Come on, Get Higher

The dawn is breaking
A light shining through
You're barely waking
And I'm tangled up in you, yeah - Howie Day

I opened my eyes to the sight of my own room. I tried hard to think of what had led me to this position. I ran my hand over my face, feeling stupid. With my eyes closed I turned my body to the right. After taking a deep breath, I slowly opened my eyes. I let out a loud, high pitched scream when I saw Eric sitting in my computer chair, blanket around his waist, drinking a cup of coffee.

"Eric, you scared the crap out of me," I said while sitting up, carefully covering my bare chest.

"Sorry," He said dryly.

"What's wrong?"

"We had sex, again," I looked at my lap.

"I know," I sighed. "What do you wanna do?"

"I don't know," He shook his head and looked down.

"We could just forget it happened," I shrugged. "I mean it's not like either of wanted this to happen," Eric looked up at me, he looked pale. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," I watched as he nervously pulled on his boxer's and grabbed his bathing suit. "All right, well, I guess I should get going," He said without looking at me.

"B-," He shut the door. "ye,"

Eric.

I shut Josey's door and took a deep breath. She wanted to forget that we just slept together, that's fine. I guess. I closed my eyes and held my bathing suit tightly against my chest.

"Halvo," Someone said causing me to jump and drop my shorts to the ground. I looked up to see Justin standing in front of me. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," I said quickly before practically sprinting into the guestroom.

"Halvo," Justin called out to me. I fumbled with a pair of basketball shorts. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened," My voice cracked.

"Ha, what did you sleep with her?" He joked. My body froze. "Oh, my god," His eyes went wide. "Dude," He scrambled in the room and locked the door. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I wasn't, okay?" I turned around. "I didn't plan for this to happen, it just did,"

"How?" He crossed his arms over his chest.

"I don't know, we were playing a game," I shook my head. Justin just looked at me.

"What kind of game?" He cocked his head to the side. "A I'm-gonna-have-sex-with-my-best-friend's-little-sister kind of game?"

"A drinking game," I said softly.

"You were drunk!"

"More buzzed, than drunk," I nodded.

"But she was drunk, you knew this and still had sex with her,"

"It doesn't even matter. She said she just wants to forget about it. So, don't worry about it," I shrugged and pulled my shirt over my head.

"Oh, my god," His eyes went wide. "You are upset about this,"

"No," I said defensively. "Why would I be upset?"

"Because you wike heww," Justin said in baby talk while poking me in the stomach.

"Shut up, I do not," I said while walking out of the room.

"Halvo," Justin followed me into the hallway, making kissy noise. I looked back at him and scowled. While I gave Justin the stink eye I managed to walk into someones body.

"Oh man, sorry," I looked up. "J-jose,"

"It's okay Eric," She smiled and continued down the stairs. I watched her dark curls bounce against her bronze back as she hopped down the steps.

"Oh yeah, you don't like her," Justin laughed and made his way to the lower level. I rolled my eyes and skipped down the short flight of stairs.

Josey.

"Nick, guess what!" I smiled.

"What?" He replied, sounding completely uninterested.

"I'm throwing a party on Friday,"

"No," He shook his head. I furrowed my brow, not expecting that to be his answer.

"What?" He turned his attention from his computer, to me.

"Look a party is just an exuse for you to drink and sleep with some random guy,"

"Nu-uh, plus I already asked Eric and he said he was in,"

"Well, yeah, Halvo likes to get drunk and hook up with sluts," He closed his laptop.

"Come on, Nick. Please? For me?" I begged. He sighed and looked at me.

"Fine, but if something goes wrong, I am not bailing you our," After putting his computer on the coffee table he stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"Okay. Do you think you guys could play a few songs at the party?" Nick took a bite of an apple.

"I don't know, Jose," He said, his mouthful of apple. "Convince the band and I'm in,"

"Yay! I love you bro," I hugged him and ran out of the room. I made my way up to the guest room where Justin, Eric and Andrew were staying. I knocked on to the door twice before it opened. Justin stood in the doorway with a small smirk on his face.

"Hi, Justin," I said sweetly. I looked behind him to see Andrew on the floor with his laptop and Eric sitting on his bed with an acoustic guitar. I waved at them. Andrew nodded and Eric mouthed a 'hey,'.

"Hey, Jose, what's up?" Justin asked, leaning against the doorframe.

"Do you think you guys could play some songs at my party on Friday night? I asked Nick and he said it's fine if you guys agree," Justin looked back at Andrew and Eric. He shrugged his shoulders.

"I'll do it," Justin nodded. "Halvo?" He smiled.

"You've got yourself some entertainment, my dear," Andrew smiled.

"Awesome," I kissed Justin's cheek and ran to my room. Still giddy, I ran to my computer chair and started to tell people about the blowout. About half and hour into the planning someone knocked on the door. "Come in,"

"Hey," The knocker said in a low voice. I turned around to see Eric, awkwardly standing in the middle of the floor. He had on a pair of tight, dark jeans and black adidas. On his top he wore a white t-shirt covered by a black and white plaid button up shirt.

"Hi, what's up?"

"I wanna talk to you," He licked his lips.

"Okay,"

"Do you think we could, like, hang out or something? Like as friends? He asked in a fast pased voice. "It's just, I want to get to know you, I want to spend time with you, outside of this house," He said, nervously. "I mean, we don't ha-"

"Eric, it's cool. I like the idea," I stopped his babbling.

"Really?" His smile grew wide. I nodded.

"Yeah," I smiled. "We should definitely be friends," Eric smiled.

"And I wanted to apologize,"

"For what?" I cocked my head to the side.

"Sleeping with you," I made a face.

"Are you serious?"

"You were drunk, I shouldn't have,"

"Look, Eric, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but there's no stopping me when I'm drunk. I'm not in love with you, I'm just a slut," I laughed.

"No, you're not,"

"It's okay. I'm not telling you this to make you feel sorry for me. The truth is, I'm a loose drunk," I smiled. and shrugged my shoulders. Eric sat down on my bed next to me.

"Alright, but as long as you're not upset with," He hesitated. "With what happened, then I guess we're okay," Without saying a word I kissed Eric softly on the lips. I felt his entire body tense up. "W-what was that for?" He asked, shocked.

"You're cute, Eric," He laughed.

"Can I ask you a question?" He asked while looking at his hands.

"Anything,"

"Why do you call me Eric?" I furrowed my brow. "No, I mean most people call me Halvo, but, you, you don't. Why?"

"I don't know, you look like Eric Halvorsen. Not Halvo," I shrugged. He smiled and took hold of my hand. He slowly brought my hand up to his lips. He softly kissed my hand. "What was that for?" I smiled.

"You're cute," He smirked. I felt my face flush. For some reason I couldn't resist this boys charm.