Turn Back Time

After they finished their last song, the boys began hurriedly packing up their instruments and equipment. John glanced at his band mates to see if anyone could see him before slipping down the side steps, and joining Elise and I by the side of the food court.

“Well, that was just so cute, John Boy.” Elise sing-songed, mussing his already shaggy hair. He frowned, and tried getting it back to where it was previously sitting. “Doesn’t look any better.”

John rolled his eyes, “Don’t you have to go make things awkward somewhere else, Brock?” He asked, shoving his hands in his pocket, and offering a bittersweet sarcastic smile.

Elise sauntered off to find her brother, leaving John and I to our own devices. “I think I failed to mention it before, but you’re kind of amazing.” I said, tilting my head to the side, and getting a better look at him. His eyes were the strangest color I’d ever seen—blue, gray, and green, all warped together.

He gave a smug smile. “I know. I could tell by the way you were watching me.” He winked, and then while dragging out every word, he sang, “You think I’m sexy, you want to kiss me, you want to loooove me.”

I shook my head. “Um, no thanks.” I laughed.

He leaned in so his lips were next to my ear. “Liar, liar, pants on fire.” He whispered in a low voice.

My face went flaming hot, and I said nothing. I just continued watching him while he was watching me. His hand reached out, and he fingered the hem of my shirt. “Looks good on you…But I bet it’d look better on my bedroom floor.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Oh, baby.” I teased. “So we’ve still got a few hours to kill until seven…” When John grinned smugly, I decided to clarify. “We should watch a movie or something.”

He furrowed his eyebrows, “You’re such a girl.”

He grabbed my hand, which made me blush completely scarlet, and headed for the back entrance to the mall. “This way, m’lady, to the beautiful Rustang!” He shouted. A few onlookers widened their eyes, and laughed at the strange boy in the impossibly tight jeans. I loved that he wasn’t shy around all of these strangers, even though they were obviously judging him. I loved that he had a pet name for his piece of shit Ford.

I wasn’t surprised that he’d opened every door for me on the way to his beat up car, but it still made my heart beat a little bit faster when he did. In Boston, nobody held the door for anyone else, but we all expected someone to hold it for us. We never said, “Excuse me”, we just shoved our way through.

“John?” I asked quietly, watching him messing with all the knobs on the radio. He mumbled in response, but kept his eyes forward. When I didn’t continue, he stopped and looked up at me. There was concern evident in his eyes.

“You okay?” He asked, looking worried.

“What happens when the summer’s over, and I go back home?” I fiddled with the bracelets around my wrist, and avoided looking up at him. I had barely known him for forty-eight hours, and I knew leaving without him was going to be hard, especially with all the weeks left to grow attached to him.

He smiled, “You’ve got two months left, and you’re already worried about losing me?”

I looked down at my lap, “I don’t know.”

He draped his arm around my shoulder, and whispered, “Two months is a long time if you spend it right.” With that said, he proceeded to pull out of the parking lot, and head off to a neighborhood just a few minutes from my brother’s house.

John’s house was much bigger than I would’ve expected one, single guy to live in. The grass was neatly manicured, the garage was full of shit, but it was organized. The windows were clean, and there was an ugly little lawn gnome sitting in the center of the yard, looking devious.

“What the hell is that?” I asked, nodding towards it. John grinned proudly. “You don’t have a house full of little, animal knick-knacks or anything, do you?”

“For your information, I share this place with Pat. That’s his freaky, inanimate pet. He named it the Vagina Slayer… Which I don’t think I really needed to tell you, but now you know.” He said, scratching his head. Before I could question any of that, he led me to the front door.

I couldn’t help but stare. It was all decorated perfectly. “You did this yourself?” I marveled, taking in the nice furniture, and brand-fucking-new appliances.

“There’s no other way to do it.. If I let Pat take charge of this shit, he’d paint giant tits on the wall, or something.” He smirked, and kicked off his shoes. “Would you care for a refrigerated beverage, my dear?”

“Sound wonderful, darling.” I said, taking a seat on the gigantic red sofa. I closed my eyes, feeling more comfortable here than I had anywhere in a long time. I felt the cushions bounce underneath me, and when I opened my eyes, John was seated immediately to my left, grinning widely, with our drinks in hand.

He nudged me excitedly with his shoulder, “Pick a movie, kid. But don’t bother picking a really good one. I have no attention span, I talk the whole time, and I ruin the suspense if you’ve never seen it.”

“I’m not sure the movie will have our full attention anyway.” I smirked, and stood up as John reached for me. I danced away from him, and over to the cabinet full of movies. “Holy fucking shit mother of pearl! You have this? Nobody in the world has ever even heard of it!”

I waved the DVD copy of the Labyrinth around in front of my face, completely bemused that someone like him would have any idea that this movie even existed.

“Jim Henson movies, and David Bowie are basically wet dreams.” He said with a weird look in his eye. It took me a minute to tell whether or not he was actually kidding. “The Wild Gang things always scare the shit out of me, though. You may have to hold onto me extra tight.” He winked.

I laughed, and turned to put the DVD in. The screen flickered to life, and the opening credits began to roll before I knew what was happening.

“Maddie, your ass in directly in my line of vision!” He shouted. I slid out of the way and back onto the couch. He turned to me, shaking his head incredulously. “That does not by any means suggest that you had to move it.”

“Oh, you’re just so shy, aren’t you, John?” I said, hitting him in the side with one of the overstuffed throw pillow. In defense, he jumped up, wrapped his arms around me so I couldn’t move, and I fell back into his lap. “That was the weirdest rendition of ‘the move’ I’ve ever seen. Ever.”

“But it worked beautifully…” He mused, “I must work on my form, though, that was despicable.”

I hummed thoughtfully in response.

“Maddie?”

“John?”

“Do you think I’m pretty?” He asked, batting his eyelashes down at me. I giggled, and nodded. “Do you really think so?”

“You’re beautiful, dear.” I said, touching his cheek, and grinning.

“So does that mean you’ll do me a favor?”

I was almost afraid to ask.

“Kiss me.” He said, with a certain glint in his eye that I didn’t think anyone could ever turn down.

“Okay.” I said, before crushing my lips to his.

His lips were just a soft as they looked, I thought. I wanted to clear my mind and enjoy this, but I couldn’t. There were so many different feelings switching between us, it was enough to knock me flat on my back. His hands roamed up and down my waist, to my hips, and back again.

My fingers fisted in his hair as his tongue found mine. I was contemplating how far I would go with him, right now, like this, and then two loud voices came in through the front hallway.

John and I unwillingly pulled apart, and saved face just as Pat and Garrett walked in the living room. I was idly playing with my hair like I always do, hoping they wouldn’t notice the color returning, full force, to my cheeks.

“Oh, you two totally weren’t just making out, or anything.” Garrett snorted, flopping down in the arm chair, and grabbing the remote. He turned up the volume, and smiled peacefully.

“David Bowie!” Pat squealed, jumping into the minimal amount of space John and I had created between us when we jumped apart. “Those pants leave nothing to the imagination. You fuckers should buy me pants like that.”

“There’s nothing to flaunt, babe.” I said, ruffling his hair. He swatted my hands away, but dove into my lap with a pillow.

“You smell like strawberries.” He hummed. I glanced over at John, who was looking rather unhappy with the fact that two of his friends had shown up, though he expected them to be out with Kennedy, like they’d originally planned to do. I gave him an apologetic smile, and he sighed in response.