The Wind Blows

"I never meant to embarrass him like that. It - it wasn't supposed to be like this..."

She threw back another shot, and scrunched up her nose at the sour tasting substance that was beginning to make her throat feel raw, and abused. And nothing about what she was doing, or what she had done was okay. She wasn't sure why she'd called him - or why she'd asked him to meet her at some bar, that at this point was becoming nothing but a blur in the back of her mind. Her blood shots eyes looked over at the boy, who was watching her drown herself in nothing but a pool of misery - waiting for an answer to come from his mouth.

But when one never came to the surface she began moving away from the liquor, and a little closer towards him - struggling to keep her balance on her shaky legs, as she leaned into him, and his hands found their place on her hips - catching her as she fell forward.

"Maybe I should take you home."

Her tired blue eyes were peering up at him through a thick haze, while his fingers were slipping, and starting to bunch up the soft fabric of her sundress along her hips.

But she didn't like that suggestion. She didn't want to go home - not now - not tonight. Her fingers were tracing simple patterns into his shirt, and her body was leaning further - deeper into his - and at this point he was beginning to feel uneasy about the way she was taunting him under her touch.

"Can I stay with you instead," her bitter red lips were pressed against the hollow part of his ear - her breath hot against his skin, and moving further down his neck, "please Kenny?"

"Anna -" His voice was weak, and his words lacked any sort of emotion - and by now he felt drained, and dizzy from the alcohol that was taking over his better judgement, as her fingers slowly maneuvered through the deepest parts of his messy brown hair.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't muster up enough strength to just let her go. And as he grabbed the keys from his back pocket, and pushed her lips away from his skin, he felt himself fall into something, and someone he knew would be hard to crawl his way out of come morning.

"You know, I don't remember much of when Anna, and I were little," Dani shivered at the feel of the ocean breeze rushing across her skin, "I kind of wish I did sometimes."

"Why's that?"

She could feel his hand give hers a small squeeze, as their feet sunk into the wet yellow grains of sand between their toes, with the salt water rushing above their ankles every now, and then. They'd driven all night just to make it here, with little to say, and lots on their mind, and now that they had their feet in the sand - where she wanted to be - everything seemed to somehow pull together in the simplest way possible.

She gave a light shrug of her shoulders, unsure if he'd really understand, "That's the only time I ever remember her being happy. I - I don't know - after our mom left, everything changed - everyone changed. She was a different person - and forgot about a lot of things that were important to her - until she met you," Dani watched as her feet sunk deeper into the wet sand, while her voice, and words began to taste bitter on her lips, "She made it seem like everything was alright - like everything was back to the way it used to be... I don't know..Sometimes I think she thought that she could cover up the pain by doing some of the stupid shit that she did."

"Like what?"

She peered up into his green eyes, as they stood facing the rough waters that continued to crash around their legs, and run across their skin.

"Like leaving you," her eyes fell from his, as her words left her lips, but his stare never fell from her face, "She tried to replace the pain of our mom leaving, with a different kind of pain. I don't know…It was like an addiction that she couldn't stop, and I think it eventually got to the point where she couldn't take it anymore..."

"She wasn't supposed to hurt you like that. It wasn't supposed to happen that way." She shook her head solemnly, while the sound of her voice faded - and she suddenly felt less alone as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and pulled her into his chest, before pressing his thin lips against her temple.

"I know," he whispered into her hair, "but if I had to do it all over, I don't think I'd change a thing."

*

"Where were you last night?"

Her voice was unforgiving, with anger lacing each word as they left her lips. Her green eyes were puffy, and swollen from crying - and she barely caught a simple glance of his face, before he pushed past her body to step inside the shadow covered walls of her apartment. The air stood still, with his back facing her, and no words leaving his lips. His clothes hung in wrinkles on his thin frame - the same clothes he'd worn the day before, and at this point all she wanted was some source of truth to come from his mouth.

She hesitated with each step across the cold floor, letting her feet lead her over to where he'd placed a seat on the couch nearby. His face was buried deep in his palms, and his body was hunched over in discontent. He was out of breath, and unable to raise his face from his hands to look her straight in the eyes.

"Ken," she reached out to touch his arm, to touch his hands, to feel him beneath her fingertips. And when she barely grazed the fabric of his shirt, his hands fell from the contours his face. His hazel eyes struggled to look directly into hers, afraid of how she'd react, as she caught a simple glimpse of what he was trying so hard to hide from her, and the rest of the world.

He looked like he'd been through the deepest part of hell, with his left eye swollen in size, and a purple colored bruise forming beneath the sensitive skin just below his eyelid. His bottom lip had a small gash, while the rest of his face looked dirty, and abused. And all she could do at this point was pause, while he remained quiet, watching the way the shape of her hand covered her mouth, as her green eyes widened with a kind of fear that made him uneasily shift in his seat.

"Dani I - it - it's not as bad, as it looks."

He tried laughing it off, but the pain was too much, causing him to wince, as she moved herself closer, and tried to make sense of why his clothes were dirty, and his skin was bruised.

"Who did this to you?"

He was startled by the softness of her voice, and the strain of her words, as he closed his tired eyes at the feel of her soft fingers brushing over the outlines of his face. There was so much she didn't know, as the truth continued to rest on the edge of his bitter tasting tongue, and he sat wondering what was right, and wrong at this point.

