To wake up everyday to a girl not in your bed, no eggs in the fridge, and no clean socks is kind of a bother to anyone, relatable or not. Especially for a man who wakes up every morning with five people staring at him, telling and fighting over what to eat for breakfast, and which sock smells cleaner. The smell of a pair of socks wouldn’t really matter to him much less than the smell of a shirt, but the smell of a sock matters most to one of the five people whose eyes are entranced upon this man’s body every waking moment of the day.
It’s been like this for years, far too long to remember, but Myles O’Connor distinctly remembers back when he was in seventh grade when one of these five people messed up a relationship for him. A warm summers day on the blacktop; kids playing basketball in hoops without nets, teachers chewing on Bazooka Joe bubble bubblegum. It was nice, and Amanda Fride was sitting on the curb with a comic book in her hands and braids in her blonde hair.
Myles, a skinny little ginger with green eyes and a freckled nose, was walking right towards her with his friends sitting on the swings, watching anxiously. Myles’ shirt was a bit too big on him, the South Dakota Coyotes logo faded and torn a bit from the over usage by his older sister’s play time. And then, in that bliss of sweaty hands and racing heart beats, Myles watched in horror as Lust, in all of her model glory, sat down right next to the reading Amanda Fride, twirling her long fingers in her curled brown hair of silk and hairspray.
Wearing a little black shirt and a pink poofy skirt to match, Lust glared at Myles and he watched as the corner of her lip was tugged up into a grin, bearing those white teeth of marble. She was devious, and now was not the time for the little twelve year old. She hadn’t bothered him at all up until now. And what perfect timing she had.
“You know,” she said with a twang to her tone and a little raise of her chin, “she’s not wearing underwear.” She winked at Myles and laughed a sultry, deep laugh, making Myles’ face brighten.
From the swingset, Myles’ best friends, the Holtman twins, watched carefully. Eli, the younger by two minutes and glasses perched upon his little button nose, started to get a bit worried. He looked to his brother and made a face. Eli and Jacob still look just as dark chocolate, but in the sun that day, they looked a glistening caramel color.
“Jacob,” Eli’s crackling voice peered over the edge of silence, “he’s dead meat.”
“I know, dude, but he’s got to make it or else we’re the only group of kids in this hell-hole to not have girlfriends.”
Seventh grade is the year where boys and girls alike drive themselves past barriers to get in someone’s pants. Be it new Nintendo cartridges traded at lunch with little notes taped to them, or special edition Superman comic books and SNL jokes. Most boys just went up with a flower, but Myles was going in blind with light-framed glasses sliding down the sweat on his skinny nose.
“Myles, admit it,” Lust cooed, tilting her head to the side and pursing her lips. They popped as she opened her mouth once more and laughed. “You want to see that: Amanda without panties.”
It took every last fiber of Myles’ being to not spit at Lust then and there, but something in him broke. “She is wearing panties, I know it.”Aloud. In the schoolyard of Peaks Middle.
Amanda looked up in shock, her hazel eyes wide and her face red with both anger and embarrassment. She shut her Batman comic book and stood abruptly, smacking Myles clear across his cherry-colored face. The everlasting burning feeling crawled deep into his freckles and made his cheek start to bleed.
He was so taken aback by it, he stood there while Eli and Jacob ran up to him, trying to make sure she didn’t bitch-slap the subconscious mind out of him. Fifteen years later and Myles was still being asked if his face still hurt. It never occurred to him it was only because Eli and Jacob were the only two black guys working across the street of Pendleton Street, Widow’s Peak that actually cared to put up with him.
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The Catalina Touch Effect (NaNoWriMo2014)
Romance"Do you like Myles enough to kill for him?" Bass asked. Lust sat on the ground and looked at Bass, enough in his field of vision to be looked at. "I don't really know how to answer that," she said, tilting her head in thought. Quite the dark questi...
