Ghost City

8

A knock sounded on my room door, and I invited in who I thought would be Aurora, judging by the soft knocks. However, it was Damien who came walking into my room. I quickly reached for the towel that was laying on the bed and wrapped myself in it to cover my naked body. "I thought you were Aurora!" I gasped as I closed my bottle of lotion and placed it on the dresser. I then took a seat at the edge of my bed. I had recently gotten out of the bathroom and had been moisturizing my skin.

"As if I haven't seen you naked on countless occasions," he teased. "How you think Aurora came about?"

"Hush," I blushed, but I still kept the towel wrapped around me. "Besides...we're not entirely together...or together at all, I guess."

He scratched behind his ear as he huffed, "I guess me finally choosing to spend a night with you was a dumb idea then."

"Oh! I mean, we can! I just thought we weren't...what are we doing, Damien?" I asked, and he shrugged in response before walking over to me and sitting beside me on the bed.

"You smell nice," he complimented as he sniffed my shoulder. He then leaned in further and sniffed my neck, and I could feel the thin hairs on my body standing up from our proximity. "...Like really good."

Forcing myself to speak, although already feeling uneasy, I blushed, "Thanks." I turned my head to face his, and the tip of his nose gently nudged mine. His eyes flickered to my lips and then back to my eyes before repeating itself, and I knew he was asking, in his nonverbal way, whether he could kiss me. "Should we? I mean, we don't even know our relationship status..."

"We shouldn't," he agreed as he shifted my hair to the left and tilted my chin, giving him more access to my neck. "But I want to." He smooched my neck before flicking his tongue out on the spot and then biting me. My teeth sank into my bottom lip as I took a hold of his shirt. It had been far too long since I had been touched like this.

"Wait," I breathed, allowing thick air to into my nostrils. "We really do need to talk about this. I don't want us to have sex and then complicate this even more."

He nodded while resting his head on my shoulder, and asked, "What are you comfortable with? Are we completely starting from scratch? Are we still together and trynna build our connection?"

"I mean, we're obviously still attracted to each other," I said while shifting away from him so that his head would no longer rest on me because I was starting to inhale his scent and even the smell of his hair, both of which I had found weirdly appealing. Tempting me further, he scooted beside me again and took my hand into his. Immediately a burst of tingles flushed through my body. "You're rest get touchy today."

He shrugged, "I did say I want you. I'm just trynna figure out what you want."

"I want you too, I just...you've changed. I can see it in the way you watch me. There's just something different, and I don't know how to feel about it," I answered.

While slightly frowning, he asked, "What's different about the way I look at you?"

I shrugged, "You just don't seem to hold the same strong feelings for me. You honestly give me blank stares sometimes. A year and a half ago, we were so in love with each other, and now I feel like there's something off between us."

"I honestly feel that too," he agreed as he caressed my knuckles. "I know things have changed between us. What I don't know is if we should just move on or try to fix whatever awkward shit is going on. I was actually reminiscing some of the moments we shared together, and that's why I came to your room. I guess...I was hoping to rekindle that. I do still care about you, and the loss of love in my eyes was simply me being cold to you for that gun shit, which I'm over now."

I nodded and twisted my lips to the side as I thought about what we should do moving on. We both still cared about each other and were still attracted to one another, but we did have some awkward tension between us. "I guess we can go back to dating, unless you'd prefer talking."

Damien chuckled, "Would you prefer to take a step backward or a whole sprint back to the starting position?"

I smiled, "Good point. Until then, I guess we should lay off the sex though."

Damien nodded, "Okay. Can I still sleep here with you though?"

I gave a gentle nod before going to my walk in closet and getting dressed in my pajamas for the night.