The Layers of His Mask

14. Please, Not This

Alex’s POV

Anna, her husband Aaron and I took a trip down to the park to just hang out and catch up without having the parents around. I love my parents, but it’s a really nice day out and I just want to enjoy the unusually cool breeze that’s blowing before it goes away tomorrow. My father may have also forced me out the house. It doesn't hurt that I wanted to discuss a couple things that weren't meant for our parents to hear.

“How have you been taking this whole thing?” Anna asks me. I drag my feet along the beige cement path, training my focus on the cracks in the pavement.

“Not well.” I have not been handling this whole thing very well at all. Knowing that my father is dying is making me vulnerable to just about every emotion I try so well to mask.

Just a f*****g week ago I crumbled to pieces in front of Becca’s door. I let her hold me and see me cry, which is something I rarely do. Oddly enough, having her console and comfort me felt like the most normal thing in the world. She made everything seem okay again, even when I know that it’s not.

"You seem to be handling it pretty well." She pauses mid-step, grabbing my arm to keep me from moving forward.

"Can you give us a second babe?" she asks her husband Aaron. He nods and stands a few feet away - out of hearing distance. "What makes you think I'm handling this any better than you are?" She gawks at me, not breaking the gaze.

"You can laugh at will. You can make jokes with mom and dad and not even flinch afterwards - you just join right in. I on the other hand narrowly escape crying. I've been doing that a lot lately. Sadly," I mutter to myself.

She closes her eyes temporarily. "What you see on the outside is nothing compared to how I'm dealing with it on the inside, Alex. I'm handling this in about the same manner as you, so don't stand there and tell me, 'I seem to be handling this pretty well'. I'm not! I'm not okay Alex, and I don't think I ever will be..."

Tears are streaming down her face now, lips trembling. I can not stay mad at her for thinking she didn't care, she clearly does. Even now when she's crying like this she's a younger clone of our mother: oceanic blue eyes, long wavy brown hair, small button nose. My mother is my weak spot, and now so is my sister.

I envelop my sister Anna, wrapping my arms around her - letting her release all of her bottled up tears. "Listen...Anna, I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions." She nods her head.

I rub small, soothing circles on her back. Aaron comes over and appears to be confused. Anna pulls away, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her thin materialed, yellow sweater.

"Babe, what's wrong?" Aaron hugs his wife briefly.

"I'm fine, baby. We just had a little misunderstanding, that's all."

"Yeah man, I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to make you worry." I run a hand over my hair.

"It's cool Alex, I understand."

"This is why I love him. He's so understanding and just nonchalant about everything. He keeps me grounded and helps me cope with everything that's going on." She lovingly smiles up at him and he lovingly smiles down at her.

Being a third wheel to this whole thing f*****g sucks ass. Where are all the other lonely, lost souls?

"Just so you know Aaron, what I told you all those months ago still stands. You hurt her in any sort of way, I will find you," I warn him. "I know where you live and I know where you work."

"Alex," Anna laughs, "How the hell do you know where he works?"

"I looked it up."

"Why would you look up his work address and how did you even find it?"

"Google is helpful for all sorts of things, including searching random strangers and finding their addresses and place of work."

"That still doesn't explain why you looked it up..."

"You live too damn far away and I would like to know where to look and who to ask for if ever the situation called for it. Don't question me, just know that I'm capable of these things." I narrow my eyes at him, he flinches, eyes cast in the opposite direction.

"You're making him uncomfortable Alex," Anna chuckles. She hooks her arm with his, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"That's the point. Glad to know I got it across." She flips me off.

"How did you and Rebecca meet?" I roll my eyes.

"I told you already."

"I know you were a manwhore when you were younger, but you didn't meet her in a bathroom stall. She's too sweet. You need to ask that girl out and stop playing around before she gets bored with your s**t and moves on." I glare at her, she doesn't even seem phased. This is one tough skinned family.

"I'm not boring, I'm fairly exciting."

"As a door nail."

"If your husband wasn't right here I'd curse you out." A challenging grin shows on her face. My sister loves to try my sanity...and my patience.

"I'm gonna go sit down." I walk away, taking a seat on a bench not too far from the path we were walking on. Anna and Aaron join shortly after. "I can't ask her out right now, not with dad and - "

"You heard what he said Alex," Anna interjects. "He told us not to spend our lives watching the remainder of his tick by."

