Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters

My eyes shot open at the feel of someone’s lips on my shoulder. I slowly moved my head to see who it was. When Luke’s massive amount of curly hair brushed against my face, I let out a sigh a relief. Events from last night started to replay in my head, putting me in a very sour mood. But I was grateful that it was Luke drooling all over my shoulder instead of some other drunken idiot.

I tried to move closer to the wall so his head would fall onto the mattress, but he had me trapped. He had one leg thrown across my side, and his arms wrapped around my stomach. I tried moving again, but he moved his hand from my stomach down to my thigh. That was when I started to freak out.

I grabbed his hand, and moved it to where it was behind his back. I understood that he was asleep and hungover, but I didn’t like the touching. I tried to push his leg off me, but when I tried, he moved his hand right back around my stomach. I let out a sigh, and rolled over onto my stomach as a last resort. Luke rolled onto his back, and put his hands right on my ass. My eyes grew wide when he squeezed.

He must have been waking up, because he quickly moved his hand.

“Oh, shit!” he whispered.

I turned around to look at him with raised eyebrows.

“Ahh!” he screamed, rolling off the bed and crashing onto the floor. He quickly jumped to his feet, running his hand through his messy hair and staring at me with wide eyes.

“Good morning to you, too,” I mumbled sarcastically, sitting up.

“No, no, no!” he whined, pulling his hair. He looked like he was about to cry.

“No’ what?” I asked, more confused that Helen Keller. He was clearly upset about something, and I triggered it.

“We didn’t do it, did we?” he whimpered, still having a death grip on his hair and staring at me with a painful face.

“Yes, Luke. We fucked, and that’s why I still have all of my clothes and shoes on,” I proclaimed, pointing to my shoes that were still tied and on my feet.

Luke let go of his hair and pushed out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, God,” he nervously chuckled, shaking his head. “Okay. Close one.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Was he really that messed up last night that he doesn’t remember forcing me to stay with him?

“I’d be wicked pissed if I didn’t remember,” he laughed, crawling back onto the bed.

“Did you not notice that you have on boxers?” I chuckled. “That should have been your first hint.”

“Well I thought I could've achieved it with these on.,” he admitted with a shrug.

“I’d imagine you’d have to be completely naked,” I laughed, lying back down next to him.

“Unless you’re like Chuck Norris,” he snorted, rubbing his eyes.

“Oh please,” I scoffed. “Bruce Lee is so much more amazing than Chuck Norris.”

“Uh, Whatever! Chuck Norris is a beast!” Luke argued.

“So beast that the only job he can get is infomercials?” I countered with a raised eyebrow.

“He likes to lay low,” he shrugged.

I shook my head with a snort. Brue Lee would stomp Chuck Norris any day.

“I don’t mean to sound rude or anything,” Luke said slowly, scratching his chest. “But why are you here?”

“Well,” I began with a sharp breath. “After you downed, let’s see her, about seven beers, a keg stand, and smoked pot out of a hookah, Mason asked me to drive you home. I had to drag you in here, and put you to bed, but you wouldn’t let me leave.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, sucking in his lips.

“Meaning that you begged, and when I said no, you grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go,’ I explained.

“Ah,” he nodded, swishing his lips to the side. “Thanks for staying.”

"You pulled me into bed. I had no choice,” I reminded him.

"I'm sure you could have gotten away," he smiled.

"Have you met Drunk Luke?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

“Not that I remember,” he said with a slight shrug.

The door to Luke’s room busted open, causing the both of us to jump, and sending me on top of Luke. I wanted to hide my face so his dad couldn’t tell it was me. I wanted to keep my job, and catching your employee in bed with your son is not a good way to keep said job.

“You’re doing it wrong, Riley,” Mason said, shutting the door behind him. “If you’re going to sit on top of him, you have to be naked.”

Luke and I both let out a sigh of relief. I slid off of Luke and sat beside him on the bed with my legs crossed.

“See? This is why I thought you guys were together,” Mason said, pointing from Luke to myself. “I get here and find you on top of him, who has no clothes on!”

“I have on clothes!” Luke argued, pointing at his orange and blue plaid boxers.

“Not enough!” Mason hissed, grabbing a random article of clothing at Luke.

“How did you get here? I have your car,” I reminded myself more than him.

“I walked here, thank you,” he spat angrily, putting his hands on his hips. “I woke up three hours ago and jogged here. I threw up in front of this old couple in jogging suites because I was too hungover to run.”

“Nice job,” Luke teased, getting up and walking towards his closet.

“You don’t seem very hungover,” I pointed out, crossing my arms. My mood changed to sour when Mason walked in. He was a big contributor to my horrible night last night.

“That’s because I stopped at the Shell station, and redeemed myself,” he said.

“How’d you do that?” Luke asked, pulling on a pair of pants, not even bothering to change his boxers. Gross. “My head is killing me.”

“I ate twelve dollars worth of food from the back diner, drank my body weight in Gatorade, and broke the seal on the way back,” he explained, taking a spot next to me on the bed. “Not to mention I bought some wicked pain killers at the Shell.”

“Think we can go back and get some?” Luke asked, pulling a black hoodie over his naked chest. I guess he didn’t believe in shirts either.

“Not for you, Squiddie,” Mason grinned. “You wanted to drink last night, you suffer the consequences.”

“Fine,” Luke snapped, grabbing a beanie and pushing it over his wild hair. “I’ll just do what I did last time.”

So Luke had been drunk before. I could feel my body temperature rising. Jack should know better than to introduce his little brother to suck things. And Luke should know better than to engage in them. Mason had a large helping hand in exposing Luke to such activities. Good fiends don’t let their pal do keg stands.

“Rah-Rizzle, will you do me a favor?” Mason pouted, leaning his head on my shoulder.

“Depends,” I growled, pushing his head off of me.

“Will you drive us over to Scotty’s to pick up Jack?” he asked. “My legs are non-existent right now.”

I looked at Luke, who was tying his shoes, and back at a pouting Mason. I rolled my eyes and nodded.

“Sweet!” he cheered, jumping off of the bed. “C’mon, Squidders!”

Mason walked out the room, pushing Luke on his way out.

“How many versions of ‘Squid’ can he come up with?” I asked with a chuckle, following Luke out of the room.

“I dunno,” Luke shrugged. “He’s pretty creative with that type of stuff.”

Luke opened the front door, and I quickly looked behind me to see if Mr. Moreno was in my line of sight. I could hear him in the kitchen, opening a can of some sort. I quickly bolted out of the house, shutting the door behind me.

Mason was already sprawled across the back seat with his feet hanging out of the window. Luke buckled his seat belt and folded his arms behind his head as I pulled out of the driveway.

“Did you bang her, Squid?” Mason asked.

“Nope,” he answered with closed eyes.

“Make out?”

“Nope.”

“Kiss her at all?” Mason continued, sounding a little desperate.

“Nuh-uh,” Luke answered, shaking his head. He seemed quite happy with his answers, as if it wasn’t going to bug him when Mason started to lay out the jokes.

“God wasted a penis on you,” Mason grumbled.

“Jealous?” Luke questioned with a raised eyebrow, even though Mason couldn’t see his face.

“Why would I be jealous of your inactive cock?” Mason asked.

“Because it’s one less in you mouth,” Luke grinned.

I wrinkled my face in disgust. Couldn’t they wait until I wasn’t around to start talking like that?

“Fuck you, Squid,” Mason snapped. “Turn on the radio. I’m done talking to you.”

Luke laughed as he hit the power button to the radio. The unsuspecting loud blaring of music made us all jump. Mason and Luke both covered their ears and groaned. I leaned over and turned the volume down to where it was almost mute.

“Why was it so loud?” Luke whined, keeping his ears covered.

“Because you were screaming Phil Collins at me last night on the way to your house,” I reminded him, trying hard not to laugh at the memory of him dancing in his seat.

“What song?” Mason asked, sounding quite interested.

“Invisible touch,” I answered, turning down the country road to get to the main strip of road.

Mason sat up in the back seat and smacked Luke upside the head.

“Dude, what the hell?” Luke scolded, rubbing the side of his head.

“You know the rules!” Mason barked. “The only Phil Collins song allowed in my car is ‘In The Air Tonight,' and you know that!”

“I wasn’t in my right mind!” Luke argued, cowering from anymore possible attacks.

Mason started to swear under his breath before he went returned to his lying position in the backseat. I shook my head at the two foolish boys, and drove into Scotty’s neighborhood of mansions.

It wasn’t too hard to find his house. It was the one that had the completely trashed yard, and a car flipped on its side on front of a tree. I slowly pulled up to the house, noticing more damage the closer we got.

“Damn,” Luke gasped, pointing to the trampoline that was stuck in a tree.

“Yeah, it was a pretty banging party,” Mason smiled.

I parked the car and got out. The once beautiful garden Mrs. Sarvadi had planted was now ripped up and littered the passageway to the house. We walked through the doorway, which had no front door, to find the most disastrous sight I’ve ever seen.

The house was completely trashed. The couch was ripped to shreds, leaving fluff all over the floor. There was a naked guy lying face first in a kiddie pool full of beer where the coffee table used to be.

