Plausibility

Chapter 21

Aquilla continued against her will to go to the school that she hated. She never did figure out how to relate to the other students. She stuck to herself and, of course, Whisper and her junkyard friends. She refused any extracurricular activities, dances, pep rallies or ballgames. She did, however, take Reese, and even annoying Lil, dress shopping for a couple of the dances.

She still missed Julius like crazy, and he haunted her every waking moment. Why couldn’t she just have him there? Was he back in Spain? Was he still going by the name Mason Strong? She wondered after only three weeks of seeing him if he would move on. Would it be easier for him than it was her?

“Quill, I don’t like you hanging out at that junkyard. What do you do there?” Liz complained after their Saturday afternoon shopping trip to the grocery store.

“Nothing, we just hang out and listen to music and stuff. I’m not doing anything bad, Mom,” she assured her. She wasn’t really, just smoking a little weed here and there.

“I’m going out to eat with Connor later. How long are you going to have my car?” Liz asked, giving in. She had to. What else was she supposed to do? It wasn’t like Quill had friends knocking down the door. She didn’t want her to sit home alone, and as far as she knew, she was telling the truth. Until she had some proof to go with her suspicions, she would trust her.

“I don’t know. Why can’t he pick you up?” She really needed to get her own car. She had the money; she could do it, but how would she explain that?

“I suppose he can, but I still want to know what time you’re going to be home.”

“I don’t know. I am almost 18, remember? And it’s Saturday night.”

“You’re not drinking and driving are you, Quill?”

“Oh My God! No, I’m not drinking and driving. I promise. What time do you want me home?”

“Nine!” Liz teased, sort of.

“Midnight,” Quill countered.

“I don’t like it, but okay. Behave, and if you ever need me to come and get you because you have been drinking, I will. Don’t ever think you can’t call me.”

“Mom, I’m not going to be drinking.”

Quill and her friends sat around the dirty garage and listened to music, talked, laughed and, of course, passed a couple of joints.

“What is wrong with you?” Whisper asked at Quill blanking out again for the 10th time.

“Uh? Oh, I was just thinking.”

“Obliviously, what’s on your mind tonight?” Whisper asked.

Oh, just my Julius that won’t leave my mind. “Nothing, I think I’m going to take off. I’ll call you later.”

“What? Why? It’s only nine. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, just go home. I’m kind of tired and I need to start on that report for stupid Mr. Praider.”

“It’s Saturday night. You’re not doing homework.” Whisper protested.

Quill smiled and stood from the old truck seat. “It’s due Monday,” she reminded her. “I’ll call you later.”

Quill drove the couple miles home in silence. She even reached over and turned off the music. If she started on the report tonight, she could have it done by the following day. She thought about what she was going to write about. Someone famous in history she would like to meet. Hmmm? Maybe Adolf Hitler. Nah, Mr. Praider probably wouldn’t appreciate the things that she would do to him. Helen Keller, yeah. She would have loved to have met her, just for the simple fact that she leaped over hurdles that the majority of people would have turned and walked away from.

Quill did very well in school. Although she still didn’t want to go, and thought it stupid, she did well. The funny part is that she insisted that Reese do well too. Liz loved to see the two of them sprawled on each other’s beds doing homework together or sitting at the table while Quill helped Reese with the geometry that she insisted she couldn’t do. Quill made sure that she could do it. She would even stop her in the halls to ask her how she did on a quiz or a test.

Quill pulled into the driveway, noticing the dark house. Her mom was still with Connor and, of course, Reese was with Lil. She stuck the key in the front door and looked up cautiously when the door wasn’t locked. Her mother would never leave the house unlocked. She hung the keys on its rightful hook and dropped her jacket and bag to the sofa. That’s when she heard the creak on the hardwood floor. Someone was in the house. She was scared all of a sudden.

Should she leave? Should she call the cops? Where was her phone? She placed her hand on her front pocket, feeling the phone. She was frozen in time, unable to move. Was the noise from upstairs? No. No. It sounded more like it was coming from the dining room. What did they want? She listened, not hearing anything. She was being paranoid. Nobody was in the house. Just stop it, Quill, she said out loud and flipped on the light. She walked to the kitchen for a yogurt and flipped that light on as well.

She took her favorite strawberry yogurt from the fridge and looked around the counter. Didn’t they buy bananas that afternoon? She could have sworn they did. She snickered when she saw them where they were always kept.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Seri answered Quill’s call.

