Beneath Our Faults

by Charity Ferrell

  His tongue stopped working and he kissed each side of my thigh before bringing his body back over mine. "You taste fucking amazing," he grinned, wiping his mouth with the back of his arm before kissing me on the lips. I peeked down our bodies, noticing the bulge between his legs.

  "W-what about you?" I asked, swallowing, suddenly feeling embarrassed.

  His eyebrows arched. "What about me?"

  "I can fix that," I said, my eyes tilting back to his erection.

  "No worries," he answered, kissing me on the cheek and moving off the couch to grab our towels. "Up," he commanded, taking my hand and dragging my slack body off the couch. I shivered while he wrapped the towel around my naked body and led me up the stairs to my room.

  "Get dressed," he directed. "I'll be back."

  "Are you going to go jack off?" I blurted out, and wanted to smack myself in the face when I realized what I had just said. Who the hell asks someone if they were going to go jack off. I blamed it on the shattering orgasm.

  He laughed. "I'm going to take a shower real quick." His mouth curved into a smile. "A very cold shower."

  "So you are going to jack off?" I asked again, trying to keep my smile at bay.

  "Wouldn't you like to know? You're more than welcome to come join me, curious one." He turned around, not waiting on my answer, and left the room while I stood there speechless. He just had his tongue between my legs, why did him inviting me to shower with him affect me?

  Shaking my head, I walked into room and grabbed my pajamas from my bag. Dressing quickly, I threw myself down on my bed, snuggling under the covers until I felt the bed shift beside me. Keegan climbed in bed and nestled up to my side. I turned around to face him, noticing his bare chest and the words scripted across it. “What does this mean?” I asked, tracing the words with my finger. “Still I rise?”

  "It means a lot of things, actually," he answered, holding his head up with his arm.

  "Like?"

  "Like no matter what bullshit life has handed me, I haven't and will never let it bring me down. I'm not going to let anyone or anyone tear me down. People can desert me, hate me or think I'm an asshole, but I'll never let them see me hurt. I will always rise above my enemies and my problems."

  "Do you think your mom has deserted you?"

  "No, she's actually part of the hate me category. My dad is the one who deserted me."

  "Well, that's his loss.”

  "If I would have known all I had to do was give you an orgasm to give me a compliment, I would have done that shit forever ago," he laughed, bringing his hand forward and rubbing my cheek. I glanced down at the sheets, suddenly feeling shy. Was he going to expect more from me tonight? Noticing my apprehension, he kissed my forehead and laid his head down on the pillow. "Get your beauty sleep. I'm staying in here tonight."

  "Okay, I nodded, turning around and snuggling back into the warmth of his arms.

  "Goodnight, my beautiful flower," he whispered into my ear.

  "Goodnight," I repeated, exhaling and shutting my eyes.

  It was a new year and I was going to fix myself.

  THIS DAMN girl, she was sinking herself into my veins, through my blood and straight into my heart. I never thought I would ever get attached to anyone but she was changing everything I had ever believed and turning my world upside down. I couldn't get enough of her but it wasn't like the other girls. I wanted every single fucking piece of her that she was willing to hand over; flaws, insecurities, I wanted it all.

  The comforter moved beside me and strands of raven colored hair fell into her face, blocking my view. Leaning forward, I pushed the long pieces of fallen hair back behind her ears and rubbed the back of my knuckles across the smooth skin on her cheekbones. Her body twitched and small goose bumps appeared on her skin while I slowly made my way down her neck until I reached her shoulders and gave them a small shake.

  A tiny groan escaped her chest but her eyes failed to open. I felt shitty waking her up but I didn't want her to miss out on what I wanted to show her, either. I knew she would love it. My hand stayed on her shoulder, giving it another shake, this one rougher. I couldn't contain my smile when I spotted one eye flutter open and she peered up at me from behind long, dark eyelashes.

  "Good morning, sunshine," I whispered, only to watch the one eye shut back quickly.

