After a short drive in Maggie's silver Ford, we finally parked in what was, for all intents and purposes, a desolate parking lot. The sun bounced off of the hood, hitting me in the eyes as I got out of the car. As her sandals slapped the pavement with every step, she had walked a full two strides ahead of me, allowing me to see her rear end in all of its glory.
Maggie had been dressed, and while it wasn't much more, she was still dressed nonetheless. She had been wearing a pair of tight-fitting shorts that hugged not only her waist, but the derriere I had been so intently staring at. Her top followed the same rhythm, leaving little to the imagination. That, however, had been fine with me.
"I thought you didn't like this place?" I asked.
"I don't, but it's like the only mall for like fifty miles." Maggie lifted her arms, stretching as she walked ahead. "Better than nothing at all, you know?"
"Eh?" I shrugged my shoulders. "Doesn't matter to me."
Maggie turned around, continuing to walk backwards. She slowed her steps, allowing me to catch up. I, however, remained at the same speed, taking in the glorious sights that were her bodacious ta-ta's. In the shirt she had been wearing, it couldn't have been helped. I had been nothing more than a drooling oaf - a victim of outward, nearly abusive femininity.
"So, are you going to take my hand, or are you just trying to make me look like a slut?" Maggie teased as her eyes caught mine. "I mean, I don't care if you stare at my tits or not, but at least pay some attention to me."
Just as we approached the doors to the mall, I took her hand in mine and let our fingers naturally intertwine. Maggie's hand returned a soft squeeze before I stepped forward to pull the door open.
As we entered, I had been surprised to see a large number of people. There had seemed to be more people in the mall than the number of cars in the lot reflected. It had been odd, but not so much to where I couldn't ignore it, which is precisely what I had done. It was within minutes, however, that I had recognized more than a few familiar faces.
A group of several girls passed Maggie and I, three of which I had been sure went to the same school I did. At that moment, I grinned. I had wanted a little fun before I had to spend the rest of the morning in a mall, and I had just found it in those three snooty blondes who had thought they were the biggest thing since sliced cheese - or was it bread? Whatever.
"Cassidy!" I yelled out, causing both her and her slave-esque lackeys to turn. "Come here for a minute."
Quickly, she came towards me with her purse hanging off of her shoulders. "What do you want, Cyrus?"
"Hmm. A few hundred dollars?" I smiled softly, though quite sharply as I peeked at Maggie out of the corner of my eye. "Or maybe I'll just tell your mom I ran into you here when I show up to school later. That's a tough one, isn't it?"
"...Fine." Cassidy shook her head, sighing unbelievably at the thought of being blackmailed. "Is eight good?"
"Close, but how about nine?" I responded, knowing just how stacked she had been - and not just physically.
Cassidy rolled her eyes and turned to see the ATM to the left of the exit. "I need to get the money, so hold on a minute."
With a an angry, snappy step, I watched as Cassidy fidgeted with the ATM, pulling out the money I had practically stolen from her. After nearly ten minutes, Cassidy returned with a stack of various bills in varying amounts, which she dropped into my hands. While she put her wallet away, she looked up at me with a glare through the bleach blonde bangs that covered her eyes.
"I could only get eight hundred and eighty because of the stupid limit." Cassidy murmured quietly, giving me a nearly inaudible whisper. "I'll give you the rest tomorrow at school."
I grinned, speaking through my teeth with a razor-edged hiss. "Trust me, Cassidy. You'll be doing a lot more than that. Now, go on. I have more important shit to do right now."
Turning, I had been greeted to the sight of Maggie nearly dying from a silent laughter. It had been at least a good minute before she had calmed down enough to speak like a literate human being. I stared, only watching her laughter like it was the most shocking thing in the world.
"How often do you do shit like that? Her expression was priceless." Maggie wiped her eye, her expression turned into an ever so slight seriousness. "...and what was that last little thing about, exactly?"
"Often enough, I guess." I handed Maggie a little more than half of the money. "That? I'll probably just blackmail more money out of her."
"I can't take all this money, Cyrus." Maggie tried to give it back.
"You can. Buy something nice, I guess." I took her hand once again. "Isn't that what I'm supposed to say?"
"I guess." Maggie flipped through the bills, shrugging her shoulders. "You could be a little less cheesy about it, though."
_
The morning had dragged on slower than I ever could have imagined. It had been near torturous watching Maggie go from store to store, trying on everything that caught her eye. Had this been a punishment for something? What had I done to deserve this boredom? Looking around, I, once again, saw Cassidy leading her friends around the mall like a leader to a pack of wolves. While she hadn't been the most original girl on the planet, she was still quite the looker - and quite worthy of my time.
"Damn." I snickered, my hair falling over my eyes. "What I would give for a pillow right now."
As I brushed my hair to the side, I had seen Maggie come from the dressing room in a new pair of short, shorts that had somehow been even shorter than the pair she had previously been wearing. While the coverage had been scarce, I had been more than a fan of what I had seen. It had caused movement in some places, to say the least.
Standing up, I took several long strides towards Maggie. In what felt like seconds, I had reached the beauty that stood before me. However, instead of stopping, I had grabbed her by her arm and hauled her back to the dressing room. Why had I dragged her back to the dressing room? Because I had surely not wanted other people to see what I had been about to do to her.
Maggie appeared surprised, giving me this odd look as though I had just taken her puppy away from her and told her that she would never see it again. Instead of explaining why I had done what I done, I softly pushed her against the wall - my mouth aiming for the side of a neck that had been just as impeccable as the rest of her.
