"The police called me, Aaron wants to talk?" Josh murmured walking back in to the living room. He looked over at me. "What do I do?"
It was strange having a middle aged father of two look at me with those questions. But I understood his hesitance all the same.
"Give him a chance." I whispered. "What he did was wrong, we all know that. But I really feel like he just doesn't know any other life. Arnold really screwed him up, but he didn't have the support you did."
Josh nodded and sat down next to his wife Amelia. "I think it's time to forgive and forget. Look at us all now. Look at what we've achieved between us. 23 years ago I didn't think I could live a life this fulfilling. You're right. Aaron deserved that chance too."
"We'll all be here." My father exclaimed.
Xavier and I split from everyone as the talk changed to a nostalgic reminiscing of our parents early days. We walked down stairs to the studio and sat on the leather couch.
"So, I heard about your opening band being booted off the tour" I exclaimed.
"Yeah, but that doesn't matter. I've leaving the band. I'm not going anywhere without you" He said, squeezing my hand. His voice was serious, which pained me, but it didn't matter....
"Xav." I replied, squeezing back. "I'd never ask you to quit your job. It's actually kind of funny... but uh, I was on my way back to my house when Aaron showed up. I was going home to pack."
"Pack?" Xavier questioned.
"DJ kind of asked me to be the new opener."
Xavier jumped up and screeched like a high school girl who'd just been asked out by her crush. He didn't care that was how he sounded either, he just yanked me on to my feet and wrapped his arms tightly around me.
"Your coming on tour with us?" He repeated.
"Yes." I smiled
Xavier kissed me before I could do anything else, it was passionate and desperate, His hands gravitated my my thighs, and he sat back down on the sofa, bringing me with him straddling his legs as he sat back down.
"I need to take you home." He murmured.
"Yeah, I need to pack." I smiled.
"Yes, you need to back, But I acutally need to take you home so I can make love to you. I've ached for you so much. I thought I had it bad in high school. That doesn't even compare to the depth of how I feel now and right now, I just need to be with you." He spoke sincerely, he smiled but there was no laughter behind it, just love.
Normally I would have giggled, his words straight to the point and sexual, but this time was different, this time I needed the same thing.
"I have a better Idea."
I grabbed Xavier by the hand pulled back up the basement stairs, then up the inside stairs to my bedroom. Xaviers eyes widened as we walked inside.
"Your room hasn't changed since high school"
"You saw my room?"
"11th grade remember, the video, the apology that didn't happen, the Cheetos."
I smiled and walked over to my drawers. The photo of us on our 8th birthday was still face down. I lifted it up and let out a laugh. Xavier wrapped his arms around my waist and rest his head on my shoulder.
"Hey, I remember that!" He laughed. "I think that was the last time I made you smile."
I frowned and kissed the picture of us at 8. We were innocent then, and maybe if we'd both been true to our feelings then life would be differently, but everything we'd done, and everything we'd been through was what brought us to this point. The point where our lives were beginning to make sense. I wouldn't have had it any other way.
"You've made me smile a thousand times since you came back here and you'll make me smile a thousand more." I smiled as I spoke. Xavier slowly turned me around to face him. Our eyes met and he smiled back.
"One" He said.
"What are you doing?"
"Counting your smiles."
I smiled again, and he mouthed two. Before I could break into a full blown laugh his lips were on mine. This was right, this was everything.
I lifted my hands to the hem of Xavier's shirt and began to lift it. He stopped, rudely taking his kiss from me. "What are you doing?" He murmured.
"I know living in the past isn't a good idea, I know moving forward is. But if we'd been honest with ourselves in high school. I think we both know that we'd have been each others first. I want to give you something you've already had, but in the place where it should have happened, with the person it should have been with."
Xavier's eyes widened. "Why am I suddenly nervous." he grinned.
"Because not many people get to re-do their first time."
I walked over to my bedroom door, and after I closed it I made sure the lock was on.
"Do you know how many times I thought about this?" Xavier groaned, he walked back to me and looped his fingers through the waist band of my jeans. "How many times I thought about you."
"I wish I had known." I smiled.
"If I had known that this would have happened if you did know, I would have told you" He laughed.
"What would you have done next?" I bit my lip and looked up at him. He looked very serious for a second then lifted his hands and pressed them to my chest. I laughed.
"My boobs? Really?"
"Hey, I'd would have been a teenage boy, and I dreamt about touching them all the goddamn time."
"Creepy." I laughed.
"I'm kidding, well not really, but I would have done this"
his hands left my breasts and cupped my cheeks, he held my face like it was the most precious jewel in the world. We shared an eye lock so intense that all I could see was him, everything else became white noise. He brought his mouth closer to mine until finally his kissable lips hovered over mine. Like a arrow headed for the target, when his lips finally caressed mine I wanted to scream "BULLSEYE!!". Instead I settled for the hard and fast pounding of my heart against my ribcage. If he had kissed me like this in high school I would have melted into a blithering mess on the floor, In fact that was still a real possibility now.
Except before anything more could happen he pulled away again.
"I would have stopped there." He smiled. "I know I seemed pretty sure of myself. But you were everything I had ever wanted, I wouldn't have wanted to pressure you."
I yanked in back by the collar of his shirt and kissed him hard. "and I would have pulled you back to me" I grinned mischievously.
I put my hands back down to the hem of his shirt and lifted it up over his head. I let my hands graze over his chest, over the eye tattoo down over his stomach, I stopped at the button on his jeans to look up at him. His breathing was shallow, and his eyes glazed were glazed over. I flicked the button off and pulled down the zip. Xavier pants fell to the floor.
