Unholy Habits (currently being edited)

70

The love we experienced that morning was different than the first. It was desperate and even more magical and it erupted over the entire world, lighting up the stars in the sky and making them dance just for us. It was the best morning I could've ever imagined having, because it was spent with her and expressing love for her that I never knew even existed or thought I would be lucky enough to experience.
I laid there in her perfectly made bed as she took her shower. She let me take one first because I was faster. But that morning I really wasn't. I was all over the place, standing under the hot water reliving every beautiful moment that our skin touched and stars collided to create lights and life forms unknown to anyone but us. We were lucky, and we were happy. She'd never held me like that, like I was her only air, her only everything. I couldn't stop shivering and squeezing my eyes shut trying to relive it all. Cleaning it off my skin felt wrong. I wanted every sun-shining moment of it all to reside in my pores forever.
I stood up slowly, throwing my legs over the side of the bed where my boot was. I placed my foot in it and strapped it up. I walked to her bathroom door and knocked on it.
"Lenore?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm gonna run out real quick, is that okay?"
"Yeah, are you alright?" She asked, the water turning off and the sounds of the shower curtain sliding open.
"Yeah," I began as she opened the bathroom door, wrapped in a towel, dripping with water. She looked amazing, I had never seen her like this. I took in every inch of it. I loved it. "Remember how I told you about Kenneth Sandberg?" She nodded, her hands on the door frame as she rested there. "Well, his grandmother gave me that letter in hopes that I'd return it. I don't know why I was thinking about it now. But I figured that while you're finishing cleaning up I could run it over. It's literally the next street over-"
"Don't worry," she smiled and leaned up on her tip toes to kiss me. "Go ahead, just be careful."
"Well, it's only New Lenox, the whitest, safest, shittiest town in the country." She laughed and shook her head.
"We might have to check your statistics on that. But that's okay. I love you," with that, she sliped back into the bathroom and closed the door. I reached up and scratched the hair behind my ear.
"Love you too." I called through the door. She whipped it open and kissed me and then closed it again. I just bit my lip, trying to contain the smile and happiness that I felt, but it was near impossible.
I headed down the stairs and to the bedroom that I had been in while her brother was here. Greg was passed out on the bed, still fully clothed with shoes on hanging over the edge of the bed. He looked like shit, but it was kind of funny. I took a picture just to hold it over him for the rest of forever. I grabbed the letter, found a pack of cigarettes and lighter on the counter and shoved my good foot in a shoe. Fielder was passed out on the couch, snoring obnoxiously loud. I raised my eyebrows and shook my head. I was so glad that it wasn't me that was going to wake up with a fucking bitch of a headache and a terrible goddamn hangover. Instead, I woke up to Lenore's pretty face, loving like no other, and the sun pouring in. Things felt so good.
I whipped open the front door and closed it behind me. I put a cigarette between my teeth and flicked the lighter at its end to light it up. I walked slow down the driveway and down toward the creek. It was relatively nice out, not hot or anything, but the sun was warm, there was a slightly chilly breeze, but it was mostly mild. Spring certainly had arisen.
As I walked along the river, I noticed small purple and white flowers and poking up from the muddy, matted down grass. And I could hear the rush of the creek louder than ever. And birds chirped all about, I saw bluebirds, red birds, huge birds soaring way above my head. There were a lot of geese and ducks crying out by the water and in the water flopping all about rustling there fluffy feathers. For once I didn't wish to be a bird, having feathers and wings that could take me above everything. For once I felt like I was flying enough on my own in the beauty of the world that I was living in right here, right now. I didn't wish for anything, but to be right back with Lenore right now.
I rounded around to the beaten up piece of shit house in which Kenneth Sandberg managed to live in all his life. Poor kid. I flicked the butt of my cigarette into the street and made my way up the beaten up gravel of his driveway and to the broken front door. I knocked on it hard. I could hear the dog growling and barking, scratching at the door with thick nails. Again, the dog was cracked over the skull with something and yelped and scurried away. Poor dog.
"What da hell ya-oh my," she stopped mid sentence because she recognized me. "Well if it ain't that boy, um, um-"
"Gabe Hester."
"Right! Come in boy." She opened the door and I shook my head and held out my hand to gently resign.
"Oh no thank you. I just came to return this, like you wanted." I explained and reached into my pocket to find the letter. Then I held it out. She grabbed it from me and looked me up and down.
"You sure you ain't wanna come on in boy?" I stood up a little straighter and reached into my pocket to grab another cigarette.
"I am sorry ma'am, but I have to go now." I explained and put the cigarette between my lips. She eyed me up and down, watching me real carefully with her shot gun over her shoulder and dressed in an ugly gray skirt and squeaky boots.
"Why," she began "What hap'n  t' ya?" She asked. "Why," she eyed me over again. "I don' see a boy, not a boy at all." She explained, adjusting the shot gun. She smiled at me and held out her hand to me and gripped my hand in hers. She shook it hard, as if she herself were a man. "Congratulations Mr. Hester."
"For what?" She leaned in real close and nodded as she was prepared to head back inside.
"For becoming a man."
She slipped back into her house, saying a thank you and then closing the door behind her. I stood there for a moment and then turned on the heal of my thick boot and flicked the lighter on the edge of my cigarette. Congratulation Mr. Hester, for becoming a man. I smiled to myself, ran a hand through my hair and began on my way back to my girl. I was glad this went as fast as I had intended on it going. Though, I would never get it out of my mind how strange it was for that lady to see a growth in me without having known me or what I'd gone through over the months. Perhaps, she wasn't as crazy as she seemed.