She Loved With Chaos
I am Always Jane and Forever Grace, a bit of fiction with a touch of truth, for your reading enjoyment. Twenty-one of my short stories intertwined in one collection. Celebrating this writing journey…for better or for worse. Sharing a few of my favorite scenes from She Loved With Chaos available on Amazon as an ebook or paperbacks.
Alternative Rock and High Tops
As Susie was wandering through the CD section of the Musicland store in the Edgewater Mall she caught Ethan out of the corner of her eye. She circled around and stood behind him.
“I didn’t think you listened to music?”
He turned to face her, caught off guard.
“You look almost normal, not in uniform,” he said looking her over, in her worn, ripped, faded jeans, KMFDM t-shirt and no longer white high tops.
“So Bon Jovi? Really?” she asked, looking at what he was holding.
“Yes, really, but I’m open to suggestions,”
She gave him a devilish smile and led him over to another section.
“Hum…lets see what I can conflict on your virgin ears,” she quickly picked through the bin labeled ‘Alternative Rock’
“Here you go,”
“Wow, ok then,” he flipped through the stack of CD’s.
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
The Smashing Pumpkins
Nine Inch Nails
Bush
“Not a bad selection, thanks,”
“So who’s the girl with the pixy hair?” Susie asked as they wandered through the mall.
“That’s Amber,” he answered.
“And she is your…” she trailed off giving him a look.
“Girlfriend,”
“Aaa, wait Amber Jacobson?”
“Yeah, why?”
“She was in my lit class junior year, she was one of the ‘Britney, Tiffany, Amber’s’, click, isn’t she a little young for you? Wait, how old are you?”
Ethan stopped walking.
“How old do you think I am?” he asked.
“I don’t know, 26 ish.”
“Not quite, I’ll be 22 on Saturday, hence the need for some music, Amber wants to have a party,”
“Well, in that case happy early birthday, can I buy you a frozen yogurt?” Susie asked, pointing to TCBY’s.
“Sure, why not,”
They sat eating their frozen yogurt in waffle cones, in the Edgewater Mall food court.
“So why the shipping and receiving industry?” she asked.
“In the beginning it was to save up for school, but it turned into a full time position with benefits so I stayed, what about you?”
“It’s better than flipping burgers, I haven’t decided about school yet,”
Ethan got up and tossed their trash.
“Why don’t you come on Saturday,”
Susie gave him a sideways look.
“I don’t mix well with others,”
“Non-sense, come it’s my party and you are my guest,”
He grabbed a napkin from the dispenser, pulled a pen from his pocket and began writing.
“It’s 247 Lexington street, the small blue house with the..”
“With the carport,” she finished for him.
“Um..yeah, how did you know that?”
“I use to live there, and that’s how everyone describes it,”
“Small world,” he said handing her the napkin, she took it sliding it into the pocket of her jeans.
“Saturday at eight,” Ethan said as he headed towards the mall entrance.
Susie sat outside of 247 Lexington street, she pushed the button on the radio that showed the time, 8:12pm.
“Might as well make an appearance,” she mumbled as she gave herself a final look in the rearview mirror. She reached over and opened the glovebox, rummaging around she found the slim pink tube of lip gloss, pulled out the wand and rolled it over her lips. She pressed them together and gave a little smack towards the mirror.
The front door to the small blue house was open and Bon Jovi’s Bed of Roses could be heard coming from the living room. Susie entered the house, people were scattered throughout, drinking, smoking and talking.
She made her way through the living room and into the back bedroom, as she opened the door and made her way into the small bedroom. Memories from the last time she had been there came flooding back, it had to have been at least five years ago. She made her way to the small closet, slid open the pocket door and looked inside.
“Looking for something?” Ethan said coming into the room.
“Sorta, I wanted to see if something was still here,”
“Ok, my curiosity has peaked, what are we looking for?” he said, joining her in the doorway of the closet.
“This,” Susie said, running her fingers over a row of doodles on the inside of the closet.
“Hold on,” he walked over to the dresser and found a small pen light.
“Got this from the 7-11 for my keychain,” he turned the light on and shined it on the row of doodles.
“I can’t believe these are still here,”
Ethan stood behind her holding the pen light over her shoulder, he moved closer to her. A shiver ran down Susie’s back and she closed her eyes for a second, feeling the warmth of his body next to hers.
“Am I interrupting something?” a high pitched female voice asked.
Ethan moved out of the closet doorway and into the bedroom.
“No,” he said, moving towards Amber.
Amber caught sight of Susie as she moved out of the closet.
