Sell Your Soul

Johnny took Hannah’s hand in his and led her into the back yard of his house. Hannah couldn’t help but to marvel at how large and gorgeous his house was. It was nothing like the small apartment she and her parents had lived in for the last few years. Father Brinks would call it a ‘sin of waste’ to have a two-story house with a huge yard and patio. Small apartments had less hiding places. Hannah shook the thought out of her head, Father Brinks and all of his sins were out of her life now. She was safe now.

“Sup 3 Tears?” A guy high fived Johnny then stopped when he saw Hannah holding onto his other hand.

“Funny this is Hannah, Hannah this is my best friend Funny.”
Hannah smiled and held her hand out to him, “It’s nice to mee-“ But instead of shaking her hand Funny grabbed her in a bear hug.

“Dude, don’t freak her out.” Johnny said pulling Hannah back close to him.

“Sorry, I’m just happy to finally meet you Hannah. Johnny hasn’t stopped talking about you.” Funny grinned. He was cute, and covered in tattoos just like Johnny was.

Hannah blushed and looked at the ground. He had been talking about her? That was good right? Unless he was making fun of how awkward and screwed up she was.

“Shut up Funny.” Johnny growled.

“I warned you, my friends are all weird.” Johnny smiled apologetically at her.

“He wasn’t that weird, other than his name.” Hannah admitted feeling herself blush harder.

“Yeah, I should probably explain that.” Johnny pulled Hannah out of sight.

“My friends and I all have nicknames or aliases that we go by, because we can’t have anyone knowing who we really are when we’re uh – working.” Johnny cringed. He really didn’t want to run Hannah off by telling her the truth.

“Andrea told me you guys had interesting ‘jobs’.” Hannah bit her bottom lip.
“I don’t want to scare you away, but I don’t want to lie to you either.” Johnny admitted. He was afraid he was about to screw up royally.

Hannah took a deep breath, Johnny was dangerous. His sister had already warned her about that. But honestly Hannah didn’t care. She had never felt this way before. Johnny made her smile, and feel pretty. Besides nothing could be worse than what she was running from.

“It’s not important.” Hannah said quickly.

“What?” Johnny looked at her confused.

“What, you do it’s not important to me. I – I just want to be with you. I like being around you.” She stuttered and looked away. She wanted to come off as cool and confident, but she probably just sounded like a nervous kid.

Johnny grinned. “I like being around you too.”

**

Johnny introduced Hannah to the rest of his friends. Kurlz, Charlie, Danny and J-Dog were all very welcoming. They all seemed genuinely excited that she was finally there.

“Alright baby doll, I have to man the grill. I can’t trust any of these idiots not to burn down my house. You can swim if you want.” Johnny said kissing Hannah’s cheek before walking towards the grill.

Hannah chewed on her lip. She didn’t have anything to swim in. Instead she took a seat beside the pool. Funny, J and Kurlz were in the pool they appeared to be playing a monkey-in-the-middle type game with Kurlz stuck in the middle. Charlie was on the phone. She couldn’t stop smiling though. How lucky was it that Johnny had been in the dinner the day she got into town? She honestly didn’t care what Johnny did, or how dangerous he was. Running away was the best choice that Hannah had ever made. There was no way she could be this happy if she had stayed with her parents. By now they would be planning her wedding full-force, heck they probably still were! Her entire family, not just her parents but the ‘church family’ were all convinced that none of them could survive without each other. Every other girl and boy who ran came crawling back to the faith. But Hannah would rather die then go “home”.

“We don’t bite you know. You could come swim with us.” Funny’s voice shook Hannah away from her own thoughts.

“I – I don’t have a bathing suit or anything.” She frowned at him.

“You could always just swim naked.” Charlie told her.

Hannah’s eyes went wide and blush washed over her face.

“Dude! Really?” Funny rolled is eyes and pushed Charlie away.

“I have some shorts you can borrow if you wanna swim.” Funny offered.

“Its okay I’ve got this.” Andrea smiled. She was still wearing her uniform from Rick’s. But she had a duffel bag in her hands.

