texaswildfire

It's too hot to sleep once the sun comes up.
Grandpa won't turn the air conditioner on until at least noon.
So, I am forced to get up at 7:00.
A shower only helps the early heat a little.
Of course, that relief is short lived when I get downstairs.

Seth is cooking breakfast.
Marc and Grandpa are sitting on the couch going through scrapbooks.
I hate that they seem happy.
I want more sleep. Hours and hours more.

"Good morning sweet princess," my grandpa coos from the couch. "I hope you slept well. Sorry about how hot it gets upstairs in the morning but your grandmother would kill me if I left the air conditioner on after I got up, which was at 5:30. Like always."

All I can do is nod.
I'm too tired to speak.
Leaving him and Marc alone is the smart thing right now.
The only thing that will keep me from being cranky all day is food.
Real food.

"Mornin' Rose," Seth throws over his shoulder. "Did the smell of my delicious pancakes wake you up?"

"I wish. It was how I was roasting alive upstairs," I tell him.

"Well, yeah, I should have told you that they have some strange new rules and shit," Seth says as he slides a plate in front of me. "Have these. Once grandpa goes to meet with his senior chess club, you can go back to sleep in my room if you want."

"You know Seth, it's a little disturbing how nice you are being to me, how nice you were being to me before you left," I observe outloud. "What's made you...change? For real. Not that I want you to go back to being a blazing asshole but..."

Seth laughs a little then turns back to his pancakes.
He is quick with the stack.
Or maybe I just think he is because I eat the first one in record time.
It's not until he sits across from me that I realize my piggy-ness.

"I thought we've been over this before but it could have been the weed," Seth shrugs. "Seriously though, I am growing up, Rosie. Jonah can be the 'blazing asshole' of the house now that I'm gone. He won't, though. He will turn straight with Noodle and I both gone. And you, you need someone that you can actually come to."

"I can go to mom," I tell him.

"Not about certain things," he reminds me quickly. "Who are you going to go to cry about how things end when Marc has to go to school in, hmm...a few months? Me. Mom won't really care if you're sulking around. Neither will dad or Jonah. I swear, maybe this next school year, you should think about getting some friends."

My eyes roll.
Maybe I should really get some friends next year.
I really don't have any that I can truly count on anymore.
Save for Marc and, well, he kind of has to care.
For now.

"Seriously, Rosie, I can't be an asshole forever. Girls don't dig that anymore," he adds.

"I knew that is what it would all come down to," I sigh. "Girls and what they would want. Yeah. Assholes aren't very appealing to most girls but there are some that can't get enough of them. Why don't you just go out with those?"

"Because those kinds of girls are whores," Seth snorts. "And do you really think I want to date a whore? Okay. You might think that but that isn't the case. I want to have a good girlfriend. Someone that I don't have to worry about sleeping with my best friend."

"Well, with Noodle as your best friend, you never have to worry about that," I shoot at him.

Seth can't help but agree.
Noodle scares girls away.
Literally, which is sad.
He's super gross and crude and just sick.
At least I think so anyway.

I wash our breakfast dishes while Seth goes to straighten up his bed.
I am dying to go back to sleep.
It would be better if Marc could stay with me.
But he can't.
Grandpa ropes him, and Seth, to go with him to his chess club meeting.

Maybe that is for the best.
I sleep hard in Seth's cold bedroom under his pile of clean blankets.
I dream about cowboys and the west.
It was funny because Marc and Seth were wearing hats and carried guns.
Seth looked like an idiot.
Marc looked hot.

They aren't home when I wake up.
I have no calls on my cellphone from either one of them.
I decide to just curl up on the couch to watch T.V.
I hate everything that's on.
It's all mind numbing.
Boring.
Stupid.
Sickening.


"Honey, we're home," my grandpa happily trumpets as he bursts into the house. "Rose, don't get up! You stay right there, stay comfortable. I have the boys bringing in dinner and the DVD's they wanted to watch with you. I have to pop out for a while. Think you guys will be okay without me?"

"I am sure we will, grandpa," I smile.

"That's great, Rose. Let me know if these boys give you a hard time," he tells me before he kisses my forehead. "I will be back before 10 o'clock. Boys! Bring Rosie some dinner! She's been sleeping and needs food. Don't make her wait."

"Don't worry, I'm on it," Marc says as he turns the corner to the livingroom holding two plates. Pizza.

Grandpa pats his shoulder.
"Good boy" is what he tells Marc before he leaves.
Marc hands me a plate, drops down next to me and sighs.

"Long day," I ask.

"The longest. I knew that it probably would be but I didn't think it would feel like two eternies back to back," Marc jokes. "And, it made me miss you. It sucks that we were in the same house all morning and I didn't even talk to you."

"Hey, I know how my grandpa is," I tell him. "I missed you, too, though. I was dying to sneak down and crawl into your bed but, when I tried, my grandpa was walking down the hallway to do a bed check, I guess. It was all so...old-school."

Marc laughs and kisses my temple.
I want more than that.
Seth doesn't even register in my mind as I throw our plates onto the coffee table.
He smirks and rests his hands on my hips the moment I straddle his lap.

"I like this," he says, his voice low and sexy.

"What else would you like," I can't help but ask.

"To not see this," Seth chimes is as he walks into the room. "I don't care what you guys do as long as it's not on the couch. It would be too hard to explain stains on it."

Marc and I blush.
I fall off him.
We eat pizza and watch one of the DVD's.
Halfway through anyway.
Seth says he will cover for Marc and I so we can retire to the guest room.

Marc locks the door.
I turn on the small black and white T.V. for light.
He wraps his arms around me, turning me to pure liquid heat.
Again.
He's good at it.

"Do you think it's actually in you to be quiet," Marc jokes in a whisper.

His teeth drag themselves, slow, beyond slow, against my neck.
He knows how much that supresses my thought process.
How much I like it.

"No," I tell him truthfully. "But I can try."

'Trying' instantly makes things harder to control.
His warm hands contrast harshly with the cold room.
The skin on my arms perks up into bumps.
But, this time, instead of being submissive, I take some kind of lead.

I kiss him.
Hard.
His kiss follows suit and, things start falling away.
T-shirts.
Jeans.
Underwear.
Shyness.

We make it quick.
Hot but quick.
Seth doesn't break us up.
There was no need.
We are done and dressed again long before 10.

We eat more pizza.
And, when grandpa gets back, I go up to my bedroom.
I take another shower then go to sleep.
This time, not alone.
Marc succeeds in sneaking up to my room after midnight.

Suddenly, the heat doesn't matter anymore.
Marc's damp hair and warm arms keep me too happy to care.