Video Games

My house was small, rural and white. It was one floored, with two bedrooms, a kitchen and dining room combo and a small living room. The roof hung over the wrap around porch, upon which there sat a small bench. There was a small garden out front, next to the road, and there was no fence, and where the fence from the next house started, there was a grassy gap where you could see into the back yard.

In the back yard was a wide swing, made from white wood and white metal poles. The chains that hung down to support the seat were wrapped with plastic ivy and flowers to give it a quaint, cottage feel. It was like something out of fifties America, and was completely out of place where I was.

I sat, swinging in the back yard, when he pulled up in his fast car. It was a beautiful work of art, but completely impractical. It had only two seats and no boot space; it had the potential for speeds greatly surpassing the national speed limit, which could never be put into practice; and it stuck out like a sore thumb next to the quaint family cars up and down my suburban street.

He got out and stood on the grass between my house and the fence and whistled my name. I didn’t look at him but smiled to myself. I was in his favourite sundress – white with pink and green flowers dotted around it in a downplayed manner. I coupled it with a thin gold belt and white sandals. The weather of the day had been warm, but as the sky darkened, it took with it that sticky heat.

I led him indoors and handed him a beer, which he opened with his hands. He sat on the sofa and flicked on the TV, making me smile to myself. He turned on the games console and put his beer on a coaster on the coffee table, and told me to get over there. I shook my head, still grinning, and walked to my room, which was through a door at the other side of the living room. I didn’t shut the door.

As I removed my belt and sandals, I saw from the corner of my eye that he was watching me undress. I smirked inwardly and unzipped the back of my dress, letting it fall to the floor; it was the kind of dress which didn’t require the use of a bra.

Still smiling, I pulled on my outfit for the night – a long, red, strapless dress that zipped up at the side. I slipped into my black heels and clicked on the curling iron, twisting my hair around it to create loose ringlets. Then I redid my eyeliner, extending the points slightly from the corners of my eyes, and adding more mascara.

I walked out with my tiny black handbag under my arm, the chain dangling helplessly at my waist. I went over to him and stood in from of the TV and told him he was the bestest, before leaning in for a big kiss; I put his favourite perfume on.

He took me in his car to one of the old bars in the city, where all the old stars swing. He knew I lived for fame. We sang and danced with the old stars, drinking our way through the house whiskey as we swayed. We played pool and darts, still shooting whiskey.

The blue dark hung around us as he held me in his big arms and kissed me. I was drunk and seeing stars, but I could only focus on him – this was all I ever thought of.

As we left for him to take me home, I looked over at Old Paul’s, seeing my friends fall in and out of the bar. It was the same every time we went out; they didn’t like the atmosphere of the old bars. It was my idea of fun to watch them.

He took me home in his fast car, and walked me to the door. He held me in his big arms and kissed me again, whistling my name.

“It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you,” he whispered.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him closer.

“You tell me all the time,” I replied.

He wrapped his arms around my waist and placed his hands on my behind.

“Heaven is a place on Earth with you,” he sighed.

I opened my door and pulled him inside, kicking the door shut behind us. We didn’t even make it to my room, instead choosing to fall onto the sofa. His fingers found my zip and he undid it quickly, sliding it from me, kissing my body the whole way down; he pulled my shoes off slowly and then let me sit up. I unbuttoned his shirt and he swept it from his body.

“Tell me all the things you wanna do,” I moaned as his kicked off his trousers and socks.

He rolled us so that I was on top and I kissed at his neck, moving down to his collarbones and then to his chest, kissing all the time.

“I heard that you like them bad girls, honey… is that true?”

He sat up and knotted his fingers in the back of my hair, pulling my lips close to his.

We spent the night on the sofa, making love deep into the night. The only light came from the moon and stars outside my window, and the only sounds were our own. I fell asleep on his chest, the throw from the back of the sofa our blanket from the biting cold night.

“It’s better than I ever even knew,” I whispered, falling asleep.

My dreams were filled with him and his words, how he felt and how he smelled, how he tasted and how he sounded.

I woke the next morning, cold, my face buried in the back of the sofa. I sat up and looked around for him, but there was nobody there. My clothes were still laid where they had been left the night before, but his were gone.

The only traces of him ever being there were his empty beer bottle, the games controller out of place, and a small note left on my coffee table. I read it, not sure how to feel. I couldn’t make sense of it, what it meant, whether he had left for good or whether this was the start of something more.

Days went by, and he didn’t call or pull up in his fast car. He didn’t whistle my name or hold me in his big arms. He didn’t drink my beer and he didn’t play my video games. He was gone, my heart still in his hand.

“They say that the world was made for two, that it’s only worth living if somebody is loving you. And baby, now you do.”