"Cyrus..." she slightly moaned, as I had knowingly attacked a weak spot of hers. "Not here."
Moving from her neck to the soft, velvety lobe of her ear, I grinned, hissing softly like a snake approaching prey. "You know you want this, Maggie. It doesn't matter where. Does it?"
"Stop it, Cyrus." she moaned again, this time a little louder as my hands began to make their way to her hips and into the back of her shorts - gripping onto the bareness that was her derriere. "Pl...Fuck it."
Giving in, Maggie had released the resistance her body had put up. Within what felt like seconds, her shorts had met the floor and her legs were around my waist - my tongue stuffed down her throat to keep her silent. With no resistance left in her, Maggie allowed me to unclasp her last shred of clothing; leaving her as nude as the color her makeup.
"Jesus, ha-" Maggie had been interrupted by two voices speaking in the next room over.
"Can you believe her?" the voice squeaked, laughing almost uncontrollably. "Who the fuck dates her own dead sisters boyfriend? It's just...morbid."
Both mine and Maggie's eyes widened, hearing those brutal words. Words that nobody was likely to ever supposed to hear. Of course, they had to be talking about someone else, right? They weren't talking about Kylie and Maggie, right? Even if they had been, why would they have been talking about something that had happened so long ago?
That had been the moment a simple conversation had turned into World War III.
"I mean, I can't really blame her, though. Cyrus is seriously like the hottest guy at our school." the other girl added. "I would kill my sister to bang him, too."
"My god, you slut!" she chirped. "That's horrible, Cassidy."
Looking at Maggie once again, her eyes had turned black - sullen as an image of a stormy sea. However, more than angry, she had appeared depressed. What could have I said at the moment to make her feel better, that what those girls had said wasn't the truth? Was there anything I could have said? I love you? Don't listen to them, you didn't kill your sister. Neither of us did? My heart and brain had, for once, worked in unison - they both remained silent.
"...Say something." Maggie gave a barely audible murmur. "You don't think that, right? Right?"
"Of course, I don't." I looked away, unsure of the expression to give Maggie. "Have I ever given you a reason to think that?"
Something, albeit small, had been broken - snapped like a twig. If someone had asked me what broke, I wouldn't have had an answer. I had begun to question myself, why had I been with Maggie? Were my feelings there? Could and would I have been there for her, both in the present and future? Was all of this real, or just something of our own creation?
Had Maggie and I been buried so deep in our own sorrows that we felt a connection that manifested itself as a false sense of love? Had we been so blinded by darkness that we couldn't see that none of this was real? I couldn't take it - the unknowning, the unanswered. I took a deep breath, and threw caution to the wind.
I was over it. I was over the constant questioning of everything. I was over wondering about all of my choices. I was over contemplating the unknown, the planning of something unforeseen. I was over all of it. Except for one thing - or so I thought.
Wrapping my arms around Maggie, I held her in the best way I knew how. "Maggie. I love you because you are you - and not your sister. You have your own beauty, your own quirks, and your own sense of being. Would I be here now, standing with you naked if I didn't feel some way about you?"
"I don't know anymore." Maggie bent over, grabbing her shorts. "Would you? Or are you just here for a fuck, is that all you've ever been here for?"
Was I only with her for the sex, or had I truly loved the sister of my dead ex-girlfriend? Was our relationship truly love, or had it been a culmination of the desperation we both felt inside of our selves - mixing together to create the ultimate illusion of love?
I reached forward, putting my hands on the head of the woman before me. As my thumbs moved up her jaw, I had made a decision. Whether it had been good or bad, I had made a decision. I had been intent on sticking with it. I was going to change, I was going to be a better person, I was going to grow up.
I was going to move on. I was going to act my age, and be an adult for the heartbroken woman in front of me. This beauty. I hadn't know if this was love or not - but I was going to do my damnedest to make the best happen for her - for us.
"Maggie. How about we leave this place? You know, just like we've always talked about doing." I asked. "We can start over. We can be entirely new people, from an entirely new world."
Why had that sounded so painfully familiar? That's right. I had made the same promise with Kylie. Had this coexistence truly been me filling in the hole that Kylie had left, recreating everything I had done or promised her - only with Maggie?
"You're lying." She appeared to grimace, still in between my hands. "I'm not the one you should be with. You know it, and I know it.."
"I'm done caring about others, and I'm done caring about myself. What I'm not done caring about is you, Maggie." I responded to her, eye to eye. "What I'm trying to say is...I want my future from here on out to be with you. I'm going to leave, and I'm taking you with me - as my girlfriend or as my wife. It's up to you. I can't afford a ring or that fancy shit, but I will one day and I want you to be there for it. Now and then."
Had I been that mentally fucked up? Had I been so childish as to think that this was an answer, a plausible solution to what had already been a completely rancid relationship? Even if she had said yes, she had been years older than me. How had I expected any of it to work, a child and an adult? Moreover, an adult who had deserved better than some fucked up kid. Why had it worked? Why had our relationship lasted so long?
Maggie had been a child in an adults body.
While I hadn't quite known it at the moment, I had made an awful decision. Not just for me, but for Maggie as well. What she had said was absolutely true; we were two forms of bacteria interacting with one another in uncharted territory. She had been the disease, but I was the cancer.
"You're a fucking dumbass, Cyrus." Maggie let a lone tear fall down the flawless skin of her cheek. "But I can see why she loved that about you."880Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlCOrpIuJFr
