A Tantalizing Kiss

We arrived back early in the morning.

Joey and Jason had moved into the other room that connected to ours by a single door. I made no comment to Rose that we’d have to share a room the entire evening. While the inside only had one bed, there was an eccentrically patterned arm chair resting in the corner of it.

I unlocked the door, flicking on the light switch.

Rose collapsed on the bed, rubbing her eyes furiously, “This feel s comfortable.”

I chuckled to myself, locking the door behind me. Despite it being an automatic lock, I had the bolt across for safety.

Could never be too safe in this town.

“You going to bed, Rose?” I asked as I fell down into the arm chair. Much to my luck, it was a recliner.

A few minutes passed in silence.

“Rose…?” I asked softly.

“Hmm?” She sounded as if she was on the verge of slumber.

“Are you going to bed now or do you want to shower first?” I asked softly, leaning over her. My hand rested gently on her back. Her skin was warm underneath my touch. She rolled her shoulders, pushing herself upright.

“I guess I should shower. I must be really gross right now…” She made a face, sliding off of the bed.

I watched as she made her way to the bathroom. She flicked the light on and trudge in. A few seconds later I heard the water click on.

It took all my restraint not to join her. The thought of a completely naked Rose with water running down her perky little body only a few feet away from me was enough to send me over the edge. I took a deep breath, running a hand through my hair.

I pulled my shirt off, grabbing a blanket from the closet.

The chair was made of stiff leather and was too small for a pillow. I pulled the handle on the side and the entire seat fell back, the bottom extending upwards for my feet. It was a little small, but I didn’t think it’d be too bad.

I kept a small light on, but most of the room was dark.

I was almost asleep when Rose came out of the shower in nothing but a damp towel wrapped around her body.

“Shit.” She cussed under her breath softly.

I opened my eyes, watching her grab the clothes she had just been wearing.

“You want clean clothes?” I mumbled barely audibly.

Her figure froze in my line of sight. She seemed surprised that I was awake. Hesitantly, I saw her nod, “Yeah, but you need them for tomorrow. Or ah… for later today.”

I shrugged, “Just look in the open suit case. Anything left in there is what you can use to sleep in. I don’t mind.”

She grabbed something and slipped back into the bathroom to change.

I closed my eyes once again, feeling my muscles fall into relaxation. They ached from playing so much this past weekend. With closed eyes, I could still feel my body pumping, legs moving back and forth.

It felt so nice to finally be able to relax…

“You’re not sleeping on the chair, are you?” She asked.

I opened my eyes sharply, coming face to face with her curious eyes. She cocked her head to the side, biting her bottom lip gently.

“I…”

“Mason, you take the bed.”

“No.” I threw the blanket over my eyes, curling into a small ball.

She flicked my shoulder, “Take the damn bed. You’re the one who has been playing all day. You deserve the comfier spot.”

“You’re my guest.” I mumbled underneath the sheet, “Get your ass into that bed before I make you.”

“Mason…”

I poked my head out from underneath the blanket, smirking, “I’ll go if you join me in it tonight, Doll.”

Her eyes narrowed as she leaned back, crossing her arms. Rose raised an eyebrow at me, waiting expectantly for me to get up.

I shook my head, “Nope. That’s the only way I’m getting into that bed.”

“I’m not sleeping in the same bed as you!” She hissed.

“Why not?” I pouted, “I won’t try anything funny, I promise!”

“No! Now just take the bed!”

I threw the blanket over the side of the chair in annoyance, groaning. “Why must you be so difficult?”

She smirked, flipping her damp hair over her shoulder.

I moved my eyes down her body slowly. She wore her white camisole that did little to hide the bright blue bra underneath. I noticed how she positioned her arms to try to hide it as best she could, but it had little success.

My eyes moved down more to what she wore on the bottom. I smirked with a raised eyebrow at the sight. My black Adidas soccer shorts came to mid thigh on her. She had rolled the waist band a few times to keep them at a comfortable length for her. Just long enough to show off her legs. The white strings hung down the front.

“That’s cute.”

She glanced down at what she was wearing, looking back up with a red face, “You told me I could borrow clothes.”

“I know, I’m just saying…”

“Well, don’t. Please just get into the bed Mason so that I can go to sleep.”

“Only if you join me.”

She narrowed her eyes, “You and I both know that’s not going to ha—What are you doing, Mason?!”

With an arm wrapped tightly around her waist, I stood up, hurling her over my shoulder. Rose fell over the side with a grunt.

In two steps I was at the side of the bed. Awkwardly, I leaned down and pulled back the covers, dropping her onto the bed. While she was still in shock I managed to slip the covers over her, jumping to the other side.

I pulled the covers over myself as well, giving her a boyish grin. She met my look with an angered expression.

“I think this put an end to that ridiculous argument.”

Rose moved to get off the bed.

I grabbed her wrist, pulling her back. “Oh, no.”

“Mason!”

I rolled over top of her, hovering a few inches above her. Her eyes were wide with shock as a devious smirk crossed my lips.

I reached over to the lamp, flicking it off.

Darkness surrounded us.

“Well look at this situation…”

“You promised nothing funny.”

“Are you going to stay?”

She hesitated, “Fine.”

“I’ll sleep on top of you if I have to, Doll. And don’t think I won’t because I will.” I warned.

“Fine! I’ll stay! Just get off of me!”

I chuckled, rolling over.

I kept an arm draped over her waist.

~*~

That following week everything was back into place. It was the last week of soccer for the spring season. Now that we had become champs, there was no point in continuing it much longer. Coach was becoming very lax and canceled the scheduled Saturday practice, and shortened the afternoon practices to only two hours.

He’d given me permission to miss all but Monday’s practice as well to focus on the play that was quickly approaching its opening night.

