Bridge over troubled waters

12| Our City

Corey

Every year the circus comes to town and kicks us and the Bulls out of the United Center for two weeks while they take over the premises. We get shipped up north for a few games then out west before we're allowed to come home.

So before I leave this place I can now call home I decide to take Bailey out and spend some time with her before I'm gone. It wasn't a date or anything close to that, just two friends hanging out and having some fun in this city we have come to love.

So I swing over to her place and let myself in like I usually do. She gave me a key but she never has her door locked in the first place. Once I'm in I hear singing coming from her room and I just shake my head. She's tone deaf to put it in the best way, but man she loves her music.

"BAILEY" I yell out and she lets out a horrified screech. I laugh when I hear a bunch of commotion from her room and she sticks her head out the door with a angry expression on her face.

"What the hell Corey" she pouts and I couldn't help but smile. Her long hair pulled back and it looked like she put her makeup on for our hang out.

"Just seeing if you were about ready to go" I say.

"Well a "I'm coming over" text would have been greatly appreciated" she admits.

"Too predictable" I shrug.

"Whatever, I'm almost ready. You can come in while I finish up" she says as she opens the door.

When she does I don't follow her into her room. Instead I stand in my spot frozen as she shows herself as she was. She had on nothing but a bra and underwear on and I swallow hard. I didn't mean to stare but I couldn't help it, she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. What I would do to hold that body in my arms is beyond anything that's acceptable for two friends. But for a second I didn't really care, affection got the best of me and I was ready to put my lips on her exposed skin.

She looks at me weird as she tries to figure out why I was stuck like this with my mouth open and eyes halfway out of my head. "Why are you looking at me like that" she questions as she points to my face.

"You're.. um" I stutter. She looks down before realizing that she was practically naked and her eyes go huge.

"Holy shit! I'm so stupid, I am so so sorry" she says as she retreats to the closet leaving me in her doorway. I hear her grab for something to cover up with so I turn around so she can get dressed and not in front of me. At this point I felt like my cheeks were on fire as I try to slow down my beating heart.

"No... it's okay" I say to try and make her feel a little bit better. She can be a airhead sometimes and that's not a bad thing. Except this time it might be a bad thing if I can't hide this boner.

"No it's not! I couldn't even remember if I'm dressed or not and I put you in a bad position. I don't get how I can be so... stupid" she sighs. I cringe a little because I hated when she talked about herself like that.

"You're not stupid Bai" I argue.

"Well, I forgot I wasn't dressed like a 3 year old" she argues.

"If it makes you feel any better, you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of" I assure her. The next second I feel a hanger hit my head as she starts to giggle making me scoff.

I turn around and she wasn't dressed yet but she thought she was funny. She thought she was real funny.

"Come here" I demand and she starts to laugh.

I chase after her and she runs away. She jumps up and off the bed and into the bathroom and out. I finally catch her and softly toss her on to the bed. I jump on top of her and she finally calms down. I move some hair from her face to get a good look at her for I loved seeing her this happy. She looks back up at me as her face falls. Eventually she is frozen like I was earlier and we just stare at each other. Both of our smiles melt away as the reality of this situation hits us. We weren't kids anymore and this wasn't so innocent. But at the same time it didn't really mean anything either. Because it couldn't mean anything.

"I should" she says softly as her voice cracks, "I should get dressed so we don't miss our reservation" she finishes.

"Okay" I say as I slide off of her. She slips away and grabs some clothes and goes into her bathroom.

I sit on her bed and run my fingers through my hair. I shake my head as the images of her in her underwear dance around in my head. I've always wondered what she looked like without all that stuff she dresses up with on. When it was just her and nothing else.

And she was like a work of art, like the most priceless work of art that I've had sitting in my house my whole life and never noticed how truly beautiful it was until now. Every curve, every line on her body was defined and perfect for me to hold. Her eyes filled with so much untapped love and there's nothing I can do about it. But now I can't get the image of her like that out of my head and I was surely going to lose my mind.

"Hey" she says softly as she places her hand on my shoulder. I look up at her and see that she's all dressed and just as beautiful as she was with nothing on. "You good" she asks with a worried expression.

"Yeah" I say with a weak smile. For now at least.

We head out to the sky deck and I plan to show her the whole city. She looks out the window with not a fear in her mind while I tried not to pass out. I stayed back and just admired her admiring the city.

"This place is so beautiful" she sighs as she pressed her face against the glass.

"I'll take your word for it" I say at a safe distance from the death box.

"Oh come on. You have to see this" she insists.

"Nope" I reply popping the p, "I'm good."

"Come on" she says as she grabs my hand. She tried to pull me back to the window with her but I'm a hockey player and she is not so I don't go anywhere. She turns to me and gives me those puppy dog eyes and I easily break.

So I let her drag me to the window and I close my eyes tight. She wraps her arm around me and my eyes flutter open slowly. I look down at her and see the city behind her and all of the sudden my heart wasn't beating so hard. She starts to search my face before the ends of her lips curl up a little. "See, it's not that bad" she insists.

"Not with you it isn't" I say. She looks away for a second as she turns back to the city. The sun was setting giving the city a "this place can't even be real" look to it. "You know I used to be so scared of this place. I mean, look where we came from. This is thousands of times bigger and meaner than anything we knew. And it scared the shit out of me.

But now that you're here, we'll it doesn't seem so bad" I admit.

"It's easy for places like this to hide the bad in the beautiful. I know this city's isn't as perfect as you make it out to be. I know your sheltering the bad stuff from me so I want to stay. But that's not what it would come down to it in less than a year when it's time for me to leave" she claims.

"And what does it come down to" I wonder.

"You, you goofball" she claims as she squeezes my side. I let out a long sigh as I wrap my arm around her too.

"Well I guess no matter what happens we will always have this city, and that's pretty great" I admit.

"It is. I can't wait to make this city ours" she claims.

My heart skips a beat as I look her over. I don't know if she's throughs what that means to her or not. But I know that it meant everything to me.