"What the f**k does that even mean?" My muffled voice says into my hands.

"For a smart guy, you're really stupid. Just ask her out. Don't make a big deal about it, be casual."

"Yeah, because I'm the king of casual. Enough about me, how is Ariel?”

“She’s good, she misses her uncle. She told me to tell you that she wants a skype date with you.”

“Tell her I said it’s a date.”

****

Pacing the space in front of my bed, I pull out my phone. I hit the green phone icon next to her name three times, hanging up just when it starts to ring.

She probably thinks I'm prank calling her by now. What other excuse would there be for someone calling your phone multiple times - all in the duration of one minute.

"Man the f**k up Alex, God! One more time. I'm going to try this one more time and I'm not going to hang up." I press call, bringing the phone to my ear. The phone rings three times and I hang up once more.

Fuck.

Tossing my phone onto my bed, I fall back next to it.

I need to call Tom, I don't want to, but I need to. Against my better judgment, I call him. He picks up almost instantly.

"Alexander..." He answers dryly.

"Thomas..."

He breaks his composure when he laughs, asking, "what can I help you with mate?"

"I need one-thousand dollars."

"Are you f*****g with me or...?" I live to mess with Tom, it's the highlight of my day in most cases.

"Yes, I'm f*****g with you. I need you to help me wipe my ass..." I inform him, voice humorless.

He pauses on the line before responding. "I don't think I can help you with that situation my friend. The arse of a man is something I neither like touching nor looking at. Except for yours of course, it's a glorious sight."

"f**k you... So you're telling me you've touched the ass of a man?"

"I'm telling you never to speak of this to anyone. The...situation involved a male stripper-gram from an upset one night stand. The poor guy wouldn't leave. He told me he wasn't allowed to unless I smacked his arse. Like bloody hell, it was horrifying." A traumatized Tom, now this is getting rather interesting.

To be truthful, none of that surprises me in the slightest. Tom can be a total d**k when it comes to women. "What did you do, not call her a cab afterwards?"

"I slept with her twin sister that same night.” Like I said, total d**k. “I even offered to make it a threesome and she refused." Epic d**k.

"That's unfortunate... Anyways, I need to ask your advice on something."

"Just ignore my problem completely."

“That’s not a problem, that’s your complicated shit.”

“Alright then, shoot. Let’s see what the girl has done now.”

"I want to ask Rebecca out - you ass - but I don't exactly know where I'd take her and how to." I feel like a damn teenager right now. I surpassed the pubescent boy stage a long time ago.

Just thinking about puberty reminds me of when Rebecca sent me a link to a keek video the other day. Once I figured out how to work the damn site, I opened the video. It featured four boys who go by the name 5 Seconds of...what was it...winter? I don't know, who the f**k cares.

Her obviously.

But they were sitting there with cracked voices yelling, "Oh my God, puberty!" every damn five seconds. It did give me a chuckle so I can't be mad at her for that.

"You...Alex Brooks are clueless as to where to take a woman on a first date? Fascinating.”

“Shut up and just help me.”

“You could always take her to your apartment, show her the ins and outs of your kitchen, tear off her clothes in the hall - “

“Enough of that s**t,” I cut in, “You are no help, at all.”

“Just remember who called who here. You asked for my advice and now I have given it to you. Now go, take my knowledge and do with it what you will, but do not, and I repeat do not sleep with her sister. She may send you a male stripper-gram in the morning.”

“She doesn’t have a sister.” I hang up.

All the hope that I had in him diminished rather quickly. What the f**k was I even thinking asking him for advice on a damn date? I should have known. Tom has never even liked a woman to the point of bringing her home to his mother. He manipulates them into thinking that they will be able to, but in the end he will get bored with you and toss you away like the Friday morning trash collector.

Maybe my sister will be a better person to talk to about this…

Anna and I established after numerous hours of discussion that the best place to take Becca on a first date would be this candy shop downtown called Valerie’s Sweet Tooth. I’ve always seen the place, but I’ve never been in it. I’m sure Becca will approve it, she eats enough candy to feed a damn village. I’m surprised she doesn’t have a cavity as of yet.

I’m going to make this date a spontaneous one - for her at least. I went and purchased her favorite meal from IHOP: banana’s foster brioche french toast with bacon, hashbrowns and a large orange juice. I don’t want her spoiling her lunch later on with all the candy I’m sure she’s going to demolish while there.

