Choices and Sacrifices Ch. 02

"You know how to eat crabs, right?" Her eyebrows were pushed together inquisitively. She was shocked to see him purse his lips and shrug his shoulders in response. He had never eaten a crab straight from the shell like this. It had usually come cooked and mixed into some form of pasta.

"Oh, poor baby." She said honestly with a distressed emotion on her profile. Suddenly, she perked up and straightened in her seat. "Well, today you'll learn—from a master actually." She rolled her eyes for emphasis.

"First, never start off with the claw. It's the hardest one." Keegan followed her instruction and placed the claw back on the table. He replaced it with a regular leg.

"Second, you pull off all the shorter pieces." Keegan began doing as she said. "I mean you can crack them but there's usually little to no meat in them so I don't even waste my time." Keegan soaked up her informative words and nodded in compliance. He had taken off the smaller portions of the leg and was now left with a decently sized piece.

"Now, you need to press on the center of the leg. But make sure you only crack the first layer of the shell." She said this step slowly and Keegan could only guess it was the most important. He tried to do as she said, but he somehow ended up puncturing both layers of shell. The meat broke inside and he gave her a comical look.

"Oops." He grumbled, looking down the shell to see the small pieces of valuable meat.

"I'll salvage that, you take this and try again." She handed him one of her middle claws and took his broken one out of his hand. She ripped the shell piece down the side and ate the contents quickly. Keegan tried again and successfully got a good piece of meat out.

"Here we go." The waitress had returned with their sides. She placed a plate of corn on the cob in front of Sabrina and a bowl of coleslaw in front of Keegan.

"Thank you."

"So I told you all about my life; I think I should hear yours." Keegan announced. Sabrina swallowed her food while shaking her head simultaneously.

"It's too complicated." Keegan responded within an instant.

"We have time." He coaxed her on with a beam. Sabrina took in a breath and wiped her hands on the towel provided for her.

"I have two sisters, Brittany and Ivy. We're all really close, pretty much best friends. Ivy is the youngest; she's in 12th grade now. Brittany is the oldest and she'll be 24 soon. My mom is a professor. My parents are divorced."

Keegan awaited the completion of the explanation but it didn't come. She concluded her story by picking up another crab leg and proceeding to eat it. Keegan felt a little weird with her shortness. He'd spilled out all his skeletons to not get the same.

"That was unfair of me." Sabrina said exasperatedly, reading Keegan's mind exactly. "A few years ago, before my parents got divorced, we got a knock on our front door. My mom went to open it and there was a woman standing on our porch. She was in her early 40's probably. She started pouring her story out to my mom. She claimed my dad was the father of her 4 year old son. She said my fatherplannedthat kid. He was completely in love with her. They'd been together for over 10 years but he kept pushing her in the dark."

"It was hard for us but we got through it. My sisters have allowed him to enter their lives again, but I just can't." She shook her head as she took a lingering breath. "I can't forgive him for what he did to us." Keegan could see herself battling her thoughts at the table.

"I'm really sorry you had to go through that." He uttered quietly. Sabrina looked up at him modestly. "No one deserves to be hurt by their family that way."

"Thanks, that means a lot." It astounded her how much honesty radiated out of his pores.

*

Keegan and Sabrina were casually strolling to his parked Honda hand in hand. They had a hard time finding nearby parking at 7pm, but Sabrina had convinced Keegan she was find with a little more walking. Her optimism had once again scored her a lengthy kiss on her full lips, which she had accepted openly.

Keegan opened the passenger door for her and she thanked him as she sat inside. When he started up the car, Alicia Key's 'Fallin' played blatantly in the background. They rode back to Sabrina's apartment in complete silence. Sabrina laid her forehead against the cold window. Her eyes were slowly shutting as the darkness grew around her.

When she awoke, she they car was idle. Looking around to discover her surroundings, she noticed Keegan staring at her with a hint of something playing in his pretty grey eyes. It was buried by the dimness of the car.

"What?" She tried to say the word but something was stopping her mouth from forming them properly. Her cheeks grew hot as she realized what it was. Sabrina averted her eyes and gathered her purse beside her feet in a rush.

"Hey—" Keegan tried to slow her down but she was already opening her door and stepping out. He didn't think twice about hopping out to meet her.

"Sabrina," He started after her, broadening his steps to catch up. She was a few feet from her apartment door and he'd captured her elbow just in time. He twirled her around toward his face and tried to scan her orbs. He could barely see her profile and the flickering lamp didn't help him much.

"What's wrong?" He asked despite the fact he had some idea what the problem was. She looked beyond him for a few seconds before taking in a rough breath. Her shoulders rose significantly while she tried to fight back tears.

"I don't care about you sucking your thumb." He stated firmly. She smirked brokenly as if trying to disguise real feelings. She rolled her eyes nastily as she put her smiling lips in a tight line.