Coach spent most of that practice addresses our strength and weaknesses in the tournament. It was evident he was impressed at our success, but he deemed it inexcusable that we didn’t crush our opponent.

We almost did lose after all.

I didn’t see Rose much that day.

We hadn’t talked since we parted on Sunday morning after a small breakfast in the hotel lobby with the rest of the team. She made no comment about us sharing a bed, and I was respectful enough to keep it on the down low.

The rest of my team didn’t need to know about this.

Tuesday passed slowly. Rose wasn’t in school that day, making Drama class nearly unbearable for me.

It was only in the evening when something actually happened.

I was sitting on the couch, absently texting Rodger. Joey was curled into a small ball on the arm chair. The TV was on some teen pregnancy show on MTV. Every now and then I would glance over to see Joey’s eyes rimmed red and watery.

I didn’t ask if she was alright since I already knew the answer. The fact that she was pregnant was really beginning to hit her hard.

I tried to avoid the topic at all costs.

On the coffee table sat a pizza box with three pieces left. Grease stained the brown cardboard bottom, and the empty dipping sauces were tossed into the corner. We had gotten half the pizza with pepperoni and the other half with anchovies. I had never liked anchovies, but in the recent weeks, Joey had turned into its biggest fan.

The three leftover pieces were covered in anchovies unfortunately.

The TV was more of a background noise to me.

The doorbell rang, causing both of us to freeze. Joey muted the TV, meeting my eyes curiously as we paused a moment.

“Are you expecting someone?” She asked, rubbing her eyes clear of the excess moisture in them.

I shook my head, “No… are you?”

“Why the hell would I ask you if I was?”

I shrugged, choosing not to answer.

Her moods had been getting worse and worse with each passing day. And we were barely three months into the pregnancy.

“I’ll get it.” She said once it rang again.

She stood up, stretching her back as she made her way over to the door. She disappeared for a few minutes to answer it.

My ears perked up to listen to whoever she was talking to.

“What are you doing here?” She snapped angrily.

“Joey… Pumpkin… We need to talk.”

I froze.

“What the hell is he doing here for?” I hissed under my breath.

Caden had no right to come back into my sister’s life after he had run away as cowardly as he had before. It was shameful that he would even come to try to talk to her.

I got up from my spot on the couch, hurrying closer to the doorway. I felt sneaky as I pressed my body tight against the wall to eavesdrop.

“Please, Joey, I just want to talk to you.” His voice sounded as if he were in pain. It was scratchy, not the confident voice I had become used to.

“No. You didn’t want to talk when I did before. Why should I when you do now?”

“I know you’ve been accepting all the money. Are you really going to do that and not give me the slightest chance?”

His tone implied that he had sent more than one check in the mail. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

“It’s the least you could do for our child that you ran away from.”

“You still use the car I bought you, Joey; you can’t shut me out like this and continue to use everything I’ve provided you with!”

“I can, and I will. I’m desperate right now. The father of my unborn baby broke my heart and ran away. How do you expect me to forgive you like that?”

“I don’t. But I want to talk to you about—”

She laughed once with heavy sarcasm, “Oh now you want to talk? Are you serious, Caden? Do you understand how hard it was for me to talk to you about this? And you think it’s going to be a piece of cake for you?”

“I don’t! Joey, please—”

“Get the hell off my property.” There was an unnaturally cold tone in her voice that I hadn’t heard before.

It worried me.

“Are you ser—”

“Get off before I call the police.”

A moment of silence passed. I could feel the tension in the air from them. My stomach flopped all around in my spot.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted. Part of me wanted to see Caden argue more and show that he wanted to be a part of his unborn child’s life. I wanted him to prove that he was sorry and that he’d try his best to make everything better.

But another part of me wanted him to leave. Joey didn’t deserve the stress he was giving her and if she didn’t want to talk to him, then he needed to respect her enough to leave. It wasn’t her decision for him to run away. I wanted him to realize that he needed to respect her space. She was pregnant and hormonal. It was a bad combination.

“I’m not going to stop trying to talk to you.” He promised.

“I’ll get a restraining order on you, Caden. Don’t you dare come to my house again like this.” She warned.

A few seconds later, the door closed loudly.

I scrambled over to my original spot on the couch, trying to stretch out and act natural. Joey stormed around the corner. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see steam blowing out her ears from the expression on her face.

She grabbed one of the extra slices of pizza and sat down on the chair angrily.

“Fuck you men.” She snapped, “All of you are nothing but worthless little pieces of dirt. Your purpose in life is to stab me in the back again and again.”

I kept my mouth silent.

“He thinks he can talk to me whenever he so please? Well fuck him!” She took an angry bite out of her piece.

I felt my phone vibrate next to me but knew better than to check it.

“I’m done accepting those stupid checks. I can support us and a baby all on my own. I’ve been supporting you and me just fine!”

So he had given her more than one…

“And you know what? I’m selling his car. That’ll teach that low life to fuck with me. I’m selling his car and buying myself some nice furniture for this child! That’s the most he’ll ever do for it anyway!” She scoffed.

I could only hope she’d run out of steam soon.

She threw her crust at the pizza box.

I jumped in shock, staring at her with wide eyes.

“What the hell are you looking at, Mason?!” She said, her voice wavering as her eyes started to water.

“Joey, I’m not—”

“I think it’s time for your bedtime.”

I didn’t say anything about me being too old for that. I stood up, walking over to where she sat curled back into her fetal position.

“Hey.”

“What did I just say—”

“Joey, just ignore him.”

“Mason, you’re not—”

I braced a hand on either one of her shoulders, “I’m serious. He’s not worth your time. Just ignore.”

I moved away before she could open her mouth to scold me anymore for not listening to her pregnant orders.