"Dani," he spoke her name, as he pulled her hand away from his face, and lightly kissed her shaky fingers, before letting her palm rest against his. And the truth was he couldn't tell her where he'd been, and what had happened, because at this point it was all out of sorts, and nothing made sense.

"It's just a few cuts, and bruises….I'm fine." He tried to look her dead in the eyes, and pretend like their was some form of truth in his shaky words, but he could tell by her expression that she wasn't believing the fine lines that were leaving his mouth.

"Then where were you last night?" She clenched her teeth, and bit her tongue, doing her best to blink back the haze that was starting to build along her eyes. And she couldn't help but to feel empty when he pulled his hand from hers, and he looked away from the one person that was making his heart hurt against his chest in that moment.

"Listen, maybe - maybe this was a bad idea. I - I shouldn't have come," he mumbled through his battered lips, while anxiously coming a few fingers through the roots of his dirty brown hair, and leaving his place next to her on the couch.

"Why can't you tell me the truth Ken?" Her voice was harsh, and frustrated - and by now she too had left her place on the couch, and was walking towards where he was headed, as he inched closer to the door.

"Why can't you tell me what happened, huh?" She reached out, and pulled on the fabrics of his shirt from behind, forcing him to turn around, and face the girl who's eyes were drowning in their own tears, and who's heart would soon be in need of repair, when all was said, and done.

"Why won't you tell me? Why can't you tell me the truth, when I ask you Kennedy? Where were you last night when I fucking needed you, huh?"

Her words was strained, and her voice was angry - and all she could feel was the warm tears run down her raw skin, and across her face. Her hands were balled into fist, and colliding against his chest with every single word that left her mouth, while he stood taking every hit he deserved.

She was angry, and upset - and nothing, and no one could change how she felt towards him in that moment. And all he could do was struggle to reach out - to wrap his arms around her - to hold her close against his chest, before she kicked him out.

But he'd lost all sort of hope when he ran out of chances. And now there was nothing he could say - and nothing he could do to change how distant things had gotten between them. All trust had been lost. With no words left to be said, and only lies left to fill their heads, they both knew that this was where everything would fall into pieces around them.

*

"The ocean'll be out there when you wake up Dani - I swear it will. I'll take you, and we'll stay out there till the sun goes down, but baby please just come back to bed, and try to get some sleep."

He barely raised his head from the pillow that his arms were folded around, peering over at her through the pitch dark, with one eye open, and the thin sheets gathered around his waist, as he laid flat on his stomach, with his hair in nothing but a mess on his head. His voice was deep - and his words were mumbled - and for whatever reason, she liked the way it sounded when they left his lips, and hit her ears.

She crawled back into bed, letting her head fall back on the pillow next to his, and her feet kick away the covers that were trying to hug the warm skin along her legs. It was hardly 4:00 AM, and even after a long day she was having trouble finding some source of sleep. Her eyes were wide awake, and her body was still moving with the waves that were crashing outside their hotel room - and all she could think about was everything she shouldn't be.

"What's wrong?"

The sound of his voice broke her from her thoughts. His body had somehow shifted in the darkness, while his green eyes looked at her through the shadows, as she laid on her back, with her scratchy eyes peering somewhere up above.

"I don't know," she sunk further into the blankets, as she let a breath slip past her lips, "I can't sleep."

He mumbled something she couldn't comprehend, with his thin lips pressed against her shoulder, and his fingers barely walking over the hem of her cotton camisole to reach the other side of her waist, and allow his hand to pull her body deeper into his.

"If I wasn't half asleep right now, I'd help you with that."

She couldn't shake the feeling of his breath on her skin, or the way his calloused fingers were burning circles into her hipbone just beneath her shirt, as she tried to shake the nerves that were causing her to feel uneasy.

She laughed softly at his sarcastic remark, before rolling to face him - with the sheets pulling on her clothes, and pushing up her camisole just barely on her skin.

"You could help me do a lot of things if you weren't half asleep right now," she whispered just loud enough for his ears to hear - feeling the vibrations of his laugh run beneath his skin, as she pressed her nose into his chest, and let her palms rest flat against the plains of his stomach.

"Yeah, but I'm not that kind of guy."

She smiled to herself, as she pressed a kiss to the ink across his chest, laughing faintly against his warm skin, before letting her head fall back on the pillow next to his.

"That's a terrible lie that you just told."

He peered at her through heavy eyes, as he brought his hand up to brush a few pieces of hair from around her face, "It's worth a try."

She rolled her eyes, as he gave her a lazy wink, and leaned forward to press his mouth deep into hers. But it didn't last long, and he hadn't intended it to - barely giving her enough time to react, before he pulled his mouth away, with the taste of her lips lingering on the surface of his own.

He licked his lips, just enough to savor the taste, while lightly tapping his finger against her waist just beneath the heap of sheets that were beginning to stick to their skin.

"Now go to sleep before you get me in trouble," he whispered softly, with a tired laugh pressed against her ear, and one last kiss pushed into the side of her face, before his head fell to the pillow close to hers.

"Fine," she whispered softly in return, before she closed her eyes, with the feel of his breath on her skin, "I'll dream of sunsets, and ocean waves just for you."