Page 17 of Genesis

I hold it open with my body, sliding my hands into my hoodie’s pockets and turning to see Samuel walking down the stairs. “You knew Ma was coming home. Help with the bags,” I tell him, blowing smoke away from the door so it doesn’t get into her house. Ma used to smoke, but she doesn’t anymore.

“Shit,” he says, running over to the door. “I didn’t know she’d be back so quickly.”

“You shouldn’t smoke those, Danny,” Ma says as she pats my arm.

“I shouldn’t do a lot of things, Ma. Go on inside,” I tell her. I grab Samuel now that his hands are full and dig my knuckles into his skull. “What’s up, north side punk?” I say.

“Fuck, Danny, get off,” he says, ducking away from me.

“Hey, watch your language in front of Ma,” I tell him, looking up when I see someone at the top of the stairs.

Holy shit.She bites her bottom lip, looking a bit shy. Her hair is pulled back and her cheeks are flushed.

Wait.

“You remember Bexley,” Samuel says, walking past me with the some more groceries.

Johnny follows Ma toward the kitchen. “What can I help you with?” he asks her. I hear the bags being placed onto the countertop, and I look from Bexley to my brother, noticing his hair is wet and taking in the fact he smelled like body wash when he walked by. He just got out of the shower. He’s been upstairs messing around with Bexley Walker. Something fires inside my chest.

The one I used to call Little Girl has grown up.

Good God has she grown up. It’s been what? Three years now since I’ve seen her.

I remember the blood on my hands, and I take off up the steps, not looking away from her once round, childlike face. It’s thinned out. Her breasts are full, her neck slender. Her eyes widen the closer I get, and if I remember correctly, there are flecks of gold in them. She stays in place, not moving.

“You fucking my brother?” I ask, seeing a faint glimpse of the scar I put on her jaw when we were kids. Memories of crashing into a human wall flip through my mind.

She narrows her eyes at me. “Hey to you, too,” she says.

I smirk, giving her a once-over. I step, making her back up. She tilts her head, looking at the side of my face.

“Is that blood?” she asks. My facial expression doesn’t change. She crosses her arms, her shirt riding up, showing off skin. Skin I’d like to touch.

“I see you haven’t changed.”

I smile. “I am who I am, Little Girl.”

She lifts her brow at the nickname I used to call her. “I’m not a little girl anymore, Danny.”

My eyes dart down. “I see that.”

Something ignites in the air around us. A tension that’s always been there. After we crashed into each other on the street all those years ago, Bexley became part of the family. Paul took her in, and Samuel clearly had a crush. However, there was something more with us two.

But I was older, into different things, and she was Little Girl.I’ve always been taller than her, but now I tower over her small frame. We each study one another, taking in things we’ve forgotten over the years and things that have changed. The scars have faded, the kid in us gone.

She’s right. She isn’t a little girl anymore, and I’m not the same rough kid. The feelings might still be there, but I see who she’s chosen.

“You should get downstairs,” I say, stepping around her. Once in the bathroom, I push the door to, but not without a quick glance at Bexley. She exhales and holds on to the stair railing, her head pointed toward the floor. She shakes it, lifts her chin, and heads down to my brother.

Chapter Nine

Bexley

Two days missing

I’ve been floating. Floating for hours. Whatever the stranger gave me has me drifting in and out, and my body feels like I weigh a thousand pounds, but my head, God, my head feels as light as a feather. He came by sometime in the night and forced water down our throats, along with a few pieces of bread, but that’s hardly satisfying, and I believe there were only more drugs in whatever he gave us.

“Are you up?”

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