Miss Blue

I woke up with the feeling of Tommy’s thumb stroking my cheek. It was morning; the sun shone its rays in streaks across my bedroom. I kept my eyes closed pretending to be asleep as Tom held me. I was wearing nothing but his shirt; he was wearing nothing but his boxers.

He held me close against his chest, his hand pressed against my stomach. I sighed softly as his touch sent butterflies around my stomach. I knew we had slept in, it must have been approaching mid day by now. It was peaceful lying here snuggled into Tommy. I listened to the birds chirp lazily outside the window and enjoyed the sensation of Tommy’s thumb tracing my cheek.

I could hear the faint patter of footsteps in the hallway and choose to ignore them, it was probably the staff busy at work and they wouldn’t come in to disturb me especially when I had a visitor.

But suddenly the door handle started to twist and I felt Tommy remove his hand from my face, I peeked up and heard an unwanted friendly voice bounce around the room.

“Rise and shine sleepy head!” It was Luke. I shot up in my bed and gathered the sheets to cover myself scowling at him. It was hard to hate Luke. Luke Cole was my cousin and like me he was an only child; of my father’s younger sister. I grew up with him. Luke was a couple of years older than me. He had dark black hair like mine but both of his parents had an Italian heritage, therefore he was tanned like a sun-kissed olive. He had dark sea-blue eyes. Mine we’re lighter, my mother’s sky-blue eyes. But Luke’s eyes were very dark, mysterious as such.
To top it off her had very strong, Italian features, and stubble that formed a sort of closely cut beard on the bottom of his chin.

There were things about my cousin I couldn’t explain. When my life got lonely, he would join me on my shopping trips, when parents became unbearable he would stay up on the phone with me all night to listen about it. He was maybe someone I could proudly call my family. He was the only friend I had that I knew would always be there for me. When we were children Luke was my play mate, I remember the countless of times my father would bring me home clean neat plastic dolls to play with quietly in my room but when Luke was around we would ditch that, run outside into central park and find some way to get covered in mud. When I entered my teenage years, he would leave his friends to sit at my rather empty lunch table.
He might as well have been my big brother with the way he pushed boys off me. They soon learnt to stay away while my cousin was around. Of course he was popular with the ladies himself. Good looks and Italian charms, who wouldn’t fall for that?

He was overall joking, light hearted and fun to be around and I knew that was a result of his beautiful mother who never forced him to be the best, who was always there for him if he needed her. My father often moaned about his sister’s parenting methods, I often dreamed about them. But being my daddy, he naturally couldn’t let the only young man in the family go by without trying to mould him into a young version of himself. There was an often rare day when my father was home that he would invite Luke over and they would disappear into the office and come out hours later.

Luke had moved out from his parents now, he lived in his own apartment, alongside having his own job that he chooses. Clever Luke Cole, I mused, Doctor Cole now.

You see, it was very hard to hate Luke. In fact I never could, but right now it didn’t stop me from trying.

“What the hell are you doing?!” I shouted at him from behind the blankets that I kept trying to scurry up in my arms to hide my indecency. Tom rose beside me giving the boy strange looks.

“I’m giving you a wakeup call” He said with a soft smirk as he walked over to the window and drew back the curtains. I winced as the bright sunny light flooded the room.

“Who are you?” Tommy asked from my side with a puzzled expression.

“My cousin” I mumbled to answer his question. “Luke why are you even here?”

“Your father asked me to visit” he shrugged it off, grinning softly as he looked over to us. He was wearing his signature shades today, even though he was inside. He studied Tommy particularly carefully.

“This is a friend, Luke...” I sighed, putting my head in my hands maybe praying to some distant power that I would wake up from this bad dream any minute now.

“Oh, right, yeah, ‘cause I hook up with my friends all the time. Well, actually, I do. But for you…” He chuckled lightly. “That’s not normal, Sades” I groaned.

“Fine!” I looked over to Tommy and studied him. He was so handsome in the morning; his hair was tussled and youthful. There was a relaxed softness in the muscles of his face. He even seemed to glow in the morning light. “He’s my boyfriend”. The word sounded so immature on my lips. ‘Boyfriend’, but what was he if he wasn’t that? I didn’t know so I used it anyway.

Tommy looked over at me with a loving smile and kissed my forehead. He then looked over to Luke and nodded once.

“Thomas Ferretti” he introduced himself. Luke grinned back. How could anyone so playful and joking be a doctor? It was beyond me. I scowled at my cousin and he looked back at me and rolled his eyes.

“I do it because I care about you” He sighed. I threw a pillow at him and he caught it. “But I don’t know why I even bother sometimes” He laughed lightly and threw it back. I caught it and hugged it to my body moodily.

“Maybe you shouldn’t” He knew I didn’t mean it. I knew I didn’t mean it. In this moment even Tommy probably knew I didn’t mean it.

“Well, I just came to pass on the message”

“You haven’t been doing a very good job of it” I narrowed my eyes again and he shook his head again.

“You’re father wants to talk with you now” I held my hand out expecting him to pass me a phone.

