“There was this guy who was fighting with his wife, and he actually attacked her with his left hand while his right hand was trying to defend her from himself.”

Ethan took my hand and helped me out of the back of the cab.  Once we were on the sidewalk, and I had paid the driver, Ethan laced his fingers through mine as we made our way to my apartment.

“So that kind of shit certainly happens,” Ethan said.  He swung our arms between us, biting down on his lower lip and smiling down at me as we walked.  He’d been telling me some of the most bizarre stories about people who had undergone the same surgery as he had.  “There was a guy they put headphones on and asked him in his right ear what he wanted to do for a living, and his left hand wrote down that he wanted to be a race car driver.  When they asked the same question into his left ear, he wrote with his right hand that he wanted to be a draftsman.  Oh—and if you show just one of my eyes a picture of something and ask me to draw it, I’ll always draw it better with my left hand even though I’m right-handed.  How fucked up is that?  It’s because your right brain is better at drawing, I guess.”

“It’s actually really fascinating,” I said truthfully.  We entered the elevator, and I pushed the button for my floor.  “But it’s also kind of scary in a way, you know?”

“Yeah, I know,” Ethan said with a nod.  “I can live will all that stuff pretty easily.  Not being able to read is a much bigger deal.  A lot of the split brain stuff is kinda funny, like I mentioned before when I kept passing the donuts sign.  Sometimes it’s just freaky, like earlier.”

“Do you think…um, both of you want to talk to me now?”

Ethan laughed.

“There’s still only one of me, goofball,” he said.  “It’s just that when I can’t make up my mind, I don’t always realize I can’t make up my mind.  You should see me when Andi is bitching at me to eat healthier, and I start making a salad with Hershey’s syrup for dressing!”

“You’re kidding!” I gasped.  The elevator beeped at us as we reached my floor.  We stepped out together, and I pulled my hand out of his to dig through my purse for the keys.

“Of course I am.” He smirked.  “But I have had one hand grab orange juice and the other one grab a can of Coke at the same time.  I’ll sit down at the table and look down, realizing I have both.”

“That has to be a little odd.”

“Yes and no,” Ethan said.  He held open the door for me after I unlocked it, and we both went inside.  “Really, everyone does it, but most people do it in their heads first and then act.  I act first, and how I act tells me I’m indecisive.  Usually, no one except me notices it happens at all, but times like today make it kind of obvious.”

Ethan looked around my apartment, taking in the neutral décor and checking out my stereo system.  I hung my purse on its hook and took his backpack from him, laying it down on the floor next to the door.

“Do you want something to drink?” I asked.

“Orange juice and Coke, please,” Ethan said with a wink.  “Nah.  Really, I’m fine.”

“Well, I’m going to have some wine if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course.”

I stepped into the kitchen and pulled out a wine glass and the half bottle of Merlot I had started the day before.  After pouring a glass, I went back into the living room, where Ethan was pulling out DVDs from their display cases one at a time, looking at the covers of each one.

“You like romantic comedies, huh?” he said.

“I guess so,” I replied.  “They’re a nice distraction from schoolwork anyway.”

“Do you have a lot of schoolwork to get done tonight?” Ethan asked.  He looked out towards the doorway and ran one of his hands through his hair, tossing it all over the place.  “I don’t want to…to be in the way.”

I looked up at him, and Ethan looked down at his feet for a moment with his brow furrowed.

“You aren’t in the way,” I said quietly.  He glanced back up and blushed.

“I don’t know what to say now.” He stepped from one foot to the other.  “I’m not very good at…well, making up, I guess?  That’s what this is, right?”

“I want it to be.”

“So do I.”

I placed my wine glass on the coffee table and took a few steps closer to him.  Reaching out, I took both his hands in mine.  He looked at them for a moment before looking back into my eyes.  His beautiful half smile appeared, and his blush deepened as he pulled me close and kissed me softly.  I returned the favor and then raised my hands up and around his neck, twisting them into his hair and holding him closer.  I felt his tongue against my mouth and opened to him.

Ethan groaned and wrapped his arms around my waist, gripping me tightly.

“I didn’t think we’d ever do this again,” he said, moving away from my lips and kissing up my jaw to my ear.  “I never thought I’d touch you like this again.  It hurt so much just thinking about it…”

“Ethan, I’m so sorry.  I never meant to hurt you.”

Pulling back, he opened his eyes and looked at me, ran his tongue over his lip rings, and sighed.

“I know you didn’t mean to,” he said softly.  “I guess there have always been people I’ve known who really care about that kind of stuff, but I just never have.  I didn’t know what I should do.  I like you so much…”

“I like you, too.”  I placed my palm against his cheek.  “I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy for me to just forget all that stuff.  Who you are inside is what’s important. I know that, but I’ve always been taught that you show who you are by your appearance.  The people in my life, they aren’t going to just accept you.  In my world, that reflects on me and my father.”

Ethan narrowed his eyes, contemplating.

“I guess I never thought of it that way,” he said.  “My parents never made a big deal out of clothes or whatever.  I always had nice stuff, but I didn’t want to stand out when it came to the people I cared about, so when they were gone, I always went shopping with Faith at the places she could afford.  I don’t want the others to know I have money because…well, because they don’t, and they’d never accept anything from me if I made it obvious.”

