Duality: Vol 2, Euphoria (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) (34 page)

Chapter Fifty-Five: Rae

“IT’S EXACTLY HOW I PICTURED it,” said Malcolm, joining me out on the porch.  It was lunchtime and I had two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a plate next to me. I was curled up in a porch chair with a blanket around my feet.

“I can’t believe we’ve been here a week and a half already,” I said, taking a sip of tea.  I’d started drinking tea here.  It made me feel more mature, grown up.  And now that I was living in a house with Malcolm and we were our own little family, it seemed like the thing to do.  To grow up.  To start taking control of my life and doing what I wanted and not necessarily what people expected of me.

“How long are we going to stay?” asked Malcolm, sitting down next to me.  He pulled one of my feet into his lap and rubbed it with one hand while he wolfed down a PBJ with the other.

We’d discussed this a lot over the past ten days and still hadn’t come up with the answer.  “Let’s just wait and see.  We don’t have to decide now.”  I stretched my arms out above me, reveling in the beautiful weather and the nice breeze that blew through the trees.  The mountains were way more beautiful than I ever imagined they could be.

“Have I told you yet today how pretty you are?”

I pulled my arms down and smiled at him, feeling that warmth building down low again.  We were sharing the same bed now, and every day was a new discovery in pleasure for us.

“No, not today.  Not yet anyway, but yesterday you told me five times, so I can just use one of those.”

He got off the chair and dropped to his knees in between my legs.  “No, I’ll give you a new one for today.  Rae … you’re beautiful.  The perfect girl for me.  The yang to my yin.”

“I think I’m the yin to your yang.”

“Whatever.”  He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it.  Then the palm.  He knew how much that tickled.

 I leaned down to capture his lips with mine.  “No tickling.”  I smiled against his mouth, feeling his lips move up into a grin too.

“Yes, tickling,” he said, sneaking his hands around to my sides and messing with my ribs.

“No!” I said playfully, pushing him back.  I jumped up and ran to the door, but he was hot on my heels.

“Tickle fest!” he shouted, coming up behind me and sweeping  me up into his arms.

I started kicking my feet, but he went suddenly still.

“What?” I asked, all the laughter dying out into stillness.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”  My heart spasming in fear.

“A … bell maybe?”  He dropped my legs to put me back on my feet.

I heard it then too.  “It’s the computer,” I said freezing in place for just two seconds before I realized what that meant.  “Jazzy!” I yelled, taking off for the bedroom.

Malcolm and I raced up the stairs, hoping to get to the computer in time to connect with the call coming in.

“Hello!” I said breathlessly as I pressed the button.  “Hello, are you there?”  I pushed my messy hair out of my eyes.

Jasmine’s face was filling the screen.

“Yo, peeps, what’s up?”  She had a big grin and brown hair. She didn’t look like herself at all, really.  Kootch was sitting next to her, putting bunny ears behind her head with his fingers.

Chapter Fifty-Six: Malcolm

“HEY GUYS, WHAT UP?” SAID Jasmine.  ‘We don’t have a lot of time, but we wanted to say hi.”

“Hi Jazzy, hi Kootch,” said Rae, beaming smiles at everyone.

Kootch waved.

“You’ll never believe what Kootch did the other day after you guys left,” said Jasmine, barely holding back laughter.

“Shut up, Butts,” he said, sighing heavily.  It was apparently a story he was already tired of.

“No, tell us,” said Rae, bouncing on the bed in her excitement.  “We want to hear.”  The computer was on a desk right next to our bed, but I’d already taken the only chair available.  The bed was more comfortable, so I let her have it.

“Okay, check this…”  Jasmine leaned in closer, her face getting bigger on the screen.

“Butts, I’m warning you…,” said Kootch from behind her.

“Pffft, you’re warning your own ass.  Here’s what happened.  So Kootch here gets this idea in his head the other day to be nice to the garbage man.  Like a week ago or so.  The Tuesday after we got back.”

“Everyone should be nice to the garbage man!” Kootch protested, fighting for space in front of the screen but losing.  “They’re good guys!”

“Yeah.  You should be nice to the garbage man, we know.  But you shouldn’t try to
kill
him.  So as I was saying, Kootch decides to go all Huckleberry Farms and make friends with the garbage man.  So he wakes up real early one day and puts a cold soda out on the curb by the trashcans.  That was like, Wednesday.”