  Well fuck, looks like it was going to be more difficult than I thought. I leaned in for attempt number two. Giving her shoulder another rock, she groaned. The same sleepy eye opened. "The house better be on fire," she murmured, putting her arm over her face.

  "I want to show you something," I explained, quickly.

  The glaring eye stared at me but her mouth didn't open until it was ready to yawn. Finally opening up the other eye, she lifted up to stretch her arms out in front of her, giving me a tiny glimpse of the soft skin I showered with kisses last night. "What time is it?" She asked around another yawn.

  "Just after six," I answered, waiting for it.

  The mattress moved when she back collapsed back on the bed. "Nope, that is not morning for me yet," she groaned. I chuckled at the stern look she was giving me. "Wake me up in a few hours." Her tiny hand slapped her pillow a few times, fluffing it out, before plopping her head back down quickly and shutting her eyes again.

  "Nope. Get your ass up.”

  “I cannot function this early in the morning,: she argued, her face against the pillow. “Why are you even up? You’re a bad boy or whatever the hell they call you, aren’t you suppose to practice the sleep all day, party all night mantra?”

  “Bad boy mantra? Seriously? Bring your camera, too.”

  It's in its case sitting on the dresser," she told me, pointing towards the tall dresser in the corner of the room. "Grab it while I try to convince my immobile body to wake up and not hate me for it."

  I shook my head and pulled myself out of bed. The cold air smacked into my bare chest and I jumped at the feel of the freezing floor coming in contact with my exposed heels. "You'll need your coat, too."

  Her head jerked up, giving me a death stare. "Nope, no way. I've already agreed to get out of bed early, that line stops at going outside and freezing my butt off. It's one or the other, homeboy."

  Instead of leaving the room, I stopped at the end of her bed and reached my hands under the warm blankets. Grabbing both of her ankles, I pulled her body down and she yelped.

  “Don’t even think about it,” she warned. I grinned and tickled her feet softly while she squirmed trying to free herself from my hold.

  “Promise me you’ll get up,” I said, and continued tickling.

  She kicked her feet. “Fine, I’ll get up.”

  “Say you promise,” I demanded, gripping her feet tighter.

  “Jesus, yes, I promise,” she cried out.

  “And tell me I’m amazing,” I added.

  “Are you serious?” She blurted, still fighting against me.

  “Oh yeah.”

  “Fine asshole, you are amazing!” She yelped.

  "Not exactly the words I was looking for but it’ll do,” I grinned, dropping both of her ankles at the same time. “You will be thanking me for this later.”

  "Ha. I want to punch you in your face right now so I highly doubt that," she said.

  "Get dressed and meet me in the living room in five," I instructed, grabbing her camera.

  "Aye aye, captain."

  "If you decide to go back to sleep, I will come get you and take you with me wearing what you have on right now." Her eyes widened with realization her little plan had been busted.

  "You suck," she moaned, tossing her pillow at me in the doorframe.

  "Five minutes," I called out, walking down the hallway.

  I walked down the hall to my room and threw on my coat and boots before strolling down the stairs beating Daisy into the living room. She came down the stairs bundled up like an Eskimo like when we went snow tubing.

  "Let's do this," she said, blowing out a breath. I grabbed h
er hand walking out into the dark, cold morning. My glove covered hand scraped the snow off one of the benches and I motioned for her to sit.

  "It's breathtaking," she said, her face glowing like the coming sun. I looked away from her to the gorgeous view of the sun rising in front of us, pink, orange and yellow clinging around the white, snow capped mountains.

  "I always watch the sun rise from the mountains when I stay here." I replied, and she lay back, snuggling into my open arms.

  "I don't blame you. I could sit out here and look at this all day."

  "You still want to punch me in the balls?" I asked, running my hands through her hair, gently undoing the tangles.

  "No, I guess not."

  "I don't even want to know why you two are up this early, let alone outside," a voice called out, startling us. We both whipped around, spotting Lane standing with the door half open and his head sticking out.

  "We are watching the sunrise," Daisy answered, giving him a smile.