“Looks like you’re prepared.” Funny smiled at Andrea.

“Always, Funny, Always.”

“C’mon Hannah. I brought you a bathing suit and a change of clothes.”

Hannah smiled at Funny and followed Andrea into Johnny’s house.

“You do know how to swim right?” Andrea asked once they were inside.

“Yeah I do. I took swimming at school until I was in High School and my parents homeschooled me.”

“Good. Here. This is the most modest suit I could find in my closet.” Andrea pushed a bathing
suit into her hands.

“Thanks a lot Andrea.”

“The bathroom is right there you can change in there, I’ll be in the other room.”

Hannah took a deep breath as she turned to look in the mirror. She felt naked in the suit. It was a black two-piece with a tank-top and teeny shorts. Her heart was pounding. She couldn’t go out there like this, way too much was exposed. She was about to take it off and tell Hannah it didn’t fit when there was a knock on the door.

“I’m coming in.” Andrea said as she pushed the door open.

“You look hot.”

“I don’t think I can do this.” Hannah frowned at her reflection. She looked horribly plain beside of Andrea who had changed into a red and black plaid bikini.

“Here I’m sure Johnny won’t mind if you borrow these.” Andrea handed her a paid of black athletic shorts.

Hannah pulled them on. She smiled, she felt a lot better. Her breasts were still pretty out there in the open though. She couldn’t deny she felt like a harlot. Swimming like this in front of so many guys was pretty high up on the sin list, not to mention the fact that she wasn’t wearing a skirt. But again she forced those thoughts to the back of her mind as Andrea French braided her hair so it wouldn’t get tangled in the pool and the two of them walked back outside together.

Johnny grinned at them from his position at the grill.

“How long is it going to take you to feed us?” Andrea asked as they walked by.

“Perfection takes time!” Johnny responded.

“Yeah whatever you say.” Andrea rolled her eyes and laughed.

“Don’t piss of the cook chica.” Funny said he had taken Hannah’s seat by the pool and had a
beer in his hand.

“He knows better than to fuck with my shit.” Andrea said.

Hannah tried to cover her chest with her arms. But it wasn’t working very well. She felt awkward. Andrea handled everything with confidence that Hannah could only wish she had.

“Hey pretty lady.” Danny appeared and slid his arm around Andrea’s waist.

“Back up off my bitch!” Charlie yelled from the pool.

“I don’t see your name on her!” Danny shot back pulling Andrea closer to him.

“Wanna sit?” Funny motioned to the lawn chair he was sitting on the edge of.

“Thanks.” Hannah sat on the opposite edge watching as Danny and Charlie took their fight over
Andrea to the pool.

“They both better be glad that Johnny is busy. He’d kill them if he knew they were talking about his sister that way.”

“Yeah, Andrea told me that Johnny was super protective.” Hannah fought to keep her voice even.

“We all are, Andrea is as much our sister as she is Johnny’s. Well Danny doesn’t see her as a sister. But the rest of us do.”

“Do you think she likes him back?” Hannah felt like a fourth grader as soon as she said that.

“It wouldn’t matter. Johnny has a pretty strict don’t date my sister rule. Besides none of us want to drag her into our lifestyle.” Funny looked at the pool where Andrea was floating on a raft with a beer in her hand.

“I don’t mean to come off as rude or anything but it seems to me like she’s already roped in pretty deep.” Hannah blushed.

“You have a point.” Funny took another drink of his beer.

“Grubs ready!” Johnny yelled interrupting their conversation.

**

“Soda?” Johnny asked sitting down beside of Hannah with a beer and a bottle of coke.

“Thanks.” Hannah smiled at him.

“I didn’t figure you would want a beer, you can have one if you want though.”

“No, this is great. Thanks.” Hannah blushed realizing she had already said that. She couldn’t help but notice he had taken his shirt off. She tried not to stare at the tattoos across his chest and stomach.

“I hope we’re not boring you to death.” Johnny said noticing that they were the only two who were still dry.

“No, I’m having fun. Its just had for me to loosen up.” Hannah admitted.

