Skye Blue, page 27
part #6 of Firsts and Forever Series
Soon he was absolutely pounding me, pleasure radiating through my entire body. I rocked back to drive him even deeper into me, moaning and yelling, and he clutched my hips and pulled me onto him again and again. The sound of his body slapping against mine mingled with our voices, primal and wild. “God yes, fuck me,” I managed, then moaned again as his thrusts grew harder still, lifting me off the bed a little with each upward surge. I was totally his in that moment, and it was the most perfect thing in all the world.
A moment before I came, I somehow had the foresight to grab a fistful of tissues instead of spraying across my clean bedding. I shot into my palm, my ass clenching Dare’s cock, leaning back so my body was pressed to his. He threw his arms around me, clutching me as he came deep inside me, yelling and slamming into me, not stopping until he was fully satisfied.
Our bodies were still joined when we collapsed onto the mattress. I twisted around just enough to kiss him but not dislodge him, and as we caught our breath I smiled at him.
“You seem much more relaxed. That’s good,” he said, returning the smile.
“I’m sorry I was such a stress case earlier. I just had this idea in my head that I needed this date to be perfect. But there really is no such thing. And even if there was, how boring would that be? Life’s best when you let it take you by surprise, not when you plan and worry and try to control everything.”
He kissed the back of my neck and said, “Agreed.”
“This date has already been amazing, despite my best efforts to ruin it. So, it can go ahead and totally go to hell now if it wants to,” I joked. “I’m fine with that.”
Someone knocked on the door just then, and Dare chuckled. “I assume that’s the date going to hell as we speak.”
“Probably.”
He eased out of me and we cleaned up quickly, then got dressed and went to see who was at the door. “Excuse me, Benny,” I said to the dog, who was standing right in front of the door wagging his tail. He stepped aside, panting happily.
I was shocked as hell to find my mom and a group of strangers standing there, her blonde-and-grey curls forming a cloud around her grinning face. “Hi sweetie! Hurry up and let us in, Joshie has to use the bathroom,” she said.
I stepped aside as she and her entourage swept into the apartment. “The bathroom’s the second door on the right,” I said, pointing.
A pale young boy of about ten or so with dark hair and glasses muttered, “Thanks,” and went off in the direction I’d indicated.
My mother grabbed me in a bone-crushing embrace. “Hi, baby boy. I’ve missed you.” Her familiar scent of cotton and rosemary and Mom surrounded me.
I returned the hug and said, “I’ve missed you, too. What are you doing here?” When she let go of me, I watched as half a dozen people made themselves comfortable in my living room. One of the kids was holding a little dog that looked like it might be part Chihuahua and part rodent, and that dog and Benny were nose to nose, sniffing each other cautiously.
“Didn’t River tell you? We’re on our way to a music festival in Portland. I wrote him a letter a week ago letting him know we’d be stopping by. This is my boyfriend Hawk, by the way,” she said, indicating a tall, balding man whose remaining hair was woven into two skinny blond braids. He gave me a little salute. “And that’s his sister Enid. Those two are Hawk’s kids, these two are Enid’s.” She gestured at the children, who ranged in age from about six to fourteen.
“This is my boyfriend Dare,” I said. “We’re on a date. River didn’t tell me you were coming.”
As if on cue, someone knocked on the door, and I opened it to reveal River and Cole. My brother took a look around the room and said, “So much for rushing over to tell you Mom’s on her way. I hadn’t opened my mail in a couple days, so I just got her letter this evening. You need to buy a cellphone, Mom, no one writes letters anymore. And you need to plug yours in, Skye. I tried calling and it went straight to voice mail.”
“River!” she exclaimed, and crushed him to her just like she’d done with me.
“Wow Mom,” he said when she finally let go of him, “I think you just realigned my spine. You missed your calling as a chiropractor, or maybe a professional wrestler. By the way, this is my boyfriend Cole. Cole, this is my mom and a whole bunch of people I don’t know.” She did the introductions again, and River asked, “What happened to your other boyfriend? Last I heard you were living with him in a yurt in New Mexico or something.”
