What turn of body, what of lust

Undiced?

So we've worshipped you a little

More than Christ.

Waking up in the hotel, I feel a lot better than I felt the day before. I'm snuggled up in Micah's plaid button up shirt with my cheek pressed against his bare chest as he breathes in and out in deep breaths.

"Good morning," He quietly greets me. I look up at him. He's been on his phone, waiting for me to wake up. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," I say and then I yawn. I roll off of him to stretch and as I do so, the plaid shirt that I'm wearing falls off of my shoulder and exposes one of my bare boobs underneath. I notice him glance down at my chest, so I'm slow to cover myself back up. "I don't usually let myself get so caught up in the past like that. I've worked so hard on just putting my childhood behind me and moving forward. Hearing what Bonnie had to say shouldn't have upset me so much."

"You can't condition yourself not to feel things," He runs his fingers slowly through my hair. It's mostly tangled, so he gives up after a few moments and just rests his large hand fondly on top of my head.

"I shouldn't have dragged you out here," I mutter apologetically. "But thank you for coming with me."

"Hey, everybody needs a road trip sometimes. Even if we end up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania," He says with a charming little smile. "I've been talking to Jay to see what's going on. Bonnie is gone, but she did stop by their house this morning to tell the rest of Silas's family the truth."

"Does it matter to them that he knew where I was this whole time?" I wonder curiously. "It doesn't affect them much."

"Jay is pretty upset about it," Micah answers me. "Maryanne too, actually. I mean, she has a family of her own now, so she understands the bond between a parent and a child, and how much of an asshole you must be to neglect your child for so long."

"I don't care about that family," I inform him. "I'm sorry. I know that Jay is your friend, but I don't want anything to do with them."

"Alright," He goes along with it and puts his phone down on the nightstand. "Are you hungry?"

I give him a mischievous smile and kiss his chest. "Yes, I am."

By the look I gave him, Micah can tell exactly what I want for breakfast, and it makes him smile, but he puts his hand on the side of my face to stop me from lowering my kisses. "Eleanor," He says my name in a breathy voice. "You sure you want to do this right now? Yesterday was really intense for you."

"It's done," I remind him. "It doesn't matter who knew what or why I was left in that foster home. It happened. It's over. What matters to me is what's happening right now, not what happened fourteen years ago," I kiss his chest again as my hand slides down his body until it's resting on his crotch, over the blanket. "And what's happening right now is that it feels like you don't want me to stop."

"Of course I don't want you to stop," His voice is continuing to get softer, especially with my hand where it is. "I'm just worried about you."

"I'm bitter," I admit to him. "But I'm always bitter. I'll get over it. If you're not into it right now, we'll just order room service."

"No," He says quickly and then immediately releases my chin from his gentle grip. "If you're sure that it's okay, who am I to stop you?"

I grin up at him just as he leans back into the pillows. I dig through the blanket and then quickly get his boxers off, tossing them to the side of the bed. I look up to see Micah's head back, his eyes closed, waiting for what's about to happen.

I know that yesterday was really dramatic for me, but now that I've had some time to adjust to it, I don't think that the new information really changed anything. It was just a major shock and I guess I spent a lot of time being angrier at my mom than my dad thinking that she was the one who knew that we were alone. But the fact is that they both left us there. And as I pointed out last night, everything that happened in my past has led me to Micah, and Casey to this school that he's already really growing in.

It was hard to get where I am, but I really like where I am. The bitterness isn't going to go away, because even though things worked out well, Bonnie and Silas shouldn't have left us in that foster home like they did. I don't have to let that bitterness consume me though.

We shower together in the small shower in the hotel room, and then we really do order room service for a real breakfast. I call Casey and I let him now that Bonnie was in town, but has left. He's surprised and shocked but that's about all that I get from him. Of course, he is busy with his science fair project, so the phone call doesn't last very long.

I also make a call to the school, just to make sure that they're aware that I have legal custody of him now, and so if either one of our parents visit, they aren't allowed to see him. Since that school is where a lot of government officials get their kids to go to school, they have pretty good security. I won't let Bonnie or Silas fuck with Casey the way that they've fucked with me.

"So, what are we doing today?" Micah asks me after breakfast.

"I'm not sure. We could go shopping, or go see a movie or something," I try to think of something to do in this city that neither one of us has ever been to before. We just drove for two hours and stopped when we decided we'd been on the road long enough. "We can't stay in the room all day, we did that last weekend."

"You're right," He agrees with me. "I'll search up a mall or movie theater."

