When she pulled him through the window of her best friend's second story empty bedroom, Reid bit his own lip, and when Holly pulled her shirt over her head and stood disheveled and covered in flakes of ash like a snow angel he couldn't stop the hands that rose to cup her sharp cheekbones and the kisses he let hover over her eyelids. He kissed the crooked black Sharpie heart drawn on the back of her left hand- was it her heart, or his own?
He kissed the lone freckle in the hollow above her collarbone where she smelled especially like tangerines and her own deep midnight smell. He licked the bitter taste of Carmex from the shadow beneath her full lower lip and smirked when she moaned into his mouth- Reid. He wanted more of the taste of her tongue, of that soft murky sweetness. Her mouth was soft, softer than he would have believed possible and the tentative, careful way she kissed his lips, one at a time, with butterfly-wing flutters of her tongue made him feel inconceivably delicate. He'd never been kissed like something precious before. He enjoyed it more than he let himself think about, and something swelled inside of him- a warm rush of unfamiliar emotion, close to tenderness.
Her hair was all tangles from the wind outside and its knots held his hands close to the back of her neck just where he wanted them. When he walked her backwards so that the backs of her knees hit the bed frame and buckled, pitching her down onto her back she yelped and he wanted to hear the sound- ripped from her throat- again and again. He wanted the yellowy depths of her mossy green eyes, he wanted the preciousness of her exposed clavicle, and he wanted whatever secrets the velvet of her inner arms might hold for him. He found the clasp of her bra deftly and undid it with one hand- she didn't raise an eyebrow at the ease with which he managed it.
He let her ragged fingernails yank his shirt over his head and leave uneven scratches on his back. He heard the iPod's keening music rise from where it had been discarded on the floor, the singer's voice sexy, and hypnotic.
Reid stood, and took a torturous step back from where Holly rested, half-propped on her elbows on what he didn't know were Kyle's dark purple bedsheets. He swallowed convulsively, taking the time finally to take a breath and study the pale, tawny-eyed girl in front of him. Her dark hair was wild around her face and shoulders, making her look, if possible, more delicate than usual when all he saw were huge, eyelined almond eyes above sharp cheekbones and the mouth he was almost proud to note had been left swollen by his kisses. Her shoulders seemed impossibly small, her somewhat bony arms oddly childlike against the breasts they framed, a great deal less childlike. With a low moan Reid let himself fall against her, into the chest he'd spent so much time imagining out of a swimsuit. He trailed hot, openmouthed kissing from the center of her collarbones down between her breasts before devoting his attention fully to the soft swells, teasing her before grazing her peaked nipples with his teeth, prompting a low, scratchy moan from the girl beneath him. His mouth traced the shadows of her ribcage before working it's way, ever so slowly, to her hipbones.
Holly's eyes followed the web a spider on the wall worried busily over behind Reid's shoulder, wondering at the life going on all around this room when it felt like, here, time had lost all meaning. She shuddered convulsively when he slid her pants down her body with cold fingertips that left trails of goose bumps he blew gently on, smirking as her muscles clenched. He kissed down the insides of her thighs, and back up- she tipped her head back, and missed the momentary flash of black in Reid's blue eyes. He now stood completely nude before her, the clothes crumpled beside him only an afterthought.
He lowered himself over her, biceps bunching under her fingers as his face drew nearer to her own.
"You know what?" She didn't respond, and he couldn't look away from the freckle of brown in her right eye. "I still think so."
"What?" Her voice was husky.
"I still think you're gorgeous." She flinched, and pinched his bicep sharply, leaving nail marks he barely felt.
"Shut up." The boy bent slowly- torturously so- over her face, breathing the scent of her own mouth across her face as he nipped her lower lip, tongue flicked out to graze the upper.