“Oh, that didn’t work out,” she said, waving her hand dismissively.
There was another knock on the door just then and I murmured, “Wow, really?” as I went to answer it.
Nana, dressed in head-to-toe camouflage, was failing to blend into my hallway. Vincent and Trevor were right behind her, both with matching apologetic expressions on their faces. “Skye!” she exclaimed as she burst into the apartment. “I hit the mother lode! I was out with Freddy my driver canvassing the South Bay, and you’re not gonna believe the art supplies I found for you! I immediately went and got Vincent and his honey to help us out, then came straight here.” Only then did she blink and look around her. “Oh, I see you have company.”
“Nana, this is my mother, Tina Flynn. Mom, Mrs. Stana Dombruso.”
“And who is Mrs. Dombruso?” my mother asked.
“She’s one of my best friends,” I told her, and Nana beamed at me. I introduced Trevor and Vincent, and Mom vaguely introduced the miscellaneous members of her latest boyfriend’s family for the third time.
I should have known that the evening was about to spiral out of control, given the way my first two carefully planned dates with Dare had gone.
Draco the cat strolled into the center of the room, sat down, and blinked at the assembled crowd disinterestedly. The little brown mostly-Chihuahua noticed him a moment later, and launched itself out of the arms of the teenage girl that had been holding it, growling, hackles raised. The cat arched up and bristled, hissing loudly before he leapt onto a folding chair, and Benny bounced up and down and woofed in excitement. Suddenly all the kids were in motion, trying to catch the small brown dog.
The cat took a flying leap onto my card table, sending the appetizers flying, and the sort-of-Chihuahua jumped onto a chair and then the table in hot pursuit. When he jumped off the table, he managed to upend it. My flowers crashed to the floor while the candles landed on the couch. It started to burn immediately and I exclaimed, “Oh holy shit!” before running to the kitchen.
I looked around frantically, momentarily in a panic as the smoke detector started to wail. Joshie was sitting on the kitchen counter with a paperback. He raised an eyebrow at me, then pointed to the corner near the door. I grabbed the fire extinguisher that he’d been pointing at and ran back to the living room, where I quickly put out the flames. Meanwhile, everyone was still trying to corral the crazed Chihuahua-like-animal as Draco hissed at him from the highest point in the living room, the pinnacle of my junk pile. Benny woofed happily, running around in a circle.
I joined Dare, who was standing off to the side, and we watched the mayhem hand-in-hand for a few moments. Meanwhile, Benny loped to the bedroom and returned with the plastic bottle of lube. He chomped down on it happily, as if it was a chew toy, and a long stream of lube shot out and hit one of Hawk’s weird, skinny braids. Benny then played catch with the bottle, tossing it around the room with his mouth and retrieving it again and again.
Dare hurriedly picked up the lube, which had landed at my mother’s feet, then stuck it in his pocket as returned to our spot in the corner. “Now it feels like a Skye-and-Dare date,” he told me cheerfully. I burst out laughing.
Eventually the pseudo-Chihuahua was caught, the fire alarm shut up, and I righted the table and returned my flowers to the now-empty vase. They were only slightly worse for wear. My mother, looking more than a little beleaguered and trying to be heard over the brown dog’s constant yipping, said, “We’ll let you get back to your date, Skye. I’m going to be in the city for a couple days, we’re staying with Hawk’s cousin. I’ll come over in the morning, maybe you and River can join me for breakfast. You should bring your boyfriends, too. I didn’t even know you were both seeing people and I’d like the chance to get to know them.”
“That’d be great, Mom,” I told her.
She paused in front of me on the way to the door and brushed back my hair. “Have you been okay, Skye? I’ve been concerned about you.”
“I’m so much better than okay,” I told her, and a little of the worry eased from her eyes as she smiled at me.
“You never write to me. I wish you would.”
“No one writes letters anymore, Mom. You need a cellphone. I’ll get you one and then you can text me.”
