31. CODY

CODY

W here the hell are we going?” Clementine asked from the passenger seat in her plaid shirt and jeans. She looked extra pretty today with her hair down and cheeks pink from the fall wind that was rushing through Harbor.

“Into the city, Plum. Relax.” I said turning onto the highway. “I want to take you on a date,” I purred.

“Sorry, you have to ask my daddy permission for that,” she said in a thick Texas accent that made my chest fuzzy.

“Mr. Matthews was my number one fan, remember?” I said. “Besides I’ve already fucked you silly, I don’t think we’re past order and formalities.”

I watched her cheeks and neck turn an even dark shade of pink. That’s my girl.

“We can pull over right now and do it again if you want,” I suggested and she rolled her eyes. “Car is a little small for that, but I could make it work if you could…” I kept going and she clapped her hand over my mouth.

“Shut up and take me on the date, Cael.” Clementine laughed.

"Ask me nicely," I kissed her palm before she pulled away, unable to resist myself.

Clementine glared at me with those soft brown eyes, unaware that she was incapable of looking mean but trying nonetheless.

"Come on, Plum. You better ask quick before we hit something," I said with a smile, rolling my hands over the steering wheel. I could tell it was making her uncomfortable that I wasn't watching the road.

"Are you seriously doing the stare and drive right now?" Clementine scoffed. "That barely worked in two fast, two furious. You'll kill us before I cave. "

"You want to bet?" I cocked my head to the side, the road ahead was a straight shot for another two miles, no bends, no hills. One lane highway. And at this time of the night… we'd be lucky to see another car.

Clementine was starting to sweat.

"Cael," She warned as her tone lowered and she fidgeted in her seat.

"Clem," I retorted in a similar tone.

Her tongue darted out over her bottom lip, her eyes flickering to the road and back to me.

"Please," she said quickly.

"Please what?" I combated.

"Cael…" she growled and I smiled.

God I loved that sound.

" Yes, Clementine?" I purred, melting into the way she said my name when she was angry.

"Please take me on a date," she huffed, the panic clear in her tiny voice.

"Good girl," I praised, looking back to the road finally. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the fear dissipate and the excitement rush in.

But she was prepared to get her revenge for my behavior, her hand slipping down between my thighs and passing over my cock with soft pressure from her palm. My eyes flickered down and I swallowed roughly as her fingers drifted higher and teased the metal buttons of my jeans.

She flicked the button free as she unbuckled her seatbelt and rose to her knees, leaning over the console it was hard not to notice the way her full breasts spilled from the flimsy tank top. I was so warm I could feel the sweat pooling between my shoulder blades just from the sight of her.

“That’s dangerous, Plum,” I warned.

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up earlier?” She scrunched her nose up at me, and even the demand sounded sweet as she sunk lower. Her fingers made easy work to free my shaft from my jeans. It sprung free from the fabric of my boxers against my stomach and I huffed heartily knowing what was coming.

“Clem,” I warned in a low tone. Her eyes flickered up to meet mine as they broke from the road for a split second, her tongue darting out over that bottom lip that I loved so much.

“Always so ready for me, aren’t you?” She brushed the top of my leaking cock with her thumb.

I hated the way my body reacted to her teasing, it ached under the sound of her voice and the whisper of her touch. I fought my hardest to keep my hips in the driver’s seat and my focus on the road as she leaned down and captured me between her lips.

A strangled moan dripped from me as she sunk over and the tip of my throbbing cock craved her touch. She took it without complaint and rocked herself into a slow, tortuous rhythm with her tongue pressed flat against me.

She looked fucking undone and messy as she sucked and bobbed her head up and down my shaft, the deeper I went the more unwound I became. I was losing my grip on the steering wheel and let one hand fall to tangle in her hair roughly as my head brushed against her throat.

“Shit Clem.” My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I lifted off the gas as her teeth raked against my cock to the top before she dropped back down. Her cheeks hollowed out around me and the pressure was building too fast for me to even warn her before I came.

With my fingers curled into her hair, gently helping her motions as she sucked harder, spit pooling from her full, red lips. She took the full length of my erection I came hard, into the back of her mouth as she fought to keep herself balanced in the moving car.

