Page 103 of Torn
As we walk down the empty hall toward the office, Uncle Toren and Aunt Sydni come into view, waiting for me in the front lobby. I can tell immediately by their somber faces that something is very wrong.
“Kenzi…” Aunt Sydni says, taking a few steps forward. “There’s been an accident. Your grandmother asked us to come get you.”
My breath hitches in my throat and my blood goes cold as my mind flips through the Rolodex of everyone I love… Mommy, Daddy, Gram, Great-Gram, Pop, Chloe, Talon, Storm, Rayne, Lukas, Mikah, Katherine, Vandal.
“Wh-what do you mean?” I ask, searching both of their faces.
Uncle Tor pulls me into his arms and hugs me tight, his breathing ragged. He’s got grease on his clothes and hands, and a smudge on his face, meaning he came right from work without any time to change or wash. Aunt Sydni’s wearing sweatpants and no makeup like she just got out of bed. It’s clear they came here to get me in a rush.
“What happened?” I ask, my face still buried in Tor’s chest. “Who is it?”
“It’s your mom.” He pulls me away to look into my eyes, his hands moving to my shoulders, squeezing them gently. “I’m sorry, Angel. It’s not good. We’re going to take you to the hospital. Everyone is there.”
His eyes are bloodshot and puffy, and so are Aunt Sydni’s, meaning they were both crying before they got here. Now they’re wearing fake, weak smiles, trying not to worry me, but I can tell something awful has happened.
As Aunt Sydni signs the form to take me out of school, I cling to Uncle Tor, my body shaking uncontrollably. I want to ask what happened but I can’t get my mouth to work.
“Is she dead?” I finally force in a hoarse whisper.
“No, sweetheart. But I can’t lie to you… it’s bad.” His strong arms go around me again. “I promise I’ll stay with you. We’ll get through this together. Everything will be okay.”
TOR
During the ride back home, her hand slips under the front of my shirt and rests against the skin right above the waistband of my jeans, every so often feathering up toward my chest or acrossmy rib cage, slowly exploring me. I should tell her no groping when we’re riding but I’m enjoying her touch way too much to make her stop. On the easy, straight roads I reach back and run my hand down the outside of her leg. She squeezes her thighs tighter around me as she presses her body closer to mine.
We pull over at an ice cream stand so she can use the restroom, and then sit at a picnic table to enjoy ice cream cones in the shade. We watch a couple with triplets who look to be about five years old attempt to eat theirs but end up mostly wearing them. We can’t stop ourselves from laughing and the mother laughs with us. “Wait till you two have your own,” she says jokingly.
Yikes.They think we’re a couple. Maybe the age difference between us isn’t as visibly obvious as I thought it was.
“Do you still want kids, Tor?” Kenzi asks. When I turn away from the messy little kids to answer her, her tongue is swirling around the vanilla ice cream, her lips all creamy, and my brain short-circuits watching her. I’d do anything to have her lips and her tongue on my cock just like that. Or anywhere on my body.
“Earth to Tor?” she says, giggling and nudging my leg with her boot.
“Huh?” I drag my eyes away from her mouth. “Kids?”
“Yeah.”
“Someday, yeah.”
“You’d make a great dad.”
“Think so?”
“Definitely. Look how good you were with me all the time when I was little.”
No.I can’t think about that. Thinking about that makes me feel sick and twisted. I can’t think about shoving my cock into her mouth one minute and then remember rocking her to sleep when she was a baby the next. I stand and throw the rest of my cone in agarbage can buzzing with flies. What the fuck am I doing with her? Why am I playing with fire and tempting us both with something we can’t have? I wonder if I should see a therapist about this mess I’ve gotten myself into, to help me figure out if what I’m doing is completely fucked up or if it’s actually acceptable if we both want it.Andwe’re both consenting adults now.Andwe love each other.
But she’s still my best friend’s daughter. Regardless of all those other things, that fact will never, ever change.
She wants to see the dog and the kitten, so I bring her back to my place instead of straight to her house after our ride. I didn’t tell her about the kitten when I first found her; I surprised her by letting her come over to clean when she got back from Maine, and the kitten was sleeping on the couch when she got there. She called me at the shop all crazy excited after she saw her and I told her about how I found the kitten in a box on the side of the road. Originally, I thought the kitten was a boy, but it’s actually a girl. Needless to say, Kenzi fell immediately in love with the kitten just like she did with the dog.
“Did you name this poor kitten yet?” she asks me now, sitting on the floor with both the dog and the kitten crawling up in her lap for love. Kenzi is like a pet whisperer. They all love her.
I sit on the couch and pull off my boots, thinking we’ll relax and have a bite to eat before I take her home.
“Yeah. Kitten. It goes with Diogee.”
She smirks at me. “That’s lazy, but it fits her.” She picks the kitten up and cradles her against her chest. “She’s so adorable, Tor. I want to kidnap her and take her home with me.”