She starts peeling her shirt up and over her head, and I scratch my forehead and beg God to give me strength.
She walks over to her dresser drawer, digging around and mumbling something.
“Everything okay?”
“I can’t find my favorite T-shirt. Nan probably put it in the washer. I keep telling her to leave it alone, I only like sleeping in that one.”
I take a step toward her, peeling my black Metallica shirt off.
“Will my favorite shirt do?”
She turns around, and I don’t give her time to answer before I’m pulling it over her head.
“Even better,” she says.
Then she reaches down and unzips her pants, kicking off her holey jeans and flinging them across the room. There she stands in my shirt with messy hair, smelling of stale beer and sweat, mixed with her own scent of something sweet, and I don’t think I’ve ever been more enamored by anything in my life.
“Stay with me, Collins?”
This girl is going to be the death of me.
“I can’t stay here, Johnnie…your Nan finds me here and I’ll be castrated by morning.”
“She sleeps until at least eight. Just until I fall asleep, please?”
Well, twist my fucking arm, why don’t you? I walk over to her bed and pull the covers back, gesturing for her to climb in.
She walks seductively toward me with that cute grin on her face as she climbs on the mattress. “I knew you’d see things my way.”
I can’t help but smack her ass before she lands. “You’re trouble, you know?”
Silence falls over the room, the only sound coming from the hum of her dolphin lamp that spins around making themlook like they’re swimming. The glow of the lamp lights up her shelves, and apparently dolphins are her thing. They’re everywhere.
Johnnie’s back is plastered to my front, our legs tangled. Her head is resting on my arm. Just when I think she’s sound asleep, she turns and faces me.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier.”
“You’re going to have to be more specific,” I say as I brush hair from her forehead and look into her eyes that are a lot more visible now that my eyes have adjusted to the dark.
“What you said about sex and giving a part of your soul to someone.”
“Oh, that. Yes, what exactly were you thinking about it?”
With heavy eyes she leans in, kissing my chest, and I can feel her breath at the base of my neck as she says the words that I’m fairly certain will haunt me for the rest of my life.
“I think that my soul already knows yours, yours knows mine. Souls don’t forget.”
CHAPTER 14
collins
NOW
Fuckme if I can do anything other than think about Johnnie. When I knew she’d be showing up, all I wanted to do was prove to her how unbothered I was by her presence. Then she shows up with goddamn homemade dog treats and that same look in her eyes that reeled me in ten years ago. She’s made friends with Lou and is so good with Billy. It’s like she belongs back here. Honestly, it pisses me off. How does she show back up and just expect to pick up right where she left things?
I want to ask her why she left.
I want to know where it all went wrong.
