{-JIARA-}

Stretch Marks

Kie

I was lying with JJ, watching him play games. My mind immediately went to how perfect he is. I gently rub his stomach. I pull his shirt up, continuing the process. He smiles, sighing relaxed. Then I move to his abs, gently moving my fingertips across them, he smiles, his cheeks heat up. I move up to his chest, he just shifts comfortably under my touch. He's so perfect. Then I gently massage his shoulders, making him lean back.

When I'm doing this, I can see his gameplay has gotten a little behind. I hear the boys yelling at him in the mic. I just smile, moving to his neck, rubbing it gently, which makes him turn completely red and smile at me. He dropped his controller, closing his eyes and leaning back. I move up to his hair, lightly scratching his head.

He shuts the game off completely and discards his headset. I smile, kissing the top of his head.

"Sweetheart, you're my favorite distraction." JJ sighs, happily.

"Trust me, babe, I know." I promise.

He slowly turns his head, and he grabs my hand, leading me to his side of the couch.

"I love that you're making me relaxed, but I gotta do the same to you. You've been working your ass off all day at work, while I've been playing games with the boys." He says, guiding me to sit beside him.

"I love you, but I have to pass." I say, leaning into him.

He looks at me.

JJ

Kiara Carrera never passes up on after work cuddles. Let alone, never leans on me like that unless somethings wrong.

"Hey, you okay?" I ask, grabbing her hand, keeping them in her lap.

"I'm f-"

"I want honesty." I say, cutting her off.

"Okay, fine. While I was at work, I was putting things that belonged in the cabinets away, my crop top started to ride up-" she stops, biting her bottom lip.

"Shh, kie, it's okay, keep going. I'm here." I say, squeezing her hand  in reassurance.  She sighs shakily.

"My crop top started to ride up and my workers started to stare. I got nervous and asked them what was up. I didn't my shorts up as high as normal either. But one of them said "damn, Carrera, you really gained some, huh?" Then they all started to laugh. I got really confused, so I finished what I had to, then I went to the back, in my dad's office. When I got there I put my arms up, seeing what they saw. All I wanna do is hide it. I don't want anyone else to see them. They're humiliating. They're embarrassing. I don't like it." She said, tears brimming her eyes.

What didn't she like? Who made fun of her? God, I hated the feeling of not knowing, and pressuring her to talk about something that makes her upset. She seems vulnerable, and I don't wanna do that to her, but that's all I have right now. She's about to cry. Something about her is that she's not opening about her crying. She likes to hold it in, but the fact is she told me immediately. Didn't even argue. Didn't hold back. She just held my hand and opened up. It was a big step. I'm happy about it, but it's also super concerning to me as a boyfriend. I'm not used to her being open with these feelings.

"Don't like what?" I ask, rubbing the back of her hands with my thumbs.

"My stretch marks." She whispers.

I gape at that. I think my heart actually stops. She doesn't like her tiger stripes? I found them extremely hot.

"What?" I pause.

"They're so ugly." She sniffs. "I'm getting fatter and I don't like it. My body looks so weird with them. I miss my old body. When we hung out on the boat in our swimsuits, until the sun rose the next day. I didn't have these then." She confessed, letting a few tears fall.

"Kiara. You're not fat. You're not getting fat, and those aren't ugly. I'm sorry those assholes don't know their right from their left, and can't see straight, and won't be able to once I get to them. 1. You're growing up. It's not your fault. It's not you getting fat. Don't think I didn't pay attention in health when it came to females. I have a beautiful girlfriend. I needed to know more about her body so I knew what was happening. 2. I love your tiger stripes. They're not, especially on you. You could pull anything off. Absolutely anything. Baby, body is beautiful. Your body's growing quicker than you are, if that makes sense, but your hips came first, leaving having tiny stretch marks on your waist, the side of your thighs and your boobs. They'll fix themselves eventually. They'll fade a little bit. But for now, I'll prove it to you." I confirm.

I stand up, grabbing her hands. I smile, and she smiled back with tears running down her cheeks.

"You're so cute." I tell her, pulling her to my chest, playing with her curls.

I wait for her to settle down. Her audible cries, became silent. She pulled back, and I gently wiped her tears.

"Can you put on what you wore to work?" I ask, obviously making sure knows she doesn't have to.

But she agrees, and runs upstairs. Moments later, she runs back down in what she had on.

"DAYUM." I yell, quickly cover my mouth.

Fuck, the intrusive thoughts.

She knows that I meant it. I didn't mean to say it, but I'm glad I did. Knowing me, it would've came out eventually.

She giggles, then grabs my hand.

"Can you show me what happened?" I ask. She nods.

She takes me to the kitchen, standing on her tippy toes, reaching the top shelf. Her shorts move down a little, and her crop top slides further above her belly button.

"Backup a little..." she requests, which I immediately meet.

I slowly back up, until she tells me to stop. I see a little bit of her stretch marks, but that's it. Her coworkers were that bitchy about it? Bullshit!

"Bro, you can barely fucking notice. These hoes were totally checking you out. By the way, not happy with your coworkers for SO many reasons now." I say, smiling at her, then grabbing her hands.

"You're the most beautiful girl ever." I kiss her stretch marks. I mean all of them, doing what it takes to get with them. I smile at her and she smiles back.

I kiss her head, then her. I love this woman.

I pick her up and take her to bed. With the original plan she shot down, here I am, rubbing her bare stomach, her abdomen, her chest, her neck, massaging her shoulders, scratching her head, making her feel the comfort she provides to me.

This is love.