Taking Risks (12 page)

             
Risk look scared and he grew visibly tense. “It feels like a tingle, not like someone has a hold of me.” He said and then he turned away from me. “I can tell when one of…
them
is around by a buzzing feeling on the back of my neck and I feel…nervous. If what
it
is doing now is touching my arm, than I guess that when they touch me it feels like that part of my body is asleep…. This can’t be right. It’s not normal.” I walked around him so that he was facing me. I could see how ashamed he was of himself and it hurt to see him that way. I put my hand to his cheek and his eyes lit up. “Tell it to touch my face!”

             
“Gray is not an
it
, Risk. He’s my oldest and closest friend...more like a family member. We’ve been inseparable since before I can remember. Gray is a man, who doesn’t know how, but he’s dead. Gray isn’t even his real name. I named him Gray when I was little because I needed something to call him and the color of his aura was gray. And I don’t have to tell him anything for you. Tell him yourself, he’s standing right here.

             
I looked at Gray and nodded and he raised his hand to touch Risk on the forehead. I saw Risks eyes get bigger as he felt Grays touch. He turned his face slightly towards me, trying not to move away from Gray’s touch, “How’s this possible?” he said and I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled. Risk smiled back at me and it sent warmth through my soul to see wonder in his eyes instead of fear.

             
I looked over at Gray and was surprised to find him staring at Risk with his emerald eyes dazzling. “What’s wrong Gray?” I said aloud and he looked over at me with his wide sparkling eyes. “I can feel him too, Marlee. I can feel warmth from his body.”

             
Gray had never been able to feel anything for as long as I had known him. No kind of touch could penetrate the barrier between our two worlds, or so I thought. Warmth, pain, cold, soft, hard, no kind of sensation that we take for granted on a daily basis was available to Gray for any kind of comfort before. I always thought that ghosts were made up of air, but this had changed everything that I had ever thought about them.

             
Risk looked confused at my interaction with Gray. “What’s going on?” He asked. I could tell he was annoyed at having to be left out of our little supernatural circle.

             
“Gray’s never been able to feel anything before since his death, but he said that he could feel the warmth from your body whenever he touched you.”

             
Risk obviously didn’t think it was as big of a moment as Gray and I had because he just replied, “Cool.” With a big goofy grin on his face. There must be some kind of connection, either with Risks different abilities, or…something else. After all, I had never been able to feel Gray, but Risk could. After I chewed the thought over for a few minutes Risk said, “So how exactly is this dangerous? Gray is a
friend
, right?”
Shit. Shit. Shit!
I had only just introduced him to this world and I was already going to have to show him the ugly side of it before he even got a chance to fall in love with the beauty.

             
“Well I don’t just see Gray, I see a lot of ghosts. Sometimes I help them so they aren’t stuck here in this world and they can cross over to wherever it is they’re supposed to go. The ghosts that are stuck here are often just confused or need a loved one to know how they feel about them, but some of them get really angry.
You
won’t be able to see it, but the angry ones look different. They have red eyes, for one, but they also give off a different energy so you may be able to feel the difference. Gray and I tried to help a boy not long ago that remembered his past as we were trying to get him to cross over. I’m not sure what he remembered because he wouldn’t tell us, but he started to change and became one of the angry things.”

             
Risk wasn’t smiling anymore, but he stayed quiet and nodded his head at me to continue.

             
“Do you remember when you told me that I looked like I hadn’t slept in weeks?” Risk nodded again. “Well, apparently the boy has found a way to harvest energy from me using my connection to ghosts and the living. I’m not sure how he’s doing it, but Gray and I have been working on finding the boys dad, and we have. We’re going to figure out his story and we’re going to use it to help him.”

             
“What does he need your energy for?” Risk asked and I was proud that he was keeping up with everything so well.

             
“We aren’t sure yet but we
do
know that he can use the energy to move objects, that much he has shown us.” Risk slowly nodded his head as if he were deeply sifting through all of the information. When he finally spoke again he said, “Well…Let’s go find the dad!” He smiled nervously and Gray beamed at him.

