Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten (18 page)

I laughed too, more out of relief than at her remark.  She took it at face value.  I just let the whole thing go, very glad that Jacob hadn’t convinced her to do anything more with him than kiss.  Which should have stopped me short, but it didn’t, because I shouldn’t have felt possessive of the girl
. 
What can I say?
For some reason, within a day, something had changed between us.  I didn’t want to see it marred in any way.  I was feeling very protective at that moment.

“Well, I’m going to take a shower,” I said abruptly, wanting to push
all
these crazy thoughts from my head.  I went to my dresser to get something to wear.  “And no peeking, Katie!” I demanded falsely, which only elicited a derisive snort from the girl.

Fifteen minutes later, I came out of the bathroom to find Katie once more on my bed.  She was sitting cross-legged on her cell phone, talking quickly to someone on the other side, still in her Pj’s, her clothes laid out to one side her.

“…care what you have to say, Chad, after what you guys did, I don’t want to talk to you anymore, so please don’t call me or message or IM or ‘
anything
’ me, ok!”  She seemed about to hang up, but something her retarded boyfriend caught her ear.  She listened for a time.  “You’re so stupid, Chad, how are you going to do that when you’re going to jail for a long, long time, huh?  You’re such a dickhead, by the time you get out, your cellmate will have fucked up the ass and sucked you off so many times, you won’t even like girls!”  She terminated the call and glanced up, noticing I was back in the room with her.  For a second, her face was a mask of hurt and anger.  It was the real her.  But I watched, with a slight touch of sadness, as she forced it down and locked it away.  Only the tough, fearless Katie remained.

“Good you’re done, now I can take a shower and wash the slime off me,” she said as she grabbed her clothes and stalked right passed me, angry at something I could only guess at – though I really didn’t want to know about it.

I watched her go into the bathroom and close the door most of the way.  I stepped to the door and asked, “Hey, you hungry, Katie, I can put something together for breakfast if you want?”

“Yeah, Effy, that would be great,” she said over the noise of the water running in the shower, but that was all.

I shrugged and made my way down to the two flights of stairs to the kitchen, wondering why all the coolest chicks always fall for the biggest assholes.

{ ¹Fast and Furious: a series of
action films
which centers on
illegal street racing
and
heists
. Produced by
Universal Studios
, the series was established in
2001
the first of six installments. }

{ ²Hoochie: 20
th
-21
st
century slang, meaning a woman usually defined as being a promiscuous or otherwise a slut. }

{ ³Clubber Lang:
fictional character
and
antagonist
that appeared as
Rocky Balboa
's rival in the 1982 film
Rocky III
. }

~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Summer – 2018)

Compromises

Twenty minutes later, the electric stove and I were cranking out a mean meal of bacon and eggs, the toaster working on four slices of whole wheat bread, and the coffee maker just about finished brewin
g some gourmet Jamaican blend.

Katie came down the stairs her hair wrapped up in a towel.  Her clothes splotched here and there with droplets of water as if she had dried off in a hurry and hadn’t given two shits about getting them wet.  She was wearing a simple t-shirt and tight jeans that clung to her figure as if painted on.  Her feet were bare.

“Oh my god, Estefan, that smells so fucking good!” she complimented me vociferously, making her way through the portal, leading to the kitchen.  She came up to me from behind and gave me a tight hug, her arms wrapping around the center part of my body, leaving my hands free to continue preparing our breakfast.  “You’re spoiling me again,” she said at my neck, her warm breath tickling its’ nape.   Inadvertently, the lower portions of my gut shuddered with pleasure. 
Katie was always so good at getting a rise out of me.

“And I love it!” she squealed and broke her contact with my body.  She made her way over to the breakfast nook, standing a few feet from the stove.

“Anything for you, my dear,” I joked, winking at her with an exaggerated leer.

She laughed
, more for the effort, while I continued to flip and turn the food before me.  “Where did you learn to cook, Eff?” she asked after a time, a thoughtful look on her face.

I glanced over at her, spatula in hand, “Well, before my mom met my step-dad things around her were pretty rough
.  My real dad was always harassing my mom, causing problems, stalking her, calling at all times of the night.  I could see, even when I was small, she was always looking over her shoulder, nervous when the phone would ring too often. You know what I mean?”  Katie nodded, her eyes having gone slightly wider than before. 
Maybe she hadn’t heard these stories before… And there I thought everyone knew.
  “This used to wear my mom down sometimes; she would just get a little depressed and would stay in bed late on the weekends to recharge.  So, one day I got it my head to make breakfast for her in bed, which I totally fucked up and made a huge mess.  But she was such a good sport, because all she kept doing was thanking me over and over.  She made this like real big deal out of it.  I was so proud of myself.  I vowed I was going to learn how to cook, so I could surprise her every once and a while without making the kitchen look like World War III.  Ever since then, I’ve sort of shadowed my mom around whenever she was cooking, and slowly I learned.  I am best at breakfasts.”