"Make me." His voice was playful as he smirked, his kissed-red mouth a mirror image of her own. She placed both of her palms against his chest, gazing up at him with a mischievous gleam in her eyes, before shoving both arms abruptly up. She'd caught him off-guard, and managed to send him toppling sideways off of her, now crushed between her body and the wall. She sat up, and glanced back at him over her shoulder, giggling. He sat up too, leaning against the wall with his feet hanging over the edge of the bed as he twirled a section of her hair between two fingers, taking in the molten copper tone that flickered throughout it in the fiery sunlight. She turned around so that she was facing him, and he reached strong, white arms up for her, pulling her so that she cradled his hips between her knees. She studied the fine blond hairs sprinkled across his abdomen before bending to press her lips to them, hands memorizing every inch of his chest and sides. He gasped as her lips traced the underside of his jaw, her nipples grazing his chest. He felt a need, almost painful, to be inside of her. His hands left her breasts to trace the ripples of her ribcage, and she inhaled sharply when his cold hands grasped her hips firmly. He pulled her down, flush against him, and her head tipped back momentarily as he slid into her. Flushed skin slid against flushed skin as their bodies moved in sync, at once fierce, and halting, and strange. Holly found herself wondering idly if this was what all of those words were about, this was nothing like the other boys. Her name, whispered again and again like a plea or a promise against her neck between unbearably sweet kisses, and his heart beating against her chest left her almost afraid, where the lines between what she was sure was her, Holly, and what was Reid became less and less clear. The calloused hands on her hips urged her further when the heat in her center pulled tight and snapped, the rush of pleasure shaking her. She leaned over Reid, her body rocking, as the hands holding her hips clenched tight, frantic, before relaxing. He dropped them then as he fell sideways onto the bed and she rolled off of him, quickly turning her back on him as she grabbed her shirt from the floor, buttoning the long flannel so that it covered her. She quickly slipped on her underwear, and her jeans, picking up her shoes and tucking her bra into her back pocket as she made her way to the door. The separation opened an emptiness, jagged and familiar, in her chest, an emptiness she realized she hadn't felt in a while. Since she'd met him.
"Holly- where are you going?" Reid's voice was relaxed, nearly sleepy, but growing more alert with confusion. He frowned slightly, tired eyes hooded.
"Isn't this what's supposed to happen?" Her voice was quiet; he didn't notice it straining. "Isn't this what you do? I really don't want to be the one who watches you leave." And she fixed her eyes on his for the first time, a blaze of emotions that haunted him. She slipped out the door and it clicked deliberately shut behind her. Reid stared after her, and breathed out in a rush of air that took the rising, joyful fullness in his chest with it.
Neck, chest, waist to floor
Easy to take, you could take me in fours
Make me a deal, a day a piece
Take it all, just stay a week
I'll take you in pieces
We can take it all apart
I've suffered shipwrecks right from the start
I've been underwater, breathing out and in
I think I'm losing where you and I begin
Basic space, open air
Don't look away, when there's nothing there
I'm setting us in stone
Piece by piece, before I'm alone
Air tight, before we break
Keep it in, keep us safe
It's a pool of boiling wax
I'm getting in
Let it set
Got to seal this in
Can't adjust, Can't relearn
Got to keep what I have, preserve
Basic space, open air
Don't look away, when there's nothing there
Hot wax has left me with a shine
Wouldn't know if I'd been left behind
Second skin, second skin
I can't let it out, I still let you in
I can't let it out, I still let you in
He didn't see her sink to the floor against the locked door of her own empty room, or the shudders that racked her as she folded into herself, knees pressed against her chest.
--
Author's Note: I know this scene is a good deal more graphic than the previous one, but I felt that the relationship between Reid and Holly was a bit too understated up until this point, and I wanted to convey the emotions they feel for one another. Neither are demonstrative people, so I thought a glimpse into their real, hidden feelings would be helpful. This was actually pretty difficult for me to write (hopefully surprising!), and any constructive criticism would be completely welcomed. The song used here is called Basic Space, by a band called The XX. I've gotten several PM-flames about my use of lyrics and songs in the story, and in response, yes, I realize how annoying that can be! However, in this case it truly isn't an attempt to "show how cool I think I am" and engage in "hipster bullshit," to quote one impassioned reader. Holly is a musician, and besides that she is a very closed-off person. The use of songs is never to show off music I like, but to show music she would be listening to, which is really reflective of what is really going on with her. I also try to use lyrics that pertain to chapter contents as well.
Sorry for the defensive rant, I've been feeling a bit hypocritical as I also sometimes dislike songfics too (not all of them!). Thank you all for reading, and sticking with Holly and Reid.