I groaned, the sound vibrating through me as I pulled to a stop sign and fought to catch my breath and clear my vision. Ripples of pleasure shot through my muscles making my thighs tremble as my cock pumped out the warm liquid onto her ready tongue.

Spit dripped from her lips as she cleaned my shaft with her tongue and rocked back on her heels, shifting in the seat without a word but with a proud smile plastered on her pretty, flushed face. She buckled herself back up and kept her eyes straight forward with her bottom lip between her teeth as I adjusted myself back into my pants and pulled from the stop sign.

“Now take me on my date, Loverboy.” She turned her head, resting it against the seat with the prettiest smile I had ever seen on her swollen lips. The urge to fuck her in the front seat of my car just to remind her who was in charge was unbridled and coursed through me like electricity.

“You're a fucking brat, Clementine,” I growled.

“Mmm,” she hummed and used the pad of her thumb to clean the corner of her mouth.

"There’s an Asian horror fest in the city,” I told her after a beat of silence, knowing she wouldn't ask again but was dying to know what the original plan was.

“Really? Luckily you can multi-task now we won't be late,” she giggled, “I can’t remember the last time I watched a good horror movie.”

“You’re the only person who loves them like I do,” I said, “Dean’s too much of a chicken and Arlo pulls them apart like it's a book report. It—”

“Takes the fun out of them.” She finished my sentence. "Bobbi just sexualizes everyone. The newest Halloween?" She said, looking over at me with a small smile.

"Kills?"

"Ends," she corrected. "Bobbi spent the entire movie trying to convince me why Corey would make a good boyfriend based on his— and I quote, 'Feral ability' to protect his girlfriend."

I laughed, "I mean… he knew what he had to do."

"Cael, he killed half her friends." Clementine scowled.

"He also killed that aggressive pervert doctor, and that one mean girl…" I argued just to see her cheeks turn pink.

"Violence isn't a way to show love, Cael." She shook her head and turned in her seat. "He could have just left with her, they could have been happy somewhere else. Away from all that."

I turned to look at her for a second and my smile faded, is that what she wanted? Was she trying to say something to me without out right confessing her feelings.

"That feels like a secret, Plum." I said, my heart clenching in my chest tightly at the memory. I could always tell when she was packing her feelings away, bricking them up with wet cement.

"It's just an observation." She rolled her eyes as she countered.

“Sure…" I nodded, not believing her for a second. "Well they hold this festival every year, last year I went alone because no one wanted to be around me.” I said, I had gotten way too high and slept on a park bench. Arlo found me three days later on a bender. I didn’t even think I would make it to the next festival. Let alone do it sober and with Clementine in the passenger seat.

That grateful feeling bubbled back up pushing out the thoughts of relapse. I could do this . The city was busier than expected, the streets packed with people partaking in late Halloween festivities. I found a spot about a block from the small theater where the festival was being held and opened the door for Clementine.

“It smells like popcorn,” she hummed and let her head fall back.

“We can get a big one and dump all our candy inside until it’s a mess and doesn’t resemble popcorn anymore.” I linked my hand in hers and our bracelets rubbed together like they always did.

“Deal.” She said and tucked in close to me as we wandered down the street.

“We can make out in during the movie too,” I suggested knowing she’d shoot me down.

“In your dreams, Loverboy.” She rolled her eyes and giggled.

“It was worth a shot,” I nudged her as we made our way to the entrance. I bought the tickets and as promised supplied her with plenty of snacks as she fan-girled over the line up.

“Some of these films were never released in the States, how did they find copies?” She waved the pamphlet in my face as I carried the arm full of food.

“You can ask yourself,” I said, waving down a friend. “Clem, this is Margie,” I introduced her to a small redhead with freckles that covered her face and big blue eyes amplified by thick lensed glasses.

“Clem?” Margie put both hands out and wrapped them around Clementine’s shaking with enthusiasm, “Cael’s never brought a girl down here you must be special.”

“Margie,” I cleared my throat. “But she’s right, for the purpose of brownie points.”

