An Angel Wears Hightops [A Sequel to The Devil Wears Girl Jeans]

An Angel Wears Hightops (Chapter 19)

“He seems fine to me.” I told Blake in a low voice, shooting a quick glance up the stairs as I closed the kitchen door softly behind me. Poe most likely couldn't hear us since he was in the shower and Blake and I were downstairs in the kitchen, but still. Poe had crazy good hearing, and you could never be too careful around him.

“No,” Blake said, shaking his head as he leaned back against the counter, “Trust me. He's changed. There's something wrong, he's not acting like himself. He won't make eye contact with either of us, and he's only giving us one word answers. Whatever happened with Killian screwed him up big time.”

“Well it's not like he'd go to therapy, so i don't know what you want me to do.”

“I know, I know. The best we can do is find Mickey and let him figure it out. I mean, they are brothers, right? I'm sure h-”

“What're you guys talking about?” a deep voice boomed from behind us, causing even Blake to jump. I whipped around, only to get an eyeful of Poe's bare chest and the scrap of threadbare fabric wrapped around his waist. I felt myself blush immediately, and quickly looked away, but not before something on Poe's chest caught my eye.

“What's that?” I asked, pointing to a dark, vaguely lightning bolt shaped splotch on his ribs. Poe stared at it blankly, and shrugged.

“I don't know. Birthmark.”

I bit my lip and furrowed my eyebrows, trying to figure out why it looked so familiar. I could feel a memory tickling the back of my mind, but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. It wasn't until a few minutes later when I'd completely forgotten about it all together, that the memory finally hit me.

“I find it absolutely tragic that the only thing I have going for me in life is that I'm not addicted to heroin.” Dallas called to me from the driveway, and I smirked, lounging back farther in my lawn chair.

“I don't know, I think you have a very promising career as a professional basketball player.” I teased as he tossed the ball in the air, missing the hoop for what had to have been the 200th time today. He sighed, staring at the ball for a moment as if wondering whether or not he should give up, before kicking it away into the hedges and coming to sit beside me.

“Ew, don't even talk about future careers. Planning out my life makes me want to vomit. Oh, that totally reminds me, my mom said the stupidest thing yesterday. Get this: she told me she never wants me to be a model, because she doesn't want me to do topless ads and whatever. Does she really think that's the only thing preventing me from being a model? Honestly.” he snickered, rolling back onto the grass. This made me laugh, not so much what he'd said, but his laugh itself. It was contagious.

“Is it just me or is it hotter than the Devil's arse out today?” he muttered a few moments later, shrugging his tank top off and tossing it into the air, where the branches above us immediately caught it in their grasp.

“What's that?” I asked, pointing to a dark spot on Dal's ribs that was vaguely lightning bolt shaped. He craned his neck to see what I was talking about, but then shrugged.

“I don't know. Birthmark, I think. I've never met anybody who has one like it, but I like having something that's strictly mine, you know?”

I wanted to ask Poe if Mickey had the birthmark too, but by the time I looked up, he was already retreating into the dark living room where I'd set up sleeping bags for the boys.

“Goodnight,” I muttered to them as I headed towards the stairs, but a voice stopped me. I couldn't tell which one of them it was, but whoever they were apparently wanted me to stay until they fell asleep. Considering I didn't really feel like sleeping either, I had no problem sitting on the couch while they climbed into their sleeping bags. I sat there for what was probably about an hour, just listening to the sounds of their steady breathing, until a quiet voice came from one of the sleeping bags, causing me to jump.