Starburst

by Jettie Woodruff

  “Yeah, I kind of am,” she teased.

  Alley was getting ready to start the fourth frame and just before she was ready to release the ball he grabbed her around her waist.

  “Wait,” he yelled. “Never mind, go ahead.”

  He did it again and then on the third try, she released it before he could stop her and landed a perfect gutter ball.

  “You cheat,” she turned and told him, and he was laughing.

  “But… I bet I can beat you at racing,” he taunted and sat in the seat of the racing game. He did beat her three times in a row, and before he could move to get out of the seat when it was her turn again, she straddled him in the seat.

  He looked down at her bare legs, telling himself not to touch her. His hands were confused and thought that his brain told them to touch her, and he ran both of them up her bare legs.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked, looking up to her.

  She pressed her lips together and twisted them toward the left slightly.

  “Uh uh,” he said and she smiled, knowing what he was thinking.

  “You don’t want to know what I’m thinking.”

  “I have wanted to know what you are thinking since the day I laid eyes on you.”

  “Why?” she asked as she played with the bottom of his t-shirt.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “You mesmerize me.”

  “You mesmerize me too, and I don’t understand it.”

  “What don’t you understand?”

  “Why I can laugh with you, why I can talk to you, why I can’t stop thinking about you and why you make me feel the way you do.”

  “Come on,” he said patting her leg and wanting her to remove her body from his.

  She got up, and he followed without a rebuttal to her last statement, wanting to get away from the too deep conversation. He opened the door and stepped aside, and when he turned to let her go in front of him, she had an angry look in her eyes.

  “If you don’t want to know what I’m thinking, then don’t fucking ask me,” she said, storming past him.

  “Hey Alley,” he said quietly and lightly took her wrist. She shot him a dirty look and jerked her arm from him. She disappeared back to her room, and he fought hard not to go after her.

  Let her go Trevas, he told himself and knew that it was best if she stayed mad at him and avoided him, but he also knew that he hated her being unhappy, knowing that her whole life was full of unhappiness.

  He was watching a cooking show when she came back down around three in the afternoon and walked past him without a glance or a word and went to the pool. He looked out at her periodically, and she sat with her back to him in the lounge with her e- book. She lowered the back of the lounge chair, and rolled over to her stomach, dropped the sunglasses and book to the concrete. She lay with her arms above her head, and he could tell after her not moving and staying in the same position for over twenty minutes, she had fallen asleep.

  He tried to get her to stay downstairs and eat with him, and she refused. She was shut down again and locked herself in her room. He told himself that it was best to let her stay mad and not talk to him. He decided that he would not come to the kitchen when she came down in the middle of the night for food.

  She fought hard herself to stay in her room. She tried to read, tried to play a game on her computer, tried to watch a movie but noting helped. Her mind kept going back to Trevas, and she knew she was just setting herself up for what would be nothing more than a broken heart. Why did he make her feel like he did? What was it about him? She had other guys interested in her before, but she could never return the interest and didn’t understand what was happening and why he was getting to her like he was.

  Trevas listened around eleven at night and heard her coming down the stairs, but she didn’t go to the kitchen. She tapped on his door and then opened it before he had a chance to say anything.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked as she put her hands behind her back, and leaned up against the threshold, wearing her panties and skimpy camisole.

  She didn’t answer and only stared at him.

  “Come here,” he said quietly and didn’t know why. He lifted the covers, and she eagerly crawled into his arms.

  Trevas looked down at her, beneath his body. “What the hell am I supposed to do with you?” he asked, and she lifted her body, and he took her mouth. She sat up a little and removed her shirt, and he looked down at her young perky breast, she watched his eyes as he did. He moved his eyes back to hers, regaining the control not to touch her breast and kissed her again. She pulled her naked body to his shirtless body, and he had to back away and breathe.

  “I’m not touching you Alley,” he told her, and she took a deep breath.

  “I knew you wouldn’t,” she told him. “I’m hungry,” she added, and he laughed.

  “Of course you are,” he stated, and got up and pulled on a pair of jeans trying to hide the erection lying to the left of his gray boxer briefs. “Here, put this on,” he told her pulling a t-shirt from his drawer.

  It covered her, but didn’t help much as he watched her walk out. He warmed her up a plate of chicken Alfredo and sat with her at the end of the massive table.

  “You do remember that you have to go back to school tomorrow,” he reminded her, and she groaned.

  “I’m only going to turn in my English paper and take my last final and then I’m done, and I’m not going back,” she demanded.

  “Yes you are Alley. I don’t want any more calls from your dad.”

  Alley got up and ran up the stairs two at a time, and he wondered what she was doing. She didn’t act mad or tell him to fuck off, and he was a little confused. She came back down with her cellphone to her ear, and he listened, shaking his head.

  “Hey Alley, I was going to call you but, once I figured out the time, I assumed you would be in bed. Don’t you go back to school tomorrow,” her dad answered.

  “That’s why I’m calling dad. I’m going back tomorrow to take my final and then I’m not going back next week.”