“Mmhm,” Clementine shook her head. “It’s nice to meet you Margie. ”

“Big Mac Margie here is in charge of this whole night, she’s an enthusiast.” I laughed and could see Margie squirming to say more. “She also has this incessant need to talk.”

“He’s right, I never stop. It’s like once I open my mouth all the words come out and I just can’t stop myself. Half the time I make a fool of myself but by then people have stopped listening anyway so it usually doesn’t even matter.” She said in one massive breath. “And I'm not an enthusiast. I’m a specialist. I didn’t spend four years studying film at university to have you belittle it with your lack of vocabulary Cael Cody.”

“Breathe, Margie.” I winked at her. “Why don’t you sit with us and then you can run Clem’s ear off about the feature film?” I asked her.

“Oh I couldn’t do that, you two look like you're on a date and I’d hate to get in the middle of that with my yapping.” She shifted in her black overalls and retro Ju-On shirt.

“He asked.” Clementine said before I could reassure her. “Besides, he’s barely educated on tonight's line up. I could use a professional.”

I watched with a full heart as Clementine and Margie started in conversation. A third wheel wasn’t exactly how I saw tonight going but I wanted to give Clementine one night out where we weren’t worried about the pressure weighing down on our lives.

“Have you ever seen The Wailing?” Margie asked her as I followed close.

Clementine shook her head and smiled, “I could never find anywhere to stream it.”

“The copy I got my hands on has the original subtitles, no dubbing.” Margie said with excitement.

“Dubbing ruins the integrity of a foreign film, I swear. The translations never do it justice!” Clementine giggled and I leaned into the sound as we found our seats. Half the nonsense that came out of their mouths was indescribable and I couldn’t have kept up even if I tried as they rambled about the movies.

I was just happy to be here.

In all honesty I had continued to watch horror movies because they had always been Clementine’s favorite. She found a calm in them that she didn’t in other movies. At first I thought there might be something wrong with her but as I got older and the distance between us grew I realized that it was the subject of the films.

It wasn’t even really that she liked blood and guts.

It was that the worst possible outcome happened in horror movies, so bad that even the PG-13 ones made life seem not-so-bad all of a sudden. Leave it to Jason and Freddy to take the edge off every math exam I’d ever had.

“Save me a spot, I need to go make sure everything is set up.” Margie pointed to her seat next to Clementine who threw her plaid over it for safekeeping.

“She’s incredible,” Clementine whispered as she took off running in her platform sneakers. “How the hell did you trick her into being your friend?”

“Ouch,” I barked and clutched my heart, “I’ll have you know that I was here every weekend after we moved here. It was one of the only places I felt close to you and Margie’s parents own the place so she was always around.” I pointed up to the projection box. “They live on the second floor, so eventually we just became friends.”

The truth was Margie had found me crying more often than not at the movies but she never made fun of me, she never said a word about it. She just talked about the movies and the sound of her voice, the way she just genuinely enjoyed them…it made everything feel less urgent and heartbreaking.

Margie had been there when no one else could be.

“I really like her,” Clementine rested her hand on my face, sensing the pause in my enthusiasm. “You did good.”

“Mmm.” I said quietly. “She was missing a Clementine though, I can’t keep up with her half the time. She needed someone who knew as much as her.”

“Oh so this wasn’t a date, it was a gift that came with more strings.” Clementine whispered, “it was sweet but you can’t tie me down here Cael. I have to go home eventually.” My heart clenched painfully.

“That wasn’t my intention,” I said truthfully. “I just wanted to do something nice with you, for you. ”

“Mission accomplished,” she purred as the lights went down and the movie started.

“Clementine,” I whispered, wanting to get something out that didn’t make me sound like a total idiot or have her running in the opposite direction when we had started to make so much progress. But her skin on my skin, it blurred my common sense and suddenly. “You know I love you right?” I said, swallowing bile that rose with the words.

She stared at me for a long while and, for a moment I was unsure she heard what I said as the previews blared through the speakers. But I could see her answer in her eyes, hear it in the unanswered silence. I could feel it thrumming through her fingertips that still lingered on my jaw as she turned to watch.

I knew she loved me back, with every fiber in my body I knew.

I just needed to figure out a way to remind her so that she’d stay in Harbor with me.

So she’d want to stay.