03

“Hell yeah,” he told her just before crashing his lips to hers. This time the kiss was more urgent but Hope was right there with him, mouth open as he devoured her like an ice cream cone.

As the kiss grew more intense a burning sensation started at the base of Hopes neck. At first she tried to ignore and concentrate solely on the guy that was taking her breath away.

Seconds passed and the burning increased ten fold. She released Joey’s neck and screamed.

“It burns, it burns, » She whined pitifully. « Make it stop,” she pleaded while dropping to her knees and holding tightly to the back of her neck. The pain continued to rage like an inferno while Hope tried to relentlessly smack at the back of her neck trying to put the fire out that wasn’t really there.

“Hope ?” Joey called out her name sounding extremely worried now.

The pain was so bad that she couldn’t even respond to him. “Hope, baby, what’s wrong ?” He asked again kneeling over her and rubbing at her back.

“It hurts !” She yelled out again not able to say much more. Warm tears trailed her cheeks as she placed her face to the cold asphalt looking for some type of relief to cool the back of her neck.

“I’m calling 911 baby, hold on,” Joey said while puling his phone out of his back pocket and rubbing small circles in the center of her back.

Then it stopped. As suddenly as it started the burning just stopped. Hope weakly sat up and drew in a deep breath as she reached for Joey’s phone.

“It stopped,” she whispered hoarsely. Her eyes still slightly glazed as she leaned her head against Joey’s shoulder.

“What the hell just happened ?” Joey asked still flabbergasted over the whole scenario that played out in front of him.

“I don’t know”, she softly whispered back, wondering to herself the exact same thing. She had always been aware of the strange birthmark on her neck and kept it covered for the most part. Not even Joey had even seen it.

Hope didn’t know what in the world was going on as she rubbed her hand over the birth mark that she knew was on the back of her neck. The same one that just burned her as if it was a living flame and further more what in the hell did it all mean ?

September 15, 2011

The alarm clock began its incessant beeping waking Hope from her deliciously blissful dream where a shirtless Matthew McConaughey was sensually feeding her chocolate covered strawberries on a sandy covered beach. Without even bothering to look she lifted her hand and swatted at the confounded clock and of course missed the snooze button altogether knocking it in the floor in the process.

“Damn,” she mumbled groggily just barely lifting her head to confirm that the clock was in fact still beeping and now lying in the floor. Hope begrudgingly pulled herself up into a sitting position and then bent over to grab the clock. With a quick slap she smacked the off button finally shutting up the dad-blamed thing.

She haphazardly dropped it back on her night stand and then stood, stretching her arms high above her head. It was finally Friday. Hope smiled at that thought and what was even better than that was tomorrow was her eighteenth birthday. She was planning to the have the party of the century and then afterwards, well afterwards she expected to have the experience of life time. She was going to go all the way with Joey. Taking that last step that would forever free her from her current state of Virgindom.

Shaking off the last remnants of her sleep Hope went to her closet in search for the perfect outfit. On some days it was a tedious job to look good, but she was the head cheerleader and she was dating the Quarterback so she felt as if it was her responsibility to look the part.

Taking a little over ten minutes to choose her outfit Hope finally decided to go with a simple flare black skirt and a sheer button up blouse with her hot pink cammie underneath. Comfortable enough to wear all day without worrying about showing off a little too much of her goodies and sexy enough to impress the masses, perfect, she mused.

Armed with her outfit she headed for the bathroom to take her shower. Within the next hour she washed, then dressed, put on her makeup, did her hair and was heading down the stairwell for breakfast in record time.

Today, Hope was actually driving herself to school instead of catching a ride with Joey because afterwards she wanted to go by the Betty’s Dress Shop and pick up her altered dress for the party and then afterwards she planned on making a special stop at Victoria Secrets to pick out a little something special for her big night with Joey.

As she made her mental notes for her after school plans the back of her neck suddenly started to tingle. This time is was more of a slow burn instead of that terrible pain that she had experienced the night before.

Hope walked into the kitchen frowning while simultaneously rubbing at the mark on the back of her neck that continued to warm under her skin. It didn’t make a lick of sense to her. She had tossed and turned for the first few hours when she first laid down last night wracking her brain but came up empty before finally dozing off into a deep sleep.

In an effort to ignore the pesky feeling she headed for the refrigerator and pulled out a water and a strawberry yogurt, the breakfast of champions. Hope then crossed the kitchen and grabbed a spoon from the silverware drawer before going to take a seat at the bar.

“Good morning,” her mother said cheerily as she walked into the kitchen already dressed for work. She made a bee line for the carafe and poured herself a cup of coffee before turning around to face her daughter.

“Morning.” Hope replied around a spoonful of yogurt.

“Don’t talk with your mouthful, young lady,” Hope’s mother berated her but her eyes were smiling.

Hope swallowed the yogurt and gave her a bashful smile in return, “Sorry,” she said softly.

Her mother lifted her cup of coffee to her mouth a blew the steam before she took a sip, “Are you ready for your big party tomorrow ?”

Hope’s face brightened at the mention of her eighteenth birthday party and nodded her head. “I can’t wait,” she replied anxiously. “It’s going to be the bomb.”