Quill slid to the kitchen chair and dipped her banana in her yogurt. “Nothing just got home. What did the doctor say?” She wanted to know about her morning visit.

“He said I was as good as new, but he wants to do a hysterectomy.”

“Why? That doesn’t sound like good as new to me. What about having a baby?”

“You can’t have a baby if you don’t have a uterus, Quill”

“You’re such a bitch. What if you want to though?”

“I’m not going to want to. I wouldn’t be good at that, and besides, your dad says he’s too old to go through teenage girls again anyway.”

“But, what’s wrong with your uterus?”

“Mostly scar tissue. When the bullet fragmented that part of my body, my uterus was kind of in the way. He says I shouldn’t try to carry a baby.”

“Are you sure you never want to, though?”

“I’m sure. My little Quill is going to find a nice man and give me one to spoil rotten.”

Quill laughed. “If you marry my dad, that’s gonna make you a grandma,” she reminded her.

“Fuck you. I hate you.”

Quill laughed again. “You said it, not me.”

“Besides, if I don’t have a uterus, I don’t have to worry about that monthly thing anymore. I can have sex any time I want.”

“Yuck. You do remember that is my dad that you do that with, don’t you?”

Seri laughed. She sometimes forgot that fact. “Are you coming here next weekend?”

“I don’t know, for what?”

“Really, Quill? Your dad’s birthday, remember?”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot. Yeah, but I want to drive. You think I could get away with buying a car with all this money? I could say I found it or something.”

“NO! Don’t even try it.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ve got to go start a report. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Okay, and don’t go getting any bright ideas. Your dad wants to get you a car for graduation anyway.”

“That’s like months away.”

“You’ll live. Now be a good little girl and go do your homework.”

“You drive me crazy.”

“You drive me crazy and I love you; talk to you tomorrow.”

“Alright, see ya.”

Quill walked back to the living room to get her bag, head upstairs and start on her paper. She didn’t have time to scream, she just reacted. She felt the hand over her mouth and the next thing she remembered was the loud sound of the twice-her-sized-body hitting the hardwood floor and then the moan.

“Jesus, Quill,” Julius moaned.

“Julius!”

“Hi, baby,” Julius smiled up, holding his shoulder, which he wasn’t quite sure was dislocated yet or not. “Where’d you learn to fight like that?”

“You taught me, you big dumb idiot. You could have just said my name, might have saved your back a little. What the hell are you doing here? I thought you would be back in Spain by now.”

“I have been here all along,” he admitted, sitting up. “What the hell are you doing in that junkyard all the time?”

Quill helped him to his feet and fell into his arms as it hit her. Julius was there. He was really there. He didn’t leave her. He was there.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into an emotional embrace. How was he supposed to just let her go? How was she supposed to let him go? She couldn’t. She didn’t want to.

“I can’t live without you, Quill,” Julius assured her, holding her face and kissing her lips.

“I don’t want you to, Julius. What do we do? I can’t just run away anymore.” She couldn’t do that either. She didn’t want to.

“We’ll figure it out.”

“I don’t want you to run anymore either, Julius. You don’t have to. Just keep clean and don’t do anything illegal. They won’t bother you. Seri promised that as long as they didn’t get word that you were transporting or training chattels, they would leave you alone. Do you have money, Julius?” she asked, rattling on and on. She couldn’t believe that he was there. Right there in her living room.

Julius let out a short puff of air. “My nose is clean, and I have money. You should know that.”

“Well, do something with it, Julius. Do something that’s not going to get you sent to prison.”

“I’m not sure I know how to do anything like that.”

“You can. You’re a smart man. I know for a fact that you had the same education as me. Father made sure of it. You can do something, Julius. Please. I don’t want you running anymore,” she begged.

Julius didn’t have time to respond when the headlights shined through the window.

“Shit, my mom is home.”

“I’ll go out the back door,” Julius decided. He didn’t want to get her in trouble, and he sure as hell didn’t want her mother to find him there.

“NO!” she almost yelled. “Go to my room. She won’t come up there.” Quill wasn’t about to let him leave. Not again. She was too afraid of not seeing him again. What if he disappeared again?

“And do what, Quill?”

“Just go, Julius. I’ll be up in a minute.”

“You’re early. I didn’t expect you home yet,” Liz said, walking into the living room.

