Far From Normal

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Essie.

Odessa doesn't answer. I await what she has to say and I'm met with silence.

"I've never kissed anybody before," she mumbles looking away.

"Oh, I understand if you don't want me to be your first kiss, I mean I'm dorky and awkward and my lip ring can be very annoying." I laugh. I try to make it sound light and like her rejection didn't sting.

"No, it's just I don't want to be horrible," she whispers and turns her body away. Sighing I close my eyes and allow myself to accept her answer. I hear her shuffle and I look up to see her standing. I quickly get on my feet and let myself calm down. My heart seems to be beating way too fast for it to be contained and I feel as though my hands have a mind of their own from the shaking that is occurring. Slowly and gently I reach out and grab Odessa's upper arm. She gasps in surprise but she doesn't quite finish the sound as I cut her off by tenderly placing my lips on hers. She tastes like sweet rain and I relish in the combination that lays on her lips. My lip ring brushes against her bottom lip as I continue to gently and slowly kiss her. At first she's too shocked to even move so it's kinda like kissing the inside of arm like we all did to practice when we were little. I place my hand on her neck and the other on the small of her back. I take a step forward, pressing our bodies together and at this point she reacts. Her lips move against mine, almost timidly. I smile into the kiss and try to capture this moment in my mind as I feel her hands run through my hair. She backs away and I open my eyes to see her already looking at me.

"I thought you were gonna stick to being polite and asking," she whispers. I feel her breath tickle my face and sigh in content as I reach out and pull her into a hug. She laughs when I nuzzle into her neck and lightly kiss it.

"I was curious," I say as I hold her even tighter.

"Curiosity killed the dumb ass," she says as she grabs a fistful on my shirt and pulls me even closer. This embrace was more affection than I've ever received and gave. We were as close as we could be. It wasn't passionate it was caring. The heat between us mingled together and we both sighed at the pure comfort of the gesture.

"Again, that's not how it goes, mystery girl," I teasingly reply and smile at the memory in the car.

I gently pull away and take her hand leading her out of the room and into her bedroom. I flip on the light switch and turn on the tv selecting Netflix instead of DVD or cable. I hear rustling behind me and look to see Odessa curled up in a ball with a big blanket that seems to swallow her. I play the notebook and sit next to her and poke her until she opens up the blanket for me to crawl next to her.

"Tell me about your life," I mumble as I snuggle deeper into the blanket and into her lap.

She lazily plays with my hair and begins to tell me even more about her.

"There isn't much to tell. My childhood was simple. It was always my mom and I and we were fine on our own. Then I guess my mom got involved with some stuff like drugs and would be gone for weeks at a time, leaving me to be alone. I went to school and had friends like every girl and my life was simple and boring." I hear her take a deep breath and I can tell she's opening up into dangerous mementoes and I let her continue.

"About a year ago my mom hadn't returned like she normally did after about 2 weeks. I got worried but I couldn't tell the police because they would arrest her for illegal substance abuse and intent of selling, so I kept it to myself. After school I would take the same way home and lock the door behind me and just hang out. I guess I forgot to lock the door and somebody broke in. I hid because I thought it was just a robbery but he wasn't looking to steal just anything. He eventually found me in the closet and covered my mouth to keep from screaming and well he drugged me." Her body is shaking and I run my hands up and down her arm lightly to try to calm her down.