He let out a tortured groan as I let my hand slip down the front of his boxers. He shuddered as I ran my fingers along his hardness.
"Anyone would think this is your first time."
"It's been a month since I was with you last babe, it feels like its my first time."
Xavier knelt down in front of me. He placed a kiss on my right hip and then my left. As he moved his lips up my body he brought my shirt with him. He threw it to the side once it was off and began to kiss my neck. We walked backwards as our lips and tongues explored one another until I fell back on my bed. Xavier came down with me, after a short chuckle we caught each others eyes again . Our clothes discarded, Xavier entered me.
There was no bedroom acrobatics. We were surrounded in love, bathing in it, drinking it, breathing it. It was organic, and just us.
We held each other as close as we could, our bodies moving as one. Slow, steady, sensual.
We'd had amazing sex before, but this was something else. It was like time was really giving us back that moment we both wish had happened. I could feel the pressure begin to build, starting in my toes and the tip of my head at first, slowly working through all the nerve endings in my body down to my center. The slow rhythmic motion increased in speed as Xavier neared his own climax.
Like we were made to connect with one another we fell apart in each others arms. Xavier collapsed on top of me and instantly began to shake. His breathing was short and labored, like my own.
"I feel like I've just lost my virginity" Xavier croaked, lifting his head up.
I knew what he meant, even though he had been my first anyway. It was no accident that we lay in the bedroom I'd spent my teenage years. Finally we'd come full circle.
It had been written in the stars from the moment we were born, it had just taken a while to see it.
I wouldn't let him go again.
"hey guys!" Jace's voice interupted us from the other side of my bedroom door, He pounded loudly on wood and jiggled the door handle about. "Scarlett did you mean it" Jace screamed.
"Huh?" Xavier grumbled, reluctantly climbing from my bed. "What he going on about?"
I smiled, I knew what he was at my door for, I knew that mom and dad had mentioned my offer. The high pitched glee in his voice told me as much. Once we were both up and dressed I walked over to the door and unlocked it. Jace threw his arms around my neck.
"I'm going to forget that I know what you two were up to in here. Did you mean it? Will you take me with you on tour?" Jace exclaimed.
Xavier let out a chuckle and an "oh" as I nodded in the face of my ecstatic brother. He squeezed me tighter, which I hadn't thought was possible, but apparently I didn't really need to breathe. Finally, before I turned blue, he let me go.
"I need to pack!" he said backing out of the room.
"So do I."
"This is insane!"
"You were the first one who knew and kept my secret little bro. I couldn't go on this tour without you."
Jace just smiled and without another word, turned and ran out the door.
"He's like a kid on Christmas" I laughed
I looked back at Xavier, he smiled at me, and wrapped his arms around my waist.
"Before I walked out, before I heard dad telling mom about how he'd told you to leave me, I realized I was the key to him being able to follow his dreams. I grabbed the contact and went down stairs. That's when I heard dad."
I frowned, annoyed at myself. I still hadn't talked to him about what he'd done and the things I'd said. I'd been too busy sneaking off with Xavier. we would be going in a matter of hours. I didn't have time to waste.
"You were willing to go on an 11 month tour when we had left things the way we had.... For your brother. You were happy to live awkwardly with me, for him?" Xavier said softly, using his fingers to brush a strand of hair off my face.
"You do silly things for the ones you love." I said.
"You sure do." he agreed. "Like your Dad"
"Before I go home to pack, before we catch a plan to wherever we're going, before my life starts, I need to fix things with him properly" I smiled. "I know this is weird, considering what we kind of just did. But uh, I'm going to to down and talk to him, and then maybe we'll go pack?"
"Sounds like a plan babe, and hey, if we'd really done this back then, the awkward encounter with your parents afterward would have happened anyway. Just be grateful you don't have a squeaky bed" He winked and embraced me.
I laughed and looked up at Xavier, everything was falling in to place, Xavier and I were finally sorted, Jace was happy. I was about to go on tour opening for a super famous band. There was only one thing left to fix, and even though every part of me wanted to hide away with Xavier I had to put all that aside. I was running out of time to set things straight.
I walked downstairs and found my father. He looked at me, part apologetic, part embarrassed.
We walked away from everyone else, into the kitchen, the place where I had yelled at him before I stormed out.
"I was wrong to do what I did Scarab" Dad said "I am sorry."
"Why did you?"
"Part of me was glad my baby girl didn't like music, did inherit the talent. I knew I'd always have one bird in the nest to look after. I always knew you'd be safe." Dad walked over to the window and looked outside. "What I didn't realize was you inherited not only the talent, you inherited the strength. I don't need to try and protect you from harm. You know how to take care of yourself. I can't lose you because you've finally found yourself. I tried to restrain you, and that was wrong of me."
Tears prickled my eyes. "Dad, I'll always, always be your baby girl." I said softly. The emotion that was circulating my chest threatened to disrupt my voice. "I forgive you."
Dad turned around and walked back over to him. He embraced me, resting his chin against my forehead.
"You've got a plane to catch. I think you'd better go pack"
"Pfft so much for wanting me around" I joked, Dad laughed then pulled back.
"Careful now, I'll invite myself on tour."
"Anytime Dad, you know I'll miss you and Mom like crazy."
"I love you."
"You too, to the moon and back."
*******
First of all, sorry it's been so long. It's been a busy week at work! Secondly, I'm not really happy with this chapter. It's a totally filler, because the next chapter (the last one) is going to be set in a really cool place.
Anywho as always feel free to follow me on twitter @eelyah21 or facebook.com/xebbex
Love yas!!!