“A man of many talents…,” she purred looking through her eyelashes at me.

I turned to meet her eyes.  “You got that right, baby doll, and most of them have nothing to do with the kitchen, though some girls have said I was cooking,” I countered raising my eyebrows a few times in rapid succession.  That made her guffaw loudly.  She tilted her head upward as she brought her hand to her chest, working the laughter through her petite frame.

“Y-you got m-me with that one, Estefan,
but
I have seen what you’re giving to them, so I can see why they might say you’re cooking.  Shit, stretch out a girl’s pussy like you undoubtedly can, would curl any girl’s toes.”  She was being playful, but the thought she’d brought up that particular detail caught my attention.  She’d had her hand around my stiff cock the summer before.  My mind suddenly focused on other things, things I’d been trying to suppress.  I swung back to face the stove, unwilling to show her the blush spreading across my face.  Once again, I saw it, her mouth opening, her tongue passing her lips as she bent down further to take the tip of me within her…

“Hey, what’s this?” she blurted abruptly, which thankfully brought me from memories of the oral sort.

I twisted to see what she was talking about and realized she had a wad of twenty-dollar bills in her hands.

Jesus Christ, mom, how much fucking money do you think we need for one pizza?!?

“Oh, my parents left that for us to order something for lunch.”

She began to count it as I was answering her.

“Lunch?  Really, this is like $380.00!  What did she think we were going to order, a buffet?”

“I guess so,” was all I said
, as I began serving our food on two large plates.  Katie remained silent as I finished and brought them to the nook.  I poured our coffee and began preparing it, knowing Katie like her java the same way I did, real sweet and black.

From behind, she asked quietly, “You think we might be able to score some bud, just like a dime or something, you know something to take the edge off ?”

I stopped short and stared at her levelly, each hand clutching a mug of Jamaican brew.  “Do you really think that is a good idea?  I mean, after all the shit you’ve just gone through?”  I didn’t need to mention her involvement in a felony had mostly likely been drug induced.

She returned my stare, crossing her arms
about herself, her whole body assuming a defensive posture.  “Don’t go there, Eff,” she said simply.  She wasn’t entirely angry, but seemed poised to be at a moment’s notice.

“Well, Kat, I think I’m going to have too, because I’ve been told I
’m responsible for you while you’re here – “, she was about to interrupt me, but I forestalled her, “ –
and
, I cannot have anything bad happen to you when I’m the one who’s supposed to be making sure you’re safe.”

Her eyes turned accusatory.  “So, you
are
my jailor, huh?”  She said it with about as much disdain as she could muster.

“Hey,” I began,
placing the mugs down next to our respective plates of food, “I didn’t ask for the job, girlie.  My mom, and most likely your mom as well, placed you in my charge, and I took it, because I knew it would give me the opportunity to spend a great deal of time with you.  You know how much I like to hang out with you.”  I sat down next to her, her expression didn’t change.

“Yeah, yeah, I know that, but fuck, Eff, I don’t need someone looking over my shoulder
, watching every move I make,” she gushed, exasperated.

“No, you don’t need that, and I know that too.  I’m not stupid, Katie
.  I do know you pretty well.  But, I also know what you went through over the past week was some tough shit.  I think you should just take some time to clear your mind before you go clouding it up with drugs,” I explained with a level tone, but with a degree of finality as well.

“Not drugs, Eff, I just want a little marijuana just in case things… things get… well like last night.  Do you want me hanging all over you every night crying myself to sleep?”  She was trying to steel her tone, but I could already hear some cracks.

I bent down to peer directly into her eyes.  “Katie, I would have you cry yourself to sleep in my arms any day of the week for as long as you need, waking up with you in my arms was very nice… to say the least,” I mumbled the last part, but I knew she heard it.

A silence grew.

“Son of a bitch!” she exclaimed. 
Was she mad now? 
“How is it that you can do that to me and make me believe without even trying hard?”

“Do what?!?” I echoed her yell.

“Make me feel so good inside, even when I feel like shit, Estefan, that’s what!”  She was still shouting which made my eyes widen a bit.

“…And that’s a bad thing?” I implored, my face quizzically pinched.

“Yes, it is when I am trying to be God damned mad at you!” she replied loudly, though her face was edging ever so close to a smile.  She was trying to fight it with every ounce of will.

I chuckled, taking a sip of coffee, which tasted wonderful.  “Well, it’s all true,” I offered.

“I know it’s true, that’s why it’s such fucking pain in the ass,” she clarified as she too took a sip of her hot beverage.  The coffee appeared to change her entire mood.  “Damn, you make a good cup, Eff.”

