SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2023 #3
Only the other day she’d gone looking for Gray’s scent amongst the trees.
Rubbing her hands with pine needles and leaves from the ground and putting them to her face to inhale deeply.
It wasn’t quite the same, but it was close enough.
When she’s not with him, she’s thinking about him, wondering when he’ll show up next, re-creating his scent when it’s not soon enough, and seeing his eyes in the face of a wolf.
She’d seen him two days ago but already it feels like too long.
They smoked a joint outside together and then he agreed to come in again.
This time she didn’t let him go wandering around her room.
Instead, she put on that band he likes, Portishead, and led him to the bed.
They started kissing and she tried to undo his pants, but like the last time, he stopped her.
When she protested, he stroked the side of her cheek and looked into her eyes.
He said, “Let me get to know you first.” Then with great care, like she was a breakable object, he removed her sweatshirt and sweatpants so that she was lying there in only her bra and underwear.
He kneeled above her on the bed, looking down.
His eyes slowly roamed over her entire body like he was trying to commit every detail to memory.
For once in her life, she was speechless, afraid that anything she might say would ruin the moment.
No one had ever studied her like that before.
Most boys consumed her body in fragments, needing only to see her boobs, maybe a glimpse of her ass, to get them off.
Gray wanted all of it. He lay down beside her and ran his hand over her bare skin, so lightly that it felt like feathers brushing her.
“Close your eyes,” he whispered, and she did.
Surrendering completely.
He found the tattoo on her hip of the Gemini constellation. “What’s this all about?” he’d asked, tracing it.
“My sister and I each got one,” she answered, resisting the urge to move his hand away, to protect it. “It’s the Gemini constellation because of the twin thing. We didn’t tell anyone we got them. It was our secret.”
He kissed it softly and said, “Thank you for sharing it with me.”
Then he moved on to press dozens of kisses across her stomach, her chest and arms, even her bare legs and the bottoms of her feet. The coolness of his lips was like snowflakes landing and melting on her warm skin.
In the midst of it all, something broke in her—the flimsy box she’d built around her heart after her sister died.
His touch caused the box to splinter and fall away, leaving her vulnerable.
Exposed. Tears slowly began to slide from her eyes and drop down into the thick of her hair.
She didn’t make a sound on the outside, but it was so loud on the inside.
A deafening whooshing sound, like waves crashing through her skull bringing the strong tide of too much emotion—sadness, happiness, desire, loneliness, hope.
All of it about to break out of her in the form of sobs, and then—he bit her.
On the fleshy part of her left side. Hard enough to illicit a yelp and cause her eyes to fly open. Hard enough to draw pinpricks of blood and leave a mark that resembled a crescent moon. When she looked down at him, he was smiling up at her.
“I’m sorry,” he said, although he looked anything but. “I got carried away. You taste so good.”
She laughed and pulled him up so that she could kiss him, tasting her own blood on his tongue.
They kissed for a while and then he wrapped her in the blanket on her bed and said he had to go.
He told her he might not be able to get back for a while, but when he did, they’d go on an adventure.
Before leaving, he pulled a small piece of wood in the shape of a heart from his coat pocket.
On it he’d carved Polly + Gray.
“For you,” he said, handing it to her. Then he leaned down and yanked a long strand of hair from her head. “For me,” he said, before wrapping it around his finger so that it looked like a ring.
Then he went to the window, blew her a kiss, and slipped outside. She was left thinking that he was the oddest, most interesting person who she’d ever met. She couldn’t get enough of him.
Getting out of the car now and making her way to the front door, she resolves that enough is enough.
The Polly I know always made guys hungry for her, not the other way around.
She’s just about to answer her sister’s voice when the front door swings open, only inches from her face, and Quinn pokes his head out.
“What the hell are you doing out here?”
“I just saw a wolf,” she answers.
“A wolf? Holy fuck.” Quinn goes right into panic mode. “No wonder Panda is so scared all the time. Way to go, Mom,” he calls into the house over his shoulder. “We now live in fear of wolves in this murder house.” He storms back inside, letting the door slam.
“I’m not afraid,” Polly whispers.
Maybe you should be, her sister’s voice whispers back.