12
1572 Words
Axel
When I walked into the bar, there weren't that many guys there yet. So I took the chance and hoped none of them would say anything. Summer noticed me walk to the back and duck through the door to the kitchen but didn't say anything. When I walked through the door, Lizzy was on the phone with another guy. At first, I wasn't sure what to think, but then she introduced him as her brother. Which, I already knew she had an older brother from her talking about him yesterday. While she talked to him, I leaned against the counter and did my best not to stare at her ass. It was hard to do, though, because her jeans hugged her body, showing off her curves. And the tank top she was wearing didn't help either as it hugged her top half like a second skin. I was sad to hear her make plans for the weekend to be out of town, but at the same time, it was nice to hear that she was willing to help her family out when needed. When she ended the call, I watched her throw a few more hamburgers on the grill before turning back around to me. "How has your day gone?" I shrugged, "Not too bad, actually…. Why do you call him Romeo?" She laughed, "because, like Romeo from Romeo and Juliet, I think he is a dumbass. He falls in love with a girl and risks death to be with her. The only difference is the two of them don't commit suicide to be together." She shrugged. I watched as she flipped the burgers over then leaned against the counter on the other side, so she was facing me. "You say that almost as though you don't believe in love." She shrugged again. "I don't know, I mean, I used to. But things happen, and in order to love, you have to be willing to trust, I guess. To be honest, you are the first person outside of those I have known my whole life I have been somewhat comfortable talking with in the last few months. And to be honest, I don't even know why." This caught me off guard, actually. She seemed so confident just a moment ago talking to her brother. Maybe I had read her wrong yesterday. She did seem a bit nervous, but that would be expected. She didn't know me. But listening to her talk with her brother just now, she was confident in herself. She came up with a solution quickly and told him how things were going to work. She knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to say it. I had noticed that a little bit yesterday when we had talked after we got back to her house. Sure she had been embarrassed about what her parents had been doing when we got back to the house. But she recovered quickly and even came up with what to talk about. While all of this went through my mind, I watched her as sadness passed through her eyes briefly, and she shook it off and moved back to the burgers on the grill.
I watched as she finished cooking the hamburgers on the grill and set them out for Summer. Once Summer had taken them, I set down the little tray with my own burger. I watched as she threw a few more burgers on and leaned against the counter again. This time she didn't make eye contact with me as she kept her eyes on the floor. "Lizzy, if you don't mind me asking. And you can tell me to f**k off if you want. But what happened?" With a sigh, she set the spatula down and shook her head as she forced herself to look back up at me. "Let's just say my ex had a side to him that wasn't all that friendly. And even though he set off some red flags early in our relationship, I ignored them even though I knew it was stupid of me to do. It built up for months until finally, everything came to a head, and I let it. Once things got bad, I continued to let it happen for longer than I should have. Still not as long as some woman I have heard stories of. But it was long enough that it nearly ruined my future. If I hadn't left when I did, I would have flunked out of school or worse."
And now I understood why sometimes she seemed like her confidence was low about herself and then other times, like when she was talking to her brother. She seemed full of confidence. She pushed off the counter, picking back up the spatula. As she moved, I moved without thinking. I don't know why I did it, but I did. Grabbing her, I pulled her to me, my hands resting on her hips. Her eyes held mine for a moment then fell. Taking a chance, I moved one hand from her hip up to her face pulling her eyes back up to mine. Once she was looking back up at me, I pulled her closer to me as I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers. For a second, she didn't respond, and I almost pulled away, but then she was kissing me back. Setting the spatula back down, her arms wrapped around my shoulders. Her hands moved up into my hair. Running my tongue along her bottom lip, she instantly granted me access to her mouth. Unfortunately, the sound of someone clearing their throat ended the moment as she pulled away. Both of us looked over to find Summer standing next to the grill. She held the spatula out to Lizzy, who took it. From the looks of it, Summer had flipped the burgers that were still on the grill. She shook her head. "So glad the two of you could break for some air." She pointed at Lizzy, "Your dad and mom are out front. Your dad, by the way, asked why Axel was back here when a few of the guys said he came back here." She pointed at me. "Which if he asks, you were back here helping Lizzy cook because it was busy." I nodded my understanding. Summer smiled at me, then looked back to Lizzy, winking at her and smacked her on the ass as she moved past us and back out to the front, making Lizzy jump slightly and shake her head. I watched as she stared down at my chest a moment. I could tell she was thinking. I wanted so badly to know what she was thinking, but at the same time, I didn't want to push her. Hell, I didn't even know why the hell I had just kissed her like that. Slowly she moved the hand that was still in my hair down until it was resting on my chest. Taking a deep breath, she let it out and looked back up at me. "Please don't hurt me." Her voice wasn't more than a whisper, but I still heard her. There was fear in her voice which broke my heart. Again my body moved on its own even though my brain still said I wasn't ready for a relationship again. I nodded and leaned forward, pressing my lips to hers again. This time it was a short, sweet kiss which she returned automatically. "I will do my best not to." She nodded, and I let her go as she pulled away and went back to cooking.
I watched her as she cooked, and I finished my now cold hamburger. I am not sure what I just got myself into, but I did know my brain, and my heart was on opposite ends of this. My brain was screaming to end it now before things went bad. And my heart was screaming to see where this took us, to give this a chance. It could be something great. The only thing both could agree on, though, was she was just as skeptical of going into this as I was. Maybe even more so than I was. She hadn't gone into details, but she didn't have to. Growing up in the system isn't all rainbows and unicorns. I had seen my fair share of husbands that took their anger out on their wives. Hell, some of them took their anger out on the foster kids they had promised to take care of. It was one way to learn to fight and being one of the bigger-built kids along with Tats. We found it hard to stay in a home. The moment we started defending the smaller kids, the jackasses would find a reason to get us moved out of their homes. Especially when we were able to begin actually kicking their asses and not have ours kicked instead. So for her to be willing to put herself out, there was something. Also, I couldn't deny she was a damn good kisser, and I would like to do that again. "Will you watch these a moment?" I was pulled from my thoughts as she held out the spatula to me. I nodded and took the spatula from her and watched as she picked up a cheeseburger and a BLT sandwich I hadn't seen her make and walk out to the front.
- Writer
