Safety

Kyle

I wonder if she knows what she has done to me. I have long searched for the one for me, and she is it. Her innocence leaves me needing her more and more. Just to touch her would be heaven, but I must stick with my plan in order to woo her correctly. She is almost too little. She will fear and rebel – such is natural when a girl grows into a woman.

I must be persistent, and firm. I cannot melt to her innocence, not like I did with the last one. She got away from me, damned devil girl. Females are dangerous specimen, yet it is so nice to capture one…yet what I have, truly I must hold onto this time. I won't lose another. It hurt me the first and the second time, but it won't hurt me again. I will have her.

Rob

I walked alone on the dark street, winding up and farther up to Steve's house. Steve lived just below town, where as I lived furthest west than anyone else in our group. I couldn't get the man out of my head, the one that had been chasing us.

I couldn't get Julie out of my head either. She had put her body on the line to 'save' me. Not that it seems like too much, but Julie is one of those who values her morals and their standing more than anyone. She is the most proper and…spiritually strong person in our entire school. It's hard to explain, really. But Julie offering that…herself. I don't know. Maybe she just didn't realize what she was doing.

That guy…he had been sneaking around just like we were. I had turned to leave quietly, and that's when he turned around and grabbed my arm. I didn't want to go with him, but I guess I froze. I don't know what came over me. His brown eyes like, drilled into my head. I could barely speak after I had made eye contact with him. The situation was all blurry in my head though. It was like someone had taken and sprayed water all over the dry erase board of my intuition and memories.

One lone light in Steve's house was on. He was awake. I wondered if my girlfriend was awake still. None of the skaters knew about her, my newest girlfriend, Anna. She's a freshman, a year younger than us, and very, very shy. I don't want to introduce her to that life quite yet. She's new to our school too – but she's very smart. She's in my math class, so she's a year ahead of the rest of her class. She has the cutest southern accent.

I was torn. She lived a few houses down from Steve, but it was also 10 at night. And I didn't want to go in on her this late, nor did I want to burst in on Steve after 12, which is probably the time I'd stay at Anna's house.

I went for Steve's house instead, holding an image of my girlfriend in my mind. No doubt, was she pretty. She was thin, very thin, and short. She had darker skin – Native American, with these startling light brown…hazel…eyes. Her eyes were big and round, but she is no where near innocent. She's practically the opposite of Julie.

Whenever I introduce a girlfriend to Julie, she always takes a dislike to them, and I don't know why. It's not like Julie likes me or anything. I have every right to do whatever I want! Fuck her. Sometimes, well, most of the time, girls confuse the hell out of me. Julie refuses my teasing, but gets so jealous when I take other girls. Of course, it might be that I say I love them.

Julie says I don't know what love is. She says that when my head – the bigger one – starts leading my thoughts, and actions, is when I may possibly discover what love is. But when I ask her if she knows, she says yes and refuses to elaborate. She won't tell us who she loves. Or who she has loved.

"I know where you live!" That strange man's shout echoed in my head. I frowned. Why did he pop into my head? My worry must have shown on my face, for when Steve opened the door, the first thing he said was,

"What'd you do this time?"

I laughed at him, nervously, and he moved out of my way, allowing me entrance. I dropped my board outside of the door and I walked into the dim house. The odd mix of sage and rosemary smells hit my nose, two different waves. I shrugged.

"We didn't do anything that bad. Can I stay here for the night?"

"You know you can stay here whenever you want. So what'd you get into this time? How come Julie or Adam aren't with you?" I stifled a laugh. Steve sounded especially…paternal tonight.

"We almost got caught sneaking around at the dump. Some weird guy was there."

"Oh, really? Why were you at the dump?" Steve was getting ready to yell at me. He was 18, and even though he was only 2 years older than us, he acted 20 years older. He was our father figure, and we would tell him anything.

"Relax. Let me tell the story, mom." I shot at him before he could continue. He shook his head once, then sighed.

"Go on then. Do I need to make myself comfortable? How long is this going to take?" He sounded defensive, and extremely sarcastic. I shrugged.

"Well if you don't want to hear it, I won't tell you. It's your choice – you inquired, not me."

"I'll listen." Steve said, deferring, and he took a seat on his couch. I sat in the big comfy chair across from him. I shrugged yet again.

"Julie and I were bored…so we decided to go over to the dump and see if we could find anything. We kind of got off track and started playing hide-and-seek, and I was looking around for her, and I come across this guy. I saw him before he saw me, but as I turned to leave and haul ass, he saw me and grabbed me."

"How close were you to him?"

"Like four feet before I realized, but that guy moved really fast. He looked to be about forty, brown eyes, black hair. He was a bit taller than I am, so maybe 5'11"-ish."

"Right. You ever seen him before?" Steve inquired. He sounded more concerned now, and less angry.

"No, never in my life. Not around town or anything. So," I took a breath and readjusted myself in order to continue my tale."He grabbed me and this part is kind of blurry because my adrenaline kicked in, but he said "Why don't you come with me?" and then he started to drag me towards the front of the dump. Then Julie came, and she yelled something like "Hey why don't you come after me! At least I have tits!" and then it all went back into regular time. I remember ripping away from him and running past Julie. Julie came after me and threw my skateboard over the fence. He grabbed her foot as she crawled under the fence after me, but he wouldn't follow underneath the fence. He shouted something about knowing where we lived. Garbage. Never seen him before in my life."

"Wait…Julie said that?" Steve had the purest look of astonishment on his face.

"Yeah, it surprised me too." I nodded, relieved to not be the only one who thought it was odd."I think she flashed him, is the weird part.”

"Surprising. So is that all that happened to you? Why are you here and not at your own house? You feel like I'm going to protect you or something?"

"No…I don't know. I didn't feel like going home. Adam and I, we met Adam back at the daycare center, and Adam and I switched shirts. I kept my board though, and Adam and Julie switched so she had his blades."

"Where did Julie go?" Steve asked, trying not to sound concerned. It didn't work too well, and I replied quickly to alleviate his stress.

"Julie went with Adam. I wouldn't have let her go home alone, not after that. Some people are sick and would stalk her or something."

"Yeah, nothing's going to happen to our Julie." Steve stated, as if she was ours to keep. I nodded in complete agreement.

"I get the couch?"

"Yeah. You know where everything is, right? I've got some work to do, but I can talk later on if you're still awake."

"Alright. Thanks Steve. You're an awesome friend. I don't know what we'd do without you. You're always there for us when we get into crap."

Steve nodded an expression of acknowledgement, grinning at me and leaving to enter into his kitchen. Not seconds later, I heard him typing furiously away at the keyboard once more. He was working on a web design project for some company. This particular job had taken weeks.

I moved over to the couch and laid down, trying to find some peace or serenity in my thoughts. I tried for a while, lost in my own mind's images, fantasies and what-ifs like a person with a song stuck in their head. The scenes kept playing, over and over, slightly changed in my head. I slowly dozed off.

Previous Chapter: Shame
Next Chapter: Morning
Home: Go To Title Page