I pull into the parking lot of her apartment, taking the steps two at a time to her door. I knock and wait somewhat patiently for her to open it. Tapping my foot against the cement floor, I knock again when she doesn’t answer after about two minutes.

Bringing my ear to the door, I hear a muffled, "what the hell?" and a, "you are so lazy!".

“What the fu - ” She swings the door open, looking damn good even when she looks like she apparently just woke up. There is a toothbrush hanging from her mouth - saliva and toothpaste filled.

She’s wearing a white elbow length shirt with red sleeves, a male is in the center of it. I recognize his face from somewhere. The curly, light brown hair - red bandana. She paired that horrible shirt with multicolored plaid pajama bottoms.

I blink to her hair. That damn hair. It’s cascading across her shoulders, partly messy from just waking up.

“Hi,” she mumbles, dragging the brush across her teeth.

I hold up the bag of food in my hand. “I uh, I bought breakfast. I thought maybe we could do something today, if you want to that is. You don’t have to if you don't want to, that’s totally fine. I - ”

“Alex, stop rambling and come inside.” she giggles, opening the door fully so that I may enter. I place the bag of food on her small, wooden dining room table.

“What, no food for us?” her purple haired friend Hannah asks, leaning on the back of the sofa.

The normal one - Violet - shakes her head disapprovingly at her friend. "She doesn’t need any food, she just ate," Violet tells me.

"Have you eaten too Becca?" I hope this isn't the case, I didn’t go and buy all of this s**t for nothing.

"No, she just helped finish off the rest of my Captain Crunch - the greedy whore." She sends Hannah an aggressive stare.

"I'm no w***e woman. A majority of whores just want the D, I want the D and I have expensive taste."

"w***e," she blatantly repeats again. "Anyways, I'm gonna go take a shower really quickly. I'll be right back. Please don't make him uncomfortable while I'm gone." She disappears down the hall and I take a seat at the table.

Hannah continues to smile at me and it's already making me uncomfortable. "Can I help you?"

"Nope," she responds. "Just admiring you from a distance that's all."

"Can you admire me from a distance at an actual distance, and not just several feet away? Perhaps out the door and around the corner?"

"What fun would that be?"

"A lot... for me." God, she reminds me so much of Tom, it's uncanny.

"I like you," she laughs, "you'll fit in well in our circle."

"Hannah, please leave him alone," Violet begs her friend.

"He can handle himself, I assure you. I just find him to be rather interesting to look at." I turn away from her man eating eyes.

"Alex, ignore her please. She hasn't had s*x in about a month so she's very frustrated." That's something I did not need to know. I'm not going to be fulfilling any of her s****l fantasies.

"Done," I respond, drumming my fingers along the table.

Quietness has joined our company, and it's rather nice. Someone clears their throat through it and then I hear Violet say, "it's been nice but Hannah and I have somewhere to be. It was good seeing you again Alex."

"No we don't," Hannah angrily replies.

"Yeah, we do," Violet retorts, dragging her from the sofa and out the front door.

God that was awkward.

Becca emerges from the room ten minutes later and I almost curse at how beautiful she looks. She's wearing a strapless navy blue dress covered in white polka-dots, falling at her knees. White heels, and a yellow hair band made into the shape of a big bow is slid to the right atop her head. Her hair is straight - curled at the ends. But the one thing I can't keep my eyes off of are her red painted lips. She knows that red is her color and she wears it f*****g well. She even paired her red lips with red painted fingernails.

"Do I look okay?" Becca asks, bending at the knees to exam her dress. "I don't know where we are going so I went for casual, yet not too dressed up."

"You look perfect. You'll be fine." A small smile tugs at the corner of her lips. Her dress sways lightly from left to right when she moves from the corner of the hall to the light brown wooden table.

We eat the lukewarm breakfast I bought for us then head downtown to Valerie’s Sweet Tooth. We talk the entire time there - surprisingly. Usually we run out of topics to discuss, this time we have too many to discuss.

****

"You're seriously not going to tell me where we are going?"

"We're almost there, have patience little one."

"Shut up," she giggles, playfully slapping my arm. This one actually stings a little.

"Your slaps are starting to hurt, can you please not do that again?" I pull into the parking lot of Sweet Tooth, putting the car in park.

"Please not this." She unbuckles her seatbelt, punches my arm.