“I have a paper due Monday,” Quill replied. Liz smiled, proud of her passionate outtake on her school work.

“Want to eat ice cream first?” Liz asked.

“No, I just had a yogurt and a banana. I’m going to head up for the night. Is Reese coming home?” Quill wanted to know, worried about her being right across the hall from her.

“No. She’s staying with Lil. Why?”

“I was just curious. Goodnight.”

Liz smiled. “Goodnight, Sweetie.”

Julius was sitting on Quill’s bed with his elbows on his knees when Quill opened the door and locked it behind her. She pushed him to his back and he wrapped her in his arms. They had a lot of talking to do. They both knew it, but at that given moment, they only cared that they were together.

“How’d you get in here?” Quill asked, adjusting her body to his side while she kept her hand on his chest with his covering hers.

“Quill, I’m a Chavez,” he grinned. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too. You’ve been here all along?”

“Yes, you never told me what you were doing at that junkyard so much. Are you smoking weed, Quill?”

“What? Why would you ask that?” she feigned ignorance.

“I could smell it.”

“You were there? That close?”

“Yes. I don’t want you going there anymore, Quill.”

“They’re not bad people, Julius. They don’t do anything but smoke a little. I like it. It relaxes me.”

“I don’t like it. I don’t want you doing drugs, Quill. I mean it. No more weed.”

“Do you really think weed is a drug? Come on, Julius.”

“It is a drug. It is illegal, and I don’t want you doing it. Promise me.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No, Julius. I’m not going to promise you that. I am not addicted to weed. I only smoke it when I am stressed out. It helps. It doesn’t hurt anyone or anything.”

“I’m too in love with you, and missed you too much to fight about this right now, but, this conversation is not over.”

“What are we going to do, Julius?”

Julius didn’t answer. He kissed her. He didn’t know how to answer. He didn’t want to mess up the relationship she had with her family. They would never accept him. He knew that. She knew that, and nothing would change that fact.

Quill ran her hands up his strong chest and tried to unbuckle the belt to the erection she could feel on her hip. Julius stopped her.

“What are you doing? I’m not doing this in your mother’s house.”

“Yes, you are. She’s down stairs. She won’t come up here.”

Julius laughed at her. “You are a crazy girl, and no, I am not touching you here,” he demanded. “I’ve got to get out of here,” he assured her, sitting up. He did have to get out of there.

“What do you mean you have to get out of here? Where are you going to go? I want you to stay.”

“I can’t stay here, Quill. I’m not about to take that chance. Can you get away tomorrow?”

“Maybe, I don’t know. My mom thinks Sundays are family day. You know, homework, dinner together and then we usually watch television and eat popcorn or something.”

Julius smiled. “I’m glad things are good with you and your family.”

“Yeah, me too, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re not leaving me again. EVER.”

“Neither one of your parents nor your best friend are ever going to accept me, you know that, Quill.”

“Then I will keep you hidden in my closet or something,” she teased, pulling herself across his lap.

He smiled up at her and softly kissed her lips. “I’ll live in your closet.”

“Get in there,” she demanded with a smile.

“Give me your cell number. I’ll text you and see if you can get away tomorrow.”

“But, I don’t want you to leave.”

“I have to, baby.”

“Promise me you won’t disappear.”

“I promise.”

“Quill?” Liz questioned at breakfast.

“Uh?” Quill answered, looking up from the untouched bowl of oatmeal.

“I asked you if you got your paper done last night. You okay?”

Shit. She forgot about the paper.

“Oh, it’s almost done. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You seem distracted this morning. Anything you want to talk about?”

“No. I’m just tired. I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

“You’re not sick, are you?”

“No, mom I’m fine.”

“Do you want to run after your sister for me?”

“Yeah, sure, is it okay if I don’t eat this? I’m not really hungry.”

Liz smiled. “You don’t have to eat.”

“When do you want me to get Reese?” Quill asked, standing from the table.

“I’ll call her. Knowing Reese, she’s still in bed.”

Liz cleaned up the dishes, tidied the house and planned her Sunday diner. She was sitting at the kitchen table writing out bills when she heard the flute. Aquilla still amazed her. She never did like the flute. Her sister drove her crazy with it when they were growing up, but Quill, there was just something magical about the way she played it. She could literally melt your heart with her melodramatic tunes. She sat in a daze, staring blankly at the floor in front of her until her trance was broken by the sudden silenced flute.

