Haunting Cries #4
After saying good night to Blue at her bedroom door, I headed up my stairs and almost had a heart attack seeing Seb sitting on my bed, waiting for me. “Jesus, dude!” I whispered loudly while grasping my chest.
Hands clasped in his lap, his thumbs tapped together. “S-sorry, just n-n-need to know w-what you think.” He peered up with a worry that struck me in the gut. “Sh-she okay?”
Unable to take my eyes off him, I took a seat next to him. “Being away from where she was certainly helps.” I offered support by gently shaking a shoulder. “Hey, she is—”
“I k-kissed her.”
What should’ve been fun did not cause Seb to smile. More like he struggled to breathe.
I winced. “Didn’t go so good?”
“Oh.” He shook his head and finally smirked. “It w-was g-great.” Then his devilish smile faded into a grimace. “Until sh-she d-dropped to her kn-knees.”
I hadn’t realized how much I was hoping to have misunderstood Blue until hearing this. Sweet little Blue, having been forced to—
“One s-sweet little kiss to—to—” Seb stood. Faced me. Then gestured to his crotch as if she offered him a blow job.
“Dude,” I tried, “I’m so sorry—”
Seb started pacing. “I kn-know. She s-seemed so sh-shocked when I r-refused, helping her b-back to her feet. I m-mean—” He stopped, and his shoulders rose as he exposed his palms. “T-turning down a b-blow job was n-never high on m-my to-do l-list.”
Nodding, I agreed. “Didn’t even know we were capable of such a thing. But—” I cringed.
Holding his stomach, he said, “I kn-know.” Then begged, “D-did she s-say anything t-to you about w-who he is?”
I exhaled due to feeling so out of my realm of knowledge. “I’ve made some promises I can’t speak about, but what I can say is Noma had talked to me a little about some people hiding behind the ‘cloth’.”
“You t-talkin’ ch-church shit?”
It felt wrong to assume all churchgoers were bad, so I confirmed all that I knew. “Some.”
He plopped back on the bed, stunned. “B-but she’s so… y-young.”
“Yeah, I really don’t have any experience with this. The men I knew always had women on the back of their—” Fuck. That was Maddox’s past. Not Johnny’s.
“B-back of their w-what?” As Blue had earlier, Seb made a huge O with his mouth. “Oh m-my God, you’ve n-never s-s-spoke of m-motorcycles.”
“No, I meant—”
Even though his heart was as deep as the ocean, boys were boys. He shot to his feet. “Th-this is s-so cool! I’ve always w-wanted a—”
Seb didn’t even see my rise or approach. But he stared at me as I held a hand over his mouth.
Eyes wide, he nodded.
I released him, a slew of warnings in my eyes. “Like with churches, there’s good and bad.”
Motionless, he nodded.
“Seb, if any of you ever got hurt because of me—” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
Sebastian, like the rest of us, was young. However, like the rest of us, he’d already seen his share of scary times. That might be why he now observed my attic room as if a light bulb had turned on in his head; my—Johnny’s presence meant lurking danger.
With a promise to never tell, Sebastian made his way down my stairs. I stayed at the top, watching him, hoping like hell he understood the severity of the situation.
When he turned to wave, his shoulder clipped the full-length mirror that hung on the wall outside my doorway. Trying to be quiet while laughing, he quickly steadied it so it wouldn’t fall, but then froze.
“What?” I whispered, thinking it was sad that I always feared the worst.
Perplexed, he eyed behind the large object. Then, jaw hanging, his sight traveled up the stairs to me at the top. Staring at me, his finger numbly lifted and touched the mirror, then slid it to cover my doorway.
There was a crack of light because my actual swinging door wasn’t shut first, but there was no denying what was happening.
After the mirror slid back to the side to hang on the wall, Sebastian and I stared at each other.
I ran down the stairs. There’s no way!
Examining behind the mirror, the best I could while it hung there, I noticed a hidden track. What the— With a shaking hand, I quietly shut the stairway door, then pushed the mirror to the left. The track easily moved and ended with the large mirror covering my stairway entrance.
As we both stood there in disbelief, Sebastian looked me up and down as if I were part of some sort of deadly mafia. Then he mouthed, “H-holy shit!”
I put a hush finger to my mouth, but Seb was now elated, whispering, “Y-you’re the r-real deal!”
Rolling my eyes, I grabbed his arm and guided him to his bedroom.
He didn’t care where he was forcibly headed. “D-do you kn-know how m-many girls you c-could get? They l-love this sh-shit!”
I opened the door and shoved him in.
“I c-could be your w-wingman!”
I shut the door in his face, fighting a smile.
Wound tight from the whole night, I decided a shower could help. As dancing stars bathed my body, I thought about Blue and Seb and their unspoken connection.
Raising my hand up to watch magic drip from my fingers, I couldn’t hold one ounce of judgment. I was in the same boat.
1 ? “Iris” — Mr FijiWiji & Matt Van
2 ? “God Save Me From Myself” — Fire And Sky