  “Alley don’t you do this now. You are going back to school next week. It’s one a few days, and you have to go or you are not going to be able to walk at graduation and your mom, and I both have already planned on flying home for it next week.”

  “Well, un-plan it, I’m not going back, and you should have known that I wouldn’t be taking part in the stupid ceremony. I will get my diploma, which is all that matters.”

  Fletcher breathed a disgusted breath. “It’s not going to do me any good to demand that you do anything, you are going to do what you want anyway.”

  “Yes dad I am, it’s no big deal. I don’t want to do the stupid ceremony thing.”

  “I will talk to you later,” he said, saying good bye and Trevas had to run to the bedroom to get his own phone. Fletcher thought that he had woken him when it took him so long to answer.

  “Evans,” he answered, glaring at Alley.

  “Evans, its Fletcher. Sorry to wake you but I just got off the phone with my stubborn daughter, and she is refusing to go back to school next week. I just wanted to let you know, and to tell you not to force her or she will go and do something stupid. I will call the school tomorrow and tell them that she is going to be out of the country or something.”

  “Okay sir,” he replied still glaring at Alley.

  “You have this bad girl thing down to a tee, don’t you?” he scowled at Alley as soon as he hung up with her dad.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, eating his delicious meal.

  “Give Alley what she wants or she will make a scene,” He replied in a whiny voice.

  “Fuck you Trevas,” she shot back.

  “And if she doesn’t cause a scene she will throw a tantrum,” he said smartly, annoyed with her teenage ways. He was waiting for the next blow, but she just looked at him.

  “What?” he asked after she didn’t say anything, giving him a look that he couldn’t quite read.r />
  “You don’t give me what I want,” she told him.

  “Because, what you want will have me arrested,” he told her knowing exactly what she was talking about.

  “You are not going to get arrested Trevas,” she assured him.

  “I’m not going to get arrested because I’m not going there.”

  Alley got up and rinsed her plate and walked upstairs. Trevas went back to his room and closed the door, removed his pants and crawled back into bed. He had no sooner gotten laid down, and she was back, closing the door behind her.

  “What are you doing?” he asked in shock as she lifted the covers and crawled in beside him.

  “I had to brush my teeth, and now I’m sleeping with you.”

  Trevas had to laugh because it was the only emotion that made any sense. “Alley you cannot sleep with me,” he insisted.

  “Shut up and kiss me,” she told him moving close to his body and as soon as her half naked body was touching his, his hands and lips quit listening to his brain again.

  He kissed her and ran his hands up her hips, side and back until he couldn’t take it anymore. “Roll over and go to sleep, you spoiled little brat,” he demanded, and she turned her back to his front, and he held her in his arms. She felt so natural there, and he had never held another female that felt like they belonged there like she did. He closed his eye, trying to reason with himself that this was nothing and could never be anything.

  Trevas made her breakfast, and she rode in the front seat on the ride to school.

  “I only need two hours and you can come back and get me,” she told him.

  “Just call me when you’re done. I only live about three miles from here, I’m going to run by my place and check the mail and make sure everything is okay.”

  “I want to go to you place with you,” she told him.

  “You go ace this test. You can see my place some other time.”

  “I will ace this test, and I’m going to hold you to that.”

  Chapter 3

  Alley spent the next week and a half wrapped in Trevas’s arms and constantly kissing and flirting with him. They swam in the pool late at night so that they didn’t have to worry about the cameras and even drove around late at night, just to get out of the house. Alley slept in his arms every night and as hard as it was he refrained from touching her. On Tuesday, they lay in bed, and he lay on his side and kept his hand on her stomach.

  “Tell me something that you have always wanted to do that you haven’t done,” he asked her and she thought for a second.

  “Make love to you.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I’m being serious.”

  “So am I,” she promised. “Okay, okay let me think. Ride a school bus.”

  “I thought you were going to be serious.”

  “I am being serious,” she insisted. “I have always went to private schools and been taken to school by a driver. I never got to ride a school bus.”

  “Alley Fletcher, the daughter of not one but two millionaires, who could have anything she wants, wants to ride a school bus,” he teased.

  She laughed too. “It does sound kind of silly, doesn’t it? What about you? What do you want to do that you haven’t yet?”

  Trevas didn’t have to think about it. “Open a restaurant,” he answered.

  “I could see you doing that. I love your cooking.”

  “What’s your middle name?” he asked.

  “The same as your grandmas,” she answered.

  “Your middle name is May?”

  “Yup.”

  “Wait, isn’t that the girls name from the Beverly Hillbillies?”

  Alley laughed. “No that’s Ellie May. My name is Alex May. What is your middle name?”

  “Wade.”

  “Trevas Wade Evans,” she said his full name. “Where did you get your name?”

  “My grandparents met at a restaurant in Iowa called Trevas, and then they named a dog after it and then I came along and got it too.”

  “You were named after a dog?” she asked, teasing.

  “No, I was named after a romantic restaurant,” he demanded and tickled her causing her to draw her legs up which landed him perfectly between them and then they got quiet, staring intently at each other. Trevas leaned toward her, she raised her body, and he kissed her. He ran his hand under her shirt and up her ribs and then tilted her head back and kissed her neck and throat. Alley let out a soft moan and it drove him crazy.

