Page 10 of Reckless Youth
My parents were home and already in their bedroom watching a late-night show by the sounds of muffled laughter and light coming from their doorway. After getting Sage settled on the couch, I made a quick stop in the bathroom and then knocked on my parents’ door.
“Momma? You awake?” I whispered, peering through the cracked doorway.
The TV light cast shadows across the darkened room to where my dad was already asleep on his side facing away from me, snoring like a log. He worked hard on the ranch and was normally asleep by nine every night. My momma, however, would remain up watching TV, knitting or reading.
“Hey baby, you’re home.”
Padding barefoot across the thick carpet, I stopped at her bedside and leaned in to kiss the top of her head.
“Yeah. Sage is with me downstairs. Is it okay if he stays the night?”
Momma adjusted her posture and straightened to a sitting position against her pillows. She heaved a knowing sigh.
“Honey, you know I love Sage, but I don’t think it’s a good idea that he sleeps over. It’s just not appropriate anymore.”
I rolled my eyes. “Momma, you know it’s not like that between us.”
She smiled and shook her head. “It might not be that way now, but I see the way he looks at you, sweetheart.”
“Momma,” I groaned, not wanting a repeat of our birds and bee’s conversation from a few years earlier. Although to be fair, I think she was more embarrassed than I was, considering she couldn’t even get herself to say ‘blowjob’ and dismissed that part entirely.
That’s where it’s always helpful to have two older brothers and also two male best friends who mentioned those things on the regular. I may not have ever done it, but I sure did know all about it and how much boys loved getting head.
She patted my hand and wrapped me in a hug. “Honey, just know that your feelings may someday change. I just want you to be careful so that no one gets hurt. I’m okay with Sage staying around until midnight, but then he needs to go home.”
I was about to argue and state my case but decided it was useless. If I told momma about Sage’s bruise and that he might not be safe going home tonight –or any night– she would do something drastic, like call the Sherriff to investigate. And I couldn’t have that on my conscience. Sage would never forgive me.
We only had one more year of high school and I didn’t want something to happen that might take Sage away from me. That happened to Melinda Crumsberry last year. She was raised by her grandmother and when she died unexpectedly, Melinda had no other family to take her in and she was sent with Child Services to live in a foster home the next county over.
Last I heard, Melinda had run away and was possibly living on the streets of Nashville.
“Okay, momma. I’ll make sure he leaves at a decent hour. Thank you. G’night.”
Bending down, I kissed her softly on the top of her head and left her room. When I returned downstairs, I found Sage already watching a funny movie.
Plopping down next to him, I draped the blanket over my lap. It may have been ninety-five degrees outside, but the basement was always cold from the air conditioning.
“Hey, blanket hog. Give me that,” Sage grunted, yanking some of the material off my lap and covering his bare, hairy legs.
I’d marveled at how much hair both Sage and Cam had seemed to accumulate since just last summer. Before, Sage was lanky and scrawny, with knobby knees and spindly arms and legs. But over the past year, he’s matured, and his body had transformed right alongside Cam’s into something more masculine.
He’d told me he started to shave, and when we were swimming, I noticed that he’d developed a trail of dark, wispy hair, bisecting his stomach from his navel down to his ill-fitting cut-off shorts.
He’d also grown a crop of dark, curly hair underneath his armpits and a light dusting over his pecs. His entire physique had changed; although not as big as Cam, Sage worked out. I got the feeling Sage wanted to bulk up in order to protect himself.
Sitting so close next to Sage, I could feel the bunched muscle of his thigh, tapping against me playfully.Always moving. The curly hairs on his legs teased the smooth, bare skin of my own leg. It felt…intimate. And sent zings of electric currents racing up and down my spine.
The exact feeling I’d had with Cam several weeks ago in the river.
I swallowed nervously.
What was happening to me all of a sudden? We used to do this all the time as kids, but now it covered us like an invisible weight that made it feel awkward and wrong.
Hunkering further under the blanket, I tried to pay attention to the movie, but I soon grew sleepy and my heavy-lids began to sag and droop.
An hour later, I woke up entangled in the body heat radiating from Sage, who had his arm wrapped securely around my middle and his head resting on my lap.
And that now all-too-familiar feeling between my thighs.
