Salty Licorice

Chapter 4

Liz's POV

I'm starting to get used to America since I moved back 2 and half months ago. It's already been 2 weeks of my first year in an American high school and I've already made a good amount of friends. Leo and Danny are nice and so is Marisa, Avery, and Emily.

I'm at school early to work on a painting I've been trying to finish when Marisa walks in lethargically and gets her wheel ready.

"Do you think you can teach me some more techniques on the wheel?" I ask her eagerly.

"Sure," she shrugs, pulling her hair into a lopsided bun quickly.

I can tell she's high because her mannerisms are slower and her eyes are bloodshot. Not to mention she smells of it, and not even the smell of clay can mask it. I noticed that she almost always comes in in the morning baked. She puts the plate on the wheel wetting it as she goes and grabs her apron handing it over to me after I take off my sweatshirt. I put it over my head while she helps tie it around me.

She sits down and gestures for me to sit in front of her on her lap, the same as yesterday. So she can still control the pedal, even though I could probably do it myself. I get this subtle impression that she needs to have some form of control. When I sit I see her hand in my peripheral hovering over my hair.

"May I?" She asks, referring to my hair and I nod my head.

She runs her hands through my red hair pulling it back and out of my face, she does a simple braid all the way down the middle of my back.

"Okay so you're gonna throw the clay onto the middle of the plate as hard as you can," she instructed gently, resting her hands on either side of my outer thighs.

I do as she says and once it's secure she starts making the wheel spin with the pedal. She tells me how to make a cup shape, while I'm leaning over the wheel I feel her gently rubbing her thumbs over my thighs in small circles calmly. She sits pressing her front to my back as she looks over my shoulder. I'm trying to block out her presence and force myself to concentrate on what I'm making. I can feel myself bite gently on my lip before relaxing again and leaning back remembering Marisa is behind. When I turned my head when I'm done I didn't realize how close we really are and I felt my face flush looking into her eyes, seeing her eyes an even darker green than normal. I feel exposed under her stare, as if she can see right through me and know all my secrets.

I smile slightly, "Hi," I whisper lightly.

"Hey." Her eyes flicker the length of my face.

"I did it, see," I turned back to my first ever pottery cup with a proud grin.

"I can see that, you did very well," She spoke softly before pressing a featherlight kiss on the side of neck just under my ear.

"Thank you," I giggle slightly from the feeling of her lips on my neck. "Marisa, what was that for?"

"Did you not like it?" She asks, fanning her breath across my neck.

"I never said that, just don't know what it was for," I explained, slightly turning my head towards her, hoping she didn't notice the shiver I got from her contact.

"I don't know, I just thought it would be nice since you just made your first cup." I feel her brush her nose against my neck forcing me to lean to the side a little more. "Can I do it again?"

"Sure," It comes in more of a breath than an actual word.

I feel her press her lips against my neck and I tilt my head to the side subconsciously giving her more terrain. I feel her place her soft slightly parted lips up and down my neck from my collarbone to my ear repeatedly.