"That's it, you damn UFC fighter." I unbuckle my seatbelt as well. Reaching across the armrest, I tickle her ribs. She jerks in her seat, laughing adorably, throwing her hands up to block me my fingers from touching her ribs again.

"Stop," she whines, laughter still mixed in her tone.

"Ahhh, so you're ticklish? Yet another thing I did not know about you." My fingers dive for her ribs again. She dodges my attack and grabs my face in both her hands, planting her lips to mine.

This kiss feels more intense than all the others. More careful, less rushed. I close my eyes, shift my hand to her waist, and tickle her once more. She laughs into my mouth.

"Don't try and reverse my own technique on me, it's a craft I've been perfecting."

She catches her breath after her laughter subsides and says, "you have to admit, for those first few seconds, I had you."

"You did, then I quickly caught onto your act."

"We can try it again, but without the distractions. After our date of course."

"Deal."

I hop out and walk around to Rebecca’s door, opening and closing it for her. "Such a gentleman."

I shrug nonchalantly, telling her, "my mother raised me right."

She laughs, loops her arm with mine and I guide us toward the white and pink painted building. Overhead the storefront has blown up striped lettering containing the colors: pink, yellow, orange, and baby blue bubble - reading; Valerie’s Sweet Tooth.

Becca stops us dead in our tracks, only a few feet from the entrance. She looks up at the sign then back to me and gasps. "No you did not. You did not bring me here Alex. Oh. My. God." Is that a tear I see running down her cheek? Is she really f*****g crying right now?

"Becca, do not break down on me right now. Not here."

"I can't help it," she whimpers, pacing in front of the door. "I've been meaning to go here forever, but I've never had the chance. This place is like...the Best Buy of candy Alex. The freaking holy grail of sweets. The - "

"You know..." I mention, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. I bend my knees slightly, pointing to the door with my other hand. "If you actually go inside before the sun goes down, you may actually see inside it."

"f*****g lets go!" She shouts, scurrying up to the door and sprinting inside. I love how the word f*****g becomes a regular part of her vocabulary when she becomes extremely excited.

She has also completely forgotten the person who brought her here. As soon as the thought hits me she dips her head out the door, waving with her arm she whispers, "Come on! You're missing it!" She grins at me then pops her head back inside.

I laugh to myself and join her inside. The place is covered floor to ceiling in clear containers, packed with different varieties of candy. You have the hard and soft candies located on one side of the store, the chocolate and sweet - salty combinations on the other. I will be paying that side a visit.

Becca has already begun tasting, standing among a crowd of children. If you think about, it she fits right in. But, you have these snot covered children, then you have us: a grown ass man and woman browsing a candy shop.

Becca is hard at working on choosing which candy to purchase, she points to a jar of watermelon shaped candy resting on the top shelf. A man named Eric retrieves it for her and scoops a few pieces into her petite hand. She throws back a piece and her face instantly lights up.

"Can I get those in like the largest bag you have?" She requests, widening her arms for emphasis.

"Yes ma'am, I'll be right back," he says.

She turns to me and pops another piece into her mouth. Swallowing it, she shakes her head. "Alex, you have to try these."

She tells me to open my mouth before sticking the watermelon sliced candy into my mouth. It's a bit sour upon first taste, but once your tongue dissolves all the sugar, it morphs into sweet on your tongue.

"That's...actually not half bad." I steal the last piece from her open palm. Her mouth forms into the shape of an o.

"You just stole my last piece," Becca frowns.

"You're getting like a whole damn bag in a few minutes, you will be okay." her mouth presses into a hard line. f**k, her naturally pouty lips.

I grab her hand and walk over to the chocolate and sweet - salty section. "Let's look for some chocolate. Chocolate is a hundred times more appealing to me than all of that." I wave my free hand behind us.

"Fine," she mutters, brows pulling together in frustration.

I stop her, taking my thumbs and rubbing away the crease from the middle of forehead. She pouts her lips, then smiles. Standing up on her tip toes, she presses one kiss to my lips. Grabbing my hand again, we walk over towards the chocolate, browsing all the different flavor variations.

****

Because Becca is making our choice a much more difficult decision than it needs to be, her indecision has us stuck between: chocolate covered cherry bites, chocolate covered potato chips sprinkled with sea salt, and chocolate peanut butter balls with pretzels distributed throughout.

