by Nicole Thorn
For so many reasons.
Already, since Kezia came into my life, I’ve gained weight. Weight, I think, I desperately needed. I didn’t look bad before, sure, but that didn’t mean that I was healthy. Probably far from it. So, I stabbed some eggs and started eating and Kezia began munching away on hers.
Surprisingly, we ate almost all the food. Or, I should say, Zander and Jasmine ate most of the food. Jasmine could pack it away and the only one at the table who beat her was Zander. I had my one plate and was quite proud of myself for it, while Kezia had her one plate.
I offered to help Juniper with the dishes, but she told me she had a handle on it. Code for she didn’t think I could do it right. Which was fine. I was about to head back to my studio when Jasmine leapt up. “Oh! I almost forgot! I need you to paint some shelves for me,” she said, looking at me.
“Shelves?” I asked. “When did you get shelves? And why do I need to paint them?”
“I got them a couple of days ago, the last time I left the house,” she said, looking at Zander again. Once more, she got his innocent face. “And you need to paint them because you’re the only one with any kind of artistic ability and they’re quite ugly.”
I snorted. “Fine. Drag them out to the garage and I’ll do what I must.”
She grinned and rushed up the stairs. Zander followed, saying he’d help her move them. Since he was a demigod, I assumed that meant he’d pick them up with one hand and carry them down the stairs, while Jasmine tried to distract him. Because it wouldn’t be fun for her if she didn’t try to distract him.
Much to my relief, Kezia followed me into the garage. I put the door up, so that the fumes wouldn’t get to us… Or me. Did paint fumes affect a demigod? Minutes later, Zander and Jasmine appeared carrying the bookshelves and they were ugly. I would give them that. They were wood and so old that the original paint job had almost completely chipped away.
They left and I turned to Kezia, holding a paintbrush out. “Would you care to help?”
“Sure,” she said, taking the brush. “What color are we painting it?” For today, she had chosen to wear blue shorts and black top, that hugged her breasts beautifully. She was barefoot and that only helped her appearance.
I grabbed several containers of paint that I had, for whatever reason and set them all out. “I’ve got everything from black to yellow,” I said. “So, if you wanted, I could paint this thing with the Batman logo, over and over again.”
Kezia smiled. “How about that baby blue?” she asked. “That way, we don’t have to worry about Jasmine saying we did it wrong. If it’s one color. Not that she would say that, but… ya know…” She blushed again while trying to hide it by dipping her head, so that her hair covered her face.
I smiled and opened the container. “Baby blue it is,” I declared. We started working. Me on the inside of the shelves and Kezia on the back of them. “You look good today, by the way,” I said.
She blushed, even deeper. “Thank you,” she mumbled.
I smiled. “The blush only helps; I should warn you. It makes your eyes pop. Plus, it makes me feel good, to know that you get pleased when I say things.” She blushed even deeper.
“I do not,” she murmured.
“I think you do,” I said. “But, if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll leave you to your denial, for now. But, if it would make you feel better, I’d be willing to take my shirt off. So that you can enjoy the view. Since apparently you spend a great deal of time thinking of me without a shirt on.”
“Someone’s certainly full of themselves today,” Kezia said, glaring at me. I’m not sure how genuine it was. “Just because you are lovely without a shirt and make me think of doing inappropriate things that involve you also losing your pants and me without my shirt on and maybe someone screaming someone else’s name… What was I talking about?”
“You were poorly explaining to me how you don’t care if I’m shirtless,” I said. “So that’s a no, then? You don’t want me to take it off. Well, we’ll just have to deal with that then. Maybe, if you’re really good at painting this shelf, I’ll forget about this conversation and take the shirt off anyway.”
“As if I want to see you shirtless,” she said, her voice huskier than normal. Sexier than normal. “I’ve never wanted to see you shirtless and I will never want to see you shirtless, Mr. Cocky.”
