Kiss Me Last

Chapter 2

"Catch me, Luke, catch me!" He ran around chasing me in the woods, trying to grab me. I laughed and leaped away each time he tried to catch me. I had just turned nine.

"Gotcha!" I giggled as he tackled me to the ground, writhing  as he tickled me on the ribs.

"Okay, okay, I give up!" I managed to say before laughing hysterically. He smiled, then rolled off of me, lying on the grass while holding my hand. We gazed at the sky, watching the clouds roll by. After a few minutes, he got up and ran into the woods. When he returned, he was carrying handfuls of sweet wild mint. I grinned at him as he handed one of the stalks to me. We laid back down, savoring the sweet but sharp freshness of the leaves.

"Ames?" I rolled back on my stomach to look at his face. His expression was amused as he looked back at me, a glint of mischief in his eyes.

"What?" I wondered what he was doing at the time when he sat up. When he was comfortable sitting across from me, he leaned towards me, so close I could smell the sweet mint on his breath.

"I really like you."

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I roused from my dream, waking up slowly. When I tried to open my eyes, a ray of sunlight seared my eyes, causing them to water and close almost immediately.

"Close the curtains." I heard a rough voice say. The brightness I could see through my eyelids disappeared, so I cracked one eye open to test the light. I opened both eyes when I could finally see without blinking rapidly. The room was dark, lit with a small lamp in the corner of the room. The place was adorned with only a closet, nightstand, and desk. There was a computer and a picture frame adorning the desk, along with a guitar case and my bag on the floor next to it. I tried to sit up slowly, but stopped when my head started aching, mostly in the back. I felt around the back of my head until I touched a spot that was raised and winced because it was still tender. Son of a biscuit, was the football thrown THAT hard towards my head? I closed my eyes until the sickening spin in my head stopped, but when I opened my eyes, Luke was staring right back at me.

"Holy shit!" I bounced away from him, but regretted it when my head hit the back board of the bed. Fuck, that felt like I was hit with a baseball bat. Repeatedly.

"Careful, idiot. You wanna make your head more screwed up than it already is?" Luke growled. I squirmed away when he tried to touch me. I had a huge aversion to bastards who pushed me around at school.

"Sit still, I just wanna see if your head's okay." He probed the back of my head lightly with his fingers. I flinched when he pressed a bit too hard.

"Too rough?" I nodded and he touched my head lighter, like a feather sweeping across the surface of my skin. My eyes drifted shut as I enjoyed the feel of his touch. A few minutes passed, and I noticed he stopped examining me, his fingers stationary on my head. I opened my eyes to see him staring at me, looking at my face with an expression I couldn't figure out. He realized that I was looking back at him. His face became void of all emotion. I was about to ask him what was wrong when he smirked.

"So even the nerd couldn't resist me, huh?" I gaped at him, shocked and hurt by his words. I got up and grabbed my bag and guitar. I could feel my eyes tearing up as I walked out the door. Behind me, I could hear a crash from his room. I knew this was his house because I had been here way too many times to play when I was little.

When my parents were still alive.

When I got outside, I began running towards the woods, knowing the cool quietness of the trees and the wind would calm me. I sat on a fallen tree trunk, unzipping my bag and retrieving my headphones and Droid, one of the few electronics I allowed myself to have. I didn't care much for material things, only the ones that have actual use. I bought this particular phone mostly for the ease of carrying my music everywhere and contacting Dylan and Kayla. I picked the song Summertime by Janis Joplin, put on my headphones, and laid back against the wood, closing my eyes. I didn't doze off, if that's what your thinking. I closed my eyes to simply enjoy the music, the rasp of her voice comforting as she sang.