  "Cute," Lane mumbled, rubbing his sleepy eyes. "Just wait, dude, pretty soon she'll be waking you up at the butt crack of dawn to get her ass fucking water and," his voice raised, mocking Cora's voice, "I need to make sure it has fresh lemons in it." He huffed, shaking his head. "High maintenance pain in my ass. Have fun freezing your asses off," he laughed, shutting the door.

  "Looks like Lane isn't a morning person," Daisy said.

  "I think you're right there," I opened the camera bag on my lap and dragged her camera out. I spent the next twenty minutes watching her behind the lens. She was so carefree. She would snap a few shots, from every angle of the porch, pause, flip through them then go through the same process again.

  "Smile," she called out, stopping in front of me with the camera pointed my way.

  "Nu uh," I said, putting my hands over my face.

  "Stop being difficult," she demanded, stomping her boot covered foot in the snow.

  "Only if you come take one with me," I insisted, moving my hands away from my face and giving her a look.

  "Fine," she plodded back to the bench, sliding back onto the bench next to me. Grabbing the camera from her hand, I turned it around so the lens was facing us.

  "Ready, 1, 2, 3 say fuck you," I smiled, clicking the button and a bright light flashed in our faces.

  "Really, say fuck you," she said, elbowing me in the side while I flipped the camera around to look at our picture.

  "We look good together," I commented, taking in what was on the screen. Our heads were slightly touching, tilting in towards one another. But the best part of the entire picture was her smile. I knew she was enjoying this time with me. "You know, you should give me a chance," I said, out of nowhere.

  She stopped messing with her camera and gaped up at me. "Huh?"

  "Give me a chance. One chance. If I fuck it up, you can kick me in the balls or never talk to me again."

  "What are you even talking about?"

  "I'm saying exactly what it sounded like. You and me taking a chance with each other. We could make each other happy."

  She flicked some remaining snow off the bench. "Wow, that's um, random."

  "How? Obviously we both have enjoy each other's company and try to deny it all you want, but I know you have feelings for me." It was forward, I knew, but it needed to be said.

  "What about the other girl?"

  Goddamn, here we go again. "Daisy," I said, softly, even though I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, "Piper and I are nothing. I haven't been with anyone else since your little drunken escapade at Lane's party." And something just dawned on me, holy shit: I hadn't had sex in two months.

  "I'm not talking about Piper," she replied, now staring at me.

  "Okay," I drawled, "then who the hell are you talking about?"

  "The girl you were talking about last night," she said, confusion crinkling her brows. "The one you said made you change your mind about love."

  Oh hell. I couldn't help it but laugh. "Baby, that girl I was you." Her face brightened for a second, then fell again.

  “You’re right, I do like you,” she confessed, easing my relief of possible rejection. “I’m just not certain if I’m ready for another relationship yet.”

  “Baby, I’ve never had a relationship, so we would make a great pair,” I said, nudging her side. “I’m not saying if we try, it’s going to be perfect, because it most likely isn’t. Shit, we may try this out and find out we can’t stand each other. But, we need to go with what’s right in front of us. We both enjoy each other’s company and we’re comfortable confiding in one another and that means you trust me. And I trust you,” I added. “When you’re around, I don’t think about my fucked up family problems or how I need to go to the next party and prove to everyone that I don’t give a fuck about it. When I’m with you, I’m content and I’m happy, which is something that rarely happens. But somehow, Daisy, you bring that out in me.”

  “Wow,” she said, looking at me carefully.

  “Too much?”

  “Definitely a lot, but I wouldn’t say too much.”

  “You don’t have to say anything now. Go home and think about it but I swear, if you give me a chance, you won’t regret it.”

  "WHY AM I so freaking stupid?" Gabby groaned, grabbing a slice of pizza and tossing it down on her plate. "Call me the queen of stupidity right here," she added, pointing to herself. We were all having a girl's day before our winter break ended and we had to return back to hell. The day was going to be full of Vampire Diaries in Cora's huge basement, which was pretty much an entire house in itself, pizza, and gossiping about what happened during our eventful break.

