Pull Me Closer

Now I need you and Cerabus but I sure as hell don't need them.

Kami

"No, Kami. Damn it, Kami, I said...um, I said no," Jett panted as I explored his abs with my fingers and tongue, tracing every ridge.

"Why not, Jett?" I asked softly, giving him my best puppy dog eyes while I scraped my teeth over a lone freckle on one of his abs.

"Tiger, you don't want to meet my family," he said forcefully, his eyes burning with a thousand different emotions, not the least of which being lust.

I easily found and traced the scar on his ribcage and bit my lip.

"Does the reason you don't want me to meet them have something to do with this?" I asked softly.

"Yeah," he answered after a long pause.

"When was the last time you talked to them?" I asked.

He sighed heavily and his head hung forward.

"I was emancipated when I turned fifteen. I hitchhiked a couple states until I got a job at the garage, and took some online courses to get my GED. I was smart, so I got a partial scholarship to Chicago State, and with the money I had saved up from the garage I paid off a good part of the rest of my tuition. I only have one year left until I get my bachelors in engineering, then Kirk, the owner of the garage, said my salary will go up a couple thousand a year. I take care of myself, tiger, and now I take care of you too. I don't need a family. Well, I didn't used to need a family, at least. Now I need you and Cerabus, but I sure as hell don't need them."

I was silent for a while, tracing the words incorporated into his rib tattoo absently.

"I'm proud of you, Jett," I said quietly. "That must have been hard, separating yourself from your family, knowing that you would have no way to support yourself."

He tilted my chin up with one of his fingers and I found a small grin on his face.

"Thanks, tiger. I've never really cared about what people thought of me until you, and it's good to know I meet your approval," he said, crinkling up his nose playfully.

I laughed and leaned up at the same time he leaned down to meet his lips for a short, sweet kiss. I licked his lip ring, making him chuckle before pulling back.

"Do you want to tell me about them?" I asked, resting my chin on his chest. He sighed and ran his fingers through my hair.

"Yeah, actually, I think I do. It's never been easy, talking about them, but I want you to know."

At my nod and encouraging smile, he licked his lips and went on, resting his head back on the wall and absently running his fingers through my messy hair in a comforting gesture. Whether it was supposed to be comforting to him or me, I don't know.

"My dad," he started, "loved my mom. He loved her with everything he had inside of him, everything. He loved her so much that when she died, there was nothing left in him that could love. My sister, Kelly, looks just like her. Just. Like her. Kelly reminded him of my mom, and he hated her for it. At first, he would just yell at her, make her cry. I would spend hours every night holding her, telling her how special she was, how pretty she was, trying to erase everything he said from her mind. I hated him. With everything inside me I hated him, because he made her life hell. He generally left me alone, except for when I defended Kelly, which was often. One night, he was in a particularly bad mood. It was mom's birthday. Kelly came home from school, she was in the fourth grade, and he started shouting at her. Calling her a whore, a slut, making her cry. I told him to shut up, I was only fourteen at the time, and he turned on me. Apparently he still had some morals left, because he never hit Kelly, but that didn't translate back to me. He started wailing on me, punching, kicking, he took a knife to my side which is how I got," he gestured to his ribs, "this. I told Kelly to go upstairs, but she refused. She called the police, and he turned on her. By this time, I was almost passed out and he was in some sort of...frenzy. He started beating on her, Jesus, she was only nine. She was crying, screaming for me to help her. I tried to get up, to stop him, but I think my leg was broken because I couldn't stand. I started yelling at him, trying to get him to stop, I was shouting things about my mom, calling her names, saying she never loved him, and he turned on me again. He hit me over the head with a lamp and...I don't remember anything after that. I woke up in the hospital, and a social worker visited me. She said that Kelly had received minimal damage, and that they already had a few families who wanted to adopt her. She was a cute kid, funny, smart, polite, everyone knew she would do fine. Me, however...teenagers don't get adopted often, Kami, they get put into foster care. I went to the judge and petitioned to be emancipated, made my own person. I would be able to get a job, make my own way through life. At first he was reluctant, very reluctant but I got through to him. I plan to take some time off and find Kelly once I get my degree. Kirk and I already talked about it and he said he would give me a week of paid vacation, seeing as I haven't taken so much a sick day, except for the funeral, in the eight years I've been working there."