             
“Hold your horses buddy. I have to work tonight.” I laughed.

             
Risk must have suddenly remembered something unpleasant because he scrunched his face up. “I have to go deal with my parents too. If I’m still alive tomorrow then we can go “dad searching.”

             
Ugh.
I’d forgotten all about what I had done to Risks mother. She was probably getting more pissed with each second that passed that Risk wasn’t there to be beat down. She was a strong willed monster of a person who definitely didn’t like it when things didn’t go her way. I was just going to have to trust that Risk could take care of himself. I had too many of my own issues to be constantly worrying about Risk too. I didn’t comment about his mother, I just laid my head on his chest and took in his scent while I still had time.

            
 
After our very heavy conversation, I played as the middle man as Risk asked Gray question after question. Some I had asked him over the years such as, “What happened to you?” “Do you have any family?” and “How old are you?” and some I had never even thought to ask like, “What do you look like?” “What does it feel like to be a ghost?” and my personal favorite, “Can you still get a boner?” Gray answered that one smoothly, throwing in some information that was relevant but not necessarily what Risk had asked. I listened to Gray explain it and relayed the information with blushing cheeks. “Well, I feel every emotion that you do; happy, sad, angry, but I don’t have any blood flow as I’m not a solid object and definitely not human, so no, I can’t get a boner…but I can still be aroused.”
Ugh…That was embarrassing.

             
When Risk was done giving Gray the third degree it was time for me to get ready for work. I went upstairs to take a shower and the damned boys followed me. I shot both of them a nasty look when they tried to tail me right into the bathroom and they retreated slowly across the hall towards my bedroom. Whenever I was done showering I hopped out and put a towel around my body while do my hair and makeup. When I was satisfied with the way I looked I grabbed my uniform that I had, thankfully, remembered to bring with me into the bathroom, and shimmied into the tight fabric.

             
I was feeling playful and to reflect my mood I decided to put my hair into pigtails and wore thigh high purple stockings over my tights that matched my Ravens jersey. The thought of being a newly deflowered woman had me feeling confident and I sauntered across the hall into my bedroom. Before I entered the room I saw Risk sprawled out on my bed and he was spilling his life’s story to Gray. Gray was listening intently with a sad look on his face as he listened to the story. I knew Risk had had a rough life so far, but I didn’t know the details…and I didn’t know if I
wanted
to.

             
When Risk looked up and saw me, his eyes started to smolder and he propped himself up on an elbow. “Um, pal…I know this is probably weird for you, but can you make yourself scarce?” I smiled at Gray when he got up to walk out of the room. I thought it was funny that he decided to take the slow way instead of simply vanishing like he normally did. When he passed me he looked at me disapprovingly like a father would look at his poorly behaving daughter and said, “This is
really
fucking weird. When did you get so old?” He raised his hand to my cheek briefly before continuing slowly out of the room. Whenever I turned back to Risk I nodded, telling him that Gray was gone, and he jumped up off of the bed. He grabbed me by my hips and lifted me into the air to twirl me around.

             
“I’m never going to get used to seeing you in this uniform. Whoever owns that bar knows
exactly
what they’re doing.”

             
I noticed as he picked me up that I was feeling a little sore from our night. There was something erotic about it though. I was as if it was a reminder of what we had done and I could remember all of it in vivid detail. My cheeks flushed as I was reliving it in my mind and Risk put me down. “I gues
s
I’m a little sore, but nothing unbearable. It’s kind of…hot.”

             
Risk smiled, but it was more of an apology smile than a playful smile. I knew then that he wasn’t going to touch me again until I felt normal.
Damn, I shouldn’t have said anything.
With Risk still holding my ass tight against him he pressed his lips softly to mine. I parted my lips to run my tongue against his bottom lip and a low groan escaped him. Just as I was getting ready to reach between us and grab his hard on, he pulled me away.

