Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 186756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 934(@200wpm)___ 747(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 934(@200wpm)___ 747(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Isadora
Red.
Well, dark pink.
So I guess they’re both pink…?
I’m fucking this up, aren’t I?
I totally am.
This is not how you sext your boyfriend.
Which is what I’m trying to do. But I don’t think it’s coming out that way.
Shepard
No, I think there’s a difference.
Isadora
What difference?
Shepard
Only one of those is the color of your mouth.
Finally, all the racing and pounding that my heart was doing stops and my body goes still.
I freeze.
But thank God my fingers are working, so I can ask,
Isadora
The color of my mouth?
Shepard
Yeah.
Isadora
Which one’s the color of my mouth?
Shepard
The cherries.
My fingers inevitably go up to my mouth.
It’s tingling. It feels swollen.
Isadora
You think my mouth’s the color of cherries?
I know, I know.
It was stupid. Again.
But I can’t help it. I can’t help being stupid in this moment.
Because did he just describe my lips as cherries?
Shepard
I think your mouth’s the color of ripe and swollen cherries, but yeah.
Isadora
Ripe and swollen cherries.
Shepard
The kind of cherries that are so ripe and so swollen that the moment you sink your teeth into them, they can’t help but overflow with juices. That kind of cherries.
Isadora
I didn’t know.
Shepard
You didn’t know what?
Isadora
That you could talk like that.
Shepard
Probably because we’ve never talked like this.
Isadora
No, we haven’t.
Shepard
So what else do you want to talk about?
Isadora
Do you think about my mouth a lot?
Shepard
Define a lot.
Isadora
Um… At least once a day maybe?
Shepard
If you think that’s a lot, then we both have a very different definition of it.
Isadora
What’s your definition of it?
Shepard
Probably once every hour, if not every minute.
I let my lip go then.
Before this, I’ve been biting my lower lip. The moment he sent me that text about sinking his teeth into them, I sank mine. I don’t know why I did it. Maybe because I wanted to see if he was right. If my lips really feel like ripe cherries that overflow with juices.
But that’s all beside the point now.
In the face of this revelation.
Because I…
As I just mentioned, I didn’t know.
Even though I knew how he felt about me, I didn’t really know.
I didn’t realize the extent of it. I should have, though.
Isadora
That’s… actually a lot.
Shepard
Yeah.
Isadora
And is it always about sinking your teeth into my lips, your thoughts?
Shepard
No.
Shepard
Sometimes I want to leave a mark.
Isadora
A mark?
Shepard
Maybe on your neck.
Or the triangle of your throat.
And you know what the color of that mark would be?
Isadora
What?
Shepard
The color of ripe and juicy cherries.
To match the color of your lips.
Isadora
What else?
Shepard
If you want me to tell you what else, you better finish what you started.
Isadora
What did I start?
Shepard
This.
Which I can only assume is your way of sexting.
My eyes go wide, and I rush to reply.
Isadora
You got that?!
Shepard
Yeah, I’m surprised too that I did.
Isadora
I thought I was fucking it up!
Shepard
You were.
But when a girl tells you about what she’s wearing, it isn’t exactly rocket science.
Isadora
I was just trying to cheer you up.
Shepard
I think I’m getting that too.
Isadora
Because I saw the game.
And you looked upset. On the field I mean.
He did.
Tonight’s game was a disaster. Not because the team lost—they won actually—but because their captain wasn’t playing. They kept bringing the camera back to Shepard, who was sitting in the box, to get his reaction after every goal or a miss or a pass, a foul, and every time they did, his face would look like a stony mask. The commentators kept making speculations as to what had caused their captain to be benched, and if tonight’s win, without him, means something more and indicates to a deeper issue. So far, the story’s that Shep got injured during practice, but it’s minor and he missed the game as a precaution.
But of course the truth is something much worse and far uglier.
The truth is me.
A girl who came between two twin brothers.
And now Shepard is paying the price.
Shepard
So you thought like a good girlfriend you’d cheer me up.
Isadora
Yes.
That’s exactly what I thought.
Because I know how important soccer is to him. How important winning is. The team’s finally doing good. They won last season and despite the losses in the previous weeks, there’s still hope that they’ll do it again. And imagine potentially not being a part of that. Of something you worked so hard to achieve.
I know my poor attempt at sexting won’t fix things, but I have to do something.
Something to make him feel better.
Until I find a permanent solution to the problem, to somehow get him reinstated on the team.
Well, you could just give him what he wants and then all of this will be over, won’t it?
No.
No, no, no.
Haven’t I just decided that he’s bluffing? He has to be.
He can’t expect me to… give him what he wants.
Shepard
But you’re hardly good, let alone my girlfriend.
Isadora
I want to be.
Shepard
Good or a girlfriend?
Isadora
Both.
For you.
I do. I want to be.
So that while I talk to him, I don’t think about his twin brother.
Because that’s what I’ve been doing, haven’t I? I’ve been wondering what he thinks about my lips. If he ever thinks about them at all. Does he think my mouth resembles an overripe fruit? Does he want to sink his teeth into me? Does he want to give me bruises on my neck that match the color of my lips…