Blister in the Sun Part 6
For PTB's Smut University 2014
Prompt: Sex-cessories by Helena Hunting
Warnings: Teenagers... ;)
He's never avoided me before. Not like this anyway. We've had our fights in the past. Him calling me a girl. Me calling him a jerk. Us not listening enough and yelling too much. Because that's what best friends do. We fight and we kick and we scream and we hurt. And after a few days, when the feelings have died down and the red has faded, we come back together. Always together. And that's how you know when you're forever…but what's forever anyway?
Forever is an hour-long lecture that lasts until you're gray all over when summer ends after a blink of an eye. Forever is the pain of scraped skin and blood when a lover's kiss is breath on the wind. Forever is the pain inside the heart of unrequited love when the passion of that first fall is always said to end.
I don't see him. Not the next day or the day after. Not all of him anyway. Just flashes of his hair around the corner. The edges of his clenched-fist disappearing before I can approach. The echoes of his sorry-can't-talk-now as he runs away. It's different this time. The panic that plays across his features and reeks from his body as he escapes my attentions. I won't lie. It hurts to know my best friend might not want to be my best friend anymore because of a silly girl who doesn't understand the true passion of those three little words.
"Why the long face, babe?"
I shake my head. "No reason."
Jasper's arm is heavy on my shoulders, but it's comforting in a way. Like he's taking all these bottled feelings inside and helping me stop them from spontaneously combusting. "Come on. You can tell me."
I smile and kiss his cheek. "Really. It's nothing, but when something does come up, I know I can count on you."
He gives me that grin that makes my knees shake, and I hate how my heart has buried it's way so deep inside of me that there's no more room left for him because I know he would be a good boy to love.
"You know me. That's what I'm good at."
"I know…" My voice dies as his cell phone chirps. He brings it out of his pocket and replies to whatever text came through. "Who's that?"
He rolls his smiling eyes in my direction. "No one special."
"Is it a girl?" I tease. It's weird what we have. Jasper and I. But it works.
"Whatever. You know you're the only girl for me."
"Don't start lying to me now." He laughs, pulling me along through the mall. He hasn't stopped trying to get into my pants. He just hasn't been in them for a while. Not since before the party. Before him and Alice.
"Don't worry about it." I think in a way he understands. That he can see beneath my exterior just like Jake could. That he sees what I see…or who I see. Because though he'll never turn me down, he teases more than seduces now.
"Was it Amber from last week? Or Chelsea from the beach?"
He shakes his head, his lips curiously glued together. "Stop asking."
That's when I know. From his crazy eyes. How the ocean in them tumbles with wild waves as he sweeps his salted hair from his forehead dotting with sweat. The smile he gives me doesn't make my knees shake, but it does make my tummy rumble with unease, so I ask in a quiet voice, "Is it Alice?"
And even over the bustle of the mall. The chat. The kids. The laughter and screams. He hears me, but he doesn't have to say anything. It's the look in his eyes when he swings them back my way that tells me, "Yes."
"What are you doing, Jasper?"
"She keeps texting me."
"It's only been a few days."
"What else can I do?"
"You know she's not over him."
"I can't ignore her. Not her."
"This will hurt Edward."
"I'm sorry."
"Have you slept together? Besides the party that is."
"…yes."
"Jasper…."
"I know, Bella. I know."
"Do you like her? Is that what this is about?"
For a second, it's like I'm looking in a mirror. Like the agony and misery and desperation and hopeless love reflects back to me through his chaotic mess of blue. And then he blinks, but I know better. Just like with sex, I'm more seasoned than he is. He can hide it all he wants, but there's no escaping the hurricane inside. But I know, just like me, he'll never admit it.
"Whatever, man. She's just another lay. Like all the other girls. She means nothing to me."
Another person wouldn't see how his heart cracks just a tiny bit with that. "I know."
Because I really do.
"Hey…let's get something." He tugs on my hand like everything is all right.
"What?"
"Piercings."
"What?!" That has me digging my feet into the ground.
"Come on! It'll be fun. The endorphins will pick us right back up."
