"You got a light?" came a feminine voice from behind his left shoulder, dripping with artificial sweetness that reminded Peter Rumancek of the cheap shitty fast-food pancakes he'd eaten for breakfast and drenched in syrup to hide the fact earlier that same morning. Though as the owner of the voice passed through the glass double doors and out into the warm afternoon sun his distaste melted away.
With the sun behind her, dancing against her hair and framing her body, she looked like some kind of white trash angel, no older than himself,long tanned legs, a pair of denim shorts that left nothing to the imagination and a black Van Halen tank-top that made it VERY apparent that she wasn't wearing anything underneath it.
"Huh?" he said, scrunching up a good half of his face in an indignant squint against both the bright light behind her, and to make sure she noticed how disinterested he was trying to appear. There was something exceptionally familiar about her, though for after all the years, it took him a while to figure out what it was.
It must have worked, because she looked rather taken aback, opening and closing her darkly lined hazel eyes several times. Internally Peter prickled with satisfaction, it was apparent no one had ever given her a face like that before. He was glad to be her first, and briefly contemplated asking her if it was as good for her as it was for him, but swallowed it back down as she cocked a curious eyebrow in his direction and smirked, like she could read his mind. And quite naturally this didn't sit well with any part of him, especially his balls.
She then flashed him a perfectly wicked smile "Oh, sorry I was just wondering if you have a light I could use, I swear, I'd forget my own damn head if it wasn't attached." She said, gesturing to the lit smoke in his hand. Then she pulled a half-empty pack of cigarettes from the back pocket of her shorts and placed one between her small pouty lips.
"Yeah sure." he said, lifting the zippo in his hand level with his eyes.
As she leaned over to the flame he offered he noticed two things;
First that he could seen straight down the crudely torn neckline of the tank top, and her nipples were tight from the cool mountain breeze, but second that the entirety of her abdomen was raked with deep ugly scars.
"Thanks" she purred, taking a long drag, and then without asking, or needing permission she sprawled on the bench in the shade right next to him, crossing one leg over the other.
"Long time no see Rumancek" She said finally, passing him a sideways glance "Actually, I didn't think I'd ever be seeing you again after the shit that went down between Sorin and Old Nicolae before..."
...before he died they both finished silently.
"But I guess that's all in the past now" she concluded aloud. "He told me you and Lynda would be showing up this morning...been waiting for you here all day." She offered him a warm smile, but it wasn't returned.
She didn't know what had happened in Pennsylvania, but she'd taken the hint to can up about it from the look Sorin had given her when she'd asked him. But how could she help it? She hadn't seen hide nor hair of Peter or his mother sense she was eight years old, and now that the wind had finally blown them back into her life it was nothing like she'd imagined it.
Instead of the vibrant creature brimming with mischief and life she remembered, Peter looked like a ghost, a boy who'd been thrown to the mercy of some horrible beast and emerged a warrior, victorious but battered and bloody. Drained of whatever had made him himself.
"You look...like shit" she said finally with a heartfelt sigh and trailed a hand through the soft short black stubble that covered his head.
"Little lady, you have no idea" He smiled finally, taking her hand within his own and placing a playful nip on each of her fingers just as they'd done as childhood friends.
With that she laughed and the familiarity between them finally came flooding back "I've missed you Peter" she said, echoing his smile.
"I've missed you too Addie"
"I take it your mom's already back home with Sorin?" She pondered allowed, doubling over to extinguish the butt of her cigarette on the concrete.
Peter made a vaguely affirmative sound and shrugged.
She opened her mouth to say something else, but before she'd actually managed to convey anything, it all became far to trivial; forcing small talk in a gas station parking lot like she'd just met up with a casual acquaintance rather than one of the only friends she'd ever had.
"Come on" she said and sprung to her feet, offering him an outstretched hand.
With downcast eyes, he took it and she hauled him up to her level. With a hard yank on her part, their bodies collided awkwardly before he really understood what was happening and she wrapped her arms around his waist.
He though about resisting, about wriggling out of her grasp and letting her down with some bull-shit story about how he didn't want to be touched, but then the smell hit him, wafting up from her hair and swirling around his face, leaving slow sensual kisses as it went. They say that scent is the sense most connected to memory, and in that moment he knew that whoever they were, they were right.
She smelled just like home...like a million pieces of his childhood flung back into his face all at once, wolf, weed, damp earth and a warm bed.
A soft whine slipped out from his chest before he could stop it, and she lifted her head to look at him.
There was an acute curiosity behind her gaze and he though she might be getting ready to ask him a question, but instead she lifted up onto her toes and licked the tip of his nose.
He jerked back, and though she released him from her forced hug, she was still smiling, and he realized that he was going to have to get used to her touching him, whether he liked it or not.
"Lets go home" she said and snatched his hand before he could hide it behind his back. Again the forced contact made him prickle uncomfortably, as did the way she instantly expected her home to be his. Everything felt slightly off and it nagged at his Swadisthana.
The short walk through town was as uneventful as ever. Every few blocks Addie would point out something, but he wasn't really listening. Typical small town America, he'd seen a thousand towns like it, and would see a thousand more before he kicked the bucket.
She must have known that he wasn't listening, though she still continued to drawl on. There was even something comforting in the way she seemed to be forcefully ignoring his melancholy mood. For every step he took, dragging both his boots and eyes against the sidewalk, she skipped and wriggled with excitement.
When they'd finally reached the large log cabin at the edge of town she'd moved on from the subject of topography into recent happenings in her life. Something about dropping out of high school. He nodded, but his eyes wandered over the property.
Several old cars littered the overgrown yard and despite the bright sun, candle light shone through the large windows. The whole place, town included had the half dilapidated feel of a tourist trap built in the 70's by bored millionaires latching on to the idea of a retreat in the trees, but then abandoned when the fad of beach houses took over.
"Well, this is it" she said, pulling him from his self-induced stupor. "Me casa es su casa" She spread her arms wide, beaming with reverence.
He followed her up onto the crumbling wood deck and she swung the screen door open dramatically "Honey, I'm home!" she bellowed and went inside, then sprinkled a wonderful impression of southern bell onto her next words "And you'll never guess who I ran into down at the general store! You remember that handsome young man from all those years ago!"
As he moved to follow her in, something seized Peter right in his very core. An inescapable feeling that if he stepped over the threshold into this new chapter of his life, he would be leaving something behind, but he couldn't tell if the emotion that thought brought up guilt or relief.
"Addie, I haven't seen you in years, look how you've grown up!" Peter heard his mother inside, and with that strange feeling still gouging him, he stepped inside.