A Recollection of Ideas: A Series of One Shots

I watched as the tabby cat that lived across the street escaped its front door and crawled under the neighbor’s fence. Blinking my eyes, and the cat was gone, disappearing into the curtains of weeds and long grass. I took out my headphones long enough to pause the music and go get a fresh glass of refreshing water. As I walked through my room again, I touched a poster of one of my favorite bands, My Chemical Romance, that hung on my wall.

Oh what I would give to see them live in concert.

A truck rumbled across the street, a warm, new sound that touched my ears. I couldn’t help but change walking to my closet now to the window to see what was happening. I curled on my little loveseat under the window, pulling a blanket around my shoulders and watching three figures paddle back and forth between the door and the small moving van.

“Honey, lunch is ready when you are!” My mom called from below. I turned from the window to see her walking up the stairs to my room.

“Okay, be down in a bit.” I smiled. She nodded and walked back down the carpeted stairs and out of view. I turned my attention on the tall, lanky boy who was easily carrying a large box. He looked about my age, no, a year older. He was fifteen. I was fourteen. But even though he was fifteen, he was tall.

The boy had brown hair like that of crisped leaves. It was long and curtained his face like those of the silly emo boys I had seen online, just little pictures that I searched on occasion. I squinted against the afternoon sun, trying to see his eyes. You could read a person’s soul by their eyes and I so desperately wanted to read his. He seemed slumped over, burdened by the boxes or something else. I think I saw a baseball jersey in one that he was carrying into the house. I caught him slowly examining all of the houses around him and found his eyes on mine. I ducked away from the window, blushing. I didn’t want him to feel like I was a stalker! When I looked back, he was gone. The tall man with the gaunt face and the brown hair was out of sight.

Overall, he both scared me and intrigued me.

I both wanted to know more about him and hide away in my corner, the shyness wrapping my body like a blanket. As my mom yelled to remind me that lunch was ready, I peered out the window one more time, still not seeing him. Retreating from under my blanket, I went downstairs, grabbing a plate with a grilled cheese on it and a handful of chips, I trotted back up to my room where I sat at my desk and continued one of my sketches that I had started a while ago. My sketch of a human figure soon turned into what I could remember about the guy across the street.

I had all summer to find out about that boy.

**

“Rebel, please go out and weed the garden.” My dad asked as I passed him. I nodded and slowly turned the brass doorknob.

“I was already planning on it.” I smiled at him as he disappeared, his head ducked low into a video game magazine as he went to go play Assassins Creed or Call of Duty or some other video game that involved killing people or zombies. My dad always had an affinity for those types of games, well, let’s be honest…he an affinity for video games in general!

I laughed quietly at my own thoughts as I went to go get the gardening tub, a collection of assorted trowels, gloves, and other gardening tools all thrown into a small bucket we had. I pulled out the bucket and went around to the front yard, going into my little flower garden filled with popping colors of summer.

I pulled on one of the many pairs of gloves and started to pull weeds that were neatly tucked between the sky blue hydrangeas and daisies. I threw them into a smaller weed bucket, I moved from the blue flowers to my roses, the ones that I had tenderly planted myself just a few years ago. I stroked the beautiful green, red, and even black petals. My favorite bush was one that had four red and black blooms. The red faded to a black tinge around the edges and had a sharp scent that made me smile every time I smelled it.

With a sigh, I started to gently pull up the roots of weeds, scowling as I saw how many had taken over the area dedicated to my gorgeous roses.

“I love your r-roses.” A voice cleared from behind me. The sudden noise that distracted me from my thoughts and deepness of where I had gone in my mind caused me to jump backwards from kneeling, falling on my butt and yelping in surprise. I looked up at who had startled me, shaking my head to clear my blonde bangs out of my face.

“I’m so sorry…!”

“No, you’re fine.”

“Are you alright?”

“Ugh the weeds.” Our words fell over each other. The boy who lived across the street knelt to help scoop the knocked over bucket of weeds back into its container. I sighed and joined in, avoiding his eye contact if at all possible.

“Sorry.” He apologized again. I shook my head, folding my legs on themselves and smiling a little.

“It’s fine. I was just lost in thought.” I looked at his shoes instead of his face, slowly turning back to weeding my roses.

“But they are really nice. I hadn’t seen a black and red rose before.” He pointed to the bush, gently using one finger to stroke the petal of the largest flower. I watched as his hand shook; he was so careful to touch my precious flowers. He knew that they were what I took pride in and he was tender with them.

“They’re called Black Magic roses.” I said, opening up from the quietness a bit. He cross his legs and sat down next to me. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, leaning over to smell them.

“They’re amazing!” He exclaimed, his eyebrows raised in excitement. A real grin wisped over my lips as my brain went alight. He liked my roses! He liked my roses!

“Yeah, they are. I’ve had them for a few years now. They’re some of my favorites.” I nodded to the bush he sat in front as I continued to pull some weeds from around the roses. I dove face first into the weeds, ripping and tearing with a renewed energy, now tossing them with furious excitement into the bucket.

I felt his eyes on me. Maybe he was staring at my ass since he was a teenage boy, or maybe on my shoulders as I reached for the far back rose bushes, but he was watching me. When I resurfaced from clearing an ocean of stringy pests, I tossed them in the bucket and looked at him.

His eyes were breathtakingly brown. They were the color of parched earth touched by a light kiss of misty rain. Not a downpour of rain on the whining earth, but a light mist. His eyes matched the pine tree’s bark, as if it was ripped from the trunk and painted around his pupils. His eyes were just a shade lighter than his hair but were wide open and reflecting the brightness of the sun.

I had to rip my own blue eyes away from his hypnotic ones. I went back to clearing weeds, hiding my blush between the green stalks of roses.

“What’s your name?” He asked, his eyes still on me. I tried my best to ignore his mesmerizing features and focus on trying to clear the garden of weeds.

“Rebel Wilson.”

“Cool name.”

“Thanks. Yours?”

“Austin. Austin Carlile.” He held out his hand. I shyly took it and shook his warm hand, putting my glove back on afterwards.

“Is it okay if I help?” He eventually asked. I came out from behind a violet colored rose and grinned.

“It would make weeding go faster.” I said. I watched as he started looking through the bucket, slowly pulling out my mom’s pair of dirty pink gloves. I laughed as he tried them on.

“Stunning.” I rolled my eyes and went back to weeding. I heard him laugh as he knelt next to me. I sucked in a little bit of air, holding my breath as his hand accidentally brushed up against mine.

An hour passed by, maybe more, but the sun finally started to go down when we finished up weeding the front garden. I had to empty out the bucket two or three times. We got all the weeds though, and that was the important part.

“I have to go inside, but thanks for helping me weed, Austin.” I said, fiddling with the guitar pick necklace around my neck. Austin smiled as he threw his gloves in the assorted tools bucket. He smiled.

“It’s been fun getting to hang with you. We should do this more often.” He spoke softly. I bit my lip, nodding.

“I’ll see you around, shy girl.” He chuckled. I waved weakly as I watched him turn and cross the street, going to the house to the right of the one directly across the street.

I went into the house smiling the entire way.

**

Four years later, that was my official title. “Shy girl”. Yep, that’s me.

Austin and I have hung out ever since that one day he came to help me with my roses. We go to the same high school. We’ve been lucky enough to have many of the same classes. Teachers never separate us. We’ve been together ever since that one fateful meeting.

People tease us and say that Austin should just ask me out already. I deny it. He graduated last year and is nineteen years old. I’m eighteen and just finished up high school three days ago. Onto the boring life of college.

Pulling out my headphones, I heard a weird noise. My daydreams and memories of those days that I used to be the shyest girl out of my whole school and just meeting Austin were gone. I heard a shattering of something and jolted out of my seat, biting my nails nervously.

There was angry grumbling downstairs. Nothing after a moment. Then the grumbling started up. I was afraid to peer down the stairs to see what was up. It was the middle of the afternoon. My mom was at the store. My dad was playing video games. What was happening?

Pausing my music, I looked out the window. No, it wasn’t coming from outside. I couldn’t see Austin either. I wanted to go hang out with him today. We would always sit in his basement and either play Grand Theft Auto or watch a Disney movie because he was a sucker for that kind of stuff. Plus, he had a mini fridge in his basement…

I smiled at the thoughts. Austin knew I loved the bubbly ginger ale sodas in a glass bubble that you could buy from that Ye Olde Time Shoppe or whatever on Main Street. He always kept a few in the fridge for me. They had a little label on them saying “for shy girl”. Sometimes he would write Rebel, cross it out, then write shy girl on top of that.

“Dad?” I asked, trotting downstairs. It never hurt to try and see if he’s home, even though it doesn’t look like it…

“Dad?”

I tried a couple of times. There was angry grumbling coming from the living room by the front door. I went towards there, gasping at the sight.

