Revved Up Soul

Chapter 21

Augustus

He hated it, because it reminded him of what was lost – the rain came down in a hard pour against Augustus' roof. His eyes flicked from one end of the letter to the other, the parchment being lit up by the soft orange glow of the fireplace. It cracked and spat out a couple of angry embers as his phone vibrated, the embers slipping through the black iron of the grate.

Mouth feeling dry, he licked his lips. It did nothing. The maroon cotton blanket coiled around his person haphazardly was equally ineffective in accomplishing its task.

Augustus' body glistened with perspiration, beads of sweat rolling down his person.

Bones drinking in deep a sadness, Augustus felt the stinging kiss of tears behind his eyes – why did it have to rain again so soon? Where did it all go so damn wrong, so wrong it's all wrong. His face screwed up, becoming hard lines, curtained by shadow and fiery light. Augustus reached for his tumbler and brought it to his lips, letting a smidgeon of the hard scotch enter his mouth.

Puh-lease, just toss it. Just, just get rid of it. His eyes stung as he got down to the last paragraph. I can't read it anymore, but he did, and when he reached the end and the pain swelled to another new height, he began again. Two green eyes swam through his mind's eye, catching a glimpse of that girl's sun kissed skin – he felt his heart tug then, and removed the image from his head, closing his eyes. Augustus took a deep breath; an ache that was bone deep resonated throughout the whole of the man's body. Not enough scotch in this world to make this go away – just go away, just go away. Another buzz.

Go away go away go away! His hand tightened against the glass and his lips pressed hard against one another – the ache against his muscles intensifying and the hurt in his heart deepening.

He downed all but the last drops of his scotch.

The fury roiling in him, Augustus shot up from his chair and yelled an obscenity – shooting the glass at the fireplace; the pit bloomed with a greedy acceptance, the fires stretching and spreading like devil's wings breaking free. "Come on!" He shouted, shards of glass scattering against the dark mahogany floor boards of his study.

His head throbbed in pain; he craned his head back and looked up to the sky. He put his hands on his head, pressing tightly against his red and silver curls; moments passed in the killing silence that was his hour of despair, eyes searching hopelessly up at the ceiling – thin globules of water forming and making it hard to not blink.

Why? He asked, and it repeated in his mind a dozen times – plaintive and hopeful for an answer, a hand crushing the black spot where his heart should have been. "Why'd you do it," he murmured, trying to ignore how cold his body was – like he was drenched and told to go play in the snow by himself again while his brother would hang out inside with all the cool kids. Augustus thought that he had forgotten that.

"You were always too busy for me," his voice cracked and his hands tightened up into balls so hard he thought his nails might break skin. It hurt him deep to admit to his own hypocrisy, "I just thought you were too busy for me – cause you were looking out for her."

God, or at least the concept of it, was just a sadist: his theater the world; the people's sorrows his great play.

There was a loud pounding noise at his door, his body jerking at the sound – his head snapped to face were it was coming from. Rolls of heat cascaded against his body, his hairs subtly coming to a stand. Augustus waited in imperfect stillness.

The knocks came again.

He snarled, "Get lost!" It hurt his voice to speak so loud.

A familiar voice called back to him, but his mind could not acknowledge it as real. Augustus strode from his study to the living room of his modest little home, peering through the eyehole to see her. He unlatched the locks on his door and swung it open, the full and thunderous applause of rain greeting him.

Jasmine's drenched blouse clung to her, with her raven hair nothing more than a soaked mop that obscured most of her face. Aside from those big green eyes.

Augustus brought out an arm and pulled the girl inside, his heart jumping up into his throat when her sweet lips found his.