“Oh, I’d never be able to figure that out.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, which made the big stack of bangles on her wrist jingle. I associated that sound so strongly with her. My mom changed the subject by asking, “Have you been in touch with your father?”
That was a sore spot. I looked at the floor as I said, “Now and then. He sends me twenty bucks on my birthday and Hanukkah. I guess he’s been busy with his wife and kids.” My father had gotten remarried six years ago, and now had three little boys and girls under the age of five. I got that he had his hands full, but it still hurt that I didn’t seem to matter to him much anymore.
“You father can be an asshole sometimes,” she said. “Trust me, I know. And that’s no reflection on you, baby. It’s just his own glitch.”
I pulled her into another hug and said, “I’m glad you’re here, Mom. It’s been way too long.” The last time I’d seen her was back in December.
She squeezed me much too hard again and said, “I think about you all the time, Skye. I guess maybe I could get one of those cellphone things so we can be in touch more. You’ll have to show me how to use it, though.”
“I will. We’ll get you one tomorrow after breakfast and I’ll give you a texting lesson.”
“I’ll walk you out, Mom,” River said when she finally let go of me, and he and Cole followed her and her entourage out the front door. As soon as the more-or-less-Chihuahua was gone, the cat jumped down from the scrap pile and started grooming himself calmly in the center of the living room floor.
“Who wants a drink?” I asked. “I have a whole pitcher of cocktails made up and I know I could use one after all of that.”
“We should go,” Nana said. “I didn’t realize you’d have so much going on for a Monday night. It looks like you and Dare where trying to have a nice romantic date before everyone barged in.”
“It’s fine,” Dare said. “Stay and have a drink. I think we still have some time before our show, right Skye?”
“Yup. I think you’ll like this drink Nana,” I said. “It’s a recipe of my own invention.”
“Your own invention, you say? I didn’t know you’re one of those mixologists. Maybe you can come on my cooking show and demonstrate some recipes.”
“I’m really not,” I said. “I was trying to copy a drink I like and didn’t even come close.”
When we went into the kitchen, I was surprised to find that Joshie and his book were still on my kitchen counter. “Oh hey,” I said. “Your family just left.”
“They’re not my family,” he said. “I wanted to see if they’d even notice I was missing and they didn’t at all.”
“If they’re not your family, why are you traveling with them?” Trevor asked.
“Tina took me in a couple months ago, after my dad bailed. They’d dated for three months before that and then he took off on both of us. I guess she thinks she’s like, being a Good Samaritan or something by letting me stay with her. She doesn’t really want me, though.”
“Where did your dad go?”
“I dunno. He met some biker lady and that was that. I always knew it was just a matter of time.” There was nothing but resignation in his hazel eyes.
“That fucker!” Nana exclaimed, then added, “Pardon my French. Don’t be repeating that language, kiddo. It’s only okay for old ladies to say fucker, but not little boys.” He grinned a bit at that.
“What about your mother?” Trevor asked. “Where is she?”
“She died in a car accident two years ago. That’s why I had to go live with my dad. I probably would have been better off if a pack of wolves raised me.”
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go see if my mom’s still downstairs.” He sighed and closed his paperback, slipping it in the pocket of his baggy green Army surplus jacket, and followed me through the apartment.
We reached the door just as the oldest of Hawk’s kids appeared outside it. “There you are, Joshie,” the blonde girl said with an eye roll. “Didn’t you hear us leaving? You could at least try to keep up.”
“I heard you. I just didn’t want to go with you.”
“Whatever.”
The boy turned to Nana and said, “Do I really have to go with them? I’m sick to death of moving around all the time. I’m really over being homeschooled, too. I think it’s stunting my academic development. If I stay, I can attend a real school, so I have a shot at getting into something other than clown college.” I grinned at that. He actually sounded anything but academically stunted, but okay.
“Do you have family here?” Nana asked.
“Nah. I don’t have family anywhere. But maybe I could stay with you.”
