Starburst

by Jettie Woodruff

  “I don’t know Anna, I will call you.”

  “Trevas, you are not making me do this by myself,” she demanded.

  “I will call you later Anna,” he maintained, dismissing him and Alley out the double doors.

  “I like you grandparents,” Alley told him as they headed back the way they had come.

  “I think they liked you too,” he smiled at her.

  “You do know that your sister thinks we are a couple, don’t you?” she asked, and he smiled with a snicker.

  “Yeah, I got that vibe too.”

  “What is wrong with your grandpa Trevas?” she asked sincerely.

  “He has Alzheimer’s disease, today was actually a good day. Sometimes he doesn’t even know who my grandmother is and they have been married for almost fifty five years.”

  “That is so sad. Were you and your sister talking about selling their things?”

  “Yeah,” Trevas said with a sad tone. “I’m not looking forward to it at all, but we both know that they will never go back home.”

  “That’s tough.”

  “Yes it is,” he admitted and changed the subject. “Are you hungry? The food there wasn’t the best.”

  “The food was horrible,” she agreed.

  Trevas pulled up to the curb of the thrift store. “Do you need some money?” he asked.

  “No. I have money, aren’t you coming?”

  “No. I will wait here. I need to make a few calls. You go, take your time,” he added, and she disappeared with a big smile.

  “What’s going on Trevas?” Chase answered. “Are you surviving the devil girl?”

  Trevas, for some reason, didn’t like him calling her that, even though he had called her a little bitch a couple of days before. She wasn’t what people made her out to be at all, and after being around her for a few days, he felt sorry for her. He knew she wouldn’t have picked this life, had she had a choice. “Yeah, it hasn’t been bad. She’s not as bad as I thought she was going to be.”

  “Well that sounds promising. You might just make it yet.”

  “She got kicked out of school for three days for smoking, and I had to get a call from Fletcher, that wasn’t pleasant.”

  “Damn Trevas, don’t let shit like that happen. It makes us look bad. Search her bag if you have too.”

  “Oh, it won’t happen again. I know what I’m up against now.”

  Trevas only talked to Chase for a minute. He had to go because whoever he was working for was ready to come out of the restaurant, and he had to go escort her.

  He called his mom and they talked about his grandparents. She told him that she wouldn’t be able to come Saturday either because of work, and decided they would reschedule for the tenth time. He waited for forty five minutes, and was starting to get anxious, wondering if Alley snuck out a back door somewhere.

  He was just getting ready to go in when he saw her exit with a big bag and an even bigger smile. She threw the bag in the back and got in smiling.

  “I see you found something,” he said, starting the car.

  “That store is so cool, and the lady told me that they get new stuff every day. Maybe we can stop if I come with you to visit your grandparents again,” she hoped.

  “Oh, you will come with me again,” he demanded, and she smiled. “And, yes we can stop again.”

  They actually talked all the way home, and Alley was very open with him as they discussed unimportant issues and she even laughed a little.

  “Can we get pizza tonight?” She asked.

  “How about I make us pizza?”

  “Okay,” she agreed as they got closer to the house.

  “Alley jump in the back,” Trevas demanded as they neared the gate, seeing the man with the camera duck behind the stone post. Alley saw him too and dove to the back seat.

  “Stupid fuckers,” she exclaimed.

  “Watch your mouth. He is just trying to do a job like everyone else.”

  “Are you defending the paparazzi?” She asked in disbelief.

  “I guess so, he has to work too.”

  “And you think being a slime ball is a job?” She asked, with her teenage attitude back.

  “I think if you are going to be in the spotlight then you have to take one with the other,” he explained, trying to bring her back but it was too late. She opened her door, grabbed her bag of thrift finds and slammed the door behind her, heading straight to her room.

  “One step forward and two steps back,” he said out loud as he walked into the house.

  Alley didn’t come down all evening and refused to come and eat the homemade pizza, he again fixed her a plate and sat in the refrigerator. He listened for her to come down, and it was later than she normally did. It was almost one in the morning when he heard her in the kitchen. He dressed and walked out for whatever reason.

  “Do you have to fucking get up every time you hear me up?” She asked, annoyed that he was there again.

  “Do you have to stay locked in your room and wait until the middle of the night to come down and eat?” He answered her question with a question. “And stop talking like that, it sounds horrible.”

  “Fuck you,” she shot back and he laughed, and she shot him a dirty look.

  The microwave dinged, and she took the plate of homemade pizza. “Just turn around so I can go upstairs,” she demanded.

  “Why do you insist on running around half naked?” He asked. “Please stay down here and eat. I’m sorry I upset you earlier, and I can understand how you feel about being put in the middle of the spotlight. I know you never asked for it or wanted it, and I agree that it is not fair to you that you are forced to live in a bubble because of who your parents are.”

  Alley calmed down and breathed a deep breath. She wasn’t expecting an apology and it kind of blindsided her. She bent to take a fork from the dishwasher, but the cleaning lady had put them away. “I have to walk to the other side of the kitchen to get a fork,” she stated, and he turned around on the stool. She wasn’t expecting him to understand why she hated being put in the middle of something she didn’t ask for, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about his sympathetic synopsis.

