|Tori|
The first thing I see when I open my eyes is a skull. A tendril of fear snakes tightly around my throat and I almost scream until I'm bombarded with a thousand images all at once, most of them of flesh, of gasping lips and the sweet cave where Jade's collarbones meet, and her thighs, and her hands, and her tongue, and -
Oh.
I relax with a long breath swishing through my teeth. I'm in Jade's room. The skull is some Halloween decoration that of course Jade found to be appealing. I spent the night here. And last night, we did ... stuff.
Pressing a fist into one eye, I roll onto my back and peer over my shoulder. Jade is facing me, her face half in the pillow, lips slightly parted. Smiling, I take a few moments just to study her, to fully absorb everything about last night. Every moment of it was beautiful - she's beautiful. I saw all of her last night, the secret parts that I've never seen on anyone else. It was private and close and I never understood the definition of intimacy until she showed it to me. My heart starts to stutter just thinking about it, giving excited little pats against my ribs. Grinning, I slowly pull back the blanket and come to a stand. Picking up my clothes from yesterday off the floor, I make my way to Jade's bathroom. After doing my business and washing my hands, I slip my long legs back into my underwear and clasp my bra behind my back. The blouse is soon to follow, but I don't bother buttoning it.
It feels weird - no, not weird, just new, and surprisingly pleasant, to experience a 'morning after'. There's still a private kind of air to the whole moment, like outside these bedroom walls, nothing else exists. Everything and everyone has had to pause so Jade and I could have a few moments of peace, of just us - no parents or Beck or future or anything. It's different from before, when I felt her not just on the outside of me but in my chest, too, thrumming along with the pace of my heartbeat, but now she's everywhere. She's been inside of me - which sounds almost pornographic, but I don't mean it like that. We connected. We're linked on a different, deeper level now.
As I shimmy into my pants, I try not to think about the fact that Jade has been on this level with someone else already. It's different for me because I'm - was a virgin. She's already experienced this with someone else. It almost makes me feel jealous knowing that Beck got to have Jade when she was raw and fresh and new. Not that it really changes our experience at all, because it was still the first time with just us, but I think I would have liked to see an inexperienced Jade try to learn the ropes. Smirking at my reflection and running my fingers through my hair, I remind myself that it was just as nice have her be the leader.
I pat my pockets for my phone but they're empty. I step back into Jade's bedroom, the girl now lying flat on her stomach with her face pressed deep into her pillow, breathing still shallow with sleep. I scan the dresser tops and the shelves for my phone only to remember that I had left it in my purse upstairs. Tip-toeing across the carpet, I make my way gingerly up the stairs to the basement door before slipping through it. The house on the other side is quiet and I figure it must be vacant. A passing clock tells me it's nearly ten in the morning - my mom will have surely called by now. I slide my bare feet across the floor on my way to my purse, still dangling from the hook beside the front door, and dig into it until I find my phone. Sure enough, I have a missing call from my mother and two texts, one from Cat and one from Andre. Bending over the glowing screen of my phone, I spin on my heel and start to make my way back to the basement. Today is Sunday. It's mine and Jade's reserved date day, and all I want to do is curl up in bed with her, maybe watch a few of those gory movies she likes so much, and talk, and eat ice cream, and do a little more sailing if you know what I mean -
"You."
A jolt akin to watts of electricity rattles my bones. My phone slips from my fingers and cracks against the floor, landing screen down. Clutching the front of my still unbuttoned shirt, I whirl on my heel, heart crashing on cymbals in my ears. The sudden adrenaline makes Jade's mother look brighter in the entryway to the living room, as if eerie fluorescent liquid is in her veins instead of blood. She's already dressed for the day: black, sleek slacks, similar to mine in design, actually, and a turquoise blouse that clasps tightly at her throat. I wonder, absently, if it hurts for her to swallow. Her hair is gathered onto one shoulder, not quite as dark as Jade's but much curlier. She's actually quite pretty in a fierce, dragon-esque kind of way. If she didn't look so royally ticked off, I probably would have said she was beautiful - but, as it is, her eyebrows are sharp arrows over her nose and her lips are pressed in a stern, unfriendly line.