             
“I don’t think so. You need time to…feel better, so that next time it’ll be better than the last.” He winked at me and walked out of the room as I was still standing in place scowling at him.

              I got to Rocktop and followed my routine of clocking in and grabbing my apron. I made my way out to the dining room and took a look around to see how busy it was. Saturdays were always busy, but it meant that the tips were good. When I locked eyes with Remi I blushed and turned to walk in the opposite direction. I would have to tell her about what I had done with Risk. She would see the evidence of my naughty escapades written all over my face. She and Jane were also my closest living friends and I valued the relationship that I had with them. Yeah, I would tell her, but I needed to find the guts to do so first.

             
Just as my blush was finally fading from my cheeks I heard Remi squealing behind me. “Holy shit!” She screamed almost directly into my ear. “Oh my God! You did it!”

             
I tried to play it off like I was confused. “Did…
what
?”

             
She gave me a huge grin and came close to whisper in my ear, “You got laid!”

             
I stood with my mouth hanging open and dropped my pen to the floor. I couldn’t believe how she could just
know
that! Did she have an “I had sex” radar or something?

             
“Uh…what?”

             
“Don’t play stupid with me, chick! You have it written all over your face. Don’t be shy about it, it’s about time!”

             
I was blushing so bad that my cheeks felt like they were on fire. I didn’t know what to say, but I knew saying nothing at all was making me feel like a total loser so I blurted out, “Um yeah…I guess I did.”

             
“It was the hottie that was in here the other night, right? Are you guys like, an
item
now?”

             
“Uh…I guess… I don’t really know, I didn’t ask.”

             
Remi kind of just raised her eyebrows at me in question before smiling and taking her drink orders to Jane and serving them to the correct tables. I stood for a moment in shock before shaking it off and getting to work. I was halfway through my shift when I realized I had been grinning like an idiot the whole time. I kept recalling my evening in such perfect detail that I could almost feel Risks hands on me and his lips brushing mine. No matter how hard I tried to stop grinning, it would always sneak back up on me moments later, however the customers were loving my energy, and they showed their gratitude for my good service in their tips. I was never opposed to good tips.

             
I was only about ten minutes away from being able to go home and wrap my arms around Risk, and I was starting to get antsy. I was up by the bar to order some drinks for my last table when I felt a hand harshly tug one of my pigtails backwards. I squealed before a hand clamped over my mouth but it was too busy in the bar for anyone to have heard it. Jane was busy putting drinks together and she wouldn’t notice me either. I could feel that I was close to someone’s breast and then I smelled the stench and knew who the person was that had me.

             
“You’re starting to be quite the trouble maker, aren’t you?” Risks mother tugged my hair sharply to show that she was in charge. “I’m going to show you exactly what it’s like to be shown the disrespect that you’ve shown me,
cunt
.”

             
She started leading me away from the bar as inconspicuously as possible. She had turned my face towards her so that it probably looked like I was upset and she was consoling me. I started to try and force myself away from her before she pulled me too far away from the crowd, but then I felt a piece of cold hard steel poking into my side. I gasped into the hand that was over my mouth. I had no idea what I could do to stop her. I was praying that she was just pissed and that she wasn’t going to actually try and kill me. Somewhere in the middle of my panic I realized that Risk was supposed to go and talk to her and I hadn’t talked to him since.

             
I turned my head just enough so that I could see a sliver of my surroundings and my heart grew lighter as I saw where she was leading me. She took me down the hall, past the bathrooms, and to the back where the employee room was. I knew that no one would be on break and so no one was likely to be in there, but I
did
know that Ben, the bouncer, was just outside the door that led to the back of the building. He was a guard for that area and spent most of his time sitting in an old metal chair smoking weed or cigarettes. A guard was appointed to that door because employees and customers were sneaking out back to party or have sex. It was a loading dock that provided plenty of privacy from the street, and not many people even knew it was back there. I was counting on her to take me out of that door.

