All Grown Up (Eden High)

Alex

I left mom and headed upstairs to my childhood room. She hadn’t moved anything around in here, and even though it was obvious that the room had been cleaned and the bed made, the shirt I’d carelessly tossed on the bed before leaving all those months ago was still there. The whole thing struck me as odd since I’ve never thought of my folks as the sentimental type.

I shrugged that off, along with the feeling of melancholy that intruded. Somehow I’ve become a different person. The room was that of an innocent teen who, even though he watched his peers get hitched early, and had been through some horrific shit with them, had still been a little wet behind the ears. I’d still had a bit of innocence left, I think.

But between rescuing women from depravity and realizing over the past few months that my first real, meaningful relationship was going to be my last, I’ve matured almost overnight, it seems. My thoughts no longer centered around the inane; my days are no longer spent goofing off as if I have all the time in the world to grow up. I’d pretty much done that in the last year or so.

I kicked off my shoes but left the rest of my clothes on when I laid propped up on the pillows behind me. Suddenly I was in a hurry to see her face again. There was a surging hum of excitement just beneath the surface because of the fact that she was so close. This was new, maybe because I knew that in a couple of days, there would be nothing standing in the way of me having her.

“Shit!” I almost hung up before she answered, not wanting her to see me in this condition. I made sure the mountainous tent my cock made in my jeans was hidden from her when her face came on the screen and hoped like hell that she didn’t see the strain on my face. My smile felt brittle like it was about to split my damn face down the middle.

Jace had warned me about this, had seemed to take pleasure in the pain and frustration I was going to suffer in the next few days when I waited for the clock to strike twelve on the day of her birth. He knew somehow that being this close was going to test my resolve. The fiend had tacked on a nice little threat to the end of that spiel of what he would do to me if I touched her before she became legal, some friend.

“What’re you doing, baby?” I asked with a laugh when I saw exactly what it was that she was doing. She was sitting up in bed surrounded by her loot, and I could hear the music from her carousel going in the background.

“I didn’t really get a chance to look at my stuff earlier.” She blushed and hugged the oversize stuffed toy that was an exact replica of the beast, and I tried not to be jealous of a Disney character.

Now that I was looking at her with new eyes, I could see the changes in her as well. Somehow when I was with her just a few short hours ago, I’d been able to see her as my little Cassie, even though her ass wasn’t so little anymore. I guess I’d been too preoccupied with the notes and the threat to her to notice what was right in front of me, what my eyes were seeing right now.

“You’re beautiful.” The words came out almost as if I was only now realizing it, which isn’t true, but my emotions were getting the best of me, and it was hitting home for me, the fact that this beautiful creature was mine. A wave of possession hit me so hard in the gut that I almost doubled over but instead rubbed my hand over my stomach to ease the chaos there.

She hung her head shyly. “No, don’t hide from me, baby; let me see your smile.” She lifted her head, and I felt that same piercing pain in my chest while emotion threatened to choke me and take every last bit of breath from my lungs. Now I was wishing that I’d kissed her longer, harder, before leaving her tonight.

“I’ll take you to school, tomorrow baby. I gotta go.” Her look of surprise wasn’t misplaced. I usually stay on with her much longer, but not only did I have shit to do, which wasn’t until much later, but I needed to think. I was tempted to pick up the phone and call Jace and the others to ask them if they’d ever felt any of what I was feeling.

I know they’re all possessive jerks in their own right, but had any of them ever felt like they owned their wife? Had they ever experienced the caveman shit that’s running through my head? Before I could make up my mind one way or another, the phone rang as soon as I switched off with her. Jace was Facetiming me.