The Wind Blows

There was nothing more beautiful than the way the subtle curves of her body shifted slowly to the rhythm of the music that was pouring from the old record player sitting atop a small table in the corner of the lightly shaded room.

The tips of her delicate fingers loosely gripped the tall bottle of tequila, and she chose to ignore the bright eyed boy who stood a few feet away, licking the acidic taste from his thin lips as he took another shot of whiskey and watched the way her hips would slowly shift from one movement to another - as if they were taunting him from afar with their relentless movement.

She shuffled through a few of the records that were sitting alone in a corner and away from the others - collecting a layer of dust across their lonely surface, as she studied a small chunk of his vinyl collection.

Her vision was slowly becoming a messy blur, causing her to become frustrated, as she blinked several times to clear a hazy path for her line of sight that was quickly fading from her mint green eyes.

"I think you've had more than enough darlin'," he laughed obnoxiously with his mouth lingering closely to the hollow of her listening ear, as he snatched the bottle of liquor out of her loose grasp from behind, and turned the glass up to his own set of bitter tasting lips.

She scrunched up her nose in distaste as the heels of her bare feet dug into the floor, and she twisted her half naked body to face his.

"Give it back John." She groaned, letting out a huff of air as she reached up desperately, with her arms extended high in a pathetic attempt to obtain something that she knew she would never be able to reach on her own.

"I don't think I can do that." He was smirking at his own words as his free hand found its way around her waist and was pulling her hips closer to his own. She put up a struggle to push herself away and break herself free of his firm embrace, with her palms pressed flat against the wall of his chest. But with the amount of alcohol gushing through her bloodstream like an seamless river she knew she'd hit a dead end at this point.

He sat the half empty bottle of liquor down behind her - on some surface that she wasn't really aware of, before allowing his mouth to fall down over the sour taste of her own. His tongue traced the soft lines of her cherry coated lips, while the warmth of her body shivered viciously against the shape of his and the tips of his long calloused fingers ventured out to dip just beneath the elastic rim of her underwear.

He peeled his mouth away from hers only to leave a sloppy smirk to lift the corners of his crooked lips.

"I need you sober enough so that I won't feel guilty for taking advantage of you later."

She rolled her glazed over eyes, and twisted her lips into a faint smile at the words that escaped past his mouth in his eager attempt to have his way with her right then and there.

"I think you're full of shit."

He chuckled lightly, and pulled her body even closer as he lightly traced soft circles across the pink skin just beneath her loosely fitted t-shirt, and placed a chaste kiss to the right side of her temple, "Oh yeah - and why is that?"

"I've never known you to feel guilty about taking advantage of me - ever."

"There's always a first time for everything baby," he nuzzled his face against the angle of her neck - muffling his hazy words, taking a deep breath into his lungs, and inhaling the sweet smell of her porcelain skin, "You know I'd never do anything you wouldn't want me to."

"I know," she whispered, barely loud enough for his ears to hear, and for his mind to comprehend, as she combed her fingertips through the messy ends of his hair along the back of his head several times - over and over again.

They stood there for a moment - in the middle of his apartment, amongst the afternoon sunshine that was pouring in through the nearby windows, with the silence overwhelming their ears - her hands in his soft hair and his mouth pressed against her neck as their bodies barely rocked back and forth to the sad music that played around them.

"I never thought it would be this way - you and me. I - I never thought it would feel this real."

He raised his head and caught the hazy stare of her glassy green eyes gazing up into his own foggy glare, as he carefully kissed the space between her eyes, "Shit Dani - I - I don't think anyone would've expected this baby."

He let his long fingers brush through the dark strands of hair that were beginning to fall around her face, as he swallowed the growing lump down the back of his throat, and gave the impression that a pool of regret was drowning his insides and taking over his heavy heart.

"All this time you were right here and I - I never even noticed..."

She just looked at him as he stood drowning in his own pool of sorrow, before grabbing his sad face with her small hands, and pulling his lips down closer to hers, as her fingertips raked up through the short hairs along the back of his neck, allowing him to feel the warmth of her breath strike his complexion like a small flame set to his skin.

"But you did - and now we're here... And I don't know why, but I - I love you - and fuck John I just - I'm not sure where this is headed but I know this is where I want to be. I love you John- I love you-"

He just kept nodding his head, like he understood - like he comprehended everything that was coming out of her mouth as she stumbled over her words, and her lips trembled with the swift sound of her voice.

