x o -- eureka
Posted: 11 Apr 2015, 06:26
Alcohol and sex left her breathless, her head spinning too fast for her to ever come down. At twenty years old, she had plenty of years left on her pretty little legs, but the morning after left her empty. She lived only to sate her thirst. Nothing made her feel more alive than when fingertips danced across her pale thighs and slid down the length of her spine.
When Mika opened her eyes, she squinted at the sunlight drifting through partially drawn blinds. If it weren’t for the birds chirping just outside of the bedroom windows, she might have slept into the evening. Sliding her left hand beneath her pillow, she flipped it over and buried her face into the cotton and polyester. She stopped her breathing just to enjoy the silence, but her moment vanished when she felt an arm curl around her waist. Mika lost her hold on her pillow as she slid across the middle of the bed, but she managed to keep the sheet over her bare legs.
“Good morning,” he whispered, his voice much lower from its lack of use. He smelled like stale cologne and sweat, but it wasn’t his scent that bothered her. He was still in her bed. He was still in her apartment. “Mmm, you’re so ******* sexy.” He growled playfully as he poked and prodded at her sides, eliciting a screech and a giggle she didn’t know she could emit.
She pressed a palm flat against his scruffy cheek and drummed her fingers along his jawline. He looked so smitten, but she couldn’t say the same about herself, not unless she lied. Despite being so charming and thoughtful, he meant absolutely nothing to her. She didn’t know whether she looked away first or not, but the moment was broken all the same.
“You stink,” she laughed. She turned her head to the side and buried her face in part of his pillow, claiming that small portion as her own. After all, she owned everything in the apartment, everything except for him. She only borrowed him.
He poked and prodded at her again, but she swatted at his hands. They both dissolved into quiet laughter that grew and grew until they were cackling. The early morning obviously had a strange hold on the both of them, or so she reasoned. For a moment, she entertained the thought that she could eventually grow to care about him. The thought left as soon as it came and the two of them finally forced themselves from the satin sheets. He gathered his clothes from the bedroom floor and she did the same. Unlike him, she had a hamper where she discarded the dirty clothes.
“Come shower with me,” he spoke, closing the distance between them. He curled his arms around her waist and pressed himself flesh against her bare back. When he leaned down to press a few kisses to her blonde hair, he brushed his fingers along her hips. “Mika.” Her name was a purr on his lips and she had to close her eyes and ground herself. How many times had another man done the exact same thing?
“Fine,” she relented, as she usually did, “I’ll take a shower with you. But there’s no funny business!” She turned around in his arms and poked her index finger at his chest. It was a little show for him, since she had every intention of instigating such funny business.
He picked her up bridal style and carried her over the threshold to the bathroom, announcing that he would make sure she scrubbed behind her ears. He was a sweet man. Without a doubt, he’d treated her with so much respect and so much concern. She broke one of her own rules when she let him back to her apartment for a second time. He meant nothing to her, but yet she enjoyed some companionship. She longed for someone. She needed more than her thoughts and the echoes of her upstairs and downstairs neighbors.
The shower ended too soon and Mika wrapped herself in a soft bath towel. He was talking to her again, but she didn’t pay attention to the words. She leaned against the doorframe and watched him as he dressed. Mika admired the way his muscles moved beneath his tanned skin. She admired the way his back looked, the smooth curvature of his spine, as he leaned down to tie the laces of his shoes. When he looked up at her, she forced a smile.
“You didn’t hear a ******* word, did you?” He cursed, but yet he laughed. He found amusement where others had found insult. Mika looked down at her feet, hiding her flushed cheeks behind her long blonde hair. “I asked if you wanted to take a ride with me. We could get ice cream,” he grinned, a single dimple appearing on his right cheek.
Mika continued looking down at her feet. She focused on the polish on her toenails and the contrast between the ruby-red color and her ghostly pale toes. The polish had begun to chip away, just like the polish on her fingernails. The longer she stared at the red, the more she noticed the uncomfortable silence between them. She let out a quiet sigh and finally lifted her eyes to meet his.
“All right. This isn’t a date though,” she frowned, watching as he raised his hands in a mock surrender. She’d never had anyone ask her on a proper date, a truly thoughtful date, and she didn’t want her first official date to be with a messy one-night stand. Well, he had been a one-night stand, but grew into a dangerously messy two-night stand. “You know I don’t do dates.”
Mika unknotted her towel and moved back into the bathroom to hang it on the appropriate fixture. As she walked back into the bedroom, she caught him in the center of her bed. He had his arms folded behind his head, his fingers intertwined, and his legs crossed at the ankles. In an overdramatic fashion, he watched her as she moved around the bed to her closet. She rolled her eyes at his attempts at humor, but she still had a small smile on her face.
