Love and Conspiracy

“You know, I can’t wait to see your ass fall off that chair,” Jess said to Chris. He kept leaning back on it, balancing on only two of the legs.

“Do you really think that low of me?” he asked in a fake, hurt voice. She laughed.

“As a matter of fact, I do!”

“Yeah, dude. I’m gonna have to agree with her. You’re gonna lose it eventually,” Mike said, being the only sober one in the room.

“No! She’s got you brainwashed to think that way!” Chris said in defense. Jess scoffed.

“Oh, please. You’re just jealous because you know that you’re friends like me better than they like you!” she joked. Before he said anything, she continued, “What do you have to say about that now, bitch?!”

“Whoo!” I cheered her on. Chris got an evil look in his eye.

“This!” he yelled before attempting to throw his beer on her. However, his plan failed as he lost balance on his chair and fell backwards, causing his drink to land all over himself. The room roared with laughter. Before I could see what else happened, I left the room to keep from pissing myself from all the laughing.

I stumbled towards the couch, out of breath. By the time I had stopped myself from laughing, Mike, Billie, and Tre had made their way into the living room, too.

“What happened to Chris and Jess?” I asked, clueless.

“She decided to tell him sorry,” Mike said slowly.

“With sex!” Tre continued for him. They all burst out laughing again.

“Yeah, they’re gonna be gone for awhile,” Mike said as his laughs slowly resided.

“Gross, I don’t want to hear them fucking!” Billie said jokingly.

“Can’t we go back to your place?” I suggested to Mike.

“Our place,” he corrected me. Billie piped up again.

“Yeah! That way you can actually drink with us, Mike!”

“Well, let’s get out of here then!” Mike said with a chuckle.

“Shotgun!” Tre yelled before we even got outside. He bolted to Mike’s car as fast as he could.

“You want a ride, Bill?” Mike asked. He shook his head.

“Nah, I’m okay. I’ll see you guys there,” he said with a smile, getting into his own car.

~~~

Not even an hour after we got there and we were drunk off our asses. We decided that we would play quarters; however, they were starting to gang up on me since I was the weakest link. After my fifth shot, I was done.

“I can’t. I’m finished!” I said loudly, putting my hands up in defeat.

“Aw, come on. Don’t wuss out now!” Billie said in a teasing tone.

“No, nope. I’m done,” I said, stumbling out of my chair. “Go on, without me!” I continued in a dramatic voice as I tried my best to make it over to Mike’s room. Somehow, I managed without completely falling over.

“Party pooper!” I heard Tre yell as I jumped onto the bed. I closed my eyes in the hopes that the room would stop spinning so much. Once it slowly came to a stop, the door closed and someone lay on the bed next to me.

“You feeling okay?” I heard Mike’s voice say in the darkness.

“I’m much better now,” I said, causing him to lightly chuckle. I slowly felt his warm breath against my face until his lips gently touched mine. The butterflies started to erupt in my stomach, with the help of the alcohol. When he pulled away, Jess’ question quickly popped into my head.

“So are you and Mike together?”

“Mike?”

“Hmm?” he replied, his head still above me.

“What are we?” I asked.

“Human, I believe?” he answered with a laugh. I giggled, realizing how stupid that sounded.

“I know that. I mean you and me. Are we just friends? Or are we more than that,” I struggled with my words. He was silent for a few moments.

“I dunno, Luce,” he finally said. Not the kind of answer I was looking for. I grew extremely nervous, preparing myself for rejection. However, he put his mouth to mine again and pulled away before continuing, “If you get the same feeling I do when our lips meet…” he trailed off, “Well, then I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t be more than friends.” My smile grew as the nerves quickly went away. I reached up and put my arms around his neck, pulling him into another kiss. I could feel him smile against me. He put a hand on my waist, moving me closer to him as his tongue gently ran across my bottom lip. Not wasting a single moment, I parted my lips allowing him to explore my mouth.

After making out for the following ten minutes, we slowly separated. We readjusted ourselves so he was lying next to me and my arm was draped across his chest.

“Hey, Lucy,” he whispered into my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

“Yeah?” I whispered back.

“Will you go out with me?”

“I would love to,” I answered. He placed his hand underneath my chin, tilting my head upwards to kiss him once more. With that, we both fell asleep.

~~~

I awoke a couple hours later. Once again, after lying there for some great amount of time, I could not fall back asleep. Since I was thirsty anyways, I decided that I would go get a cup of water and watch TV for a bit to see if it would help at all.