"I know Dani - baby, I know." He spoke briefly with his fingers curling into her waistline, before his lips made a brisk movement to push flush against the shape of hers. The force was unexpected - and her lungs fought to keep oxygen pumping to her brain, and keep her body from collapsing.

The taste was bitter, and there was something about the way his crooked lips curved into a smile against her own sour mouth that set her entire body into a frenzy of motion. There was something about him that made her want to swim a little deeper each time, in hopes of never reaching the bottom of all of this before she'd eventually drown in the way his lips met her skin. He began grabbing at the thin cotton material of her t-shirt with the tips of his fingers, vaguely lifting it up her pink skin, as she smiled into his sweet tasting lips and whispered softly, "I'm not wearing anything underneath," into the shape of his mouth.

A drawn out groan soared through the deepest part of his chest at the mere whisper of her taunting words, as his palms skimmed down to the lowest part of her spine - pulling his fingernails across the delicate skin just beneath the fabric of her panties.

She immediately reacted - pressing her body deeper into his with a moan that made his ears crave to hear more, while their feet tangled in circles with each others as they fought their way towards the bedroom walls - lips hot against each others skin and clothes gradually decorating the floors that they traveled.

And when they reached the insides of his bedroom walls and her naked body hit the surface of his unmade bed, she was left out of breath and out of reach of the shape of his lips as he stood hovering just above her. She lay there peering up into his hazy stare, wondering what kind of thoughts were running wild through his mind when he looked down at her like this. Stripped of everything and left exposed for only his eyes to sink into.

He studied her for a short moment - peering down at the half lidded girl and letting his tired eyes roam the outline of her body and the glow of her ivory flesh as he pulled the last few pieces of clothing from his frame till he was left with nothing but the bare skin across his back.

And when he crawled over top of her frame and sunk deeper into her bones she could feel the heat rise and his flesh begin to melt along the surface of her own. He peered down at her with both arms pressed into the mattress on either side of her head and a smile on his face that made his green eyes seem a little brighter in that moment.

"You know - I think you're the most beautiful girl I've ever been with."

She rolled her eyes with a faint chuckle slipping past her tongue as she briefly kissed the short stubble along the edge of his jawline.

"I find that hard to believe," she said shaking her head, and lightly running the pads of her fingertips across the ink that was settled along his collarbones, "You know, I often wonder what you see in me. I'm nothing special - just skin and bones."

He laughed as she vaguely pinched her right hipbone between two fingers and briefly shrugged her shoulders in order to make some sort of point that she knew he'd never believe.

"But you're the most beautiful combination of skin and bones that I've ever seen," he spoke quietly, pressing his lips deep along the length of her neck as he mumbled lazy words into the warmth of her flesh, "You taste so sweet."

His mouth crawled back to push flush into hers, while his hands slowly grazed the surface of her naked frame in search of the bones of her hips that were aligned just beneath his own bony waist, "I love you in the most complicated of ways, and that scares me. But fuck baby I - I'm going to try - I -"

"Shhh," she whispered softly, pressing a small finger to his thin lips before pushing her mouth up into his once more.

"But - I wasn't finished-" he mumbled scarcely against her swollen lips with a deep moan crawling up his scratchy throat, as her painted fingernails raked across the blades of his shoulders and drew red lines into his raw skin.

"I know," she was smiling against his mouth, and pushing her hips up into the motion of his - trying to gain some form of friction that would only further ignite the fire inside their veins. But his hands seemed to be taking control, moving further between their bodies in a way that made her toes curl under and her eyes fall shut, with moans pouring like a waterfall from her slightly open mouth.

But in a matter of a few seconds it all stopped...

There was a loud banging striking the front door and traveling through the walls to where they were.

"Fuck," he cursed beneath his heavy breathing, and she laughed at the way he tried to brush the obscene noise off by ignoring its presence, "Maybe they'll leave."

But they didn't - and the second time was even louder.

He groaned aloud, and kissed her parted mouth once more before he rolled away from her heavy breathing body and wrapped a sheet around his thin naked waist.

"I swear to God they're going to regret knocking on that God damn door," he hissed in a fit of frustration as he walked out of the room, clutching the bed sheet with one hand and brushing his nappy hair with the other.

He whispered obscenities beneath his breath till he managed to reach the door and was met with two all too familiar faces that looked slightly confused at his attire or rather lack there of.

