I think I got it.” Vintage Blur suddenly burst into our ears and we both scrambled to reach the volume dial at the same time, our heads clunking together and our bodies bent over one another, pressed together.
“This is interesting…” Paul laughed uneasily, his chest shaking against my back.
I could already feel my animal instincts taking over what little grasp on reality and common sense I had. All rationality slipped further and further from view like the car of a lost lover driving away for the last time after a bad break-up.
We stayed this way for what seemed like minutes, though thinking back, it was probably mere seconds, before I felt his lips on the back of my neck, half wet with saliva, half dry from his quick, nervous breathing. I closed my eyes and waited, imagining the moment when all of this would come to it’s highest peak, the point when there was nowhere else to go but down. Literally and figuratively speaking, of course.
His kisses circled around to my ear, while his hands began to stir near my waist, slithering down awkwardly to the hemline of my dress. He must have suddenly felt a surge of courage and bravado, because with one arm he pulled me up to stand against him and covered the nape of my neck with the same tiny, tender kisses he had been using for the past few minutes to encourage my surrender. The bottom of my dress was bundled and folded underneath the arm that was holding me against him and his other hand impatiently rested on my stomach, the very tip of his middle finger just barely touching the waistline of my cotton knickers. Slowly he pressed his fingertips into my skin and underneath the elastic. A door slammed down the hall and suddenly I was shaken from reality. I jumped and pushed away his hand abruptly, stepping back to re-establish that three feet of personal space we’re all normally entitled to. He stood staring at me, the most bewildered and confused stare I’ve ever seen in my life, his hands still in the same position they’d been when I was standing there against him.
“What is it…? Me…?” He asked, raising his eyebrows as his eyes looked afraid of the answer.
“It’s just too soon…” I sighed. “Let’s go out and get something to eat.”
We both eagerly embraced the opportunity to distract ourselves from the awkward adolescence of the situation and were out the door in seconds.