Maybe it's the promise of a brief reprieve from the ache inside because I follow that boy right into the shop without looking back once.
It works. For maybe a day. But I won't lie and say I hate it. I actually kind of love it. This metal through my flesh. Though my endorphins are no longer flying, raising my mood, and bringing me to a high of happiness, the ball clicking against my teeth reminds me to lift my spirits when the ache of him brings me down.
Click. Click. Click.
It's that metal tune I nod my head to when I climb the ladder up into the tree a week after. The sun is just beginning to set, turning the faded green to a blinding lime, casting its shadows into the interior of the house, darkening the corners but spotlighting the center. Maybe that's why I don't see him when I climb through the door before swinging it shut. Crawling on my knees across the wood until the sun warms my face with its goodbye kiss.
It's the alcohol I smell first. That strong scent of reeking vodka. And I can't understand it. How something so vile and foreign and dark has entered into this space of childhood happiness. But then there he is, leaning against the wall, hiding in the shadows, his eyes gleaming with undisturbed tears as the liquor sloshes from the bottle and into his mouth.
"Edward?''
"Bella."
"What are you doing?"
He laughs this bitter laugh, wiping spilled alcohol from his chin. "I thought it was obvious."
I swallow my nerves, but they settle in my stomach like a rock. "Haven't seen you in a while."
"Yeah…well, when you catch your girlfriend fucking another dude you kind of just want to be alone."
Click. Click. Click.
I want to reach out for him but I dig my nails into the wood instead. "I'm so sorry. You know I'm here for you, right?"
There's that bitter laugh again. "Right. You. Bella. My neighbor. My best friend. You're always there. Right here for me. I can count on you."
It has to be a trick with the way he sings his words, so I answer hesitantly. "That's right. You just need to ask, and I'll do anything."
He sets his bottle down, and for a second I think he'll come to me with his arms open, and then I realize it's empty. "Anything?"
"You know I'd do anything for you, Edward." And in a way, I hate that. How it's so true. How I really would cater to his every need.
He stalks me across the floor of the tree house, slowing sneaking up as I press against the shadows and the wall, wanting to run away, but at the same time exhilarated with the way his eyes seem to darken with every step he takes toward me.
Click. Click. Click.
"Edward…" I say. He lowers his gaze to where my lips are pressed so tightly together.
"What's that?"
"What?"
"Inside your mouth."
I can hardly speak with how his gaze presses so hard against me that my voice comes out in a whisper. "It's just a tongue piercing."
He traps me against the wall within his arms. His palms pressed so near to my face. "Let me see." I show him and he stares so long before cupping my chin with his fingers and cradling my outstretched tongue with his thumb. "When did you get this?"
"A week or so ago."
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to."
He smirks. And it's almost like that teasing one he gives girl. Almost. Because there's a sort of darkness to the way his lips tilt. "That's it? You know what they say about tongue piercings, right?"
"What?"
This time it's him whispering right against my ear. "They make everything feel better."
"I don't know what you're talking about," I say even though I do.
"I'm sure Jasper loves it." This time the tilt is pure darkness.
"What? Jasper. He doesn't. I mean…we aren't—"
"Don't lie, Bella." I could've sworn his palm smacked against the wood, but it's hard to hear anything outside of my nervous heartbeat in my own ears.
Click. Click. Click.
"We have…but not for a while. We're just friends now."
"So he hasn't felt it?" He sounds almost vulnerable, but it has to be a trick on my ears because his eyes are anything but. "He doesn't know how you can rock his world?"
"No. No one does."
When he speaks, his lips are wet against my cheek. "Do you want to see how good you can make me feel?"
I shake my head. Though I'm not sure if I'm saying yes or no.
"Kiss me, Bella." He's too tall and when I don't reach for him, he bends down until our faces are even. "Don't tell me no this time."
"Edward…I…" It's crazy. How the one thing I've wanted for so long is finally happening, and I can't seem to do anything but stand still. Frozen like a statue. Ice in the middle of all this summer. As he leans closer until he's only a breath away from where I want to escape him. From where I willingly hold myself captive.