My dad stood in the middle of the floor, his shoulders slumped over like an older version of Igor. In his hand was a beer bottle. On the floor was a shattered one. He turned around at the sound.

“Dad, can I go over to Austin’s?” I asked quietly, eyes wide at the sight. His drunken lips turned into a snarl.

“Oh, you two so buddy-buddy? Just so you can go screw him again? Whore.” He snarled. I held my breath, my chest tightening, my world spinning. I shook my head.

“No! No! Not like that! Dad, I just want to go hang out with him and watch a movie.”

He taunted me with that word again.

W

I bit back little dribbles of tears, hand on the door handle as he approached. He shook his head.

H

“Going to run off to your boyfriend’s again? I’m not going to have him screw you over.” He growled, gripping my arm. I yanked free.

O

Through the insults he launched at me, I made a dash through the front door, tripping over the porch and scrambling up from falling on the driveway. The pavement bit and tore at my fragile skin.

R

My dad grabbed my shoulder, heaving my up from the middle of the driveway. He grabbed my hair in the other hand, yanking it hard. A cry of pain escaped my lips amongst the screaming threats at what he would do to me if he found out I was pregnant. I’m a virgin!

E

“Please, Dad, I’m not pregnant and he’s a friend! I’m not screwing him!” I sobbed as he yanked on my hair hard enough for me to start crying. The beer bottle landed vicious blows on my shoulder and back, but it was never enough to shatter. I dropped to my knees, only to have my hair yanked back up. I sobbed hard enough for the whole world to hear me.

Whore.

He hissed it at me over and over, eventually letting go of my hair to start kicking my in the chest as I curled up into a ball.

“Get off her, bastard!” A voice raged over me. The kicking stopped as I scrambled to my feet, doubling over in pain. I managed to look up, seeing my dad falling to the ground as Austin stood tall over him, both hands curled into fists. A little stream of blood left my dad’s lip, trailing down his chin. He groaned in pain and dropped the beer bottle, which finally sent a crack up to the lip.

“Rebel, are you okay?” Austin turned to me. I was shaking so bad that I could barely see. The world was spinning like a pinwheel on a windy day. I hunched over, trying to relieve the pain on my back. All I could do was ball my hands into fists and cover my mouth, teeth chattering. I saw Austin approach me slowly, head tilting to the side, mouth set in a frown.

“Austin…h-h-help.” I croaked out. He touched my arms gently, retreating only when I let out a tiny whimper of pain. I looked around Austin’s tall body, seeing my dad start to get up and move again. I felt like all the words had gotten beaten out of me. All I could do was point and shake harder. Austin grabbed my hand, prying it out of a fist.

“Come on, let’s go to my house.” He whispered urgently, taking my arm and wrapping around his shoulder. Before I knew it, he was picking me and quickly hurrying me away from the abusive parent moaning in the driveway.

I clutched onto his neck like it was the only thing in the world as my house disappeared. Desperately, I kept the weak yelps of pain locked inside my lungs as Austin’s hand supported my shoulder that had a bruise the size of a baseball on it.

I closed my eyes and when I opened them, I was in Austin’s familiar room. He set me down on his bed. I sat up weakly, watching him disappear into his bathroom. I fell back onto his pillows, the strength zapped out of my body. He reappeared to see me huddled helplessly on his sheets.

“Come on, Rebel. You have to sit up. I have to see if he broke any ribs.” He said. I clutched around my chest, shaking my head, tears spilling out of my eyes.

“N-n-no, Austin, I’m f-f-fine.” I mumbled, breaking into sobs again as I bowed my head into my chest. Austin knelt in front of the bed, gently smoothing out the bumps in my hair, tenderly stroking out the blonde strands.

“Come on, shy girl. I want to make sure you’re okay.” He coaxed. I peered up at him under my blonde bangs. His brown eyes were so worried and scared. I wiped away my tears, still shaken by what had happened.

“He said we were screwing around Austin. He got mad because he thought he were having sex.” I mumbled. Austin sighed and shook his head.

“Your dad was drunk. Don’t let his words get to you.” He whispered. I nodded, closing my eyes as dizziness hit me like a load of bricks. The boy squeezed my hand as he got up, going towards his closet.

“Look, let me look at the bruises and I’ll let you wear one of my Slipknot tank tops.” He bribed. I looked up, hesitating a moment. That was all he needed to go ahead and take it out of the closet, holding it out for me. I stood up, wobbling over to where he was, and snatched it out of his hand. I got out of my shirt and Austin turned me around so my back was to him.

“Oh, Rebel.” He whispered sadly, his hand touching certain places on my back that made me hiss with pain.