"I can't choose Alex, help me choose." She stands in front of me shaking my arms. I drape one across her shoulder and swivel us to face the containers.

I look down at her. "I already told you which one I want, either the peanut butter balls or the chips."

"I know, but..." she groans.

"Get them both if you want Rebecca," I smirk, "I have no problem with it."

"Really?! So can I get those sour candy strips too?" Her eyes are wide now, her head twisting from me to the left.

"Yes, Becca," I chuckle. She runs over to the other side of the store - nearly tripping over her own feet - and asks for the sour candy strips. She returns to me five minutes later with those and her watermelon sliced candy.

"I will no longer purchase candy from another grocery store." Holding up the bag up to her face she whispers, "I am going to die a happy woman because of these."

"From candy?" I raise a brow.

"Yes!"

"Just so you know, you are eating zero of it until after lunch."

"Not even one piece?" She inquires, raising one finger.

"Nada. You're gonna give yourself a damn cavity one day with all that sugar."

"You are such a party pooper. Take a walk on the wild side Alex!"

"Please stop yelling." A song called candy comes through the speakers and Becca freaks out.

"Dance with me Alex." Grabbing my hands she leads me to the middle of the store and starts twirling in a circle around me, the skirt of her dress fanning out. "If you don't dance, I'm going to start singing."

"Not doing it." I cross my arms across my chest.

She steps into my view, sliding from left to right in the midst of singing, "Mother was a victim, father beat the system, by moving bricks to Brixton and learning how to fix them..."

"f**k it."

****

"I absolutely love that place. Thank you so much Alex, I'm upset that I never checked it out earlier."

"It was quite neat, even though you did bribe six bags of candy out of me with kisses."

"You offered and I took advantage of the opportunity." We get out of the car and Rebecca has the huge bag of candy in hand.

"That is not coming in with us. Please deposit the bag into the back seat."

"But what if I get hungry?"

"Candy is nothing but empty calories. That's why restaurants have appetizers."

"Well I know that." She open the bag of sour candy strips and stuffs a piece into her mouth.

"Did you really just eat that?"

"Just one," she giggles, hovering her hand over her mouth.

We walk side by side into a local barbecue joint. the smell of charcoal and beef fills the air. They allow us to seat ourselves, I choose a booth off in the far corner, away from everyone.

The waiter comes over and takes our drink orders. I go with a beer and Rebecca orders a lemonade. He tells us he'll be back. I already have my order in mind: barbecue chicken, macaroni and cheese, and green beans. Rebecca is being indecisive as usual.

"I think I know what I want now...the whole menu." She closes the menu and stares at me blankly.

"I'll go down to the drugstore and purchase some Imodium because a bathroom stall is where you will end up if you do."

"You're obsessed with diarrhea."

"You're obsessed with candy."

"Change of subject," she giggles. "Favorite genre of music and why?"

"I'm a man of many genres. I have very eclectic taste. You?"

"I'm an indie pop girl. I recently discovered this sort of undiscovered group called Snowmine. They are having a concert here next weekend and I really wanna go."

"I've heard of Snowmine. They have a very unique sound," I add.

The waiter arrives, temporarily interrupting our conversation and placing our drinks down in front of us. It’s kind of neat how they don’t use actual glasses, but mason jars to put drinks in.

"Are you both ready to order, or do you need a few more minutes?" He looks to me.

"We're ready." We tell him our orders and resume our conversation.

"I've been meaning to ask you something," Becca tells me.

"Go for it."

She straightens in her seat, takes a sip of her drink. Clearing her throat she asks, "What's the first thing you noticed about me when we first met?" Her eyes are trained on my face, clearly assessing it.

There were plenty of things I noticed about her on first sight, number one being her lips. Second being her auburn hair. Third, her ass. I’m a guy, sue me. Definitely my top three.

But with her, her personality totally overshadows her looks and it makes her that much more attractive to me.

"To be totally honest," I mutter, glancing down to her mouth, "your lips. After that it was your hair," I lean my elbows up on the table, "and then after that...your ass."

Her face flushes a deep red, her pale skin making it easily identifiable. "Uh... the first thing I noticed about you was your eyes, then your beard and last," she rubs at her chin, "your smile, which you don't do enough of. But when you do, it's one of the most beautiful things in the world."

"You are one of the most beautiful things in this world," I state truthfully.

