Cherry Bomb

I woke up early the next morning and instinctively reached my hand over to the other side of the bed.

It was empty.

I sat up, rubbing my knuckles into my eyes vigorously to wipe away the sleep that had me squinting and yawning. My eyes zoomed through the open bedroom door to the silent room beyond. I listened but I heard nothing but the traffic that moaned down the road outside my apartment building.

She was gone.

She had come back to bed after reapplying her lipstick or make-up (whatever other crap girls put on their face). I had felt the heat of her curled against my side, her face turned away from me. She had been cold and hot all at the same time but I hadn’t cared. She had been at my side and I fell asleep happy.

But now it was just cold.

I shook my head, grumbling to myself for acting like an idiot. How many times have I done the exact same thing to random girls I’ve met in clubs and bars. I still have a scar on my forehead from the time a girl threw her alarm clock at me from her window. When she saw me walking away without a backwards glance the morning after, she had realised I wasn’t going to call her. Unfortunately, her scream of fury caused me to turn around to catch a face full of clock. Crazy, I’m telling you….and fucking painful.

I got up, throwing an old jumper on over my bare chest. I flinched as a small squeeze of pain stabbed my side. I looked down and grinned knowingly at the distinctive bruise of a bite mark. Battle wounds, my friend, scars of a well-earned tussle.

I farted around my apartment for a while, switching on my laptop to finish off the last 200 words of the piece I had been writing before Rosalie came and…distracted me. I briefly scanned through the new folder in my documents, crimson lips and wild red hair flashed out at me. White teeth and blue eyes sucking me into the images of tangled cream limbs and the shape of those lips as she moaned my name into my ear. The warmth of her breath tickling my ear as I shuddered into her body.

I stiffened in more places than one and I coughed loudly, distracting my thoughts away from what I wanted to think about towards the vision of dancing grandmothers. I quickly calmed down. I didn’t want to get too excited thinking about her, for all I knew, she was gone for good.

I tried not to let that thought drag me down.

I sighed loudly, and got up, pulling on my sneakers. There had been too much drinking lately and not enough exercise. Keep it up and I might obtain that little beer belly Noel was so proud of having.
I stretched my legs and arms, grabbing my iPod and remembering to send my article to the editor before I ran out the door. Fail another deadline and it would be my balls he roasted at his next lame barbeque.

The sun was warm on my neck as I pressed shuffle and I lost myself to the music. The pounding of my feet on the pavement felt good and the sweat that dripped down my face spurred me on like an energy drink.

Before long, I was in the local park and using the outside gym. I stayed away from the girly machines such as the exercise bike and began to use the bars. I felt the familiar burn as my biceps were worked. I smiled, I felt alive.

I shrugged off my jumper, now dark grey with sweat and I tried not to wink at the chubby mum using the bike whose eyes burned a trail over every abdominal muscle carved into my stomach. I turned away, and a flash of red caught my eye.

Rosalie looked back at me from where she sat on the grass, a blue blanket cushioning her behind. Her black guitar was in her hands, and her fingers plucked at the strings absentmindedly. The disjointed tune drifted on the wind towards my now pricked up ears. I don’t know how long she had been sitting there, I was so caught up in my work-out that I hadn't noticed her until now.

But I had seen her so I picked up my jumper but left it off, the cool breeze drying the sweat on my chest and back like a lovers caress. It felt good.

Rosalie watched me and with a smug expression I noticed the hunger in her eyes. They roved over my body with a curious lust…seeing it in the daylight seemed to spark something more in her. I smiled.

She noticed my expression and she fixed hers but too late, I had seen her temporary weakness.

I sat down beside her without saying anything, and I let out a sigh that I didn't know was being held in. I also had the urge to fart…but I held that one in.

It was good to see her without her running away. I didn’t like to admit it but I was afraid she’d really done a runner.

I flinched slightly when her soft fingers brushed against my back, the dampness of the sweat didn’t seem to faze her. Her other hand came into my line of vision, handing me a cigarette. I took it without a word, and she lit it for me. The nicotine went straight to my system and I exhaled a long stream of smoke.

Rosalie’s lips touched the edge of my shoulder, her fingers fluttering a beat against my back. I repressed the urge to moan. It felt good.

Her lips reached the part of my neck just below my ear, and she blew a kiss there. I closed my eyes.

What had this girl done to me?

“Luka,” she whispered. “Look at me, Luka.”

I looked at her then, into her eyes. Her naming me Luka didn’t bother me the way it did when others said it. It fit…the way it must have fit for my grandparents.

That thought slid my eyes away from her and I stood up. This girl was making me obsessed but my grandparents had been in love. I didn’t love Rosalie…she was beautiful and unlike anyone I had ever met. But love was out of the question. I had vowed to myself to never fall in love again.

I saw another jogger out of the corner of my eye, and focused on her rather than feel Rosalie’s eyes on my back. Her silence was disconcerting.

I recognized the jogger with her shiny brown hair and tanned legs. Bambi.

I watched Bambi, allowing my gaze to rove over her body, the legs that always looked so smooth when she wore her little skirts, and the hair that was so soft when it touched my cheek when I hugged her good-bye.

Something else seemed to rise up in me and it confused me. I looked back at Rosalie who was watching me with a knowing smile, as if she knew something I didn’t. My feelings quelled and I sat back beside her. I was being stupid. It was only sex.

I kissed her then, feeling her lipstick smear against my own lips but I didn’t care. I forgot about the way Bambi looked when she ran and focused on the feel of Rosalie’s body as I rolled her underneath my stronger one.

I whispered the name into her mouth. Rosalie.

And she was all I needed.