“But you don’t know me,” she said.
He stuck his hand out and Nana shook it. “I’m Joshua Perris.”
“Stana Dombruso, but you can call me Nana.”
“Now we know each other,” he said. “I like you. You’re dressed like a commando and you use bad words. I think you’d be way cooler to live with than the dork brigade and their busted-ass RV that doesn’t even have a working bathroom.”
“Oh please,” the girl said, flipping her hair. “The only dork is you.” She turned on her heel and marched down the hallway.
“Seriously,” he said, turning to us. “That RV is home full-time to eight people. I’m incredibly sick of gas station bathrooms and camping illegally on the side of the road.”
Nana said, “Come on Trevor and Vincent, come with me. Let’s go talk to Skye’s mother.” To me she said, “I’m gonna have to take a rain check on that cocktail, Skye. Make sure to write the recipe down so you can make it for me some other time. And I still think you should come on my show. It’d be fun.”
After they left, Dare asked, “What just happened? Is Nana really about to adopt a boy she’s known for five minutes?”
“No idea,” I said. “I guess we’ll find out what’s going on when we see my mother in the morning. Speaking of which, do you and Benny want to spend the night? Mom tends to be a freakishly early riser, so breakfast will probably be happening at the crack of dawn.”
“We’ve never done that before.”
“I know.”
“There goes taking it slow’s last stand,” he said, putting his arms around me.
“Is that okay?”
He nodded. “I already figured out that I don’t have to be afraid of this, so there’s really no need to take it slowly with you. I believe in you, Skye. You won’t hurt me.”
I pulled him close and kissed him gently before I whispered, “Never in a million years.”
Chapter Fifteen
“You’ll be here when I wake up, right?”
I nodded and brushed Dare’s hair back from his forehead. His green eyes were wide with worry. He was dressed in a hospital gown and propped up on a gurney, looking paler than I’d ever seen him. In just a few minutes, he was going to be wheeled in for surgery, and he was nervous. I clutched his hand tightly.
Over the last month, we’d seen each other every single day. It was never enough. I’d even moved some of my stuff into his apartment, because we spent most nights there. I’d promised to stay with him in the early weeks of his recovery too, so my roommate Preston was going to have our apartment to himself.
In an effort to distract him from the fact that he was about to have surgery, I started rambling randomly. “Did I tell you I found a futon for the office in our studio? Now we can spend the night there sometimes, instead of driving back to the city in the wee hours.” A week ago, we’d found a decent-sized warehouse space to rent in Oakland. It belonged to one of Gary Sandberg’s business associates, who’d given us a good deal on it.
Part of the space was going to be my art studio, so we’d moved all of the scrap metal out of my apartment and my cramped campus studio with help from Christian, Zandra, and her boyfriend Scott, who turned out to be an incredibly nice guy. My senior project, the sculpture of Dare dancing, was already half-done and by far the best thing I’d ever made. I looked forward to finishing it in that big, sun-filled space. The rest of the warehouse was going to be transformed into a dance studio, where Dare could teach classes and rehearse with the dance troupe he was going to put together after he completed his physical therapy.
“Please tell me you didn’t literally find a futon, like on the side of the road or something, because that’s scary.”
“Ew, no. I found it on sale at an import store in Berkeley.”
He grinned at me. “Glad to hear it. And good job trying to distract me from what’s about to happen.”
“I know you’re nervous, but it really is going to be okay.”
I leaned down and kissed him, and he whispered. “I need you to know something, Skye. I need you to know I love you.”
I smiled at him. “I love you too, Dare. More than anything.” I crawled onto the gurney and laid down beside him, taking him in my arms.
After a while, he said softly, “If something happens to me and I don’t make it through this, you’ll adopt Benny, won’t you?”
“Sweetheart, you’re going to come through surgery just fine.”
“I know. I’m just being stupid because I’ve never had an operation before.” He fidgeted a little and asked, “But, you would, wouldn’t you? Take Benny in, I mean?”