“What is she doing here?”
Susie started moving towards the door, Ethan reached out stopping her, grabbing her arm.
“She is my guest, it’s my party and my house, if you have a problem with that you can leave,”
Amber scoffed.
“Whatever,” she said leaving the bedroom.
“You didn’t need to do that,” Susie said.
“Yeah, I did,” Ethan said, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.
“It’s weird being in this room again,” she said standing in front of him.
Ethan leaned forward and brushed her hair away from her face. He slid his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her to him. He gently pressed his lips to hers, she moved closer to him and kissed him back.
Susie smiled and took a step back.
“Strawberry?”
“Yeah,”
She moved toward the door, Ethan stood up and kissed her again.
“Thanks for stopping by,” he said.
“I’ll see you on Monday, you know at work,” she said, turning and walking out the door.
Susie made her way out of the house and to her 87’ Honda Civic, she opened the door and sat behind the wheel. Waiting for her heart to stop pounding in her ears, she glanced in the rearview mirror, her cheeks a bright shade of pink.
Tips
From the first time I saw her I knew I had to taste those soft, cherry lips. I watched as she slid the lip gloss wand over her lower lip, how it glistened in the summer sun. She rubbed her lips together, giving a kiss to the air. We were attending a summer session at the University. It was a hot, dry summer, and Debbie was fond of wearing white denim shorts with purple flowers printed on them. She wore them rolled up exposing her slender upper thigh, how I longed to touch her smooth, tanned skin. To run my fingers through her long wavy dirty blonde hair, that she kept pulled back in a loose braid. She gathered her things and headed towards class. I followed her, mesmerized by her swaying hips and the click clack of her sandals against the pavement. My obsession now had a purpose, to kiss Debbie Stevens before summer’s end.
After class on Wednesday I caught up to her on her way to lunch.
“Hey, Debbie. Would you like to grab a slice? My treat,” I smiled, waiting for her response.
She gave me the once over glance.
“Sure, why not, what was your name again?”
“Charlie,”
We walked across campus and down to Mario’s Pizza. Where we split a medium pepperoni pie.
“So how are classes going?” she asked.
I finished chewing and took a drink of my soda, clearing my throat.
“Fine, except for creative writing, I need something for a short film,”
“Do you have anything in mind?” she asked, sipping on her soda. How I wished I could be that straw, slipping between her lips.
“Well I kinda wanted to run something by you,”
Debbie set her drink down, a smile spread across her mouth.
“Really?”
“Yeah, if you’re interested?”
“Well my curiosity is definitely peaked,”
We made plans to meet later at her place. I went to the computer lab and typed up a script.
Caffeine and Nicotine
It was a cloudy but warm day in early May when there was a knock on Margaret’s door.
“Hey John, are you here to pick up the chairs?”
“Yeah, Hannah wants to have a BBQ on Saturday, she always invites more people than we have chairs.”
Margaret smiled and let him in.
“They are out back in the garage.” Margaret led John through the house, into the kitchen and out to the garage.
“There in here somewhere.” She said as she opened the side door and flipped on the light.
The bare light bulb dimly lit the dusty, cluttered garage. John moved past Margaret, briefly brushing against her bare arm.
John started moving boxes.
“Here they are.” He said, pulling out one of the folding chairs and handing it to Margaret.
She set it up against the garage door, and returned to take another chair from him. As he handed her the last folding chair his hand brushed against hers.
“That looks like all of them.” He said. He stood in front of her, moved his hand to the side of her head and wiped away a cobweb.
He smiled at her.
“Got it.”
“Thanks.”
“You know, Meg, can I call you Meg?”
“Considering that you just did, I guess so.”
“Well Meg, I’ve been thinking about you since the office party.” He ran his hand along her bare arm and looked into her eyes.
“Really?” She moved closer to him as his arm moved around her waist.
“Really.” He said, almost in a hush, his lips brushing against her cheek.
“Why?”
He gave her a sideways look.
“You know those jeans you were wearing at the office party?”
Meg nodded her head and smiled.
“I wanted to run my hands down your back and grab your ass in those jeans, seriously those jeans have haunted my dreams.”
Meg leaned into John as he ran his hands down to her ass. She kissed him lightly on the lips, he gave her ass a squeeze, she opened her mouth and he slid his tongue into her mouth. She let out a moan and kissed him back.
“You know it’s really dusty out here, would you like to go inside?” She asked.
“In more ways than one.” He kissed her again.
She took his hand and led him back into the house. She flipped the garage light off and closed the door.