"Shit man, you could've at least put on some pants," Tim laughed, as he pushed his way inside the dimly lit apartment with Garrett following closely behind.

"Leave him alone dude. He's probably got some chick in the back."

John just groaned as he ran a hand over his withered face and watched the two clowns roam about his apartment, as if they were searching for some form of evidence that proved their accusations to be correct.

"What do you two want?"

"You haven't answered any calls for the past two weeks man. Shit - we didn't know if you'd packed your things and moved on to something better. We just came by to let you know that we've got two weeks to get our shit together before we head back out on the road."

"Thanks for the notice," John snickered as he dwelled on the thoughts that were crowding the inside of his head.

"Listen man," Garrett chimed in as he hit his palm against John's back and moved a little further into the room, "I know it's hard, but you can't just sit around this apartment and dwell on shit while you listen to your sad songs - and jump into bed with some chick that you met at the bar down the street. All of this it - it's just not healthy."

John began to laugh bitterly at his friend's blunt choice of words, as the two boys looked at him like he was half crazy - and at this point he could only assume that he was, standing in his living room with only a bed sheet to cover his half naked body and breath that smelt of liquor.

"Fuck, is that what everyone thinks I've been doing this whole time? Just shoving my dick into some chick that I found on the street?" He shook his head to clear his mind and find the right arrange of words that would come next as he looked at them for an answer that he knew wouldn't receive.

"You wanna know what I've been doing?" he gazed over to them while tugging furiously at the roots of his messy locks before continuing his all too messy explanation, "I've been spending the last two weeks mending the pieces and trying to understand why Anna did what she did. Fuck I - I've learned that everything isn't what it seems - it's only the surface of everything to come. It scares me, not knowing... But somewhere along the way I fell for a girl that's shown me a different side to everything, so you can take your sympathy bullshit with you on the way out..."

He ceased his words to peer up at them, and watched as their eyes grew wide in size. For what reason, he wasn't sure until he heard the faint sound of feet moving in the background of everything...and that's when he knew.

Garrett whispered her name into the empty air beneath his breath while shaking his head in despair of what was really going on behind closed doors - of all the secrets that had been kept and hidden somewhere between the sheets amongst the darkness.

And that's when John turned around on his feet. His burnt out eyes looked over at the small girl standing in the doorway clad in a t-shirt and a pair of his old basketball shorts that hung loosely around her hips. Her arms were hugging her chest and her eyes looked over to him in search of some form of help that was never really there.

"Fuck man. You - you're kidding right? This is some kind of a joke you're trying to pull, right?," Tim vented as he looked between John and the small girl standing directly behind his shadow.

"It - it's not what you think man - This isn't what it looks like -," John interrupted as he waved one hand in the air and shook his head at everything that was happening, trying to control his dizzy spinning thoughts, and completely unaware of his words and the affect they were having on the girl nearby.

Tim snickered at John's naive disposition as he grasped the bridge of his nose between two fingers and clenched his jaw with the grit of his teeth while standing in a pool of his own thoughts.

"I - I should go." Her voice was small in comparison to everyone else. It was a mixture of sadness and pure anxiety, and she wasn't sure if what she said made any impact on the room around her until she made that first step towards the door that lead her away from the sizable amount of tension.

Her keys had found there way into the palm of her hand, and when she announced her departure she peered back at the green eyed boy who was standing with his fingers tugging anxiously at the roots of his disheveled locks. The corners of his tilted mouth had fallen immensely and his blood red eyes were full of water, but not once did he try and convince her to stay. It was like his words were stuck somewhere deep in the pit of his raw throat, and he'd given up as soon as the first shot was fired.

The war had nearly just begun and he was already waving his white flag in defeat.

She was more than halfway across the black asphalt with the summer sun bearing down on her exposed skin when she heard a pair of shoes smacking against the concrete from behind.

"Dani wait -"

"Go away Garrett," she wiped away the salty tears from the surface of her cheekbones with the back of her hand as she anxiously fumbled with the keys in her hand.

But by the time she managed to decipher her car key from the bundle of key chains that hung in a mess all together, he was grabbing her wrist with his hand and forcing her body to face his.

"Garrett please - I - I don't want to talk-"

Her body was shaking as she broke down and tears began to form canals into the damp flesh across her face. All she could feel was his hands grabbing her frame and pulling her flush against his chest as his arms folded around her fragile bones and his hands ran down her spine while pressing his mouth into her hair.