“It’s hot out.  Soda’s awesome when it’s hot,” grumbled Kootch.

“Getting to that,” said Jasmine, reaching over without looking to slap at him a little.  “So Kootch is watching out the front window, all excited about making friends with the garbage man, and he sees the dude drive up, get off the back of his truck, and then look at the soda.”

“He stared at it.  Who just stands there and stares at a Coke?”  Kootch was clearly offended that this man didn’t pick up his offering.  That in itself was funny, but I was trying to be cool and not laugh at him.

“What happened?” Rae asked.

“Save all your questions for the end, geez,” said Jasmine, “just chill and let me tell the story.  Okay, so the guy stares at it for a while, looks at the house, looks at the soda one more time … and then picks it up and throws it into the trash can before dumping it in the back of his truck.”

“The dick threw out a perfectly good Coke,” said Kootch.  “I could-a drunk it.”

Jasmine holds up a finger and brightens up.  “But the good neighbor Kootch is not swayed from his mission, ladies and gentlemen!  He tries again the
next
garbage day, Friday, but this time he gets smart.  He puts a
note
on the can.”

“Anybody would!  It’s totally normal!”  He tried to shove Jasmine to the side, but she wasn’t budging.

“What’d the note say?” asked Rae, barely able to contain herself. She was already laughing, and she didn’t even know the punchline.

“The note said just two words:
Drink it
.”

“Simple.  I like it,” I said.

“Thank you, Malcolm.  See?  Dudes get it.”  Kootch nodded, a satisfied smile coming across his face.

“Anyway, he’s spying through the curtains when the guy comes around, and he sees the guy look at the soda, back away from it, and then just leave without taking the soda
or
the garbage.”

“Which my dad blamed me for and then beat my ass over, thank you very much, so I really don’t think it’s all that funny.”

“Stop being so dramatic.  He totally swung, missed, and fell down passed-out drunk.  He didn’t touch a single hair on your giant head.”

“Well, he
tried
to beat my ass.  It was traumatic.  I’m traumatized now.  Look at my face.”  He leaned in towards the camera.  “See?  I’m messed up.”

Rae nodded.  “He looks definitely messed up.”  She snorted after.

“See?  Rae noticed.”

“Can we get to the end of the story?” I asked.  Kootch looked totally fine.

“Yeah.  So next week, Kootch is waiting on his front door step, and the garbage truck comes by and stops, but the guy doesn’t get out.  He just sits there in his truck.  So Kootch goes out to talk to him and demand to know why the guy isn’t taking his gifts.  It’s at this point that I’ve joined the party, because when he told me about his grand gesture, I just had to see what was going to happen.  It’s been super boring around here without you guys, trust.”

“Anyone would-a gone out there and seen what was up.  It’s totally normal!”  Kootch was getting wound up now.  I felt the end of the story coming.

“So, Kootch says, ‘Hey, man, why aren’t you drinking those Cokes I left?’  And the guy says, all offended, ‘What’d I ever do to you?’  And Kootch is like, ‘What’s your problem, man?  Can’t a guy give another guy a Coke when it’s hot out and he’s lifting cans?’  And then the guy looks at him like he’s nuts and says, ‘Not when that guy’s got diabeetus!  You tryin’ ta kill me, boy!  What you wanna do that for!  I got kids!  I gotta wife!  I ain’t slinging garbage around all day for my healf!”

“The guy was nuts,” said Kootch. “How the hell do I know he’s got diabeetus or whatever.”

I tried the hold the laughter in, but it was impossible.  Kootch was so put-out about it.

“As you can imagine, I’m peeing my pants out in the middle of the street, but Kootch isn’t done.”

“I was offended, okay?!  Wouldn’t you be?”  He looked at me.  I just shook my head in disbelief, biting the insides of my cheeks to keep from laughing at him.

Jasmine continued the story.  “Kootch starts yelling, ‘Why didn’t you just take the garbage last week?  You didn’t have to skip our house over it!’  And the Garbage Man’s like, ‘What?  You tryin’ to kill me, man!  Maybe next time you’re gonna put a rattler in there or somethin’, finish me off!  You people livin’ in these cul-de-sacs are all the same!  Only one way in, one way out.  Nutjobs, every one-a y’all.  You don’t like the way I put your can back on the curb?  Go ahead and try to kill me, then!’”