“I’m glad your having fun. I like seeing you smile.”

Hannah couldn’t help but to grin when he said that.

“There it is.” Johnny ran his finger softly across her bottom lip.

Hannah’s felt like her heart was going to explode out of her chest. She just prayed that Johnny couldn’t hear it. He chuckled and slid himself closer to her. Hannah let herself lead back into Johnny’s chest. They stayed that way while they finished off their food. Hannah had to force herself to eat, she was shaking all over and the butterflies in her stomach were starting to feel more like flying saucers.

The couple was splashed a few minutes later by Charlie’s cannonball into the water.

“You’re a dick Scene!” Johnny said as he and Hannah both jumped up.
Charlie laughed as he climbed back out of the pool.

“Do you trust me?” Johnny asked Hannah suddenly.

“What?”

“Do you trust me?” He asked again his blue eyes locked on hers. “Yeah.” Hannah replied.

Johnny grinned and grabbed her around the waist before jumping into the pool.

**

Hannah carefully unbraided her hair; it fell in damp waves around her face. She couldn’t stop smiling. She was having a blast. After Johnny jumped into the pool with her Funny and Danny ambushed everyone with water pistols and then Charlie got drunk and fell into the hot tub. It was late now. Charlie was passed out on the porch, J-Dog and Kurlz had both went home. Andrea was playing pool with Danny and Funny was “baby-sitting” as he called it. Hannah was pretty sure they were just trying to give Johnny and herself some alone time. Not that she minded. She had changed back into her clothes and hung her bathing suit across the bathtub to dry. It had felt good to be in a pool again. She hadn’t been swimming in years. Swimming required clothes that were forbidden by the faith her parents had forced her into.

Johnny appeared at the bathroom door.

“You alright babe?”

“Yeah sorry I just got lost in my thoughts.” She smiled and walked out. He took her hand and led her into his living room. It was beautiful. He had a large white rug over dark hardwood floors, with a overstuffed black couch, love seat and chair. There was a big, flat screen fixed to the wall above the fireplace. It was like one of those houses you see in magazines at the grocery store.

“What’s on your mind Hannah?” He asked as he took a seat on the couch beside of her.

“Just thinking about today, and how great it was to have fun.” She smiled.

“So I guess you’re not regretting your decision to walk away?”

“Never. Honestly I’d rather die than go back there.” She looked away.
Johnny pulled her face up facing him.
“I’ll never let that happen baby doll.”

Hannah’s heart was going to explode. She had to remind herself to breathe over and over again. Johnny grinned. He loved the effect he had on her. Which she had the same effect on him – he was just better at hiding his reactions.

“So, what was it like at home?”

“It was a mess. We lived in an apartment complex with the rest of our church members. There wasn’t a single person in that building that wasn’t a member of the faith. Father Brinks had bought the whole building and we hardly ever left other than to go to the grocery store. I knew kids who never left that building. They were homeschool their entire lives.” Hannah thought about the twins that lived down the hall from her parents. They were eight and had never set foot outside.

“Wow. Were you?” Johnny couldn’t believe his ears, it sounded like something you saw on the news or in a movie.

“No, my family was one of the first to join the faith, it took awhile for them to finish the classrooms they built in the basement. I went to regular school until I was a freshman. They said that’s why I was so defiant.”

“I can’t see you being defiant at all Hannah, you’re the most polite, submissive girl I have ever met.” Johnny ran his fingers through her hair.

“I got called a harlot sinner a lot, because of the way I look. And because I like to read and ask questions. You’re not supposed to question authority. You’re supposed to blindly follow the Father’s orders.” Hannah explained.

“What would they think about me?” Johnny grinned.

“They would think you’re a blue-eyed devil. Tattoos mean selling your soul, and from the looks of it yours is pretty far gone.” Hannah smiled back at him.

“That sounds about right.” Johnny laughed.

Hannah contemplated telling him the about Father Brinks and the supposed-to-be wedding and all the other reasons why she ran away from home. But she stopped herself. Johnny wouldn’t want anything to do with her if he knew the truth about her.