Free Eternal Love by Cerys du Lys, Jessika Fevrier Page B

he looked like he could pass as a vampire on
one of those hit shows on the premium channels.
    He also did
drugs and enjoyed partying.  She never told her parents about that part.  While
she didn't do drugs herself and didn't necessarily enjoy partying, she liked
Gaige asking her to go with him.  It was a shared activity between them, a
closeness they could bond over.
    When they went
to one party he knew of in an abandoned warehouse, he had her wear a dress that
showed far too much of her cleavage and probably all of her butt.  Her father
wouldn't like it, but her father wasn't going.  That's how she rationalized
it.  Gaige didn't rationalize; he groped and made out with her.
    At the party, he
left her alone.  She stood in the supply room of the dusty warehouse with a
horde of party-goers, wondering how anyone could like this.  Someone had
brought a radio and blared trance music.  She recognized some songs and moved
back and forth, catching the rhythm but too shy to do it in full force because
of her wardrobe's inadequacy. 
    Later, a long
time after Gaige left, someone attached strobe lights to a metal walkway
hanging above the makeshift dancing floor.  The lights flickered and flashed,
blinding her sometimes and highlighting different dancers at others.  Men tried
to dance with her but she shook her head and shooed them away.
    Gaige returned,
eyes bloodshot and covered in haze.  He didn't look like he could see, let
alone recognize her, but he did.
    "Hey
baby," he said, sidling close and wrapping her in his arms.  "How you
doing?"
    "Gaige!" 
She laughed when he tipped her backwards into a mockery of a formal dance
move.  "Stop that!  Everyone will see me.  You're drunk, aren't you?"
    "No
way," he said.  He twirled her around and she went with it.  "Had a
pick me up.  You want one?  Just a—"  He pinched the underside of her
elbow.  "—nip and you'll feel happy like a cloud."
    "No, I'm
fine.  Dance with me."
    They danced.
    Later, they
fooled around in the back seat of his car.  "I love you," she said
after he spent himself.  She knew he would have said "I love you"
back, but he'd fallen asleep.
    ...
    Robert woke early
for work.  She lounged in bed, listening to the buzz of his electric razor. 
She liked when he gave her a good morning kiss afterwards and the scent of
aftershave was fresh on his cheeks.
    She rolled in
the blankets, twisting, tying, and untying herself from within them.  Robert
came in and searched his closet for the suit he wanted to wear.  This was all
nice, the situation idyllic for her.  Smiling as she watched him, it amused her
to see him trying not to look her way while getting ready.
    When he finished,
he knelt by the bed and kissed her cheek.  She smelled his aftershave then,
fresh, like peppermint.  He opened a drawer in their bedside table and took out
his portable senescence machine.  She knew what it was for and what he would
do, and she hoped he knew he didn't have to.
    "I woke an
hour early," he said.  No earlier than he usually woke up, she thought. 
"I think you deserve an extra hour for sleep, don't you?"
    She murmured,
neither agreement nor disagreement.  She worried if she said too much, he might
not like it, that he might think her ungracious.  He smiled and patted her
cheek.  Pulling two cords from the machine, he attached the alligator clips of
one to his finger and the other to one of hers.  She laughed the first time
she'd seen this kind of machine since it reminded her of a pair of jumper
cables.  She didn't laugh now, only waited to see if he would change his mind. 
She wouldn't mind if he did, but he didn't.
    The machine
whirred.  A zip of energy pricked her finger.  It stung, then vanished.  Robert
looked tired afterwards and she felt sorry for him.  On the contrary, she felt
refreshed.  Not the best feeling for sleeping, but she would try to because she
didn't want to waste the time he'd given her.
    He kissed her
again before