"Fuck Dani, it's okay." That's all he kept saying, "I promise baby, everything will be okay."

But nothing up till that point had been, "okay" - NOTHING.

He kept hold of her, rubbing circles into her back to calm the nerves that were starting to unravel with each stroke.

"Fuck Dani how - how did this happen?"

That was the first question that left his open mouth and struck her ears like a ten ton brick. How?

"I - I don't know. I messed up so bad Gare - so bad. I - we messed up," she was grabbing at the fabric of his shirt with her fingers and shaking her head like none of this was ever supposed to happen - like none of it was ever supposed to become something real, "It wasn't supposed to be like this, you know? But he listened and he understands," she paused as she let her mind scroll through the images of him chasing her in the sand, "He - he took me to the beach. I - I'd never seen the ocean and I wanted to go - I wanted him to take me, so he did. It was never supposed to get like this, but it did... And I -I know he's no good - I know what he's capable of and I know it's nothing good, but fuck I'm no good either," she licked her chapped lips and peered up into the blue eyed boy who was shaking his head and trying to absorb the scrambled words that were quickly falling from her mouth, "I - I love him Gare. I love him so much. I wish I didn't, but I do..I wish it never happened, but it did.."

And that's when she fell back into the wall of his chest, mumbling "I'm sorry" into the threads of his t-shirt over and over, like maybe it would make things better if she said it enough and everyone would forgive her for all the trouble she'd caused.

"I'm sorry. Tell everyone I'm so sorry. And Garrett just - just promise me one thing?"

"Yeah Dani?"

"Please don't tell Kennedy. He doesn't know. Just please promise - God please promise me you won't tell him."

He wrapped his limbs around her frame to pull her in closer, while kissing the surface of her forehead as he mumbled "I promise" into the deepest parts of her salty skin.

"I promise baby. I promise I won't tell him anything."

*

"I uh - I just stopped by to tell you goodbye. I wanted to let you know that I won't be back, so please don't bother looking for me. Please don't waste your time worrying."

There were circles dug deep beneath her blood red eyes like she'd cried the whole way to his apartment and hadn't slept in days. She stood on his doorstep with her hands buried somewhere deep within her coat pockets and her head held low.

"What - Anna what are you talking about?"

"I'm leaving John. I - I'm not coming back, okay?" She wiped the back of her hand across her face to catch the rain of tears that cast across her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I - I just wanted to say goodbye before I go. That's all I wanted.."

She took a few steps away from the door, like she'd suddenly realized the horrible idea this all was - of seeing him one last time. How this would only make her want to stay, instead of go.

"I - I should leave." She began moving away from his gaze, but was held back by the grip of his fingertips as they wrapped around her small arm and pulled her body back to his.

"What's going on? Baby I don't understand. Please just tell me what's wrong?"

His green eyes were staring straight down into hers as he held her face in the palm of his hands and she tried not to look directly up into desperate glare.

"I can't. I mean you - you deserve so much better - so much, and I wish you'd stop trying to figure things out. I wish you'd just let me go and move on."

"But I don't want to. Don't you get that? I don't want to forget and move on from this - from us. Dammit I - I just wish you'd stop running from things and pushing me away. I wish you'd run to me and tell me what you're thinking - tell me that you love me, because I know you do. I know you love me Anna - I know you do."

Her palms were resting over the surface of his hands as they gently cradled her face in a way that made her eyes look directly up into his sad worn down complexion.

She watched the glassy coating form across the surface of his mint green eyes and watched as his bottom lip began to tremble in a way that made body ache with such sadness that it was almost painful to look at the boy in front of her.

"Please don't go - please," he whispered softly as his mouth met hers in a simple kiss, and her small hands pushed against the wall of his chest for him to stop. Her lips broke away from his and he was looking down at her like he needed her more than she needed him.

"I have to. I'm not happy here. This place it - it isn't for me. I'm so tired of being here and - and living here. I'm just so fucking tired of living..."

His hands fell from the contours her face down to the small of her waist. And for the first time he was scared to move - scared to breath - scared of what her intentions were once she got out of his sight.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine," she said with reassurance as she wrapped her arms around his thin waist and closed her eyes, hugging his body as tight as her muscles would allow her, "I just need to leave this place. I need to go some place where I can't hurt those around me - where the sun shines and nothing hurts anymore and I can't feel this pain. I need this - I need to get away from here..."