Blood Under Skin

7;Zane

Gwen told a fairytale about a boy,named Jack, who sold his cow for magic beans, then he climbed the giant bean stalks, which brought great fortune. It was a beautiful story, but it was almost hard to focus, because my head was buried so deep into her hazel hair, breathing in the scent of peaches.
It was an aroma of greatness, something that made me feel goodness and woozy at the same time.

She was breathless, at my attempts.I even felt her twitch from time to time.
" What was the name of the story, again. "

Gwen propped herself, arms supporting her, and rolled her eyes at me.

"Jack and the Bean Stock."

I smiled, and lightly brushed my hand across her cheek, resting it on her right shoulder.

"I know," i said, smiling at her, " I just like hearing your voice."

Gwen quickly shut her eyes, resting back down on the bed. We were silent for a long while.

" I was wondering," I said, leaning towards her, "Why do you dream?"

Gwen shrugged, a look of sadness on her face.

"What do you dream about," I asked,
my eyes intense, begging, pleading, needing an answer.

We shared a long moment, her eyes gazing back at me, the most fearful I had seen then.

I squeezed her shoulder,"Please," I begged.

She let out a huff, & began, " The dreams I have,where there is an orchard of peach trees, all bear from autumn,leaves crunching from underfoot,but the funny thing is, there's a tree with just one peach, loner.....I suppose just like me....."

Gwen hesitated before continuing,"And well,there was a time, I found you there, you were evil, and when you took a bite of the peach, everything turned to black and white,except the space between us."

I froze,in disbelief. She had dreamed about me,& for some reason,this seemed like the most unlikely thing she would ever do. Dream,about me.

She turned over to face me, "Crazy,right?"

"No not crazy." The words almost seemed to slip through my teeth as I began to fester with this new idea. Did she really fear me that much,that she has nightmares with me terrorizing her? She hadn't implied it as a nightmare only a dream. But wasn't it still enough to scare her? Make her tremble with fear? Scar her memory with my menacing face? I knew I was bad. Evil. Probably just my nature.

For a long while, we lay there, my hands, working their way through the tangles in her hazel hair. She moved in closer,till her was inches from my shirtless chest.

I sighed, "Finally warming up to me?"

Gwen was suddenly violently shaking.

Wild.
I was angry. How could she do this? Warm up to me,then slash out!! Was that her strategy??

I pushed away,heading for the door,when I felt a small hand wrap around my arm. I swirled around,snarling, nostrils faring in angry!! She wanted  fight.

"Please, I just needed....some comfort."
She was sobbing hysterically now,and I realized, that she had been crying.

Gwen's eyes were bloodshot red, and face wasn't fearful of me, and for second she almost made me feel like, I wasn't the monster, I always thought I was.

I sat down with a blank expression on my face. I was stiff down to the bone. Had I scared her? Should I comfort her? Would you ever let me touch her again?

I decided to reach out for her hair, in hopes she would let me feel it's silk touch,at least one last time.

She lightly clasped a hand over mine,meeting it halfway.
She looked up,her eyes were damp,the most beautiful shade of blue I had ever seen.

"I didn't ever mean to get so close" she breathed out a shaky sigh, "But for a minute..I felt like you could be something gentler than a monster ."

Maybe I could be.