“Hi,” Quill answered her phone.

“Good morning. Can you get away?” Julius asked, hoping like hell she could.

“I haven’t asked yet, but I will. Do you want me to meet you somewhere?”

“Just go for a walk around seven. Walk down that dirt road to that dirt track and I will pick you up.”

“Okay, I have to run after my sister, and eat dinner with my family and then I’ll leave. I’ll text you.”

“Quill?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Quill smiled. “I love you too, Julius. I’m glad you didn’t leave.”

“Geesh, Quill. Are you starving?” Reese asked, as she shoved mashed potatoes in her mouth, scooping up corn with it.

“No. I’m just in a hurry. I’m going over to Whisper’s to work on a paper.”

“It’s your turn to clean up the dishes, and you said you would help me with my geometry,” Reese complained.

“If you trade me days and clean up the kitchen, I will help you when I get back,” Quill countered.

Reese took a deep breath, giving in. “Fine.”

Liz was disappointed, but didn’t say anything. She loved Sundays with her girls. It seemed like the only day they were all able to spend the entire day together. Oh well, she had papers to grade anyway. Maybe they could still watch the movie that she had rented later.

Quill texted Julius and told him to meet her at a nearby grocery store. It was too cold to walk anyway. Her mother wouldn’t buy it or she would at least complain about her catching a cold or something. It was better just to leave her mom’s car in the parking lot for a while.

“Brrr, take me back to the island,” Quill said, sliding into Julius’s car, and wondering where the hell he got a car.

“I would love to take you back to the island. Kiss me,” he smiled, happy to see her.

Quill smiled and kissed him, really kissed him, shoving her tongue down his throat, and pressing her body to his. Julius moaned in her mouth.

“Jesus, Quill,” he said, pulling away.

She laughed. “Take me somewhere that you can fuck me.”

“Stop talking like that. I don’t want to fuck you. I want to make love to you.”

“Fine, I guess I will settle for that,” she teasingly whined, moving to her side of the car so he could drive.

Julius only drove a couple of miles down the road and pulled into a driveway of a small house in a middle class neighborhood.

Quill looked at him confused. “Who lives here, Julius?”

“I do. I rented it a couple weeks ago, but I haven’t really had the chance to furnish it yet. I didn’t know how long you would want me here.”

“I want you forever and ever and ever and ever and—.”

“Okay,” he laughed, “I get it.”

“Do you at least have a bed?” Quill asked as Julius held her close to his body as he unlocked the quaint little house.

“I have a bed, some dishes, and some bathroom supplies, that is about it.”

“I just need the bed,” Quill assured him, spinning in his arms to kiss him.

He walked her back to the bedroom and she was removing clothes before he even had her to the bed.

“Damn, Quill. You’re like a wild woman.”

“That’s because I need sex in a baaaaad way,” she assured, letting her bra fall to the floor.

Julius laid her back and took the pink erect nipple between his lips. She moaned and squirmed beneath him. Quill tugged on his shirt, wanting to feel his strong body on hers. Julius lifted it over his head and popped the snap on her jeans.

“Fuck, Quill,” he whimpered as his fingers slid in her jeans to the wet pussy that he loved. She whimpered too. “Take your pants off, baby,” he whispered to her bare chest. Quill gladly obliged.

“Fuck, Julius. You’re going to make me cum,” Quill warned. He had barely touched her and she was finished. She was going to cum, no doubt about it.

“I love watching you cum,” Julius replied, watching her face as her eyes closed, her head swayed to the side, and her chest was pushed out as her back arched and she moaned. Julius smiled a small, proud of himself smile. He instantly dismissed the thought demanding her to open her eyes. He didn’t want that. For the first time in his life, he didn’t want to be in control. He wanted to please her, not himself. He wanted her how she was and not how he told her to be.

“Julius,” she moaned in pleasurable agony.

“Let go, baby,” he beckoned as he slid out of his own jeans. He had to, he was ready to explode himself. He removed his fingers, halting her on the brink of detonation. She panted heavily as he slowly moved into her. She moaned again, this time, in his mouth.

Julius pulled away and held himself above her. God, she was beautiful. He loved her so much, and making love to her, becoming one in a sea of emotion, caused him to feel how deep their love went. Was it taboo? Was it distasteful? Was it unacceptable? Probably, he didn’t care. He didn’t care what her family thought of him. He didn’t care what Seri thought of him. He loved her, and nobody could take that away from him. He wouldn’t let them. Not again. Not ever.