“Cocky? Never been called that before,” I said thoughtfully. “I guess you bring it out in me. Tell me, is all this cockiness helping or hindering? Because you’re blushing pretty hard and keep staring at my chest, which is sending me some mixed signals.” I smiled brilliantly.
She huffed. “Hindering. Definitely hindering. The paint fumes must be getting in the way of your rational thought. I dare say—what are you doing?”
I had the bottom of my shirt balled up and was using it to wipe some paint off my face, because I could feel paint on my face. I’m pretty sure. I told her this, without making eye contact, because there was a good chance I would start grinning if I had to look her in the face.
“You don’t have any paint on you,” Kezia said. “You’re just flashing me and that’s very rude. Put your shirt down.”
“I could swear that I feel some paint right here.” I dragged the shirt up further, so that it was reaching up to my forehead. Kezia made a noise that I couldn’t interpret and I decided I’d messed with her enough for one day and pulled the shirt back down. She was staring at me when I looked at her again.
“You’ve only brought this upon yourself,” she said, seconds before she flung her paint brush at me, without letting go. Blue paint streaked across my face and I let out one burst of laugher, in pure shock. She had flung paint at me. It was so random, even for her, that I couldn’t comprehend it for a second, until I wiped paint off my forehead.
A giant smile stretched across my face. Kezia’s eyes widened, but she couldn’t move fast enough before I launched my own torrent at her. It streaked across her black shirt and some got into her hair. She squeaked in surprise and said something that sounded a lot like ‘that’s cold’.
“Oh, now you’ve started something,” her voice was falsely murderous. She raised her paint brush like it was a weapon and flung it towards me. Another blue streak hit me, this time across my shirt, so that it matched hers. At the same time, she launched hers, I had done the same with mine, aiming for her legs.
A sound of outrage left her mouth and she stood up straight. “I tried to be civil about this, but you’ve left me with no choice.” She dropped her paintbrush and marched over to the table. Looking at me, she raised her hand… And dunked it into the blue paint. That didn’t look good. She pulled her hand out, letting the baby blue color streak down her arm.
And then she came at me.
Demigods are fast. Faster than I would have thought ten minutes ago. Before I could get away, she was smearing her hand across my chest, leaving one long blue hand print down my torso. I tried to move away, but she was still on me and her hand was now on my face, smearing paint across my cheek.
I lifted my brush and jammed it against her chest, leaving blue across her breasts. She squawked in surprise and came at me again. We ran around the garage, until we were back by the paints. Kezia grabbed the bucket and grinned, as her clean hand disappeared into it. “Understand that I will do anything to win this war,” she said, pulling her dripping hand out. “Anything.”
She rushed me and I let her come. One hand streaked across my stomach and I let it, so that I could grab her other hand and use it as leverage. She ended up with her back to my chest and I had a grip on both her hands. I pushed them up to her face and made her streak blue all the way down her neck while she screamed in a dramatic fashion. “You aren’t the only one willing to do what it takes to win,” I said, grinning.
My hands dropped down her sides, skimming them until they were down to her hips. She twisted in my grip, freeing herself. She grabbed the bucket again. “Curses! Empty!”
She was
reaching for the bucket of red paint when the door to my studio opened and Zander leaned out. “Hey, Kizzy, I was wonder—” he stopped and stared at the two of us. Blinked. Blinked again. Then he stepped back into the house and let the door close without saying another word.
I looked down. Well… I couldn’t really say I was surprised. I was absolutely covered. I could feel some paint in my hair and it was on my face. My shirt was no longer white. My shoes looked sad, as well. Kezia, on the other hand, was in much better condition. She had the original streaks across her chest and legs, plus the one I had made with my paintbrush on her breasts. Her hair had dots of paint in it and now her face and neck were slathered.
We stared at each other and then started laughing. “That was a glorious waste of paint,” I said. I went to rub my eyes, but then thought better of it. Somehow, paint in the eyes didn’t sound like a fun time to me.
