Get It Right

“I’m eighteen,” I answered and as quickly as I said it, that’s how fast his lips were on mine, his pale thin, marvelous lips.

I could have cried from happiness, it had been so long since someone had shown me love, let alone affection or attraction and to know Mr. Lively found me attractive made my heart skip a beat. I felt wanted and I liked it. His lips left mine to trail down my neck, I lowered back on the bed and moaned when he hit my sweet spot at the nape of my neck. I felt him smile against my skin. “Mr. Lively,” I moaned and then remembered I was supposed to address him differently. “Sam, kiss me.”

He lifted his head and brought me back to his lips again. He was a wonderful kisser and probably more but I will never know because as soon as Sam started to slip my dress off, Brian burst through the door. “Get the fuck off of her,” he growled menacingly at Sam, I sat up in bed, holding the top of my dress to my chest, glaring a hole through my [strike]ex[/strike] best friend.

“Brian, get the fuck out,” I yelled at him but he only marched over to me, picked me up and slung me over his shoulder.

“Don’t you come near her again, you fucking hear me?” Brian threatened Sam, who merely stared at Brian like he’d lost his mind. “I’ll kick your fucking ass, you fucking pervert.”

“Let me down!” I screamed beating on Brian’s back but he continued walking until we got to his car and he put me in the passenger seat roughly. “You fucking have lost your mind. You don’t realize how much you just embarrassed me!”

“Do I look like I give a flying fuck, Bliss? Do you know how wrong that was? Do you know how much you would have regretted that?” Brian was yelling at me. We continued yelling at each other until we got to my house. He followed me inside and waited for me to get changed for bed before he crawled into my full bed with me. “I know its my fault,” I was almost asleep when he started talking. “I’m not stupid, Bliss. I know you have feelings for me but I don’t want to ruin what we have.”

“Its not just feelings, Brian,” I croaked out of my dry throat, my heart was pounding in my chest. “I’m in love with you and have been for years. I let you do what you want with who you want but you cant let me, how is that right? You cant say you don’t have feelings for me or you would have let me done something I would have regretted.”

“I do, I just don’t know what to do about them,” he murmured lowly as his arm slipped around my waist and pulled me closer, that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, we slept this way every time he stayed over.

“What are we going to do?’ I asked staring at the desk across my room.

“Take it a day at a time,” was his answer before he fell asleep. I couldn’t sleep, not knowing where we stood. If we just hung in the balance between friends or more. I was slowly reaching the point that I either wanted all of him or nothing at all. When I knew he was asleep, I slipped out from under the covers and snuck down the hallway to Dodge’s room, Dodge was my step father’s twenty four year old son. Terry Dodge was a cage fighter, a real pro until he hurt his knee and wasn’t able to fight anymore. Ever since he’s been bumming off our parents, which isn’t bad because he’s a pretty cool guy and he gives pretty great advice.

“Dodge?” I whispered his name as I knocked on his bedroom door. “Dodge are you awake?”

“What’s up Blister?” he opened his door moments later and leaned against the frame. He was shirtless but still wide awake. If I didn’t consider him family, I would have jumped him a long time ago for being so delicious.

“Can I come in and talk or are you busy?” I asked quietly, my hands clasping each other. He studied me for a minute, recognizing the sound of my voice, knowing it was my after crying sound he held the door open and invited me inside.

“Spill it, kid,” he muttered watching me walk in. I smiled when I seen Paige, Dodge’s girlfriend of three years on the bed with a bowl of popcorn in her lap and the TV blaring one of the Saw movies.

“Hi Blissy,” she waved happily until Dodge turned the overhead light on and she seen my tear strained face. “What the hell happened to you?”

“it’s a long story,” I told her as I sat down in Dodge’s fold chair, I ended up explaining everything from the beginning, even about Mr. Lively and ended with me knocking on Dodge’s door. Paige stared at me, hand over her heart for a long time before she reached over and slapped Dodge right in the arm.

“What the hell?” he asked, stunned by the slap.

“That’s for being a guy, you men are just plain stupid sometimes,” she scoffed and climbed off the bed, almost falling in the process (which Dodge saved her from doing) and hugged me so tightly it hurt. “If he doesn’t want you, its his loss. You can find someone better that will appreciate and want you.”

“And not that creepy teacher guy, I may drop by your school randomly one day and pay him a visit,” Dodge threw out there as he scratched the back of his neck absently. Paige rolled her eyes and turned back to me.

“I’m serious though, you deserve better, you deserve the best,” she spoke like she knew exactly what I was going through, it made me wonder.

“He is the best, Paige,” I whispered feeling fresh tears running down my face. She wiped them away and smiled sadly at me. “No one else could be better in my eyes, I love him so much.”

“I used to think the same thing. I was in an abusive relationship with a guy I adored and after I grew strong enough to leave him, I didn’t think I’d ever find someone I’d love like him,” Paige cast a glance at Dodge and smiled. “But I was wrong, I didn’t even know what love was compared to how I feel now.”

“If he doesn’t do something soon, I’ll take your advice, I can’t wait on him forever,” I murmured standing up, I didn’t want to bother Dodge and Paige anymore. “Thanks you guys.”

“We love you Bliss,” Paige stood beside Dodge, holding his waist as she stared at me. I swear, sometimes she was like the mother I never had.

“I love you guys too,” I smiled and shut their door. I contemplated on going back to my room but I didn’t feel like seeing Brian in my bed looking all cute in his sleep so instead of breaking my already fractured heart, I went downstairs and made me a bowl of cereal and decided to watch reruns of Cheaters and Cops until three in the morning and then I fell asleep.

I woke up early the next Saturday morning to Brian shaking me gently. “Bliss, we’re going up to Big Ben, are you coming with us?” he asked softly, kneeling down beside the couch.

“Who is we?” I asked softly, rubbing the sleep from my eyes but I didn’t move a muscle.

“Me, Matt, Zacky, Jimmy, Johnny, Dodge and his friend . Cole is bringing Keran, Jocelyn, Rebecca, Vanessa, and Paige,” Brian named them off as he thought of them. “It wasn’t planned, Dodge said something about it being a great day for camping and we kind of ran with it.”

“Let me go get dressed,” I mumbled and stood up. I yawned the entire way to my bedroom. I changed into some clothes I wasn’t worried about getting dirty and packed a few other outfits that I didn’t like that much and a few necessities that I figured one of us girls might need at some point and descended the stairs still half asleep. “Are we picking everyone up?”