No man had seen the inside of her closet, but she couldn’t ask him to leave the room when she showed more than enough confidence to parade around naked. Slowly, she opened her closet doors and positioned herself in front of the entrance to shield as much of the sacred space as possible.
“Jesus,” she heard him exclaim as he jumped off the bed. She heard the floorboards beneath the carpet creak, almost as if he were moving in slow motion, and then she felt him standing directly behind her. “You color code your closet and your shoes.”
She color-coded her clothing and her shoes. She also had them organized according to seasons and occasions, but she kept her mouth closed. Mika snagged a sleeveless orange dress from within the colorful collection and then closed her closet doors. He didn’t say anything else, so she finished getting ready. When they met at the door to her apartment, he kissed her head again, just like he had before their shower, and they walked down the hall of her apartment building to the underground garage.
“I think it’s great that you’re organized. I’m a slob,” he joked, finally broaching the subject that lingered on her mind. “I could use some of your skills.” He saw her as she rolled her eyes, but she didn’t try to justify her reaction. He didn’t care that she sometimes came off as a *****. She made him laugh, oddly enough. “This is me.”
Mika had considered many types of vehicles for someone like him, but never a motorcycle, and never a motorcycle in such good shape. He looked after what was important to him. Mika crossed her arms over her chest and then quickly uncrossed them. She looked at the bike as if it would come alive and transform into some type of robot serial killer. He put his arm around her shoulder and she inched away.
“I thought you had a car or a truck. I’ve never been on a motorcycle. I’m wearing a dress,” she rambled. She rolled her eyes, looking up toward the ceiling as she tried her best to hide her obvious insecurities. He didn’t listen to her mumbled ramblings though. She let him take her hand and guide her closer to the bike, then he put a helmet over her head and fastened it beneath her chin. He didn’t put a helmet on himself, which she pointed out with a vague motion toward his head.
“I don’t like wearing helmets. I brought it for you.” He winked at her and then swung one leg over the side of the bike. He didn’t seem to care that he’d admitted to planning the day out in advance and she didn’t feel like having that conversation with the purring of the bike in the background. She knew she had the choice to stay or go. As she looked between his face and the motorcycle, she made the decision to go.
Mika hiked up her dress and mimicked his movement from before. She swung a leg over the bike and moved up closer toward his back. He reached back and took her arms, moving them so that they wrapped firmly around his waist. When the bike lurched forward, she let out a squeal, an embarrassing sound that she condemned to the fiery pits of hell.
“It’s okay. Just hang on. It’s a short ride.” He had to speak louder for her to hear, but she gave him a quick thumbs-up. As they left the underground parking lot, she focused on keeping her arms around him and keeping her heart from bursting out of her chest.
The first turn that he made had Mika hyperventilating, but she recovered. He didn’t take the direct route to the ice-cream parlor, not that she actually expected him to; he bypassed the roads that lead to the marketplace and took her toward River Rock. When they hit a clear patch of road, he sped up a little bit, just enough to have her swearing at him in Dutch. He kept irritating her, but she also enjoyed his playfulness. He was an exception to many of her rules.
When he made it past the infamous quarantine zone, he kept going. For once, Mika gave him the freedom to make the decision and she went along with the change in direction. He went far beyond where she thought they were stopping and followed the road toward the limits of Harper Rock. If he actually went beyond the limits, Mika had it in mind that she would go back, whether on foot or with his assistance.
He picked up speed again and she instinctively tightened her hold on his waist. He was going too fast for her liking. She hated the feeling in the pit of her stomach, the fear. He let go of one of the handles to point toward the fairground in the distance and Mika felt another kind of emotion wash over her. She wished she hadn’t had that second night with him. While she had her eyes on the fairground, she felt the bike jerk. She looked back to the front just in time to see a blue, four-door sedan going through the intersection.
Her natural instinct was to close her eyes and bury her head into his back, but the sudden jerk of the motorcycle had her sliding to the left. She couldn’t hold onto him. Her fingers were grasping at the loose fabric of his t-shirt. Her legs were moving further up on the seat. She watched the entire scene in slow motion, as if she were watching the crash from afar. One minute, they were perfectly fine. The next minute, they were sliding across asphalt.
“---!” She screamed his name as the two went in separate directions. He went into the side of the sedan and his upper body went through the front windshield. She stayed with the doomed bike and crashed into a guardrail. Her entire left side scraped against the pavement before the bike slammed into the metal barrier. One leg remained pinned under the bike while the rest of her body went into awkward and painful angles. Without moving, she knew the whole scene was a mess. The air heavy with the stench of oil, gasoline, and blood, the ground covered in parts and glass--other than the crash, the roads in that eastern edge of the city were deserted.
“Please,” Mika croaked, her jaw aching, “help me. Someone!” She couldn’t move. When she tried to move any part of her body, she felt more stabbing pains. Every part of her body hurt. The helmet that protected her head was lost somewhere in the accident, so her bloodied head was flesh against the pavement. Her beautiful orange dress became a tattered mess in under a few minutes. “Please.” Mika repeated the word in a whisper.
