Every inch of my body was aching by the time I made it out of the shower and got dressed.
Pain was coursing through every muscle attached to my spinal cord and I honestly didn’t know how I was staying upright. I felt like jelly. I looked like shit. I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be able to work tonight – hell, I was fairly certain I needed medical attention.
Pushing my pain to the back of my mind, I made my way down the staircase and headed into the kitchen to refuel.
Popping a slice of last night's pizza in my mouth, I grabbed another and headed out back. As soon as I stepped outside I heard the sound of a guitar strumming followed by a female voice singing the lyrics of a song I'd never heard before.
"…I changed my life to make you love me but in the end it doesn’t count..."
"…All the tears you saw me cry and now you're gone without a sound..."
I stood stock-still with a slice of peperoni pizza hanging out of my mouth as I strained to hear her…
"…No more sounds of joy and laughter – just the songs of yesterday…"
"…No more saying babe, I love you because now you're gone away…"
I moved closer to the garden fence, fucking driven by the insane urge to put a face to that voice.
"… And now I wonder just how long it'll take…"
"…For me to say I love you..."
A skinny blonde sat cross-legged and barefoot in the garden next to mine, with a guitar almost the size of her resting on her bare thighs.
Swallowing my last slice of pizza, I leaned against the wall separating our houses and watched her play.
"…To another man, another face, another heart, another fake..."
Throwing her head back, her long blonde hair splayed everywhere as she played with her eyes closed, singing at the tops of her lungs. Her fingers were a blur of movement and I was fucking fascinated with her.
"…There was a time I would've fought for you…There was a time I would've ignored your cruel words when I overheard you say I wish I never met her…"
"…Not anymore. Not today. I want more. I deserve better... "
She finished her song and placed the guitar on the grass beside her before lying down with her eyes closed and sighing heavily.
Her blonde wavy hair looked like it hadn’t been brushed in days. The denim cut-offs she had on were worn to a thread and the white t-shirt she wore was at least five times too big for her, tied into a makeshift belly-top with a hair clip.
Her skin looked like ivory silk, she had a cut on her left knee and a bruise on her right elbow and I'd never seen anything so fucking beautiful.
She wasn’t intentionally sexy… she just was.
I watched her intently as she stretched her arms and legs out, clearly basking in the summer sunshine – I couldn’t turn my face away.
For some strange reason the words of Gareth Brook's song Unusually Unusual popped into my mind which was weird as fuck because I wasn’t a country music fan.
She twisted her face to one side, opened her eyes and looked straight into mine.
She didn’t look away.
Neither did I.
I just stood there, barely breathing, with a fucked up tightening pain in my chest, as her hazel colored eyes searched deep inside of me, pulling at a part of me I never knew existed.
"What are you doing?" a voice demanded from behind me, startling me and breaking the weird thing I had going on with the girl over the fence.
The blonde closed her eyes, turned her face up to the sky, and the moment was gone – as was the weird pulling sensation in my chest.
Ellie stepped into my personal space. "Noah, I asked you a question…" her voice trailed off as her eyes followed my line of sight.
A harsh laugh escaped from her. "You know you can't, right?" Ellie sneered, glowering over the wall at the girl. "You know what's at stake for us. Never piss on your own doorstep."
"I know," I told her.
It didn’t stop me looking at her though.
I think she seared me that very first day…because I sure as hell wasn’t the same after her.
****