  "You're not the only one," I groaned, taking a bite of my slice. “Call us the trio of idiots right here." My index finger created an imaginary circle around the three of us on the sectional we were lounging on.

  A grunt from Cora came from the other side of the couch. "Uh, speak for yourselves."

  "Don't even try it," I said. "If I recall correctly, you asked Lane if he had ever had a threesome."

  "Cora," Gabby yelled at her mid-bite. "How could Lane even have a threesome if you're the only girl he's ever had sex with? You seriously need to quit listening to Piper's bullshit before you end up single and he does have a threesome!"

  "God, I know!" Cora moaned, picking up the touch screen remote control and pausing our favorite vampire brothers to explain herself. She grabbed the plate sitting on her lap and set it on the endtable next to her. "I didn't exactly ask him if he had a threesome, per se. All of us were playing the stupid game, Never Have I Ever," she rolled her eyes, "and my stupid, drunken mouth blurted out stuff without thinking. You know how I get when I drink," she looked at Gabby. "I had a bad lapse of judgment. It was like this tiny little demon that worked for Piper hopped inside my ear telling me to believe all the stupid shit she says." Her head shook and she grabbed a blonde strand of hair twisting it around her forefinger.

  "For future reference, I would recommend never playing that ridiculous game with your boyfriend. Or anyone. Ever. All it does it start stupid arguments." She let out a deep breath. "We are fine now. So on to better and juicer things than my stupid drama. Who’s up next?" She clapped her hands together and leaned forward.

  "Daisy!" Gabby called out, picking all of the mushrooms off her pizza and tossing them to the side of her plate.

  "No, not Daisy first," I argued back. I still needed some time to prepare my story before I put it all out there for them. "You need to go first because yours sounds way better than mine," I insisted.

  "You're right. My story probably is juicer, which is why you have to go first. We are officially saving the dumbest decision anyone could ever make," she pointed to herself again, "for last."

  I gulped, grabbed my drink and shoved it up to my lips for a drink to bide some time. "Okay," I exhaled. "I kinda sorta hooked up with Keegan at the cabin," I blurted it all out, making it sounding like one word.

  Their eyes went wide and Gabby spit out the p
izza she was chewing out on her plate.

  "Ew Gabs," Cora said, disgusted. "That's just sick." She leaned over, grabbing a napkin and throwing it at her.

  Ignoring Cora, Gabby grabbed the napkin and looked directly at me. "Daisy, you have to warn a girl before you start using the words ‘hooked up’ and ‘Keegan’ in the same sentence." She winked and covered her regurgitated food on her plate. "First, how do you kinda sort hook up with someone. Was it your first? You know, I don't even know if you are a virgin or not?" She was rambling.

  Shit, rewind.

  "Not hooked up like we had sex hooked up," I clarified. What exactly was the real definition of hooking up anyways? I reminded myself to Google it later. "It was more like, um," I paused, searching for the best words to describe what we had done, "second base?"

  Oh god, second base? I had reverted back to my middle school days.

  "Ohhh," Gabby said, stretching out the word with bright eyes. "Second base for you or second base for him?"

  "Or both?" Cora cut in.

  I looked at one girl then the other taking in that I had both of their full attention. They reminded me of two kids waiting in line at the candy store. "Well," I looked over at Cora with confusion, "he did it to me so second base for me," I guessed, giving her a questioning look.

  "You go girl!" Gabby whooped, holding her hand out for a high five. "Who called it?" She yelled throughout the room looking around. "That's right, I called it!"

  "Wrong!" Cora shouted over her cheers, holding her arm up. "I am definitely the one who called it. I knew I should have taken that damn bet!"

  "I thought you didn't like Keegan and he was a manwhore?" I asked. I had been expecting Cora to warn me away from Keegan, not make bets about us hooking up.

  She shook her head. "It's not that I don't like Keegan. I've known him since we were little. He just pisses me off sometimes but he is different with you." Gabby shook her head beside me in agreement. "Even Lane thinks so.”

  “Yeah, normally Keegan is like some huge raging asshole to everyone, but he’s actually sweet to you,” Gabby said.