“That hurts.” I complained. He grabbed my hair, gently pulling it out of the way and revealing more bruises up and down my spine.

“You’re black and blue all over. Turn around.” He muttered one more time. I faced him, arms crossed over my chest, head down. His hand gently probed some of my ribs, right around the large bruises in the shape of a shoe. I cried out a little at the touch. Austin sighed and let me put on his giant Slipknot tank top, the one he cut out of a shirt. It was huge on me because Austin was a giant and his torso was extremely long so the bottom of the tank top came to just above my knees, basically covering my athletic shorts.

All I saw was Austin shaking his head as he disappeared out his room again. Grimacing, I tried following him downstairs. He looked over his shoulder and pointed to his room.

“Go back and lay down on my bed.” He commanded. I crossed my arms.

“Where are you going?”

“Getting you ice. Now lay down.” He put firmly. Turning around, I begrudgingly did as he said and went back to his bed, laying down on the Star Wars bed sheet. This kid was a sucker for Star Wars and I loved to tease him about it.

I curled up on the far pillow against the wall, trying to find a comfortable position to lay on. So far, I decided that laying on my stomach was the best. Just as I closed my eyes, I heard him walk through the door. I grumbled keeping my eyes shut. The darkness enclosed my like a warm blanket. I enjoyed it.

There was an immediate cold sensation that I hissed at. The frost pressed icy hands against my back as I sucked in a hiss of air. “Sorry. Ice pack.” Austin murmured as I turned my head to face him, opening my eye a little to smile slightly.

“Thanks. It helps. It was just shocking at first.” I murmured. His hands gently stroked my hair as I closed my eyes again. All I could think of were those brown eyes so sweetly scared for me.

“Do you want anything else?” He questioned softly.

“No thank you. You’ve done enough.” I whispered. He caressed a piece of hair, tucking it behind my ear. We sat in sweet silence for a moment. I closed my eyes, feeling a tiredness wash over my body like a cold ocean, keeping me tucked under its waves and rocking me to sleep.

I felt detached from my body. I felt the warm sunshine crawl through the windows and Austin get up once or twice. I drifted off, waking up occasionally, and then drifting off. At some point, Austin took the ice pack off of my back. I felt like I couldn’t move, I was that sore. It even pained me to breathe sometimes. I desperately wanted to change positions, but I didn’t want to cause more pain. I just lay that on my stomach, arms tucked under the pillow that my head rested on. I felt Austin lay back against the pillows next to me, probably reading a book or listening to music as the afternoon wore on. He hummed something softly as his fingers gently traced circles into my shoulder.

“You okay?” He asked one time as I opened my eyes sleepily.

“Not really.” I mumbled. He looked sad, but nodded.

“Are you comfortable?” He switched to. I smirked but rolled my eyes.

“I’ve been laying in the same position for the last three hours. I really want to move but it hurts.” I grumbled. Austin chuckled.

“Do you want another ice pack?” He asked. I shook my head.

“I’m fine. I’m getting up whether I like it or not right now.” I mumbled, sitting up on my elbows slowly. I groaned as my joints moved and I used any bruised muscle. I sat cross legged, staring sleepily at Austin as he leaned against his headboard, stretching his legs out on his bed, reading a book. I played with the hem of his tank top that I wore. It smelled just like him, a good, familiar smell.

“Your hair is messy.” He peered over the edge of his book, smirking at me. I smacked his leg.

“Your face is messy.” I mimicked sassily. He stuck his tongue out as I smiled in in joy.

“Worst comeback ever.” He rolled his eyes. I moved to sit on his leg. He gave me a weird stare.

“I have no clue why you’re doing this and if this is warm or weird.” He gave me a weird look. I held my head up triumphantly.

“I’m sitting on your leg because as soon as you get up, you’ll fall over. Your leg will be asleep in the next five minutes.” I stated. Austin looked skeptical.

“Sure, sure.”

But five minutes later, he tried to get up to get water, and he fell over.

“Sucker.” I snickered. He shook his head as he rubbed his leg. Austin got off the floor, wobbling to the door, grumbling about me being mean.

The light was fading fast from the sky. I could just barely see this pink evening sunset through the blinds as the sun disappeared from the day. As Austin walked back into his room, I got comfortable on his bed, laying back down on my stomach.

“Hey, move over, Rebel.” He chuckled. I shook my head and hid my face in his pillows. Austin pushed me over a little until he could lay back down, barely hanging onto the bed by a leg. I peered over at him with one sleepy eye and sighed.