The tension between us is unreal, has been from the beginning. I've always felt some kind of gravitational pull towards her, similar to that of magnets. It's like no matter where we are, we always end up near each other, or with each other.

****

The afternoon went along just as planned, we talked for hours upon hours about everything. We had no filters, no subject was off limits. That’s just how weird we are when we get together.

We discussed our plans for the future - including children. We both agreed, none for the current moment. My niece Ariel is the closest thing to me having a child.

Career plans? We both want to open our own restaurant when the timing is right. I was shocked to hear she would much rather run the pastry side of the kitchen. She showed me photos from class and some from competitions she entered. Her style of plating desserts is unique, rarely seen in this industry. I wonder why she chose Romano’s when there are so many other companies out there with better opportunities.

There were also embarrassing childhood memories thrown about. I ended up showing her a picture of me when I was a child - bucktoothed with braces, and a bowl haircut. How my mother thought that, that haircut looked good on anyone back then, I have no idea. Becca found it downright 'adorable' - she even asked for a copy - while I never want to see it again. I’d burn it if my mother didn’t love it so much.

Becca showed me a few pictures of her from high school, the years she claims were ‘her heaviest’. She still looked beautiful to me. I told her she could gain twenty pounds, be pregnant with twins and that still wouldn’t change what I think about her.

When you like someone for who they are, you can look past all those minor insecurities and just want to f*****g be with that person. Personality will always be a deciding factor for me over looks any day. Most women think it’s cliche, but it’s the honest damn truth for me.

****

Lunch is finished, Becca stands from the booth and grabs my hand, telling me to follow her. We slip down a dark hallway and into a family restroom. I stare down at her, she stares up at me - chest rising and falling rapidly - then we collide. Hands touching every inch of each others bodies, lips moving feverishly. I back her against the counter, lifting her onto it.

I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her closer to me. She tangles her arms in my brown hair, while I tangle mine in her auburn. I disconnect my lips from hers and plant them along her neck and jawline.

“Oh…God,” she moans, “that feels so good.” I nip and tug at her skin, she pulls my head closer.

Getting restless, I can no longer take it. There’s too much fabric. I untangle my hands from her hair, reaching down I pull her dress up and over her head. She hooks her arms around her back and unclasps her red, lace bra. She drops it without a care in the world. It lands somewhere on the floor beside us. We’re both too preoccupied to see.

I take one of her breasts in my mouth, swirling my tongue around her peak. She groans. I continue moving my tongue in a circular motion, sucking and nipping lightly. She throws her head back in pleasure, mouth open. I smirk, continuing onto her other breast.

Someone's phone rings, and we pause, searching for the sound of the noise. I hear that damn ‘Don't Stop’ song start in the silence, I automatically know it's hers.

I bend down and reach into her purse, handing it to her. "Hello?" she pants into the receiver. "Oh crap! Yeah, I totally forgot. I'll have Alex drop me off to your apartment. Okay, see you in about thirty."

"You're leaving?" I ask, retrieving her bra from the floor and helping her down from the counter.

"Yeah," she replies, turning her back to me so I can connect her bra from the back. She shimmies into her dress, once again having me aide her in getting re-dressed. "Violet, Hannah and I are going to a concert later tonight," she states over her shoulder.

"Which one?" I straighten the back of her dress, brushing her hair back from her shoulders - exposing the soft skin of her neck. I kiss down her shoulder, she sinks back into me.

"5 Seconds of Summer," she sheepishly mentions.

"I assure you, I'm a lot more entertaining than they are." I kiss her collarbone, up her jaw and around to her mouth, tugging on her bottom lip.

She pulls away, running her hands through my hair. "I really can't, I already paid for the tickets.

"I'll give you the money for them."

"No," she shakes her head resistintenly, "I wanna spend some time with them."

"You'll be listening to a bunch of screaming hormonal teenagers. How much time will you have to actually spend with them?" Am I really being rejected for three teenage boys, one twenty year old, and two best friends?

"That's why I'm going over now." Becca places one kiss to my lips. "We'll have plenty of time later to finish what we started."

****

I think I may have sunken myself in way too deep with her, but I'm afraid it's already too late. I'm in it...and I want more. She's like a drug, one tiny taste and you're hooked. No amount of rehab will help, she's stuck in my system permanently.

I drop her off to Violet’s apartment, but not before one last make out in the passenger seat of my car.