Click. Click. Click.
"Bell…" Suddenly he's my boy again. The one who smiles lazy at me. Who holds my fingers at night when I'm scared. Who smudges mud across my face when the rain stops. "Promise me."
"What, Eddie? Promise you what." I know I shouldn't. Not when he's been drinking. Not with his heart so newly broken. But maybe it's that image. Of Jasper and Alice together. Over and over. That has me pressing forward. That she hasn't stopped breaking his heart since that night. That she has thrown aside what they've shared and loved so easily. Because if I give in to him will that mean he can't ever go back to her? I'm not sure if that's what I want for him or for me.
"That this won't change anything." His whisper is so gentle, his eyes so soft, that I can't help it when my hands find his hips, gripping onto his flesh through his clothes. Loving it. Hating it. Because now that I have him, I'm pretty sure I'll die when I have to let him go. "That we'll always be best friends. No matter what."
I wish it were true when I know it's a lie. Because this…this changes everything. After this, we won't be best friends anymore. This is what I've avoided for so long, but how can I resist him with his dark greens and whispering lips? How can I resist when he wants me? "Yes. Always. You and me. We're forever."
It's like sunshine. A cool breeze on a hot day. The ocean against too warm skin. The sand between my toes. The smell of coconut and burnt noses and pruned fingertips. That's how he kisses. That's how his lips feel pressed against my own.
"Give me your tongue," he says, and with summer teasing my taste buds, I can't deny him anything, so I press forward, swirling that metal inside of his mouth.
"Fuck…" he groans, his eyes closing as he dives in for, "More."
"Eddie…"
"Bell…more." More tongue. More metal. More swirling. Until I'm loving his mouth and his knees are shaking with his delight. He holds me close, his arms crossed behind my back, pulling me tight against him so that I can feel just how happy the piercing makes him.
He sways on his feet, and everything is blurry for just a second as he twirls us around until his back is pressed the wall. He slowly slides to the floor, bringing me with him, sitting me on his lap as he dips down for another kiss. And I love it. How his hands grab at me. How his hair falls across my face. How his hips shift so desperately because that's what my kiss brings him to.
It's crazy. How I want more. He says I'm rocking his world, but he doesn't know just how much he is rocking mine with his groans of "Fuck" and his pleas of "Yes…yes…Bell…please…just like that." And then this is me wanting more. More. More. More.
So I climb to my knees and drop even lower. Sliding pseudo-leather through metal entrapments and tugging jeans down only just far enough that he's bare to me, that he springs forward with his happiness, with that desperation. I've seen him before. From behind rock. On his knees. With his dick in his hand. Gleaming with perspiration as he pumps himself to completion in the dying sun.
But it's different this way. Up close and personal. His flesh warm against my palm. That gleaming tip so close to my mouth, begging to be pleasured, so I give in again, wrapping my fingers and then my tongue around where he is so hard. And I think he didn't expect I would really do it. Rock his world like this. If his hips bucking up so hard that I have to press him down and his mutters of "Oh my god. Oh my god. Bell! Bell! What? What!" says anything.
I click, click, click right up all that smooth flesh, pressing softly when I'm unsure, and then harder when his groans begin to soar, loving how the metal pulls my own flesh when I push against his. And when he comes, he fills my mouth like a big gulp of ocean that's hard to get down. This tree house longer holds our childhood secrets but our grown up acts of indiscretion.
I cover him back up when his breaths take too long to slow and his eyes close with exhaustion and the sweat cools on his skin. He grabs onto my hand, pressing his thumb into my palm, holding tightly as if that's the only thank you he has the energy for. When he doesn't let go, I pull myself up, my back on the wall, and sit next to him with my thigh pressed to his. I don't want this moment to end. I don't need any beats of metal here.
"Eddie…how did you know?"
"Hm?"
"About the tongue piercing?"
He's silent long enough to where I don't want the answer. "Last year, before her parents made her take it out, Alice had one."
Click. Click. Click.