You Mustn't Give Your Heart To A Wild Thing

I was just moments from complete collapse.

Or so my body told me as it screamed out for sleep and I could feel each part of me shutting down in futile; and albeit fruitless, protest. Desperate attempts at forcing me to stop, or at the very least, slow down, before I passed out from sheer exhaustion.

“Are ya okay? You look a little...pale”

I scoffed loudly and glanced down at my exposed skin. The Californian sun had showered a permanent caramel glow over me since the day I had arrived; a stark and welcome change from home, where were I to be just a fraction paler, I would’ve been invisible entirely. “Ye’ve not seen pale”

Lau shrugged and continued to wipe down the counter with the dishcloth that had been slung over her shoulder. Humming softly to herself as she went and shaking her hips in time with the loud music escaping from the kitchen. She was the epitome of a Californian. Her sun kissed blonde hair fell in perfect waves across toned, lightly freckled shoulders and sparkling blue eyes peered out from beneath thick, full lashes that curled without having to be teased by mascara, and grazed just below her shaped eyebrows. When she spoke, words seemed to slip effortlessly from between peach tinted lips, and she expressed herself just as much with her hands, as she did with her voice.

A quick glance at the large clock over her shoulder told me we were a half hour from closing and some quick, silent math in my head told me that it was now thirty two hours since I had last slept. Samantha and I had chased the sunrise the previous night, embellishing sequins onto some knitted thrift shop sweaters and the twelve hour shift; of which I was currently in my final minutes of, at Foxtail, had followed a full day of lectures.

“Any plans for the weekend?” It took two blinks of my eyes and a shake of the head for me to wake from my daydream, and realise that Lau was talking to me. A soft giggle escaped her lips and she moved to rest her elbows against the bar, her chin balancing on her palms. “Or are ya just gonna catch up on your sleep?”

“My brother's visiting actually” A broad grin stretched across my tired lips at the thought of seeing Jake again and I couldn’t help but gush “I was hoping he would bring my niece; I’ve not met her yet, but it can’t be done. She’s far too little and she don’t travel well apparently.”

“How little?”

“She must be what...sixteen months now? A little over sixteen months. She were a spring baby”

“And she was born after you came over here?”

“Yeah, April after the August” I smiled small as she moved to meet a guy stumbling, heavy footed, toward the bar. “I were planning to go home, visit, when she were born, but I wasn’t ready”

“Ready for what?”

My head snapped upward at the sudden realisation of what had just passed my lips and I stuttered and choked on my words as I tried to explain. “I didn’t mean I...I weren’t ready for any of it, I...”

Her brow had furrowed in concern, but it evened out as my cell phone began buzzing loudly from my back pocket, and she turned back to the customer as I mumbled a small ‘excuse me’ and ducked into the back office, closing the door behind me.

His voice flashing on the screen caused the smallest of sighs, yet the biggest of flutters in my stomach and I pressed my phone gingerly to my ear. “What do you want?”

“Is that any way to talk to your love interest?” He slurred, “Don’t roll your eyes at me”

Annoyingly, Alex had come to know every one of my little traits. Not through hanging out with me and observing my behaviour; his afternoon visits had become increasingly infrequent and we’d not once had any time alone since our kiss, but through tarring me with the same brush as he would himself. Apparently, we are more than a little alike. I had been told to ‘ask Kurily or Sam’ if I doubted this.

“Ye of no interest to me Alexander Gaskarth”

“Is your nose growing Verity? Because my...” I cringed as he wolf whistled, but couldn’t fight the smile as he chuckled loudly down the phone. Alex had a plethora of laughs and I was steadily learning each. This particular one I had heard maybe half a dozen times before and I knew it as the chaser to anything a little lewd. “certainly is at the sound of your voice”

“D’ye know how much I love ye talking dirty to me?”

“Do you, Verity, know how many dirty things I’d like to do to...”

“Goodnight Alex”

He caught me just as I was moving my phone from my ear. “I’m stuck, and I need your help”

“’scuse me?”

“I’m stuck, and I need your help” He repeated, this time a touch louder.

“If ye stuck on a crossword puzzle, or that fucking Xbox game again, I suggest ye wait until ye sober” I sighed, perching on the corner of the desk, taking a sudden interest in my nails and the purple paint chipping off of them. “It’s almost close Alex, I’ve gotta help Lau do the roll out and...”

“It’s not Xbox Verity Ann, and I’ll have you know I’m a whizz at crossword puzzles”

“The Times, or the Sun?”

“It’s a lot more serious than...What?”

“Never mind, what’s so serious that I have to...”

“English newspapers right?” I nodded in answer. My cheeks flushing pink as he pointed out that he couldn’t see such an answer. “...I’ll Google them and give you an answer. If I ever make it home, alive”

“Are ye not being a little dramatic?” I groaned.

“Could you not be a little more sympathetic?” He retorted immediately.

“To what? Ye’ve not even explained why ye need my help”

“It’s complicated and a little embarrassing”

“ You’re complicated and extremely embarrassing. Spill”

“I resent that”

“I resent ye ringing me at ungodly hours telling me ye’ve got embarrassing problems”

The line went silent for a fair few moments and I swore I could hear Lau’s footsteps nearing the door. Kicking out the final drunks, left lurking and lingering in the corners of the bar was a two person job and one not for the faint of heart. The neon digits flashing on the clock on the desk, told me I had two minutes to wrap this up. The unsettling anxious feeling, rising from the pit of my stomach told me I should’ve probably never started.

“I’m hiding”

“Ye what?” I asked with an unexpected giggle, surprised at his sudden revelation. “Why are ye...”

