Page 56 of Juliet's Echo

“Not good enough, right? You got Instagram hoes lined up, so what you want with the deaf girl? You know what, Psalm Mitchel? You are a piece of—”

I picked her up and hemmed her against the wall.

My hands rested underneath her arms, her feet swaying off the floor.

I licked her lips, then used my tongue to part them open, sucking on her bottom one.

“You know what I see when I look at your pretty ass, Lucky? You know what I see?”

She fell silent.

“Not the girl with the famous family. Not the popular girl. Not the deaf girl.”

I stared directly into her eyes.

“I see mine. Mine.”

Emotion flickered across her face.

“The girl I want to let aggravate the fuck out of me all day, every day, just to be in her presence. The girl I’d move the stars around for if she didn’t like their position in the sky.”

I swallowed.

“I want you.”

She looked as though she wanted to speak, but I continued.

“I want to love you hard. I will love you hard. But you better make sure I’m what you want, because once you become mine, Echo, Optimus, your other brothers, and your pops, gonna have to bury parts of my body in separate places all over the United States to keep me away from you.”

I kissed her one last time and placed her back on the floor.

“You understand what type of time I’m on?” I asked before stepping out of her space.

She nodded.

I grabbed my folder and slowly paced toward the door. Once my hand reached the handle, I opened it slightly.

“Psalm,” she called out.

I turned to her.

“Why Lucky?” she asked.

I smirked.

“Come to my house this weekend so we can go over our project like two normal individuals, and I’ll tell you then.”

Alonse Robertson

Fifty.

That’s how many windows were in my aunt and uncle's home. And out of the fifty, only thirty-seven had curtains.

Aunt Selene had this thing about being blessed to live where the Lord always shone the sun and thought it best to let it grace her home. My uncle pretty much did whatever his wife said, so whether he agreed or not, a house made for one hundred window panels contained only seventy-four.

My strife wasn’t with the sun.

There was once a time when I enjoyed it. Enjoyed the company of others. Getting invited to all the neighborhood kids' birthday parties.