  He slid a stool to the end of the bar and let her slide it the rest of the way, not wanting to see her half naked body. He still hadn’t gotten the image of the last time out of his mind.

  “Oh, my God, this is awesome,” she boasted, taking a bite of the pizza.

  “Flip on the game,” he told her, and she did.

  She moved first and took another bite. “No questions this time,” she demanded, talking around the pizza in her mouth.

  Trevas moved and countered. “Okay, no questions but if I win you have to do something that I want you to do and if you win I will do the same.”

  “Like what?” she wanted to know.

  “I’m not telling you, besides if I lose it doesn’t matter anyway, does it?” Trevas was going to win, and he was going to make her join him for supper every night. He wouldn’t let her come down after he was in bed.

  “What if there is nothing that I want from you?”

  “There has to be something. Surely there is a concert or something that you could use to your advantage.”

  She thought for a minute and moved her checker. The game was very intense, and neither of them spoke. Alley continued to eat her pizza, and Trevas turned his eyes quickly away from her more than once when he caught himself gazing at her and locking his eyes with hers.

  Alley pushed the empty plate away and brought both her knees under her butt and leaned over to study the game. Trevas had to tell himself to keep his eyes on the game and not stare at her breast through the thin white shirt. Trevas was down to one single checker, and she had four kings. He knew that he had lost, and it only took three more moves to trap him.

  “Fine, smarty pants,” he teased. “Name your poison.”

  He looked up at her, and the way she was looking at him was forbidden and he was entranced holding her gaze.

/>   “What Alley?” he asked, quietly, and she moved and stood beside the stool.

  “Kiss me Trevas,” she said with the softest sexiest voice he had ever heard, and his heartbeat picked up as he felt his chest tighten all of a sudden.

  “Alley I can’t kiss you,” he mocked her tone.

  “You have too, you lost,” she demanded.

  “I thought you would want to go somewhere and get out of this house, I would have never agreed to that.”

  “You are the one that made the rule, not to tell until the end of the game.”

  “Alley I am not kissing you.”

  Alley walked around and stood at the end of the island. He didn’t look down and kept his eyes on hers but could still see through his peripheral vision, her white, silky panties, and it stirred something inside of him that shouldn’t have been stirring. Not to mention what was going on in his jeans.

  She took another step toward him, and he didn’t even have the other stool to use as a barrier. “Alley stop,” he demanded, but she didn’t listen and walked slowly toward him as her hand slid across the top of the marble countertop. She stopped between his legs, and it was all that he could do not to touch her.

  “Kiss me Trevas,” she whispered, close to his lips with her hands now resting on his legs.

  “Alley I can’t,” he pleaded.

  “Yes you can,” she softly whispered, moving to where her lips were a fraction from his, and he could feel her words on his lips. He barely had to move, and his lips were on hers. He was hoping that a quick peck would satisfy her winnings, but she parted her lips for him, and his uncontrollably took over as his tongue explored her mouth. He still hadn’t touched her and refused until she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his. His hands automatically moved to her ribs and back. He didn’t put them under her shirt but could feel the bare skin from her midsection. The kiss lasted way longer than it should have, and he had to stifle the moan that wanted to escape as she finally pulled away. She rested one hand on his chest and kept the other one behind him, and her forehead was on his.

  “That wasn’t so bad was it?” she asked.

  “That’s not what I was afraid of,” he admitted, wishing she would back away because he wanted to kiss her again.

  “What were you afraid of?” she asked.

  “You.”

  “Do I scare you?”

  “You scare the hell out of me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you are only seventeen and you do something to me when you’re around.”

  “I will be eighteen in less than six months, and you are only six years older than me. What do you mean I do something to you?”

  “You are still a minor and I could lose my job and go to jail, and forget I said that last part.”

  “You can’t go to jail for kissing me,” she said, pulling away and walking toward the steps.

  “Don’t turn around,” he tried to tell himself, not wanting the image of her half naked body fixed in his mind.

  “Trevas,” she called down from about halfway up, and his head and eyes turned right to her refusing to listen to his brain telling them not to.

  “You do something to me too,” she stated and disappeared to her room.

  “Trevas you fucking idiot,” he said out loud, but quietly as he ran his hands through his hair. He sat there for a long time trying to gather his thoughts. He went to bed and stared at the ceiling. He kept telling himself that it wasn’t happening again, and then he would have to repeat it and warn himself again when his mind wanted to wonder right back to her kiss and how good her body felt.

  Alley lay in bed and thought about him too. He scared her as much as she scared him, and although she was sure that he had, had these feelings in the past for someone or more than one someone, she hadn’t and wasn’t sure how to react to them.

  When Trevas woke, their kiss was the first thing that came to his mind and he groaned. She hadn’t emerged yet, and he put on a pair of shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt with open sides. He went into the gym and was just starting to work up a sweat as he jogged a rapid pace on the treadmill when she came in.