  He had never moved to anywhere on her body except for her lips, but he didn’t stop there. He took her mouth again, and his hand wandered to her bare breast, and teased her erect nipple, and this time he let out the soft moan, and after a few moments she pulled away.

  “Trevas you have to stop,” Alley demanded.

  Trevas buried his face in his pillow. “I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have to be sorry, but if you are not going to go all the way, then you can’t go that far,” she protested. She couldn’t take it anymore either. She had been sleeping in his bed for a week, enduring his torturous hands and lips and was unable to control her own desires.

  “Okay, let’s go eat ice cream,” he told her with a sly grin and she laughed.

  “Ice cream?”

  “Yes, I saw a carton of butter pecan in the freezer, let’s go eat a bowl.”

  Alley got up and pulled his hand. They sat on the couch, and she threw her bare legs over his and they each ate a bowl of ice cream. She turned it to the show, sixteen and pregnant, and it made Trevas realize again, how young she really was.

  “You are not seriously going to make me watch this are you?”

  Alley turned and looked at him and started flipping channels, “How about Law and Order?”

  “That’s much better, and if you would stop walking around half naked all the time, I could control my urges a lot better,” he added, rubbing his cold hand from the ice-cream bowl up her leg, causing her to jump from the cold on her warm legs.

  “If you would have never kissed me the first time, you could control you urges,” she teased, and he gave her a look of shock.

  “Me? You practically threw yourself on me.”

  “I did not, you liar.”

  “Let’s switch rolls, I will be you that first night, and you are me,” he suggested, talking in a high pitch whiny voice. “OH…Trevas kiss me,” he teased, and she laughed.

  “I am you?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he answered still pretending to be her with the fake female voice.

  She didn’t talk and pulled herself up to her knees and pressed her body against his chest and kissed him, forcing him to part his lips with her tongue and then slowly pulled away.

  “I did not do that,” he demanded in his own voice.

  “But you wanted too,” she accused, and he laughed.

  *****

  Trevas sat straight up in bed the following morning at seven thirty, when he heard someone in the house.

  “Shit,” he said to Alley, “we forgot about the housekeeper,” and she laughed.

  “Shhhh,” it’s not funny. “Do you have your cellphone?” he asked, and she turned to look at the night stand.

  “Yes.”

  “I will go out and start breakfast, as soon as it’s clear, I will text you and you run upstairs.”

  “Got it chief,” she said, still laughing and he gave her a stern look that made her laugh again.

  Trevas dressed and went out, he already had, ‘NOW’ typed in his phone, ready to hit send, and as soon as the housekeeper went into the laundry room he hit it, and she ran out, half naked, up the stairs, and all he could do was shake his head in disbelief.

  She returned with a t-shirt and a pair of short shorts. He shook his head as their eyes met and stayed locked on each other’s in a trance as she came to the island to watch him cook. The housekeeper was busy mopping the marble floors and they only spoke with their eyes afraid of how they would come across if they spoke to each other. Alley got the m
ail and tried to busy herself while Trevas made eggs and bacon. She picked up her cellphone and text him, and he gave her a look as he fetched it from his pocket, knowing that it was her.

  “Kiss me,” it read, and she laughed as he put it back in his pocket, giving her a firm expression.

  Trevas sat their plates on the island and sat beside her as she thumbed through what looked to be mostly junk mail. She put the important ones in a stack to take to her dad’s office and tossed the rest in a trash pile.

  “Isn’t this from your school?” he asked, picking up the vanilla envelope that she had tossed to the trash pile.

  “Yes, I’m sure it’s just my last report card,” she told him, and he looked confused.

  “Don’t you want to see if you passed?”

  Alley laughed. “I passed.”

  “Can I open it?” he asked.

  “Okay, I don’t care.”

  Trevas was in shock when he saw that all nine classes, she carried an A+ throughout the year, and her grade point average was a 4.8. “You are a freaking genius,” he exclaimed, and she laughed. “I thought that the highest GPA was 4.0, how did you get a 4.8?”

  “I took advanced classes, and I’m not a genius, I did my homework and studied.”

  Trevas turned to say something to her but stopped himself and took a bite, not wanting the housekeeper to hear what he was going to say.

  They rinsed their dishes, and Alley purposely rubbed her back against him as she moved from the sink to the dishwasher. He nervously turned to the housekeeper to make sure she hadn’t seen.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he whispered to her and she looked at him confused.

  “And go where?”

  “My place,” he whispered again.

  “Alley, your grades are something to be proud of. I’m overly impressed with you right now,” Trevas told her as they drove.

  “Hold my hand,” she demanded, being modest about her grades and moving her hand to the middle.

  Trevas didn’t want to hold her hand. It just caused more confusing feelings that he knew he was going to have to put to rest in three maybe four more weeks. He didn’t hold her hand in the middle of the seats, and instead, for some reason picked it up and moved it to the top of her bare leg, holding it there. His hand more than covered hers and his thumb swept back and forth on her leg.