First Kiss 55
"That's gonna leave a mark," Alex said, her eyes scanning the nasty cut that was starting to scab over on Bobby's knuckles.
Bobby shrugged. "It'll match the other one."
She took his other hand in hers. Sure enough, he had a scar in between his pinky and ring finger on the back of his hand. "How'd you get that?"
Bobby flexed his left hand into a fist and back a couple of times. "Fight."
She waited for him to tell her more. He avoided her eyes as long as he could.
"I… I argued with my Dad. His teeth cut me when I made contact." Bobby's face broke out in a sad smile. "It's ironic. I got two scars from that fight. One from the punch I threw, and one from what he did to me." Bobby pointed out an imperfection just behind his left ear. Alex had never noticed it before. "It doesn't matter who starts it, it seems I'm always the one who comes out worse for wear."
"Well," Alex said, returning her attention to the fresher wound. "This one was just a run of the mill accident. Let's get you a new bandage," she said, and led him to the bathroom and her small stash of bandaids and other wrappings. She selected the right size and carefully placed it over his injury. "Why didn't you go get stitches?" she asked.
"Ah, I was in the middle of a project… I wanted to finish." He lowered his head and she caught another glimpse of the scar behind his ear.
"What did he do to you?" she asked, touching it softly with her index finger.
"Oh? He… uh… he clocked me with the bottle of beer he was drinking. I stayed out of his way after that."
She looked at it once more. "It must have been terrible... but the scar is so small."
"What about you?"
"Me?"
"Got any scars?"
She smiled. "A few." As they sat down on the couch, she pulled off her shoe and sock and lifted her pants leg. She stuck her foot on Bobby's lap.
He saw the tiny white lines right away. He touched each one with his fingers.
"I was a rookie, chasing a perp through a neighborhood. Didn't even check before I jumped a fence to take a short cut."
"Dog bite," Bobby mumbled.
"Yeah, my partner got me out of there. Poor dog. He was only doing his job." Instead of putting her shoe back on, she kicked off the other one, and tossed her socks on the floor. She leaned toward him and tugged on the cuff of his pants leg. "What about this one?" she asked.
He removed his socks and shoes and showed her the one on his foot. "How did you know about that?" he asked.
"I notice things," she said, shrugging.
"Army training. I… uh… leapt before I looked. Landed on a piece of rusty metal."
She sat back. "I have another one…"
His head cocked with interest.
"I don't know if you can see it," she said, tilting her head and holding her hair up out of the way.
Bobby's eyes searched along the back of her hairline. Finding the spot, he reached out and touched it.
"In vice. I got clobbered by a pimp." She let her hair drop and he slowly pulled his hand away.
Bobby pulled his shirt up and leaned over to show her his back. "Frank gave me this one," he said, pointing with his thumb.
It was about an inch long. She placed her fingers on it for a moment, then let him go. She waited for him to sit up and tell the story.
"He… uh…" Bobby realized maybe he didn't want to tell the story after all.
She took his hand in hers.
"He was high. He got pretty… agitated… and … I tackled him to keep him away from Mom… he knocked me onto the table… Some glasses broke and I landed on them on the floor."
Alex reached her other hand up and flattened it on his chest. She knew the worst of his scars was invisible, disfiguring his loving heart.
When Bobby looked at her, his pain seemed to subside. The brightness in his eyes was refreshed. His head tilted forward, and he kissed her.
She gave him a devilish grin. "I have another scar," she announced, "I'll tell you the story about it…but you'll have to find it, first." She placed his hand overtop the buttons on her blouse.
Bobby smiled, reaching in for another kiss as his left hand adeptly worked the buttons free.