             
Sure enough, Risks mom pushed me past the door to the empty employees room and then towards the exit on the other side. She turned us around so that she could keep her grip on me and open the door as she backed into it. As she backed out of the door she turned and threw me to the concrete floor. She hadn’t even noticed Ben who had been sitting right outside the door, taking a hit from his bong.

             
Ben was a huge man. He was well over six feet tall and I’m sure he weighed every bit of three hundred pounds. He was intimidating in every aspect of the word from his angry looking face to his huge combat boots. That’s why he was paid to guard a rarely used exit, but in all realty, he was a sweetheart. Ben didn’t hesitate to grab the crow bar that was at his side as he saw the commotion between Risks mother and me. He stalked up behind her as she started to screech at me.

             
“I’ll teach you some manners yet, slut! I’ll show you who controls
my
boy!” I saw that Ben still wasn’t within grabbing distance of her as I watched the knife she wielded getting closer and closer to me. She pulled her arm back in attack ready position, and just before she brought the blade down on me I heard a hollow thunk. The sound made me giggle because it made me visualize that her head must have
actually
been empty. Ben looked worriedly at me as I stood up, still giggling to myself. I’m sure I should’ve been crying or something like that so that I didn’t look crazy, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of victory. I rubbed my head to sooth the place where she had nearly ripped my hair from my scalp and thanked Ben. My life was a horror show and that woman couldn’t scare me, especially when I knew that there were much scarier things out there.

             
I stuck around while Ben dialed 911 on his phone. He told the police that there had been a situation and gave the operator our location. After answering a few short questions he hung up. “Are you okay, Marlee?” He asked me and looked a little frightened, which was a funny emotion to see on such a big man’s face.

             
“Oh I’m fine. She had a knife to me, but thanks to you she didn’t hurt me. I don’t know where the knife has gotten to.”

             
“Okay, well, you need to stick around until the police get here so they can take your statement. So, you know this woman?” He lost his scared look when he started to cuff Risks mom up.

             
“Um, yeah…she’s my boyfriend’s mother. She doesn’t like me.”

             
He looked at me with a cocked eyebrow but didn’t say a word.

             
“Hey Ben?” He looked up at me again. “You need to stash that bong and your supply before the cops get here.” Ben laughed and said “Good idea.” Before he went to tend to his…things.

             
I called Risk from the employee’s room right before the police arrived. To my surprise, he was already in the dining room waiting for me to clock out. He had been out there the entire time his mom had me hostage, but he had no idea that she was even there. Word traveled fast through the bar and he already knew a little about what had happened when I finally spoke to him. He met me in the back where I was giving my statement to the police. Risk listened intently to my story and I watched the fire building in his eyes. I was worried about him being angry with me for calling the cops on his mom, but I was also relieved that I wouldn’t have to be looking over my shoulder while she was in jail.

             
The police finished up with me and then moved on to Ben after asking me to call them if I could remember any more details. Risk and I stood hand in hand as we watched his inebriated mother shoved into the back of a squad car. I watched as Risk and his mother locked eyes with each other and was surprised when I didn’t see a look of love or worry, but instead saw a look of hatred that chilled my bones. The feeling of contempt was clear on both of their faces, and I wasn’t worried that Risk would be angry with me anymore. I knew he hated her even more for what she had tried to do to me, but that also made my heart ache for him. He knew too much hate for his short lifetime and I hated that he had to harbor feelings like that for someone when he was so kind hearted.

             
I sighed heavily as I looked around the bar. I spotted who I was looking for standing in a corner, away from the crowd. Gray was dressed in brown dress boots and a nice navy blue sweater that was unzipped to the middle of his chest to expose the white t-shirt underneath. His jeans were snug and dark colored, which was different than the light wash jeans that he normally wore. He looked like an Abercrombie model that had actually decided to wear some of the clothes that he was advertising. Even though he was definitely dressed to impress, he looked sad. His face was cast down towards the floor and his brow was drawn down so that the place between his eyes was wrinkled.