Seeds of Tomorrow

48

As the light flashed on Rocco froze, hand still beneath Annie's shirt. What he expected was his father, dressed in his sweats, storming out to come bitch him out.

Instead, what he saw was his younger brother running to the side of the house and appearing with his bike. There was no way Gabriel didn't notice Annie's car in the driveway.

"The fuck is he going?" Rocco said aloud, his eyes following his brother's dark figure disappearing into the woods.

Annie giggled, "Is that your little brother?"

"Yeahhh..." Rocco said, his eyes glued to the darkness from which he had ventured. She looked at him expectantly with her round eyes as if asking if they should proceed.

As badly as Rocco wanted to stay there in the moment, he wasn't trying to risk having his dad come out and make a scene.

Reluctantly he removed his seatbelt, "I should probably go inside," he told her wistfully.

Annie nodded, placing her hand on the steering wheel, "Ok, well...have a good night."

Rocco gave her a wry smile and sighed, "You too," he said as he slowly opened the car door before pausing, "I would like to see you again, like, not at work of course. If you're down."

He felt fumbly. Awkward.

He took another breath, "Like a date? Maybe?"

Annie smiled, the freckles spreading on her cheeks, "Yeah! I mean, yes, that would be awesome."

The grin on his face was hard to fight, even though she'd literally been grabbing his dick over his pants barely five minutes prior, the idea of asking her on a date seemed so much scarier and anxiety-inducing.

He leaned in for another kiss, "Thank you for giving me a ride home."

****

"Where's your cousin?" She wanted to know, "Is he coming back soon?"

Mark flicked his cigarette butt into the ashtray, "He's got a girlfriend," he told her dryly knowing all good and well that Candy wasn't going to care.

When she responded as such, he told her Rocco wasn't interested in no-bag bitches and to forget about him, she wasn't nothing more than sex and that his cousin didn't need to be running around with tweaker bitches like her anyway.

"How are you, out of anyone, going to talk like that?" She wanted to know.

"He's better than me," Mark told her, "I ain't gonna let him ruin his life."

Mark didn't bother glancing her way, he knew she was probably butt hurt and didn't care. He'd meant what he said, Rocco was better than he was, than she was. He at least had a decent future ahead of him if he could keep his literal nose clean.

Plus...he felt a little guilty about allowing him to fall into a situation where he got a taste of the shit. Mark blamed himself for not trying harder to keep Rocco from taking off with the bitch, not that he would have listened but still, Mark felt he could have done more.

Now, his brother coming at him sideways had pissed him off though he understood his anger. Krist was a fucking douche but he'd been enough of a fuck up in his early years, from what Mark had gathered anyway, that he wanted better for Rocco too.

He had barely even spoken to the slightly younger man since Saturday, ignoring his nephew's poor me texts because he didn't feel sorry for him.

You fucked around and found out, that's for damn sure, Mark thought to himself as he twisted the doorknob to his apartment open.

Joanna had been watching him from the window, displeased at his interaction with candy.

"She was asking about Rocco," he told her without being prompted.

Joanna was jealous, insecure, and well aware of the fact had he been in a better situation he would not be with her. It was unspoken but she knew. She had to know. Mark was a semi-decent-looking eighteen-year-old and Joanna was a Walmart four-on a good day.

"I just don't know why you kept talking to her," Joanna began, the flushed look on her face said that she was about to lose her shit.

"Relax, baby, she was just asking about him. You know I ain't want nothing to do with a bitch like that," he said turning up the charm, "Especially when I got you."

He could see Joanna practically melt in front of him.

"Aye, why don't you send the kids to bed," Mark told her, flashing a crooked smile.

Joanna flashed him a thin-lip smile that showed her poor tooth-to-gum ratio and chicklet-like teeth before she bellowed for the fucking kids to lay the fuck down. Mark told her he needed to take a shower and would meet her in the bedroom.

He wasn't completely lying, he did need to shower but he also needed to hit the pookie to get himself in the mood to take the bitch on a one-way trip to pound town.

Obviously, he had no gripes about catching his nut but Joanna was just...ugh.

There wasn't much dope in the pipe beyond maybe a hit in the bowl and what was in the stem. Man, he hated having to hate the stem, that was fiend shit but if he was gonna fuck the bitch good he did what he had to.

Once she was all chilled out in post-orgasmic bliss, he'd hit her up for twenty bucks, promising to pay her back once he started his job at Panera. He had no intention of paying her back of course but he'd tell her anything to get what he wanted.

Mark sat on the toilet, wearing only a pair of boxers and socks as he held the pipe at a downward angle and held his Bic to the glass stem, the white fog melting away like snow in the rain.

He was able to get a couple of small hits, exhaling disappointing blue-tinted puffs into the air. He didn't even feel high. Just disappointed and craving the shit more than he had before he'd gone into the bathroom.

Fuck man.

As if driven by compulsion, he continued to melt down what was in the stem hoping that there was a better hit that he hadn't gotten to.

Nothing.

Before he knew it, Joanna was banging on the door asking what was taking so long. He'd been in there nearly an hour and hadn't even showered yet.

"Aye, almost done baby," he called to her his eyes focused on the tiniest of clear puddles towards the tip of the glass stem. It looked promising but no matter how he angled the pipe that shit just would not melt.

Logically he knew at best it was just a stubborn remnant but more likely than not it was a drop of saliva.

Bang, bang, bang.

"You been in there an hour, I'm 'bout to get myself off if you ain't coming out!" Joanna bellowed from outside the door.

"Fuck, man, hold the fuck on!" He snapped, "I'm still tryna shit in here!"

Joanna muttered some shit about how he was in there hitting the pipe before leaving him alone.

Mark knew he wasn't getting nowhere with the stem and tucked the glass bubble away before undressing and stepping into the shower, dreading the fact he'd had to fuck her when he got out.