“What are you thinking about?” Quill asked as Julius moved in and out of her, towering above her.

“How much I love you,” he quietly said, staring deep into the pool blue eyes that burned his soul.

Quill didn’t reply. She couldn’t. She placed one hand on his bare chest and called out in pleasure. Julius could only stare at her expressional desire as she gave herself to him. Julius moved deep inside her, steadied himself abysmal in her core and suddenly pulled out, moaning his own gratifying pleasure as he spilled to her stomach.

“I hate when you do that,” Quill stated, watching him rub the head of his cock along her stomach, smearing his flow. He laughed.

“Would you rather I put it inside you?”

“Fuck, no. Which brings up a good point, if we are going to continue to do this, I need to get on some sort of birth control or you need to start wrapping it up.”

“I’m never wrapping it up with you. Make the appointment. I’ll take you,” he smiled.

“Am I going to see you tomorrow?” Quill asked.

“You sound like you’re leaving me. Are you leaving me, Quill?”

“I have to. I have a two page report due second period tomorrow and I haven’t even started on it yet. Reese needs my help with her homework too.”

“Do you want me to pick you up from school tomorrow?”

“No, Reese will see you. Pick me up at the junkyard.”

“I told you I didn’t want you going there.”

“I’m not going there. I’m telling my mom I am going there. You’re going to cum and get me.”

And so it became the routine. Quill saw Julius every day for the rest of the week. He wasn’t very pleased that she had to spend the weekend with her dad and Seri, but nonetheless, he couldn’t have been happier. He was working on a few things anyway. It would give him time to do some research and maybe even take a trip.

“So, what are you going to do? Are you just going to not work? I can’t see you doing that, Seri,” Quill questioned as she sat on the toilet of her dad and Seri’s master bath, twisting a joint.

Seri took a deep breath, flipped on the exhaust fan and sat on the floor, leaning against the tub. “I don’t know. I got a nice severance check. I have some time to figure it out. Your dad wants to buy a house closer to you girls.”

“I don’t want you to do that. I would rather live here in the city. There’s nothing to do there unless you like to hang out at the dirt track or the junkyard, besides, Reese is going to leave for college in a couple years anyway. She wants to move here too.”

“Hmm,” Seri thought. It gave her something to think and talk to Manny about. She really didn’t want to move to a small town either. She was afraid of becoming bored and ruining what she and Manny had. She was happy in the city. And Monica was there.

“Tell me what you’ve been up to,” Seri beckoned, taking the joint from Quill.

“Why? What do you mean?” Quill asked, suspiciously.

“Quill? What the hell are you doing?” Seri asked, picking up on the nerves.

“What? I’m not doing anything.”

“You can’t lie to me. I’m like your Seeing Eye dog. I sense things.”

“Give me that joint. You don’t sense shit. I haven’t been up to anything, just going to school and hanging out with Whisper.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well, tough shit. That’s all I do.”

Seri studied her. She was lying, she could tell.

Seri took them all out to a fancy restaurant for Manny’s birthday. It was almost November and New York was cold. Quill hated it, whining the whole time as they walked the sidewalk, peering in the windows at Christmas displayed on every corner.

“My fingers are going to fall off. Can we go now?” Quill whined for the millionth time.

“You’re fingers are not going to fall off. Forty degrees isn’t even cold,” Seri scolded. She was having fun with Manny and his girls. She loved Quill like no other, and had even become close with Reese, not close like Quill, but close in a special way. Nobody would ever impact her, the way Quill had, and she was sure she would never smoke weed with Reese.

“It is too cold, and your fingers aren’t freezing because my dad can’t seem to let go of your hand,” Quill complained from behind. Seri and Manny smiled at each other, it made her miss Julius. She wanted his hands to warm her.

“Wait till January, Quill,” Reese warned.

Quill had never seen snow, and didn’t care if she ever did. She wanted to be back in Jamelia Lei where the temperatures were consistent year-round. Eighty degree November’s not forty.

“Come on, you big baby. I’ll buy you a cup of hot chocolate,” Manny offered, pulling Quill to his body in a hug and kissing the top of her head.

He felt warm. God, she missed Julius.

“Will that make you happy?” he asked, teasing.