"Of course you do." She said with a rigid tone.

"Sabrina don't do that—don't tell me what I think." He placed a reassuring hand along her jaw and nudged her face toward his. "I'm telling you I'm not bothered. There's no reason for you to be embarrassed." His voice grew softer in correlation to his face getting nearer. Sabrina slacked her jaw and grew cross-eyes as she tried to keep up with his lips.

She instinctively shut her eyes and grounded herself to the concrete below her. His hand continued to caress the skin on her cheek and she involuntarily placed her hand along his toned bicep to secure the action as long as she could. Sabrina ran her fingers over the thin blonde hairs idly. Keegan couldn't believe how warm her body was—her hand, jaw and mouth were all so unbelievably hot. He felt himself wanting to get closer to her frame and somehow mesh their bodies together.

Sabrina moaned heavenly when Keegan parted her lips. He couldn't resist the urge to wrap his arm around her lower half and push her closer toward him. He ran his tongue over everything inside her tiny mouth. He gently tugged on her full bottom lip and Sabrina could feel herself moistening from their kiss.

A car alarm down the street jolted Sabrina back to life. She looked toward the sound to see someone's jeep blinking its lights and honking furiously as someone scrambled for their keys to turn it off. Keegan was annoyed that the car had interrupted them, but he took a step back and reached in his back pocket for his keys.

"I'll call you tomorrow." He said. She nodded silently and turned to head back to her apartment in a daze.

*

Keegan was lounging on the carpeted floor of his apartment. His eyes were fixed on the white ceiling as images of Sabrina filled his mind.

"So, I'm curious to know what you're going to do about this big ass mess you've gotten yourself in." Quincy said, gazing down on him from their kitchen. He had his forearms on the counter as he indulged in a bowl of cereal at 9 PM. Keegan sighed, not quite knowing the answer himself.

"I... shit I don't fucking know." He groaned, slapping a hand down his face. His subconscious was effectively pushing his currents stances deep into his core, leaving more room for happiness. Happiness that only Sabrina was causing.

"Well she's been calling. I think that's her now." Quincy said, nodding toward Keegan's illuminated cell that sat idly in the corner of the empty room. He scrambled for it, eventually pressing the green button.

"Hello?" He answered. Quincy's eyes bore into the back of his head.

"Hey baby. I've been calling you today." Bethany said nonchalantly, secretly demanding an explanation for his lack of communication.

"Oh, I was working and then as soon as I got home, I just started writing. I'm sorry." He said coolly. He had no idea how the lie flowed so freely and fluidly, but he was somewhat glad it had. Although, a piece of him wasn't comfortable with his newly acquired knack. He wasn't a dishonest man but he felt hopeless.

He'd need to break this off. Keegan left home to abolish his oppressive childhood but only to move away and be captured in the talons of this restrictive relationship. Not to mention it was forcing him to lose himself and put the current best thing in his life, in jeopardy.

"Bethany we need—"He suppressed a groan when she cut him off to branch into a new topic.

"I have some super awesome news!" How the hell was he ever attracted to such a valley girl voice? He smiled when he tried to imagine Sabrina saying something like that.

"What?" He said bleakly.

"Well," She took a dramatic pause that didn't do the job of adding suspense. "I finally got a call for a job—a teaching job that actually let's me use my degree." Keegan couldn't deny, he was happy for her.

Regardless of how annoying or inconvenient Bethany was, she was a sweet girl. She deserved to be satisfied in life. After seeing her struggle with student loans and a waitressing job that did nothing to exercise her knowledge and love for teaching, Keegan grew respect for her.

He felt like shit for lying to her. He wished she was the rude, selfish bitch that would make this easier for him. He wouldn't mind breaking up with that over the phone and brushing off the cries and pleads. But unfortunately she was like that, she was a good woman.

"Beth, that's really great. I'm proud of you." He said earnestly. Keegan couldn't do it today. Who was he to ruin her good mood with a long distance break up. He'd let her enjoy her new job for a few weeks and when the time was right he'd tell her. That was reasonable.

"Thanks. I wish I could've told you in person." Bethany sighed. "I miss you."

"I miss you too." Keegan replied dejectedly. The quality of the word signified the sadness the topic required but also Keegan's existing emotional state. Quincy's light brown eyes were lit with humor when he walked passed Keegan. His smooth skin was wrinkled where he was trying to retain his laughter. The nostrils of his narrow, slender nose were flaring and relaxing repeatedly. When he finally reached the bathroom, he allowed his bellowing laugh to flow openly.

***Please beware that I had braces for 5 years, until I was 17, because I couldn't kick my thumb sucking habit, so be kind to Sabrina!

With that said lol, hope you enjoyed.***