“Fine, I’ll move.” I grumbled. He smiled.

“Thanks.” And I adjusted my position so that he could actually lie back down again. I crawled up next to him, snuggling right up against his arm, trying to see what he was reading.

“What are you doing?”

“Side-reading.”

“Is that even a thing?”

“It is now.” And so I kind of struggled to read what was going on from the side while lying on my stomach. Austin saw what was happening and raised his arm, letting me come in right next to his side. I kept on moving, making him stop reading his book. He looked at me curiously as I paused.

“What?” I asked.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting comfortable.”

“Okay, shy girl.” He chuckled as I lay right on top of him, using his chest as my pillow. I crept under Austin’s chin, laying so that I could hear his heartbeat clearly. The warm breath of the boy under me tickled the top of my head. I closed my eyes as he dropped one hand from his book to run the tips of his fingers softly up and down my spine. This time, I didn’t hurt, it just felt soothing and relaxing. Austin wrapped one leg over mine, keeping me in place. He set his chin on top of my head. I could feel him smile.

“You know what?” He whispered.

“What?”

“You look really good in my Slipknot tank top.” He chuckled. I pressed my nose into his collarbone. I could feel him kiss the top of my head.

“Thanks, Aus.” I mumbled into his collarbone. He hummed in happiness.

“You’re welcome.” He chirped happily. I closed my eyes and waited for night to come, eventually drifting of slightly.

I woke up not long after, no, wait, a while after. I opened my eyes to the dark but not-so-asleep room. Austin was still awake. His hands played with my hair, winding themselves in it, gently braiding the strands, and then combing them out. I leaned up slightly, wincing at the twinges of pain.

“You’re still awake?” I mumbled. I could see those brown eyes through the darkness, the one that that keeps me here.

“Yeah. I couldn’t sleep.” He whispered. I reached out, touching his scruffy cheek gently. I ran my fingers along his jaw.

“But why?”

“Because to be sure you’re okay. I didn’t want to be asleep if you woke up and started hurting again.” He whispered. I didn’t say anything. He was just a sweet boy who cared too much about others. I ran my fingers down his jaw and feeling him press into my touch.

“You need to sleep, Aus.” I whispered. His sigh rolled over my wrist. I slowly moved my fingers just up to his hair, winding a single strand around my index finger.

“So do you.” He argued. I shook my head.

“I’ve been sleeping through the day. You’ve been up for the entirety of it. Go to bed.” I whispered softly, leaning in so he would know I’m still here.

“When you can’t sleep at night…” He whispered. I shook my head, sighing. I could almost feel his lips right on mine. I closed my eyes and pushed a little further, locking together. His hands tightened around my shoulders, pulling me in. I pressed a little further, his hands running down my sides to grab my hips. I pulled away, leaving him whining for more. I chuckled lowly as I let my lips painfully slowly trail up his jaw, occasionally stopping to press a kiss onto his jawline. He stayed frozen except for occasionally letting out a little shiver and groan while digging his fingers into my hips. When I finally reached the little hollow behind his ear, running my teeth over his sensitive skin, he grabbed my face, pulling me back down to kiss him one last time before pressing his lips to the corners of mine. He chuckled lowly as he pulled away, kissing his way down my neck, his teeth scrapping my collarbone as I let out a shaky breath.

“Austin…w-we should really sleep.” I mumbled. His nails ran down my side, hitting bare skin in the holes of his tank top. My heart stopped for a moment as he pressed a harder kiss to a particularly sensitive spot on my neck.

“You know me. I always have to get you back.” He chuckled seductively. I put my hands on his shoulders, steadying myself.

“What’d I do?” I pouted. He nipped my sensitive spot, making me shut up.

“You’re such a tease.”

“Staaahp.” I groaned as he lightly peppered my skin with kisses, occasionally nipping and pressing his lips against my ear lobe and then behind it to the little dip behind my ear. He’d press his nose against it and breathe cool air on my skin until I whimpered and pressed myself down against his chest, burying myself as if I could escape. I knew I couldn’t and I didn’t mind.

“You started it.” He whispered. He kept running his nails down my side, making me cringe and shake with pleasure. Austin ducked down one last time, pressing a hesitantly kiss to my lips before finally stopping. I sighed and hugged him closer.

“Let’s save this for tomorrow.” I whispered. He laughed in the dark.

Notes

So this one shot is more for my own amusement. No one has requested in a while so I decided to write one for myself :)

Please don't hesitate to request! I need some new stuff to write!