Teresa Mummert - Pretty Little Things

“Do I even want to know what you were doing out there?” she called out playfully.

I glanced over my shoulder at the trees and began walking toward her porch. “You really don’t.”

Her tongue ran out over her lower lip, causing it to glisten in the sunlight. My body reacted, and for the first time it wasn’t accompanied by guilt. I always knew Annie was too good for me, but knowing it and hearing it were too different things.

“You want to hang out?” I asked, pretending I didn’t notice her eyes widen. She was the polar opposite of Annie. I wanted to prove to her that I was good enough for someone, or at least prove it to myself.

“My place?” I motioned with my chin toward my house, and she smiled before pushing up from the porch and dusting off her ass with her hands.

“Your dad home?” She gazed up at me through her long lashes with a smirk. I leaned closer to whisper in her ear.

“Just you and me, sweetheart.” I winked as I took another drag from my cigarette, watching her teeth dig into her bottom lip.

I couldn’t keep my eyes from the tree line as I walked back to my house. I didn’t know if Annie was still there, lurking in the shadows, or if she had gone back to her perfect world where she could be sheltered from people like me. I flicked my butt onto the road and placed my hand on the small of Nat’s back as we climbed the stairs to my house. If she was watching, I wanted her to know that not everyone felt like I was beneath them.

When we got inside the kitchen, Nat looked around, not sure where to go. I pulled open the freezer and grabbed my dad’s bottle of Jack Daniels, holding it up for her to see. She nodded, and I grabbed the soda to chase our shots.

“So,” Nat said as she walked over to the counter and leaned against it as I poured our first round. “Why the sudden change in attitude?”

I didn’t look up at her as I swallowed back the lump forming in my throat. I grabbed my glass and poured it down my throat before refilling it.

“Just a shitty day.” I held up her shot for her, and she took it from my hand as her eyebrows pulled together.

“You’re not gonna get all serious and cry are you?” she joked before drinking back her shot. I rolled my eyes, hating that the one person who would understand wasn’t here. I held up the glass of soda, and Nat drank it down greedily. “God damn. Now that was strong.”

“Don’t say that.” The words tumbled out before I could stop myself. Nat laughed, and I could feel the familiar anger begin to surface.

“Don’t say what? You have got to be kidding me.” She rolled her eyes as I refilled my glass.

“This was a bad idea.” I drank, slamming the glass down a little harder than necessary.

“Hey…come on. I’m sorry. I’ll behave.” She stuck out her lower lip and held her shot glass out to be refilled. I sighed as I poured the amber liquid, sloshing it over her fingers. She emptied her glass again. “What’s wrong?” She had somehow moved closer, and her side was now against mine as she leaned over the counter.

“It’s nothing.”

“I’m serious. I want to know.” Nat placed her warm hand on mine, curling her fingers around mine.

I turned my body toward hers as I took her in through blurred vision. “You think I’m a bad person?”

“What?”

“Never mind,” I groaned and pulled my hand out from under hers. I began to walk around her, but she placed her hand on my bare chest to stop me.

“No. I just mean…How could you think you’re a bad person? I know you like to pick on me and whatever”—she rolled her eyes—“but you were there for me when my pap died.”

I glanced down at her hand and back to her eyes. She wore minimal makeup, but her eyes popped under thick mascara and just the hint of color on her eyelids. “You needed a friend.”

“Well, now you need a friend.” She shrugged as our bodies inched slightly closer. I placed my hand over hers on my chest, pressing it against my heated skin.

“I can’t be fixed,” I said, feeling my heart ache at just the thought of Annie. My gaze fell to her lips, slightly parted as her breathing grew more rapid. She took my other hand and placed it over her own heart, her chest rising and falling rapidly as my palm pressed against the top of her breast.

“Let me try,” she whispered as she pushed up on her toes and pressed her lips against mine. I slid my arm around the small of her back and pulled her body against mine as her hands moved up my neck.

The next hour was a blur of sweat-slicked skin and shaky fingers as we explored each other’s bodies. The night faded to black soon after, as did my soul.

