My Marjorie,

Marjorie had told Clarisse that she needed to stop by her house before coming over, something about studying for an hour. Clarisse’s body was shaking she was so nervous. There was only one thing she could do that would calm her down, see Jonah. She thought of the tattooed man with an odd sense of humor and laughed to herself. Just being around him made Clarisse feel better, he always found a way to put a smile on her face.

The Pet Shop smelled like bedding, dirt, and pumpkin spice. The angry looking owner of the shop was holding the bottle tightly and spraying it, “God damn motherfucking,” he grumbled more under his breath and tossed the now empty bottle in the trash.

“Is this a bad time?”

Jonah’s head shot up, the expression on his face changed from night to day, “Hey!” Jonah walked casually over to her and smirked, “Miss me? If I hadn’t seen me in a day or so I’d get upset too.”

Clarisse smacked his arm playfully and walked over to the snakes, “Sure, let’s try to raise that self esteem of yours up a bit.” She laughed and pushed some hair behind her ear, “Actually, I came here to calm down some. Remember that girl that stopped by, the new girl?”

The smile once again disappeared and was replaced with a frown, Jonah walked behind the counter and avoided Clarisse’s glass like eyes. “Yep,” he said shortly, checking the tip jar out in the process. Thirty seven cents.

What Clarisse didn’t get was why Jonah was now avoiding her. Did she say something wrong? None the less she rushed over to him, “Well, she’s coming over for dinner and I’m really nervous.” She tried to get him to look at her with pleading eyes, “I mean, I don’t know why I’m nervous. It’s just dinner. Just me, her, and my parents.”

He hadn’t met her parents. Jonah was under the impression that he was Clarisse’s friend, that he was the only one she could rely on. She just fucking met this girl, who he had a bad feeling about, and already she was over for dinner. Clarisse had met his dad a bunch of times, his dad loved her. But maybe this friendship was one-sided, maybe it always had been and he was too stupid to realize it. Too fucking stupid to realize that Clarisse only saw him as the owner of the Pet Shop.

Jonah wasn’t stupid, he had watched Clarisse when that girl walked in. The way she was falling over her words, the trance she was under, the stupid lovesick look on her face when the girl had smiled at her. He’d always hoped that Clarisse would look at him like that, even just a little bit. He wished she would just see him. Hadn’t she ever noticed anything he’d done? No one except for her was allowed to hold the feeder rats, the flirty jokes here and there, the way Jonah would put his hand on the small of her back when showing her new things. How did she not feel his hand shaking when he did that? How was she so oblivious to the way she made him feel?

“Good question kiddo,” Jonah mumbled, grabbing a magazine and flipping through it. “Hey, did you hear about that new movie Little Miss Sunshine? It looks pretty good.”

Clarisse frowned, why was he acting this way? She cleared her throat and looked down at the register, “Yeah, it looks alright. I like Steve Carrell.”

God damnit, how did she already manage to make him feel like a piece of shit? She was the bad guy here, not him. A deep sinking was felt in Jonah’s stomach. She refused to look at him, the roles had been reversed, “Well, when was the last time you had someone over? ‘Course you’re gonna be nervous. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

Jonah smiled when he heard one of his favorite songs playing from his stereo, mixed CDs were his life, “I'm missing you so much, I'll say you died tonight,” he held out his hand with a cheesy smile on his face. He could see Clarisse’s cheeks turn a light shade of pink, his grin widened. She reached forward and placed her small hand in his larger tattooed one. He pulled her close and set his other hand on the small of her back. They swayed lightly as he murmured the words to the song.

Clarisse couldn’t help but smile, she hadn’t noticed it until right then, but, “You have really pretty eyes,” she told him softly.

His breath caught in his throat, he cleared his throat and laughed nervously, “Thanks. You have pretty…” A small sigh fell from Jonah’s lips, “Everything about you is pretty,” he whispered.

Everything felt like it was on pause, Clarisse frowned, did he really mean that? She looked down at herself, cut off shorts and a plain red t-shirt, her hair was in a messy bun, she looked decent in her eyes, she definitely wouldn’t say pretty.

“Hey,” his voice was soft, she hadn’t heard him speak like that before.

Clarisse slowly looked up, scared of what she would see. She was met with eyes, big and brown and possibly prettier then Marjorie’s. Then lips, lush lips leaning forward and capturing hers. His lips were soft, they felt nice against hers. Clarisse placed a delicate hand on his stubbly cheek and moved her lips against his, enjoying the feeling it sent through her body. Nothing could ruin this moment for Jonah. She could pull away and slap him, yeah that would suck, but he’d forever remember the feeling of her lips on his, her hand on his cheek, her pressed up against him. He hadn’t noticed that the song changed.

Jonah deepened the kiss, gently nibbling on her lower lip, he felt a shiver go down his spine as he heard a tiny noise leave her perfect lips. His thumbs grazed her jutting hip bones. Slowly he backed her against the counter, his hands slid down and grabbed her ass and lightly squeezed it.

A small squeak left Clarisse’s lips making Jonah chuckle. She pulled away and looked at him, her eyes were wide and pupils dilated.

“Jonah…”

He felt her phone buzz, his heart stopped.

Clarisse reached into her pocket and pulled out the shitty flip phone, she read the text and frowned, “I’ve got to go.”

“Clarisse.”

She tore herself away from him and walked out of the shop, she might as well have ran out. Jonah ran a hand through his short hair, “God damnit,” he muttered.