  “Good morning,” he said, not wanting things to be awkward between them and then wondered if she came into work out or what she was doing when she just stood there.

  He pushed the buttons and slowed the treadmill to a crawl. “Alley?” he said, and she ducked under his arm and was walking in front of him. He smiled down at her and shook his head. She was in a pair of baggy gray sweatpants and a loose fitting t-shirt, but he didn’t think she could have been sexier had she been naked.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  She hopped up and brought her feet to the sides so that she was no longer walking. “Are you mad at me?” she asked, not turning around.

  Trevas brought his arm around her and stopped the treadmill. “No Alley, I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at myself. What happened last night was entirely my fault. I’m supposed to be the adult here, and kissing you was the most unprofessional thing I have ever done, and I’m sorry, and I apologize profusely. I promise I won’t let it happen again”

  “I don’t want you to be sorry Trevas,” she said and turned to face him, standing too close for his control level.

  “That is not what I meant. I just can’t let it happen again.”

  “You can’t let it happen again, but you want to?”

  Trevas smiled a warm smile, “Come on, I will make us some breakfast,” he said, wanting to get away from her, and making the mistake of taking her hand. The touch of her caused him to close his eyes and take a breath. She pulled her hand away from his and stared up at him before he opened the door.

  “You make me say what is on my mind, you can’t be a hypocrite.”

  “Yes Alley, I want to very much so,” he answered. “Come on let’s get some breakfast.”

  “Can we just have the pizza?” she asked as they walked to the kitchen.

  “You liked my pizza, uh?”

  “I loved your pizza.”

  Trevas warmed up the pizza on a cooking stone in the oven. They both grabbed a shower while it was warming, and Trevas shook his head lightly as he watched her come back down in short dark blue stretch shorts and light pink tank-top that showed the darker shade of pink bra strap. They sat at the table and ate. Trevas was trying his best to talk to her normal and not let things be awkward, but was failing miserably when their eyes kept getting entranced with each other’s.

  “Come on, I will beat you in a game of pinball,” she told him after they had cleaned up the plates.

  They stood side by side and Alley asked him if they were playing for poison.

  “No way, that gets me in trouble,” he admitted.

  “You’re not in trouble, Trevas,” she said, looking at him in the way that he was quickly finding out was extremely dangerous for him. “We will just play for fun,” she added.

  Trevas lost his first ball on the first serve when it went straight down the middle, between the paddles and Alley laughed. He was on his third ball, and Alley was still on her first. She lost her ball on purpose, and he watched her cautiously as she moved under his arm in front of him. She took control of the game, his fingers rested lightly on hers. He stared down at her in front of him, and couldn’t control the feelings that were taking over him, and he wondered what the hell was going on. No matter how much he tried to reason with himself and tell himself that she was a child, he couldn’t control it and wanted nothing more than to spin her around and kiss her.

  “Are you even paying attention?” she asked.

  “I’m trying like hell,” he admitted, willing himself not to bend down and kiss her bare shoulder. He looked up and watched her let the ball escape between the paddles.

  She stood still for what seemed like forever, not moving and finally, slowly turned to him and looked up.

  “I’m not kissing you,” he demanded, already staring at her lips.

  “Yes you are
,” she stated, nonchalantly, and he laughed.

  They gazed at each other briefly and Trevas moved his lips toward her. Before he had even gotten to her lips, she had her hands under his shirt and on his stomach. He thought he was going to lose it and gasped a little at her touch.

  “Kiss me Trevas,” she whispered, and he watched her moisten her lips with her tongue and part them slightly for him, that was all that it took. He had her in his arms and wanted her more than he had ever wanted anything in his life. He pressed himself up against her, leaned against the pinball machine and tried to tell himself not to move from her lips.

  His thumbs traced her throat and neck, and it was all he could do not to move his lips down to her chest. He wanted so badly to caress her breast and run his thumb over her nipple but fought the urge and didn’t. He pulled away briefly, glancing, hungrily down her body and then took her mouth again, willing himself to stay on her lips. He pulled away and spun away from her when he couldn’t take it anymore.

  He stared at her three feet away, and she smiled a warm smile, knowing that he was fighting the temptation and had, had enough. “Come on I will beat you in a game of bowling,” she told him, letting him off the hook. Trevas had to situate himself in his now too tight jeans once her back was turned, thankful for the opportunity.

  “This has to be yours,” he said, picking up a bright pink bowling ball and she smiled.

  “Birthday present,” she replied, turning the lights and the lane on. The pins were automatically picked up and put back into place.

  She went first and of course got a strike.

  “Is there anything that I can beat you at?” he asked, taking his position and she laughed.

  “I highly doubt it,” she answered sounding very cocky.

  Trevas only got four pins the first roll but did get a spare after that and Alley got another strike.

  The second and third frame was the same.

  “You do know that is a turkey don’t you?” she asked.

  “I don’t know what that means?” he joked honestly.

  “It means I have gotten three strikes in a row.”

  “Are you calling me a loser?”