“Hand it over then, let’s not keep ‘daddy’ waiting” No phone came. Instead he shook his head his hands up to show me he didn’t have anything to give.

“In person Sadie, He’s downstairs in his office”. Well crap.

The next thirty minutes of my life was chaos. After Luke finally strolled out of my room I had to clamber out of bed and persuade Tommy to get dressed, which was never easy when he kept trying to pull you back on top of him. Eventually I bribed him with kisses to get up and I then bribed him with more to get out. Leaving him with the promise that, he could come over tomorrow.

I then made the long shameful walk to my father’s office, where Luke was casually leaning outside the door on his phone. I sent him an evil glare as I knocked and he chuckled again. I walked inside.

Sure enough my father was sat behind his grand dark oak desk, in his musky old green leather chair. The room smelt old. Old smoke still lingered in the air from the countless of cigars my father had held to his lips. The antique furniture and books were stained with age and the smell of the past. I turned my nose up to it trying to take as little breaths as possible.

My father, who was now aging just like the furniture, closed a file and slid it away into a desk draw. He was getting bald with a reciting hairline and his black hair was turning grey in places. His Italian olive-skinned features were creased with wrinkles and a cigar that was freshly lit hung out of the corner of his mouth. There were dark bags under his eyes from all the late nights at the offices.

He took a long drag from the cigar and looked at me with judging eyes. I stood still in front of him; head held high and tried my best not to choke from the smoky room. His old wise cold grey eyes were clouded and sometimes I wondered how he could see. The glassed over glare was never something I enjoyed, not even as a young girl.

“Who was the boy that I just heard leaving, child?” I winced as his strong powerful voice casted its dominance around the room.

“My-” I had to stop to clear my throat. “My boyfriend, father” He scowled at me as he took a moment too long to flick the tip of the cigar.

“You know I do not approve of men staying the night” he gestured with his hand that had no loving touch to take a seat. I woodenly moved over and sat down. “This is not to happen again. I forbid...” My blood started to boil beneath my skin with hatred for my father. “...you from having a physical relationship until marriage” I burst.

“Fine then, we’ll go down to Vegas tomorrow” I scowled at him. He didn’t seem taken aback instead he just took another long drag from his cigar. He ignored me and continued. “I will be home for the next few days, I have some business to take care of” He explained as he dipped the tip of his cigar into an ashtray.

“Business with Mr. White, daddy?” I asked sarcastically. He narrowed his eyes then and took one last drag of his cigar before putting it out.

“How do you know of a Mr. White, princess?” His deep voice then became kind. He wanted something and he was hoping to pull my strings with his compliments and generosity.
“He came to visit me, while you were away” I folded my arms and looked away from him childishly.

“I see...” He took a moment and leant back into his chair, his hands folded on his lap. He watched me, studying my face I looked back at him. I noticed how his eyes lingered on mine for some time. My mother’s eyes. I wondered how long ago it was since he saw her. “I don’t want you to see him again, beautiful” he finally concluded.

“I didn’t ask to see him in the first place” I scoffed. He nodded very slightly and kept his eyes on me.

“Perhaps I raised you too well, too clever” He pondered. I sat there and scowled back. He pulled the folder back out of the draw and opened it. “Well, I’ve topped up your allowance this morning, maybe you should go out today, pamper yourself” I stood up as he looked down. He was no longer keeping me with his gaze.

“Yes Daddy” I turned and walked out, letting the door slam tightly behind me. I walked straight past Luke who looked up at me a little startled over his phone but made no attempt to follow me. I kept walking, grabbing my coat on the way, struggling into it and out onto the streets of New York, penniless. I walked for a very long time with no destination in mind.

An hour or so had passed and I was still walking. I took a minute to look around and take in my surroundings. Little Italy. It was kind of ironic how I seemed to always end up back here. I sighed softly and pulled the hood up over my head and kept walking.

I passed the spot where I had first seen Tommy, and the alley way opposite where the mugger had died. Was that really less than a week ago? My stomach pinched for a moment as I thought about the death, I didn’t spend one minute since it happened thinking about the life that was lost. Yet, I didn’t feel guilty either so I kept walking.

And I kept walking until I heard a familiar voice ring me my ears and take me off guard.

“Hey watch it!” I heard it as I passed an alley way that two, young, teenage boys came running out of. I peeked down and couldn’t help but grin. He was taller then I remembered him and his green eyes were even more vibrant in person. I stood out in the open and waited for him to notice me. Eventually, he did.

“Sadie?” he approached me slowly, unsure, his mouth turning up into an unmistakable grin. “Sadie Blue...” His dimples began to show again. He looked slightly beat up, like he had ran into trouble again a bit of a black shadowed eye to show for it.

“Hello Ottenki” I smirked, lowering my hood to show him he was right. As my hair was released and fell into soft waves around my face that I knew was naturally beautiful I saw his grin soften. I looked up at him with my wide blue eyes and his green ones seemed to sparkle in the autumn sun. He showed me something in his hand, a set of car keys.

“Let’s go for a drive, Sadie”