Life sucks, then you die. Sometimes literally. I watched my brothers as they finished discussing which of us would go to meet the filthy, young woman we’d spent weeks texting. They’d immediately excluded me, which wasn’t a surprise. Maybe they had a good reason not to send me.I hadn’t always been the best brother to them and they didn’t trust me now. They had their reasons, and I’d had mine for doing the things I’d done. Now wasn’t the time to think about that shit, though. It wasn’t time to dredge up the past or to torment myself with memories. It was time to focus on the present and what the future could be. With her.I wanted to know what she looked like. I wanted to know if the face and the body matched the things she’d typed to me in the afternoons when it was my turn to have the phone. I imagined a sweet, innocent, but beautiful face. She had been deliciously innocent when we started our little game. Now, we’d taught her to use all the words that made her hesitate at the beginn
I tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear and looked around. Some guy over by the jukebox, busy studying the menu, a couple at the bar, some people in the games room. I looked back at the guy by the jukebox, but he wasn’t interested in anything but food. I knew because he didn’t look up, or around, at all. I smiled at Becky as she walked into the bar and headed straight for a drink. We couldn’t buy alcohol yet, but we could order food and soda. She asked for drinks for us both, and I sat down on the bar stool. I couldn’t help but look around, over and over again. “He should have been here by now, right?” I muttered the words to my friend, and she sighed with a frown of exasperation. “Maybe he got caught in traffic. Give him a little time, Celia. Sheesh.” She turned to sip at the glass of tea the barman passed to her and then turned back to join me in my survey. A shadow darkened the small glass window of the door and I held my breath. The bell dinged over the door and a man in a bl
Fuck! I thought about Becky and what it would mean going back to the bar, but I felt as if I was in a trance as I followed him to his house. It was only just across the street and we walked up the set of steps. He opened the door and walked in, and I wondered if we were alone. Was this his house? How could he afford it? But those things didn’t matter, I decided as I slipped my boots from my feet and padded along behind him. “Care for that drink, I promised?” he asked and led me into an empty living room. There was a drinks cabinet in one corner, and he went there now. He poured two square glasses with a small amount of amber liquid and brought one over to me. I stood there, the glass in my hand. “Try it, it won’t bite. Much.” His smile was amused but his eyes said he already had me undressed and on my knees.I swallowed the liquid in one gulp and then gasped. I put a hand to my chest, where the heat was the strongest and tried to breathe. Air finally started to come through and I s
“Where is she?” I asked as my brother came into the room. His skin still gleamed from his exertions, and he was stark naked. I averted my gaze from him and opened the fridge to fill a glass with sparkling water for our guest. “In the living room,” he said absently, and I watched him as he poured a glass of water from the tap. He guzzled it down in one long drink before he filled the glass again. “I can handle her tonight if, you’d prefer.” He turned to me, a fresh glass of water in hand. I set the glass of water down on the island between us. The room was filled with stainless steel appliances, even the cabinets were stainless steel, and the floor was hard oak. The walls were tiled in black square tiles, and all in all, it looked modern, but it always felt cold. It wasn’t my favorite room in the place. “I’ll be fine. What’s her name?” He hadn’t given me any information and for a moment, I wondered if he wanted her all to himself. I looked at him, noticed the way he wouldn’t look at
How could you go from being on the high of your life to down in the dumps in the span of a week, I wondered as I sat on a park bench by myself. I’d left my phone and my laptop in my bag, buried at the bottom, so I wouldn’t have to hear them if someone sent me a message. My hand went up to my hair and touched the frazzled ends that were left. It was too ugly, too horrible to look at. Tears streaked down my face, but it was early morning, nobody cared. What was I supposed to do about this shit? Keith’s face popped into my head, and I sobbed. He loved my hair, he’d twirl it around his fingers, let it fall over his face, he’d even jerked himself off with it wrapped around his cock once. I’d watched, lost in lust and fascination as he did it. Now, what would he do? He’d look at me, cringe, and probably walk away.I’d had a week of bliss, of being so high that even Rachel’s increasingly snarky attitude hadn’t bothered me. I’d just smiled, flipped her off a few times, and gone about my da
“That bitch did what now?” Keith blasted from the other end of the phone line. I held the phone away from my face and stepped further away from the café I’d stopped at to grab some coffee. I was the only one of us with a class this morning, and I’d blown it off to call my brothers. I’d headed out from Celia’s not sure of what to do first, but as I’d waited in line for the coffee, an idea had started to form. Keith had been the first one that answered, so he heard the news first. It wasn’t that I preferred him over the other brother, it was just that Colin hadn’t answered the phone yet. Of course, he’d had a long night with Celia the night before. “She cut off all of Celia’s hair. It’s as short as yours now.” Mine was still growing in, but the cap had covered that up from Celia as I held her only a few minutes ago. It was the first time I’d held her in my arms, and I felt as if I was in fucking heaven!I’d wanted to kiss away her tears, pull her into a closet, and fuck her up against
I managed to get through my class without breaking down again. I got a couple of curious looks from classmates I’d shared notes with a time or two before, but nobody really seemed to be too interested in my hair, at all. And most importantly, Keith hadn’t freaked out and dodged me. I still hadn’t seen exactly how bad it was. I’d glanced at it a little when I got dressed, but I’d been in tears and the reflection was blurry. All my lovely hair -- my veil, my sanctuary, was gone. It wasn’t that I was vain about it, not at all. It was that I’d really felt like my hair hid me from the world when I needed it most. I hadn’t even thought about it much over the last couple of years.Mom used to nag me to cut it, so I’d stop hiding behind it, but she’d stopped and I hadn’t thought about it since. It was a part of me and I’d left it to grow. Now, Rachel had cut it all off with malicious glee. I checked my phone as I left the building and saw that Keith has sent me a message. I smiled because h
“Celia, what do you mean you’ve moved in with a boy?” My mom was horrified on the other end.“It’s not like that, Mom. Calm down.” Well, not exactly like that I thought to myself as I glanced over at Keith. He was cooking a vegetarian dinner for us, and she’d called as I waited. “I had an incident with my roommate.” “What happened, honey? Are you alright?” I could feel her concern over the miles that separated us.“I’m fine. She just…” I sighed and looked up at Keith. He smiled a smile that told me to be brave. “She cut all my hair off while I was asleep.” “But that’s assault. Or battery. One of those. Isn’t it?” Mom sounded near to hysterical, so I knew I had to calm her down.“It’s being taken care of, Mom. Calm down.” “But baby, things like that aren’t supposed to happen. And who is this boy?” I heard my Nan in the background, cackling. She would love this.“A boy I started seeing, Mom. I’ll send you a picture later, yes.” I said with exasperation. “Look, he’s making us dinner.