“It’s not funny Verity. I’m at a party. Well it was a party.” He began to mumble quickly. “Danny and Sam dragged me here”

“Uhuh” I sighed. The tone of his voice and the speed with which he was speaking told me that swallowing his upcoming explanation would be on a par with swallowing a sword. It was a tone every man possessed and a speed I swore no woman could achieve whilst still making sense.

“There’s a girl”

The jealousy that flashed through me momentarily was completely unexpected and my sharp intake of breath was loud enough for Alex to cotton on. “Hold your horses, there’s no need for...”

“What d’ye mean by ‘there’s a girl’ Alex? Because if ye ringing me with some kind of moral dilemma, if ye want some sort of permission to...”

“I need a ride home” He interrupted smoothly, “Your delightful housemate Sam was my DD and they’ve both disappeared. I’ve drank far too much to drive and I don’t know anyone here”

“Why the fuck didn’t ye just tell me th...”

“I needed to prove something”

“And what would that be?”

“That you haven’t completely given up on us, as you claimed”

I let my eyes fall closed and took a deep breath in. “And...?”

“I’ll find out the address and text it to you”

I could hear the smirk in his voice and I could picture the exact twinkle dancing between his dark brown eyes.
Alex Gaskarth spent ninety five percent of his life with the same amused expression on his face and I had recently spent an embarrassing portion of my own time trying to deny the attraction of such a look.

“Ye gonna be walkin’ home Gaskarth” I smiled small, pulling myself from the desk and heading back toward the door.

“And there goes your nose, again Palmer”

&&

Alex had told me he would be waiting out front and Alex had led me to believe that there was no girl.

Finding Alex had been like finding a needle in a haystack, and when I had finally found him; slumped on top of a pile of coats beneath the stairs, there was not one, but two, strikingly pretty blondes with him. The blonder of the two; with hair almost white in colour, was tucked under his arm and appeared to be more than a little ecstatic about occupying the small, exclusive space between his arm and torso. Her friend, with hair of a darker, dirtier shade though smiling politely, looked a little less impressed.

The smile on Alexs face now; lopsided and uneasy, was an exact replica of the one that had appeared when he’d noticed I was stood in front of him and in the five minutes it had taken to tell him he was a prick, and find my way back outside and to my car, his slurred apologies had become no more coherent.

“You said you were going to be five minutes”

“And when I was ten ye decided to down the whole bottle of whisky?”

“They wouldn’t leave me alone”

“I think ye should concentrate on one apology at a time”

I felt his hand in the small of my back as I reached my car and his hot, sticky liquor breath on my neck as I reached for my keys. My hand grazed his thigh as I shoved it into my back pocket and I closed my eyes for a second, bracing myself for his smartass comment. “I’m sorry”

My eyes fluttered open and the keys I had just retrieved fell heavily from between my fingers to the floor with a loud clunk. His mumbled ‘I’ll get those’ was lost as the two of us dove to the floor, our foreheads banging together and our hands fumbling blindly across the ground in the darkness, and I jumped a little as I felt his arms around my waist, hoisting me back to my feet.

“Alex, my key...” My words trailed as he dangled them an inch or so from my nose.

“I told you I’d get them” His smile was just visible in the dim streetlight, and the corners of his mouth curled further upward as he snatched the keys from my grasp. “Now we’ve worked out that you should trust me, maybe we can...”

“I trust ye?”

“I told you I’d get your keys” He reasoned, stumbling sideways a little as he waved them in my face once again. “And oh, what are these?”

I pushed my palms against his chest gently and stole my keys back from his hand. “It’ll take a lot more than that to make me trust ye Alex”

“I’ve got plenty of tricks up my sleeve”

“D’ye have one to move cars?”

“Are you not familiar with the process Verity?”

“Of a magician? D’ye need a cape or something?”

“It’s more of a cloak I’d say” He shrugged, “But I meant the process of getting in your car and driving away. We don’t really need to be Harry Potter to move your car”

“It’s not my car that needs moving”

“It’s not...It’s not” He groaned, noticing the cars that had boxed my Mustang in.

“And ye don’t know anyone here?” I asked, “Bar them girls ye was...” His lips were upon mine before I’d even realised he’d stepped closer and once again, my words disappeared into his mouth.

His body felt as good as I remembered, pressed against my own, and his long arms still wrapped snuggly, perfectly, around my waist. As had been the previous time, I was left breathless as we parted, but this time Alex made no effort to untangle himself from me. Instead we stayed motionless, my forehead pressed against his chest and his chin resting gently atop my head, and we let silence wash over us. The change that had occurred didn’t need to be spoken of, it simply was, and both Alex and I understood this.

“Come on then”

I jumped from my skin, catching my hip awkwardly on the wing mirror of my car as I swayed clumsily sideways. “Shit” I cursed, rubbing my side furiously. My face scrunched up in pain. “Shitshitshi...”

“You’re trouble you”

I smiled weakly as Alex grabbed my arm, replacing my hand with his and rubbing my skin gently. It wasn't just his fingers making my skin tingle and sending goose pimples all over my body. Something about the mishap screamed of a familiarity that I couldn't put my finger on. “Let’s get you home before you do anymore damage”

“Unless ye’ve forgotten, my cars blocked in”

“Ye gonna be walkin’ home Gaskarth” He mimicked, getting my accent spot on. A fact that he knew, given the broad grin stretched across his face. “We’ll come pick up Sally first thing tomorrow”

“What makes ye think that were gonna be together first thing tomorrow morn...”

“I lost the keys to my apartment. Did I not mention that earlier?” The light kiss on my forehead dampened my frustration a little bit, I’d give him that, but how I’d been deemed as the ‘trouble’ of the pair of us, I couldn’t understand.

“Ye sleeping on the couch”