Kootch joined in with the storytelling.  “I was like, ‘A rattlesnake?!  Come on man, where am I gonna get a friggin’ rattlesnake?!’  And guess what … he didn’t have an answer for that.”  Kootch shook his head.  “Ridiculous.  A friggin rattlesnake.  Guy thinks I’m gonna kill him with a poisonous snake when all I wanted to do was give him a fucking Coke.”

Rae was laughing her butt off.  I had a smile that wouldn’t go away and my stomach hurt with the pain of keeping the laughs in.  “So how did it end?” I asked.

Jasmine responded.  “Well, after I peed my pants and rolled around in the street in hysterics for a little while, we convinced the guy to pick up the garbage.”

“I had to swear on my mother’s life that there were no snakes in the can.”  Kootch smiled evilly.  “Little does he know I could give a crap about my mom since I don’t even know where she is, and I’m in the market for a boa right now.”  He rubbed his hands together.  “I couldn’t find a rattlesnake.”

“No you’re not, shut up.  That’s bad karma.”  Jasmine pushed him away.  “So, as you can see, you’re missing some seriously good entertainment, the kind you can’t even pay for … Kootch setting up his own punking.”  She looked over at him and put her hand on his cheek tenderly.  “Have you ever met anyone so adorably stupid in your entire life?”

He shoved her hand away and put his face right in the camera.  “Sorry, guys.  Butts has to go.  She’s about to get a wedgie so far up her ass crack that she’ll have to get it surgically removed.”

The computer bounced around and then turned sideways before shutting off entirely.

“Well,” I said, looking at the blank screen for a few seconds and then at Rae, “I guess Jasmine and Kootch are doing okay.”

We both started laughing then, collapsing into a heap of stupid giggles on the bed.

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Rae

MALCOLM AND I WERE IN bed together, the darkness enveloping us in its velvety shroud and making me feel bold and sexy.  Being naked next to the cutest guy in the world didn’t hurt either.  I moved my legs against his muscular hairy ones, reminded again what a strong man he is.  He makes me feel petite and cared for, but not because I’m weak.  He takes care of me because he feels lucky and knows what it’s like to be alone.  Just like I do.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” he asked me for the tenth time, his hand resting on my hip.

“Yes.  I am really truly ready, I promise.  Are you?”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I’ve been ready since the minute I laid eyes on you in Mr. Adams’ class.”

I pushed on his chest, but he didn’t go anywhere.  We were too close together for me to have any strength, and I didn’t want him to move away, anyway.  I wanted him here.  Naked.  Next to me.  Ready to take the plunge.  We’d waited all this time, making sure it was right, making sure we weren’t going this far out of desperation or fear.  We both wanted to be as intimate as a couple can be, but only after all the other garbage had fallen away.  Tonight was the night we were finally free.

“Do you have any regrets?” he asked me kissing me once and pulling away.

“No way.”

“Are you sure?  If you’d never gone to that party, you could be going to school right now, going to gym class…”

“Beating your butt in basketball
again.”

“Please,” he said, kissing my neck.  “You know we beat you girls.  Jasmine was cheating.  Points off for cheating.”

I moved my head so I could kiss him back.  His hands had roamed up to my chest and he was doing that thing I loved.  I pressed against him, begging him silently to do more.  I was ready to go all the way this time.  No more holding back and waiting for me.  I was going to seize life and live it like a normal girl.

“Rae, I have to tell you something.”  He pulled away a little, looking me in the eye.  I could barely make out his features in the dark.

“Confession time?”  My heart raced, wondering if he was going to say what had been on my mind for days.  Since almost the first moment I saw him.

“Yeah, I guess. It’s just … I need to tell you something before we do this.”  He swallowed loud enough that we both heard it.  He was nervous. “All my life I’ve wondered if I’d find someone I could be with.  Like I am with you.  And for the most part, I’d given up on it.”

“I know,” I said, reassuring him so he wouldn’t be nervous and think he was alone in this.  “That’s how it was for me, too.”  I ran my hand up and down his arm, reveling in the muscles I felt there. 
All mine.  He’s all mine.  How did I get so lucky?