When Mika opened her eyes, she squinted at the sunlight drifting through partially drawn blinds. If it weren’t for the birds chirping just outside of the bedroom windows, she might have slept into the evening. Sliding her left hand beneath her pillow, she flipped it over and buried her face into the cotton and polyester. She stopped her breathing just to enjoy the silence, but her moment vanished when she felt an arm curl around her waist. Mika lost her hold on her pillow as she slid across the middle of the bed, but she managed to keep the sheet over her bare legs.
“Good morning,” he whispered, his voice much lower from its lack of use. He smelled like stale cologne and sweat, but it wasn’t his scent that bothered her. He was still in her bed. He was still in her apartment. “Mmm, you’re so ******* sexy.” He growled playfully as he poked and prodded at her sides, eliciting a screech and a giggle she didn’t know she could emit.
She pressed a palm flat against his scruffy cheek and drummed her fingers along his jawline. He looked so smitten, but she couldn’t say the same about herself, not unless she lied. Despite being so charming and thoughtful, he meant absolutely nothing to her. She didn’t know whether she looked away first or not, but the moment was broken all the same.
“You stink,” she laughed. She turned her head to the side and buried her face in part of his pillow, claiming that small portion as her own. After all, she owned everything in the apartment, everything except for him. She only borrowed him.
He poked and prodded at her again, but she swatted at his hands. They both dissolved into quiet laughter that grew and grew until they were cackling. The early morning obviously had a strange hold on the both of them, or so she reasoned. For a moment, she entertained the thought that she could eventually grow to care about him. The thought left as soon as it came and the two of them finally forced themselves from the satin sheets. He gathered his clothes from the bedroom floor and she did the same. Unlike him, she had a hamper where she discarded the dirty clothes.
“Come shower with me,” he spoke, closing the distance between them. He curled his arms around her waist and pressed himself flesh against her bare back. When he leaned down to press a few kisses to her blonde hair, he brushed his fingers along her hips. “Mika.” Her name was a purr on his lips and she had to close her eyes and ground herself. How many times had another man done the exact same thing?
“Fine,” she relented, as she usually did, “I’ll take a shower with you. But there’s no funny business!” She turned around in his arms and poked her index finger at his chest. It was a little show for him, since she had every intention of instigating such funny business.
He picked her up bridal style and carried her over the threshold to the bathroom, announcing that he would make sure she scrubbed behind her ears. He was a sweet man. Without a doubt, he’d treated her with so much respect and so much concern. She broke one of her own rules when she let him back to her apartment for a second time. He meant nothing to her, but yet she enjoyed some companionship. She longed for someone. She needed more than her thoughts and the echoes of her upstairs and downstairs neighbors.
The shower ended too soon and Mika wrapped herself in a soft bath towel. He was talking to her again, but she didn’t pay attention to the words. She leaned against the doorframe and watched him as he dressed. Mika admired the way his muscles moved beneath his tanned skin. She admired the way his back looked, the smooth curvature of his spine, as he leaned down to tie the laces of his shoes. When he looked up at her, she forced a smile.
“You didn’t hear a ******* word, did you?” He cursed, but yet he laughed. He found amusement where others had found insult. Mika looked down at her feet, hiding her flushed cheeks behind her long blonde hair. “I asked if you wanted to take a ride with me. We could get ice cream,” he grinned, a single dimple appearing on his right cheek.
Mika continued looking down at her feet. She focused on the polish on her toenails and the contrast between the ruby-red color and her ghostly pale toes. The polish had begun to chip away, just like the polish on her fingernails. The longer she stared at the red, the more she noticed the uncomfortable silence between them. She let out a quiet sigh and finally lifted her eyes to meet his.
“All right. This isn’t a date though,” she frowned, watching as he raised his hands in a mock surrender. She’d never had anyone ask her on a proper date, a truly thoughtful date, and she didn’t want her first official date to be with a messy one-night stand. Well, he had been a one-night stand, but grew into a dangerously messy two-night stand. “You know I don’t do dates.”
Mika unknotted her towel and moved back into the bathroom to hang it on the appropriate fixture. As she walked back into the bedroom, she caught him in the center of her bed. He had his arms folded behind his head, his fingers intertwined, and his legs crossed at the ankles. In an overdramatic fashion, he watched her as she moved around the bed to her closet. She rolled her eyes at his attempts at humor, but she still had a small smile on her face.
No man had seen the inside of her closet, but she couldn’t ask him to leave the room when she showed more than enough confidence to parade around naked. Slowly, she opened her closet doors and positioned herself in front of the entrance to shield as much of the sacred space as possible.