Kezia giggled again. “I guess it was. Now it’s all over your studio… Oh and Jasmine’s shelves aren’t even half done…” She set the bucket down and went to smooth her hair aside. Only she couldn’t because she was blue up to the wrist. She stared down at her hands and her bare feet, which were also blue. “Oh, I make bad decisions,” she told me.
I laughed. “At least Juniper has designated this place a messy zone, so she won’t care. Um… I can take my shoes off and be fine inside. You cannot… Here, let me rinse your feet off.” I gestured to the front lawn, since the garage door was still open. Anyone could have driven by and seen us goofing off and we wouldn’t have noticed.
Kezia followed me out there and I turned the hose on. The water was cold, but there was no other way. I apologized and started rinsing her feet. She yelped twice and glowered at the hose, like it was all its fault. Once her feet were clean, we decided to head back inside. I removed my shoes and we stepped into the laundry room. Immediately, I peeked around the corner, looking for Juniper.
Nothing.
“I suggest we move quickly,” I said. She nodded and we dashed across the living room and up the stairs. Once we were standing in front of our bedrooms, I looked at Kezia and smiled. “I’ll let you take the first shower,” I said. “You need to get that stuff out of your hair before it dries.”
“Okay,” she said, still smiling. “I’ll try to leave some hot water for you.” We disappeared into our separate rooms.
Since there was no point in standing around in dirty clothes, I stripped down to my boxers. Huh… There were hand prints on the ass of my jeans. I didn’t remember that happening. Should I mention it to Kezia? Ah, why bother. I knew they were there and that was enough for me.
All my paint sodden clothes went into the hamper, allowing me to sit at my desk, without staining my chair. Kezia would come around. She had to, because who else would she be willing to have a paint fight with? I’m positive that if anyone else put his arms around her like I had, she would have freaked out.
I certainly never had any afternoons like that with Celeste. It was mostly what she wanted to do and then me going home. On occasion, we’d do something we both enjoyed, but that list was a very short one. Almost nonexistent. How could I explain this to Kezia and have her understand that there were no other girls? And that I would never go looking, because I’d always be comparing them to her.
It wouldn’t be fair to anyone in this situation. All the girls wouldn’t be able to match up to Kezia and they shouldn’t have to. They should have a man who loves them for who they were, not who they wanted them to be. Kezia would be forced to watch it all and she’d hate every second of it. And I would hate every second of it because they wouldn’t be her.
Kezia was the one I wanted. That wasn’t going to change.
24: The End
Kezia
I slept in Jasper’s studio again. I didn’t need to not be alone, but I wanted to be around him. He looked happy when I showed up in my sleep shorts and the shirt I stole from Zander. It would have been nice to wear one I stole from Jasper, but I wasn’t sure he’d be down with that.
I woke up and he was working on a little animal for his village. I sat up and tossed the blanket off of me so I could stand and walk over to Jasper. I might have given him a heart attack when I came into his field of vision.
“Sorry,” I said, brushing clay dust off of his shoulder. It did little, since he was covered. I still wanted to give the illusion that I was able to take care of him in some way.
“S’okay,” he lied, you know like a liar. He looked like a bear just walked in, took a soda from his hand and then walked away.
Jasper set his clay down and wiped his hands with a damp cloth. “Do you know what time it is?”
“Maybe nine.” I looked at the clock on my phone. I was close. “Are you hungry?”
“I could eat.”
“Good.” I started walking backwards. “Make yourself presentable and I’ll start breakfast. If you forget, I will be forced to punish you,” I smiled, playfully at him. I reached the door and stopped.
He smiled back at me like I was the only person in the whole world and he liked it that way. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
I got out of there as quickly as I could. Every time he looked at me, my resolve started going away. I had to do the right thing and let him find happiness with someone else. My chest stung, but I didn’t want to be selfish.
I showered as quickly as I could, because I was excited to see Jasper again. It was sad leaving him, but it left me with this strange joy when I thought about the next time I’d get to talk to him. It felt young and bright.
