22. Territorial Pissings

"I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love. If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, but I shall be good health to you nevertheless, and filter and fibre your blood. Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged. Missing me one place search another. I stop somewhere waiting for you."

It was silent for a few moments, and then he turned his head enough to see me. "That was the end?" he asked.

"Yeah... you do realize we've been on this same book for almost a week now, right?"

"I liked it," he smiled. He rolled his head out of my lap and eased himself up next to me, sharing the trunk of a high maple. We were in a beautiful meadow filled with windflowers, bluebells, and buttercups.

"What are these called?" I wrapped my fingers gently under a flower.

"Pinkfairies," he smiled. "They're in the primrose family."

I leaned into his chest, toying with the collar of his shirt. "I don't want to leave."

"Sun just came up," he said as he wrapped his arm around me and held me close. "We have a little time."

I'd been up most of the night, my back against this tree as I sang to him and read him poetry. I mostly just didn't want to sleep because this place was overwhelmingly beautiful, the flowers in the breeze and the scent of the earth an assault I wasn't willing to part with. Unfortunately, it was catching up to me now and I couldn't stop yawning. "Can I just - "

I was being held in the air before I knew what was happening. "Someone's here," he said.

"Human?"

"Yes."

"Honey, it's probably some campers or something," I replied sleepily.

"Or some witches," he said. "Can you tell?"

I reached out with my senses, battling against my urge to just pass out wrapped in his warmth. "I'm not picking up on anything."

He set me easily on my feet. "We should still go."

I pouted a little. "Fine." I raised my arms like a child, wanting him to pick me back up so I could fly us home.

"Want to ride instead?" he asked, smiling beautifully.

That woke me up. I bounced up and down clapping my hands, "Yes! Yay!"

He chuckled and pecked me on the lips. "Silly girl."

He pulled his clothes off and folded them neatly. I tucked the whole outfit into my hoodie as he transformed before my eyes into the big sandy wolf. I climbed onto his back and gave him a good snuggle; his fur was so soft and I loved the scent that clung to him. He turned his head to confirm that I was holding on tightly, leaned back and then burst forward, heavy paws thumping the damp ground as the emerald green and brown rushed past us.

It was just exhilarating enough to keep me awake until we got home.

Seth laid me down in bed and helped me yank my jeans off when I couldn't do it by myself. He covered me up, set an alarm on my phone for me and conked out next to me for maybe an hour.

I snoozed my alarm a few times and ended up waking just minutes before a major Skype interview. I jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom to pee, checked myself out in the mirror above the sink to make sure there wasn't makeup smudged around horribly, then went to my desk and opened up my laptop. Unfortunately, as soon as the screen came to life, my interviewer appeared on mine - and I appeared on his. Sans pants.

"Liz... ?"

"Fuck!" I yelled, slamming the computer shut. I stood there for a moment with my hand on my face, embarrassed and dreading the fact that I had to look at that guy again and talk to him for awhile. I slipped my pants on and smoothed out my old Nirvana tee, then sat down calmly and reopened the laptop. This time it had a box prompting me to accept the call instead of him just being right there.

We stared at each other for a few moments; he was trying not to laugh,and I gradually went from daring him to, to laughing myself. It was ridiculous.

"That was interesting," he finally said.

I covered my face again, cheeks burning hot. "I'm sorry," I said. "I just opened the thing, your face was there... yeah. That was really embarrassing."

"I forgive you," he chuckled. "We'll just pretend that didn't happen."

"Deal," I smiled.

He started in on questions about my physical surroundings, so I had to tour my room with the laptop in hand. We talked about tons of other bands that I liked, and then of course about my band, about what was coming up touring and album wise. The guy - Keith something - was really nice and complimentary, quick witted and funny. We even did a few shots together, which was less weird on his end because it was five in the afternoon there.

Not a bad way to spend what otherwise would have been another lonely morning. Stupid regular jobs, keeping all my friends busy all day.

After I finally ate and bathed and made myself presentable, I took off to find my Ana. I was bored and it was almost sunny today; she shouldn't be locked away in a store on a day like this. She should be out with me, enjoying life.

I found her curled up in a chair with a cup of Starbucks and a worn copy of American Gods resting open in her hand. I came up silently from behind and put my hands over her eyes.

"Liz!" she said immediately, jumping up.

"How'd you know it was me?"

"I can feel you," she said. "And your hand smells like sweet cherries and full flavor cigarettes. Classic Liz."

"I've come to steal you away, my love," I sang to her.

She looked torn. "I don't know..."

"Look. We can do this the easy way... " I pulled out a pair of handcuffs from my pocket, "Or the hard way. You're coming with me."

She rolled her eyes but smiled. "Fine. Let's blow this popsicle stand."

"Beach or the bar?"

"Why not both?" she smiled.

We hit the beach first. It was too cold to get in the water, so we mostly just walked around and after awhile we found a secluded spot, sat down with a blunt and a guitar and sang and smoked and played beautiful things. I was on my yearly Kurt Cobain kick so I stuck to Nirvana while Ana picked around at some Zach Deputy and Iron And Wine covers.

We popped back by the house and changed our clothes, then set off to a bar that would hopefully not be dead this early in the day. We had only been standing by the bar for a few moments before the bartender brought us each a beer, compliments of some older guy who only nodded in our direction appreciatively like we had done him a favor by being there.

I slammed my beer like the hoodlum I was and ordered another. "Let's go upstairs," I said as it was set in front of me.

There were two guys up here shooting pool; one turned around and gawked. "Liz!"