"You have an exam on Monday," I suddenly remember as he's pulling out his laptop. "No, you should study. I tore you away for the weekend, that doesn't mean that I have to wreck your GPA."

"Not studying for one day for one exam won't wreck my GPA, El," He promises me with a laugh.

"No. I'm going to help you study. That's what we're going to do," I decide as I get up from the bed and then go to the small bag of clothes that I packed. Over my shorts, I put on a pair of sweat pants and over my tank top, I put on a sweater.

"Okay, so then where are we going?" Micah is confused when he sees me getting dressed.

"We're staying here," I say, which just confuses him more. "You have your notecards, right? Every time you get an answer right, I'll take something off. Get something wrong, I put something on. We'll take a break when you get me naked. Deal?"

My idea makes him grin from ear to ear. "That's the best study game I've ever played."

"I know," I say gloatingly. "So, where are your notecards?"

He shuffles through the book bag that's resting on the side of the large bed and pulls out his hefty stack of notecards. I sit across from him in the bed and start reading him the very complicated questions from the notecards. He's really smart and gets a lot of the questions right, which quickly leaves me in just my underwear. He gets a few wrong, so I put my shirt back on along with a few other pieces of clothes at one point, but they quickly come back off.

"Maybe you really didn't need to study, you know pretty much all of these," I realize before I ask him the question that, if he gets right, will remove my bra.

"Yeah. All you have to do is come to my exam with me and start taking off your clothes when I get the right answers," He says jokingly.

"If that's what it takes, I'm willing to make the sacrifice," I assure him with a short laugh.

"Have you thought about going back to school lately?" Micah drastically changes the subject.

"Nope. I still might, but I have to see where Casey goes. If it's him or me, I'm going to get him through school first. But if he gets enough scholarships or grants or whatever to pay his way through, and I can afford to take some classes, I'll give it a shot. That's not for another four years though."

"What if you got scholarships?" He counters.

"We've had this conversation before," I remind him slowly. "And it won't work. Let's get back to studying."

"I'm going to get you naked in two questions, we have time," He says with confidence.

"You might get one wrong," I add, even though I know that it's probably not likely. "And I don't need to go to school to be happy. I'm happy where I am right now. I've got a good job, and I think that I'm pretty good at it too."

"I know that, but are you sure that you'll be happy working in that building long term? Especially with Silas there all of the time?" He questions me skeptically and then puts a hand on my bare thigh and adds, "I just want you to be happy."

"I'm happy. I promise," I confirm again. I think that it's sweet that he's so concerned about my happiness, but I'm really not worried about getting a degree. Even if I decide that I don't want to work for Harrison anymore, I know that I'll be able to find something that I enjoy doing without a degree. "Now, back to the questions."

This time, he lets me go back to asking him his questions to study for his exam instead of talking about my future.

He does get the next two questions right, effectively getting me out of my bra and then my panties. As promised, we use this time to take a break under the covers of the bed for a little while and then we go through the rest of his notecards until he's got a good grasp on all of the concepts that are going to be on this exam.

Eventually, I have to check my phone and I'm not surprised to see that I have a few missed calls from a lot of people. Jay has called me, Silas has called a ton of times, and there's an unknown number that I just assume to be Bonnie. How she got my number, I don't know, but I'm planning on ignoring all three people.

Jay, I don't really have much of a problem with except for the fact that he's calling me on behalf of the issue with Silas. I will acknowledge his place in my life only as a friend of my boyfriend but not my long lost brother. I want to stay as disconnected from their family as possible. Especially after what happened last night.

I'm not sure what Jay wants, but I'd imagine that it was to get more answers from me. Answers that I probably don't have. If he really needed something important, he would have told Micah about it when they talked earlier.

Once I get back to the city tomorrow, I'm going to stay as far away from Silas and his family as possible. Even though we'll be working in the same building, I don't need to see him around. If Harrison needs something taken to Silas's office, I will insist on leaving it with his secretary. I will make this job work and I will move on from what happened yesterday.

I don't have a choice.

I'm lucky that I have Micah here to help me through it too though, because he's really been a rock for me lately. I've got this great job, I've got a brilliant and caring brother, I've got Micah, and I've got a good life now.

The way I got here was rough, I know that, but I can't stop myself from moving on from the past just because of the new information that I got yesterday. It changes my perception of my childhood to know that Silas is a worse person than I thought, but that's it. It only changes my childhood, not my right now.

So putting all of that behind me, I will find it easier to move forward with the life that I have now. The life that I love, and the life that will continue to grow for a long time to come.