“Thank you, my dear,” I answered in my b
est “butler”-like voice.  We both edged around to face our food and dug in heartily.

We ate in silence for a few minutes
.  I mulled over our conversation, sympathizing with what Katie had to say, but, at the same time, I just couldn’t process any instance where my lack of judgment might get her in even more trouble, or, god forbid, hurt.  I couldn’t abide seeing that.  The thought of her injured in any way made me cringe, even when we were both perfectly safe, nestled inside my parent’s house, eating breakfast, hidden from the world.  It was, after all, a pretty nasty world, and had only gotten worse in the past year.  No, I couldn’t afford for her to get out of control and do something crazy, because that was what she was most prone to doing when she was fucked up.  She always did stupid things at the drop of hat when she was too deep in her cups or blitzed in a quagmire of drugs.  Some of those things had been dangerous.  She needed a clean break more than anything, a place where she could let her feet touch the ground and the world wasn’t going to turn upside down on her.  She needed to be herself and not have to hide behind all of the defenses she’d built up over the years.  This was the right place as far as I was concerned – no raving lunatic of a father, no twisted deviant of a mother, and absolutely no Chad Bennings.  Here she could let her hair down and relax for once.  She could just chill-out and breathe slow for a while.

I glanced over at her as she was using a piece of toast to wipe up the leftovers of her eggs over-easy.  She was just so damned beautiful.  I think I stared at her for a while, with happy thoughts
, glad the heavy weight she always carried around her was suddenly gone.  I dreamt I might be able to see
that
Katie for once.  The girl I cared so much for, I’d give anything to see the real her emerge.  I wanted to protect her and keep all the nastiness comprising her life up at bay.  For me, that was saying something, especially since, until then, I had only been a horny teenage boy without any real care in the world.  That was what cracked my resolve, sundered my will - her beauty.  She had always had a dainty way about her, a siren-like appeal she had always manage to exude beyond the crude person she sometimes could be.  I have to admit, I fell victim to it.  I surrendered.  All the chivalry and “brotherly” protectiveness aside, I wanted, more than anything, in that moment - as I watched the early play of the sunlight caress the edges of her face - was to hold her in my arms.  I could only dream she would respond to me in kind.  No “friend-zone” bullshit, I wanted her to recognize how much I wanted her and I wanted her to want me back.

In that instance, I knew I had failed her and myself.  What I wanted, more than anything, was to make love to her… so bad.  I did, I freely admit it.  I wanted to gently spread her legs apart and sink my cock into her until I was hilted, the tip of my penis caressing her cervix… just to
feel
her. 
Oh god, I was becoming Jacob!

Her eyes darted over to mine and she smiled warmly.  My thoughts shattered like glass.

“This is good,” she said, mistaking my gaze for one inquiring about the food.

“I’ll make a deal with you, Katie,” I blurted out of nowhere.  My thoughts aligned so quickl
y, even I wasn’t really sure what I was going to say next.

She frowned at me as if she were used to making deals that required a lot from her.

I felt dirty as I spoke.  “I have a friend who can get us some decent bud, but if I do this, you’re gonna have to promise me that you’re gonna regulate yourself and keep everything on the real…, because I can’t have you acting like some meth-head on my watch.  My mom will serve up my ass for dinner!”

She squinted at me to see if I was fucking with her or something.  I returned her stare, letting her know I was serious.  She blinked a couple of times
, after she realized I wasn’t being a dick, and was talking for real.  “You’d be willing to go out on a limb for me after all of the shit I’ve caused…?” she asked innocently, but with an underlying earnestness.

Absolutely, sweetheart, as long as I can spread those milky, white thighs…
  I was aware of the thought crossing my mind, but I let it pass, and focused on my reply.  “You just have to promise me you won’t make me regret this,” was the leverage she would have to accept.  I turned upon the stool.  I faced her more squarely.  I prayed she’d see how serious I was being.

She considered my retort for a moment, and then nodded in acquiescence.  “I promise,” was all she said as she reached out, grabbed me by the bicep, and gave me a firm squeeze.

I smiled and placed my hand over hers, gripping it firmly.  “You had better, Katie, or your ass is mine.”

“Take my ass, big boy,” she played, her eyes twinkling in the sunlight.

I wasn’t having any of it, though, because in my mind, if she fucked up, I was going exact a heavy toll on her ass, indeed.  I was going to…  “I’m serious,” I added with a tilt of my head.

“How do you know I’m not just as serious?” her voice trailed off as she wiped of some of the remaining egg yolk on her plate with a corner of toast, and plopped the whole thing in her mouth.  When she saw I was unmoved by her comment, my gaze still pointedly in her direction, my brows arched, she supplied, “Alright!  God damn it, I already promised.  What more do you want from me?  I will keep it cool.  I won’t get into any trouble.  I’ll make sure I am safe.  There, are you satisfied now?”