I was scooped up and spun around, knocking the breath out of me. "G!"

"Wow! What are you doing in Washington?" He was still latched onto me.

"I live here. What about you?"

"Same," he said. "You seeing anybody?"

Wow, subtle. "I am."

He finally let me back down to my feet and looked me over carefully. "Like, you serious with 'em? Or can I holler at you?"

"She's serious," Ana grumbled beside me. She was no fan of my ex lover.

G had moved to town when we were sixteen. I met him at a bar one night, drunk off my ass and he was just so pretty. He came up to me and told me I was hot and we basically became friends at that point. Then somewhere along the way, that progressed to friends with benefits. Teenage me had wanted a relationship, but that want quickly faded. We actually had a pretty good thing going for a while.

He glanced down at my left hand. "No ring, can't be too serious. I'll be right back." He dashed down the stairs and returned moments later with a bucket of Budweiser on ice, offering it around to our now four person party.

G kept trying to slide back and forth between playing a game of pool and talking to me, which wasn't working so well because his friend sucked ass at pool. After he missed a ball for the tenth time and I cheered about it, he glared at me incredulously.

"I'd like to see you do better," he said to me, which was brazen because I'd never met this guy before.

I smirked at him. "Okay, let's play a game," I offered. "Ana and I against you and G."

Ana looked nervous. G was rubbing his hands together mischievously.

"Want to lay a bet down, ladies?" G asked.

"Sure. What's normal... twenty bucks? Fifty?" I tried to recall how much cash I had on me.

"Oh, baby. I don't want your money..."

I raised an eyebrow at him. It was easy to tell where this was heading.

"If we win, I want an evening with you."

"I'm not going to whore myself out for a game of pool," I snapped.

"No touching, nothing uncomfortable. Just you, me, maybe some Netflix, maybe a party..." He smiled slowly, considering the possibilities.

"And if we win?" Ana asked.

"Well then Liz wins a lovely night with me," he joked.

"How about this," Ana said. "If we win, you can open up a permanent tab here for us to use at any time."

"Oooooh, I like that," I smiled broadly.

He held his hand out to me. "Deal."

Poor boy didn't know what he was getting himself into.

Ana pulled me to the side as they racked up the balls. "Liz, you do realize that we're both terrible at pool, right?"

"Not anymore we're not," I winked.

"Ladies first," G offered.

I leaned down and popped the billiard ball with my cue, shooting it into the triangle of other balls. They all spun out from their formation and the nine, eleven and twelve ball all sunk into separate pockets. "Stripes," I called innocently.

G was already shaking his head. "Nice shot, Elizabeth."

"Thanks, Aaron."

He smirked at my use of his real name as Ana leaned down and attempted to hit the ball with her stick. It didn't quite work. "Oh, tough luck, girl." He didn't even try to hide his satisfaction.

Ana bumped into me purposefully and glared. "This has to be believable," I whispered as G bent down and took his shot. It was a good one, should have put the guys almost even with us. Of course, I couldn't let that happen.

"Oh, tough luck," I repeated back at him mockingly.

He smiled, always cocky. "Let's see you get as lucky a second time as you did the first."

I could feel eyes on my ass as I leaned down to shoot the ball. This time I sent the ten ball into a corner pocket and smiled at them. Ana came closer to the table and I decided to help her this time; pool was just not at all her thing. I wasn't great at it but I could at least hit the ball. She got the fifteen ball and I gave it a little nudge into a pocket.

My turn again.

"Maybe we should make this a best two out of three..." G said as I leaned forward.

I cracked the white ball at an angle and it caused a perfect chain reaction from the thirteen to the fourteen to the eight ball.

"Oooooh snap!" G's friend shouted.

"Sorry, but we can't stick around," I smirked. "Better go sign off on that endless tab for us."

Ana and I left the bar all high and mighty, giggling like teenagers. I turned Bleach on in the car and we rocked out all the way back home, where we found our amazing boyfriends finishing up on dinner preparations. It smelled amazing as we all sat down together.

"So, what'd you guys do today?" Josh asked.

"Liz kidnapped me from work and took me to the beach and the bar," Ana answered him.

"Sounds fun," Seth said. "Did someone rub up against you?" he directed to me. "You smell like Axe spray and menthols."

"Yeah, Liz's ex tried to - "

"Friend!" I yelled. "G is not my ex, Ana!"

"Former fuck buddy," she corrected.

"You slept with a guy whose name is a letter?" Josh laughed.

"His name is Aaron," I grumbled.

"He tried to win her in pool," Ana giggled.

Seth stopped eating to stare at me. You knew shit was serious when he wasn't shoveling his food down. "Win her?"

"He was just being stupid," I covered. "Besides, I wouldn't have played if there was any chance of losing."

Ana switched the subject then and Seth remained quiet for the most part. Of course, I knew he'd likely bring it up again later... and as soon as we were alone, that's exactly what he did.

"You're so jealous," I teased him.

"Only with you."

"You shouldn't be."

"You have a whole lifetime of history I don't know about. I've never even heard of this guy."

I crooked my finger at him until he leaned his ear close to my mouth. "That's because he wasn't the slightest bit important. Seriously."

The left edge of his lips curved up into a half smile. "No good in bed?" he asked.

"Nope." Not even a little.

"Well. At least you swindled him, I guess."

"I'm a hustler, baby. I just want you to know."

He started tickling me and then went in for a sloppy kiss that I mostly giggled through. "At least I have that going for me, right?"

"Oh yeah, baby. That and a lot more."