A kick to my leg woke me, and I opened my eyes, trying to focus and take in my surroundings. I was lying on the couch, alone thankfully. I sat up with a groan as I wiped my hand over my mouth, desperate for some water.

“Late night?”

I nodded, grabbing my hat from the floor and pulling it on my head.

“It’s three in the morning. You should head up to bed.”

I nodded again as I stifled a yawn. “You just getting home?” I asked as I glanced around the living room, wondering when Nat had left but thankful she was gone.

“We had a breaking and entering over on Walton and a runaway.” I heard him groan as I climbed the stairs to my room. I fell onto my bed facedown, not bothering to pull down the covers. My head thumped as flashes of last night came flooding back to me. I closed my eyes and forced myself to forget what Nat and I had done. I was right. I couldn’t be fixed.

“So what is it? You’re a slut, a junkie, your momma forcing you to turn tricks to feed her habits?” Colin asked as he brushed by me, coldness in his eyes.

“What? No. None of those things. I swear.” I tucked my wild honey-blond hair behind my ear as I looked to the ground.

He eyed me suspiciously, and I shrank under his accusatory glare. “It’s got to be something.”

“M-my mom…wanted me to learn to help others in need,” I stuttered, wishing the ground would open up and swallow me whole.

“You’re telling me that you were pulled off the streets and brought here? Kidnapped?”

“Oh God.” My hand flew over my mouth as my heart leapt into my throat. I knew something was wrong. “He’s not going to let us leave, is he?”

He sank down in the chair in front of me, his chin in his hand as he stared at me for an uncomfortably long moment. Why was it bothering him so much that I wasn’t a depraved junkie? And why wasn’t he upset, scared, and wracked with panic right now?

“You can’t even spit out a goddamn sentence. You made it too easy for him.” He shook his head angrily. “Here we don’t pray for the weak—we prey on the weak.”

“Are you staying in bed all day?”

I yawned and stretched before glancing over my shoulder as I lay facedown on my bed. Colin was leaning against the doorframe, his head cocked to the side. “Don’t you ever knock?”

“Close your door if you want me to knock,” he chuckled as he sauntered into my bedroom. “People are going to start showing up soon. Get ready.”

“I don’t feel like it.” I rested my chin on my fist as I stared at my headboard, still wallowing in self-pity over my fight with Jacob. I’d texted him several times asking him to come to the party, and he’d reluctantly agreed, but now I was worried about him meeting my family. Colin’s fingers wrapped around my bare ankle, and he began pulling me toward the foot of the bed.

“Damn it! Let go of me.” I clutched at the comforter as he continued to drag me down the mattress, causing my shirt to ride high on my stomach.

“A lot of work went into this party.” He wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me from the bed as I kicked at him and struggled to pry his arms off me. “So stop acting like a spoiled bitch and get ready.”

“You’re such a jerk!”

He carried me toward the bathroom and put me down inside the shower stall, blocking the doorway as I pounded my fists against his chest.

“This isn’t funny. Let me out of here.”

“There’s the easy way,” he said, and with a wicked grin he reached forward and turned on the water full blast. “And there’s my way.”

“You asshole!” I pressed myself against the sandstone tile as I struggled to get out from under the cool spray, the oversized white T-shirt I was wearing and my dark-blue panties getting soaked. “I’m still wearing clothes.” The thin fabric clung to my curves, and I knew it immediately had become see-through. My teeth began to chatter, and I gripped either shoulder trying to keep warm.

His gaze drifted over my body as he laughed. “I told you to stop stealing my shirts.” He narrowed his eyes as they settled on my bruised face.

I turned my back to him and peeled the wet fabric from my skin, tossing it over my shoulder as hard as I could. He caught it as it hit his chest, never breaking eye contact.

The doorbell rang, and I jumped, nearly slipping as it startled me.

“You have fifteen minutes.” He closed the door to the shower and disappeared.

I greeted Amanda at the door and took the large wrapped present from her hands, kissing her on the cheek.

“It’s a dress. I thought Annie might want to wear it tonight.”

“Tasteful, I hope.” I looked into her deep, artificially blue eyes.

She gave me a look, and I laughed as I closed the door behind her.