“Jesus,” she heard him exclaim as he jumped off the bed. She heard the floorboards beneath the carpet creak, almost as if he were moving in slow motion, and then she felt him standing directly behind her. “You color code your closet and your shoes.”
She color-coded her clothing and her shoes. She also had them organized according to seasons and occasions, but she kept her mouth closed. Mika snagged a sleeveless orange dress from within the colorful collection and then closed her closet doors. He didn’t say anything else, so she finished getting ready. When they met at the door to her apartment, he kissed her head again, just like he had before their shower, and they walked down the hall of her apartment building to the underground garage.
“I think it’s great that you’re organized. I’m a slob,” he joked, finally broaching the subject that lingered on her mind. “I could use some of your skills.” He saw her as she rolled her eyes, but she didn’t try to justify her reaction. He didn’t care that she sometimes came off as a *****. She made him laugh, oddly enough. “This is me.”
Mika had considered many types of vehicles for someone like him, but never a motorcycle, and never a motorcycle in such good shape. He looked after what was important to him. Mika crossed her arms over her chest and then quickly uncrossed them. She looked at the bike as if it would come alive and transform into some type of robot serial killer. He put his arm around her shoulder and she inched away.
“I thought you had a car or a truck. I’ve never been on a motorcycle. I’m wearing a dress,” she rambled. She rolled her eyes, looking up toward the ceiling as she tried her best to hide her obvious insecurities. He didn’t listen to her mumbled ramblings though. She let him take her hand and guide her closer to the bike, then he put a helmet over her head and fastened it beneath her chin. He didn’t put a helmet on himself, which she pointed out with a vague motion toward his head.
“I don’t like wearing helmets. I brought it for you.” He winked at her and then swung one leg over the side of the bike. He didn’t seem to care that he’d admitted to planning the day out in advance and she didn’t feel like having that conversation with the purring of the bike in the background. She knew she had the choice to stay or go. As she looked between his face and the motorcycle, she made the decision to go.
Mika hiked up her dress and mimicked his movement from before. She swung a leg over the bike and moved up closer toward his back. He reached back and took her arms, moving them so that they wrapped firmly around his waist. When the bike lurched forward, she let out a squeal, an embarrassing sound that she condemned to the fiery pits of hell.
“It’s okay. Just hang on. It’s a short ride.” He had to speak louder for her to hear, but she gave him a quick thumbs-up. As they left the underground parking lot, she focused on keeping her arms around him and keeping her heart from bursting out of her chest.
The first turn that he made had Mika hyperventilating, but she recovered. He didn’t take the direct route to the ice-cream parlor, not that she actually expected him to; he bypassed the roads that lead to the marketplace and took her toward River Rock. When they hit a clear patch of road, he sped up a little bit, just enough to have her swearing at him in Dutch. He kept irritating her, but she also enjoyed his playfulness. He was an exception to many of her rules.
When he made it past the infamous quarantine zone, he kept going. For once, Mika gave him the freedom to make the decision and she went along with the change in direction. He went far beyond where she thought they were stopping and followed the road toward the limits of Harper Rock. If he actually went beyond the limits, Mika had it in mind that she would go back, whether on foot or with his assistance.
He picked up speed again and she instinctively tightened her hold on his waist. He was going too fast for her liking. She hated the feeling in the pit of her stomach, the fear. He let go of one of the handles to point toward the fairground in the distance and Mika felt another kind of emotion wash over her. She wished she hadn’t had that second night with him. While she had her eyes on the fairground, she felt the bike jerk. She looked back to the front just in time to see a blue, four-door sedan going through the intersection.
Her natural instinct was to close her eyes and bury her head into his back, but the sudden jerk of the motorcycle had her sliding to the left. She couldn’t hold onto him. Her fingers were grasping at the loose fabric of his t-shirt. Her legs were moving further up on the seat. She watched the entire scene in slow motion, as if she were watching the crash from afar. One minute, they were perfectly fine. The next minute, they were sliding across asphalt.
“---!” She screamed his name as the two went in separate directions. He went into the side of the sedan and his upper body went through the front windshield. She stayed with the doomed bike and crashed into a guardrail. Her entire left side scraped against the pavement before the bike slammed into the metal barrier. One leg remained pinned under the bike while the rest of her body went into awkward and painful angles. Without moving, she knew the whole scene was a mess. The air heavy with the stench of oil, gasoline, and blood, the ground covered in parts and glass--other than the crash, the roads in that eastern edge of the city were deserted.
“Please,” Mika croaked, her jaw aching, “help me. Someone!” She couldn’t move. When she tried to move any part of her body, she felt more stabbing pains. Every part of her body hurt. The helmet that protected her head was lost somewhere in the accident, so her bloodied head was flesh against the pavement. Her beautiful orange dress became a tattered mess in under a few minutes. “Please.” Mika repeated the word in a whisper.