“It sounds like the same kind of thing,” I said.  “It’s just the opposite end of the spectrum.  You’re hiding the fact that you have money for the sake of fitting in with your friends.”

“I guess you have a point there.”  Ethan chewed on his lip for a moment, contemplating.  “But when I told them about you, and where you were going to work and shit, they all figured out you were pretty well off, and none of them cared.  Well, as long as you, um, didn’t do anything that would…shit.  I shouldn’t bring that up now.”

“As long as I didn’t hurt you.”

“Yeah.”

“What can I do to take it back?”

“You can’t,” Ethan said stoically.  “What’s done is done.  You can’t ever take back something you said or did in the past.  You just have to go forward.  Just don’t do that again.  Please.”

“I won’t,” I promised.  “I’m sorry.  I really am.”

“I know.”  Ethan smiled.  “And I think I understand that it’s not going to be easy for you—or me either, for that matter.  But as long as we stick together, we should be okay, right?”

“Yes, I think we will.”

“Are we all made up now?” he asked.  I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I think so.  What do you think?”

“I think there’s one more thing to do to make it official.”  He raised his eyebrows and slid his hand a little lower, past the small of my back, and gripped my backside.  He pulled me in close to him, and I could feel his desire pressed up against me.

“I think you might be right,” I replied.

He kissed the underside of my jaw, still holding my hips against his thighs, so I could feel how hard he was as he pressed into my stomach.  I reached down and ran my hand over the side of his length, through the denim.  He pushed harder against me, and his lips found mine, eagerly sucking and licking.  I placed both hands on his hips and brought him even nearer.

With my fingers at the top edge of his jeans, I worked my way to the skin at his sides and then lifted my hands—taking his shirt with me.   Ethan obligingly raised his arms so I could take it off altogether, revealing the dragon on his shoulder and the loving flowers on his chest, where my hands had to touch and examine.  While I explored the planes of his chest with my fingers, Ethan created a trail of small kisses from my neck to my upper arm and then back again before doing the same on the other side.  I dropped one of my hands again, this time snaking between my stomach and his erection, palming him.

All of a sudden, my back was up against the wall next to the couch, and my legs were wrapped tightly around Ethan’s torso.  He covered my mouth with his, kissing me frantically—his need as deep as my own.

“Where’s your bedroom?” Ethan’s voice rang through my ears, and for a minute, I was distracted enough to have to think about the answer.  “Because if we don’t get there soon, I’m going to take you right here against the wall.”

“Down the hall, on the left,” I said when I came to my senses again.  He shifted his grip on my backside and carried me through the apartment, banging open my bedroom door and going straight to the bed.  I didn’t know if he tripped right as he got there, or if he just threw us both down, but we ended up in a heap on top of the duvet.

He gripped my hair and covered my mouth again.  I ran my fingers up his arms, over his biceps, across his shoulders and into his hair.  I felt the silver hoops laced through his earlobe, and the pad of my thumb caressed them slowly.

“Fuck, I’m going to bust right out of my jeans,” Ethan said, panting.

“Then get them off!” I yelled, then realized I was yelling and felt heat rise to my face.  Ethan chuckled low and then got up on his knees between my legs, looking into my eyes as he slowly unbuttoned his jeans.  I whimpered, and my heart started pounding as that half smile crept over his face just as he finished unfastening the last button and slowly pushed his jeans down over his hips.

He had gone commando.

“My God, Ethan, you are going to kill me,” I mumbled as the fabric slowly revealed his beautiful, thick, hard cock.  Holy shit, I was a fucking mess when it came to that dick, and it made me feel like a complete slut, but I didn’t care.  I ran my tongue over my lips and glanced up at Ethan.  The corners of his mouth twitched, and he swallowed hard.  “I want you.”

I lifted my hips to help him remove my skirt and panties and then twisted to the side to yank my shirt up over my head and toss it off the bed.

“I love these,” Ethan remarked as he flicked the hook between my breasts, which caused my bra to fall to my shoulders.  I shrugged it off.  “Definitely easier to take off than the ones with the hook in the back.”

Ethan glanced off to the side, blushing and shaking his head at himself.  He looked back at me and reached out for my hand, which he used to pull me into a sitting position in front of him.  He placed both of his hands on my shoulders and then slowly trailed the tips of his fingers over the outsides of my arms, then over to my hips and back up again around the front, barely brushing over my breasts and nipples on their way back up to my shoulders, to my neck, to my jaw.

He leaned in and ran his lips over mine, and I reached out with my tongue to taste him and then sucked the silver loops through his lip into my mouth, making him groan.  I ran my hand across his stomach and then lower, wrapping around his shaft and stroking it.

“That feels so good,” he mumbled with his lips still on my mouth.  I bit down gently and felt his hands tighten against my flesh.  “Fuck, I want you so bad.”

“Take me,” I offered simply, because there wasn’t anything I wanted more at that moment.  Ethan rose up on his knees a bit and guided me backwards until I was lying on the bed again.  He pulled back a little.

“Do you, um, have any condoms?”