When I went to get dressed, I had a dilemma. I shouldn’t be wearing clothes to tempt Jasper into doing something that might set me off. Still, I reached for a dress. It was red and short. When I slipped it on, it went halfway to my knees. There was a white strap that tied into a bow right at the top of my ribs.
The shortest thing I’d ever worn, but Aphrodite must have sent it for a reason. I left it on and brushed my hair until it bounced into light waves. I looked like a whore. I knew I did. But I still left the room.
I was taking deep breaths as I walked down the stairs. Zander would say that this was progress. He would tell me it was a good thing that I was in a dress and that I wasn’t a whore at all. It was just something ugly that Mr. Rivers said to upset me. As if I wasn’t already upset each and every time he was beating me.
I made it to the kitchen and I ran into Zander. He looked at me with pride and he didn’t say anything. He just hugged me, kissed my forehead and left me.
I started in on breakfast. It would only be for the two of us, so I made much less than the day before. Juniper came in while I was in the middle of it, but I was cleaning as I went, so she was less upset than she could have been. She cleaned after me and I just let her do it. Nothing looked different, but she felt better about it.
“Are you cooking all this for yourself?” Juniper asked as she unloaded the dishwasher.
“Jasper is coming soon,” I told her, setting up the plates on the table. “Should be here any second.”
Juniper put the last mug away, adjusting it until the handle was facing just the right way. “Great. Don’t forget to clean the dishes when you’re done.” She turned and grabbed the charging Dirt Devil before leaving me.
The last thing I did was pour the drinks. I had the glasses set out and the orange juice on the counter when Jasper walked in. “I didn’t forget—” He stopped dead when he came in far enough to see me. He stared and my face turned red. His lips parted, but only just so. Then he made a sound like he was trying to clear his throat or compose himself. “Huh… it would probably be very unhelpful if I said that I wanted to sit you up on the counter and pull your legs around me.”
Okay, parts of me were literally burning. I felt like my skin should be sizzling. “And even less helpful if I said I would let you.” Words… leaving me… without permission.
Jasper caught me under my arms and set me on the counter, but I was the one to put my legs around him. His hands
slid slowly up the outside of my thighs, making my skirt go up even more. He stopped at my hips and his head was unhurriedly moving down to mine.
It was too much before it was anything at all. My eyes closed before Jasper’s lips even touched me. His hands immediately loosened on me. My legs dropped from around him and I tried to remind myself that I was safe.
Jasper’s hand was soft on my cheek. “Are you okay? Was that too much?”
I kept my eyes closed and I nodded. “I’m sorry.”
When I cried, Jasper hushed me. He put my feet back on the ground and pulled my skirt to where it was supposed to be. I was watching him when he said, “Don’t be sorry.”
This was all I needed to know this couldn’t work. I would never move forward and this wasn’t enough. He wanted to do one little thing. It should have been fine. Fun. He should be able to have fun and now he was just sad for me.
Jasper sat me at the table and scooted his chair beside me. “You’re safe, Kezia.”
“I know.” I was physically in a safe place, but my head was never safe. I could be happy one second and the next I was being swallowed by memories. “Can we pretend that this didn’t happen?”
He agreed, but it felt reluctant.
We started eating and I asked him about his village. He was working on it so much that it had to be important to him. He told me about some of the things he was having trouble with and the parts that were coming together well. The tree that we’d been working on was even included. I liked that much more than I expressed.
Once we were finished eating, Jasper helped me with the dishes. It took about three minutes before we were flicking bubbles at each other. He got some in my hair and my revenge was soaking his shirt in soap that smelled like fake lavender.
“Ha.” I smiled.
An eyebrow rose. “Ha? You laugh at me?”
“I do.” I flicked my wrist and got more on him.
He decided that he needed to chase me. I ran out to the backyard and that was just dumb, since there was nowhere to go. While I scrambled, Jasper caught up to me. I was tossed into the air, only to be caught again and thrown over his shoulder. I hung there, missing all my dignity.