The TV screen was already flickering throughout the dark living room. I made my way to the kitchen while avoiding the sleeping silhouette on the ground, not making a sound. Billie must’ve already gone to bed, I thought. Thinking I was alone in the room, I started to quietly hum to myself. After getting through at least half a song of humming, I began to sing softly.

“Well, I’ve been afraid of changing ‘cause I’ve built my life around you, but time makes you bolder, children getting older, I’m getting older, too…”

“Do you often wake up in the middle of the night to sing?” I heard a voice say, scaring the shit out of me. I jumped, causing the water in my hand to spill on myself and the floor.
Luckily the majority of it landed on the floor. I heard Billie chuckle in the distance.

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!” I whispered loudly, ignoring his question. I walked towards the couch and saw him sprawled out in front of TV.

“Sorry, princess. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said with another laugh. I glared at him even though he couldn’t see my face.

“What are you doing up this late anyways?” I asked, glancing at the clock. It read 3:38 a.m.

“Can’t sleep,” he answered, fixing his eyes on the screen again.

“Mind if I join you?” I asked.

“Ehh, I don’t know…” he said before his mouth crept into a grin. I frowned.

“Real funny,” I said flatly, gently hitting his feet off the couch so I could sit next to him. We were silent, watching TV for a while.

“How come you didn’t come listen to us at practice?” he asked, almost sounding a little offended.

“Jess wouldn’t really let me. I was summoned to have girl time.” I laughed.

“Oh… Well, we’re playing Gilman tomorrow night. You should come. I mean, if you want.”

“Yeah, that’d be cool!” I said with a smile, “I’m looking forward to hear you guys play again, actually.” He gave me a confused look.

“Again?” he questioned.

“Yeah, I saw you guys play at Gilman last year when I was here. You perform a pretty kick-ass show, I must admit,” I said truthfully. He half smiled.

“Thanks,” he said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. We were silent as we looked at the screen, mindlessly. Suddenly, a curious question popped in my mind that I couldn’t help but ask.

“Why did you and your girlfriend break up?” I asked quietly. His face slowly grew into a scowl. After not answering me for a moment, I continued, “You don’t have to talk about it, I was just wondering.”

“She ‘found someone else’,” he said as if he were mocking her. I nodded, knowing exactly how that felt.

“That’s too bad,” I replied simply. He sighed with a shrug.

“Eh, that’s just how it has to happen sometimes, I guess,” he paused, “What happened between you and your ex?” I appreciated his attempt at continuing the conversation.

“Same thing, pretty much,” I answered.

“Hmm, well it seems to me like he’s gonna be the one missing out,” he said softly. I laughed, thinking he was joking.

“Why do you say that?” I asked, once I realized he wasn’t kidding. He looked over at me, not saying a word. What seemed like ages of us staring at each other, he sighed once again.

“I don’t know what I’m saying. I guess I am tired after all,” he said, quickly dropping the subject. He got up from the couch. “Night, kid,” he said before leaving the room.

“Night,” I said so quietly, that I was the only one that could’ve heard it.

My eyes fluttered open when I felt a pair of warm lips on my forehead. Mike’s shining blue eyes immediately greeted me.

“Morning babe,” he said, before kissing me on the lips. I smiled as I rubbed my eyes.

“Morning,” I said groggily back. “Why are you up this early?” I asked. It couldn’t have been any later than eight. He laughed.

“Early? Luce, it’s one in the afternoon. I’m surprised you didn’t wake up from all the commotion Tre was making earlier,” he said, making himself a cup of coffee.

“One?! Damn…” I said as pushed my hair out of my face. I couldn’t believe that I slept that late. I looked around for the over-sized child. “Where’s Tre?” I asked.

“Just got back from dropping him off,” he said as he sat next to me on the couch. I nodded.

“What time does the show start?” I asked, changing the subject abruptly.

“Around seven. You gonna come see us play?” he asked. I lightly hit him.

“Of course I am! I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I said with a smile.

“Great,” he said, giving me a kiss on the cheek, “So tell me, why’d you sleep on the couch? Is my bed not good enough for you?” he said with a chuckle, causing me to laugh along with him.

“No, your bed is lovely! I just couldn’t sleep, so I decided to watch some TV for a bit. I guess that did the trick,” I answered.

“Oh,” he chuckled, “Well, you can always wake me up if you can’t sleep. I would be more than happy to help with that,” he said, winking at me.

“I’ll remember that next time,” I said with a giggle.