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“Elijah?” a soft voice says on the other side of the door. Shit. I fix my hair and open the door to a tired-looking Taylor. “I’m back,” she says, a small dimple forming in her cheek.
Her long silky black hair is pulled back into two high pigtails that cascade over her shoulders. I have the urge to pull them like a little boy on the playground and drag her into my room, trapping her here to make her my own. She smells sweet like mocha and something new this time, maybe cinnamon. Taking her bag in my hand, I roll it down the hallway for her, breezing past her as I do. Now that I'm in her presence again I feel weightless, as if her absence has been weighing on my consciousness more than I had realized.
She grabs her suitcase from my hand and flings it up onto her bed. She unzips it in one go, letting all of her clothes pour out onto the floor. Her cheeks turn red as she shoves her lacy underwear back under the clothes like I haven’t seen that before.
“I got you something,” she says, pulling out a small paper bag from her suitcase. She hands it to me, the rosiness in her cheeks still coloring her face.
It’s a bobblehead of an NHL player from California. I hold back my laughter because the thought is what matters. Not to mention it’s the Minnesota team's top rival.
“It’s awesome, thank you,” I say and wobble the oversized head. She points at the bottom of the figure.
“He has your name.”
Elijah Hockingis etched in gold letters on the plastic base.
“Oh! He does,” I say. I've never heard of him before.
Without thinking, I lean down and scoop her into a hug. She’s tense at first but relaxes as my hands wrap around her waist. She feels perfect pressed against me, like she’s molded for me and me only.
“So, you did miss me?” she says, her head in my neck.
“Yes.” I pull away and take a step back, giving her the space. She probably needs that after a long flight. “Anyway, I have an assignment to finish before the game tonight.”
“Do you have any extra jerseys?” she asks, biting her lip.
“I do, why?”
“Can I wear one to tonight’s game?”
“You want to come?” I ask, my voice raising an octave.
“If…if that’s okay, of course. I need to talk with Stephanie and Olive first, I think, but yeah. If you wouldn’t mind, maybe I can root for the right team this time.”
I hold up my finger and run to my room, rifling through my drawers for an extra jersey. I give it a quick smell check, spray it with a spritz of my cologne and fan it out before walking it back to her room to present it to her. “Might be a bit big, but it’s all yours.”
“Thanks!” she says, kneeling in front of King’s tank.
“Yeah, of course.” I rub the back of my neck and watch as she pulls King out of his tank. He wraps himself around her arms as she pets him, gliding her fingers down his scaly back.
“Could you grab him his breakfast? I'm worried my dad didn't feed him enough. He's looking skinny, isn't he?”
“Uhhh…” I look over at the mini fridge at the foot of her bed.
“If you stay in here, you either have to hold him or get his food, Elijah. And if he doesn’t eat, he’ll have to go after the next best thing.” She stands up quickly, letting the snake graze against my arm. I fight the urge to recoil. It's just a snake. It's just a snake. It's just the universal symbol of liars and cheats and death.
Okay. What sounds worse. Snakes or dead frozen mice?
I open the fridge to pull out a dead mouse, holding it by its tail.
“Good boy,” she purrs. “Now feed King, please.”
The snake slowly slithers towards me, his backside wrapped around her arm but his head angling straight towards the dead prey. In one quick snap, he has the snake in his mouth and down his throat. I stumble backwards into her dresser, and she throws her head back in laughter.
“Also, good boy, King.” She sets him back down into his little house while I run to her bathroom to wash my hands.
“You’re out of soap,” I yell from the bathroom. “Do you have any under your sink?”
“Wait!” she yells as I open the cupboard, only to come face to face with the biggest dildo I’ve ever seen. I slam the door shut and turn around. She stands in the doorway, her eyes wide.