“Dude,” Luke gasped, looking into the kitchen.

Jack was lying on the floor with his pants down in his face in a box of Huggies diapers.

Mason grabbed a wooden spoon, and started to bang on the cardboard box that trapped Jack’s head.

“What the fuck?!” Jack yelled, sitting up and punching Mason’s leg.

“What happened to you?” Luke asked with repressed chuckles.

“I don’t fucking know,” Jack grumbled, slowly tying to stand up. “I need to find my car keys, though. Izzy threw them in the pool.”

“Why?” Luke asked.

Jack looked at his younger brother as if he just asked if Harry Potter was real.

“I don’t fucking know, Luke,” Jack hissed, pulling up his pants.

I didn’t want to be involved in the argument that would soon ignite, so I went into the backyard to expect the damage. The pool had no water in it. There was a girl lying at the bottom, her body extremely red from the sun beating down on her.

“Uh, guys?” I shouted frantically. What if she was dead?

Luke and Mason filed into the backyard, shocked at the sight of the water-less pool.

“How?” Luke breathed.

“Maybe it evaporated?” Mason suggested.

“Seriously?” Luke asked sarcastically, rolling his eyes at Mason.

“Should we get her out of the pool?” I asked, looking around for someone to help us.

“Nah, we’ll just do this,” Mason began. He grabbed an empty gallon jug and threw it at the girl’s head.

“Mason!” I hissed, slapping his arm.

“It woke her up, didn’t it?” he shrugged, pointing at the girl who was now trying to sit up.

“Good luck with that sunburn!” Luke said loud enough for the girl to hear.

“Riley,” Jack barked, peaking his head out of the sliding glass door. “Scotty wants to talk to you upstairs.”

What on earth does Scotty want me for? Probably how to complain about how I got his stairs wet on the way up to the bathroom. I walked into the house and up the stairs, looking for noticeable shoeprint stains on the carpet. I rounded the corner and Scotty stood right in front of my face.

“You almost got me in trouble last night!” Scotty hissed, pointing a stern finger at me.

“What did I do?” I asked, getting defensive.

“You left your clothes in my bathroom! I almost didn’t get laid last night because of it!”

“How is that my problem?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“Just get your clothes, and leave,” he instructed, pointing towards the bathroom.

I scoffed and went into the bathroom, which seemed untouched, and grabbed my clothes. When I went back into the hallway to go back down the stairs, a girl stood with her arms folded and a shitty look on her face.

“You tryin' to sleep with my man?” she accused more than asked.

I rolled my eyes, and pushed passed her. She followed me to the top of the stairs.

“This stupid bitch is trying to get in bed with my man!” she shouted, pulling her blond hair up into a ponytail.

“Yeah, I really want to sleep with Scotty,” I said sarcastically, jogging down the stairs.

“Then why did you have your clothes in his bathroom if you weren’t trying to mess with him?” she hollered, putting her hands on her hips.

“Why does it concern you? You’re just a one night stand,” I snapped, rejoining the guys who were waiting by the doorway.

“Bitch, no you did not,” she yelled, bobbing her head at me.

“Yo, when did Barbie go Ghetto fabulous?” Mason whispered to Luke.

“I’m sorry, can you not hear me?” I questioned angrily. “Maybe you need to go to the clinic and get tested for STDs when your pimp pays you.”

Luke and Mason gasped, shocked at my words. Mason started to squeal with laughter while Luke let out heavy breaths.

“What did you say?” she shouted, crossing her arms and twitching her neck.

“I think you heard me,” I sneered. I was not in the mood to deal with any of these fools.

“Let’s go,” Jack grumbled, pushing Luke and Jack out the door.

“Dishin’ that shit out on a silver platter, Riley!” Mason cheered, patting my back.

“YOU GOT SERVED!” Luke yelled in the doorway for the girl at the top of the stairs could hear.

“Shut the fuck up, Squid!” Jack demanded, practically running to the car.

“Damn, Riley,” Luke whispered. “I didn’t know you could be mean.”

“I didn’t either,” I admitted, jumping into the driver’s seat of the car. Jack was shooting angry glares at me from the back seat.

I backed out of the long drive, and drove to towards Luke’s house.

“You shouldn’t have fucking talked shit to that girl like that,” Jack barked.

I slammed on the brakes, and looked at him through the rear view mirror.

“Do you want to fucking walk, Jack?” I snapped. Luke grew wide eyes when I dropped the eff bomb. “’Cause I am in no mood to put up with your shit today, tomorrow, or next week. So if you want to keep talking, get out of the fucking car.”

Jack directed his glares from me to the window, not saying a word. Mason and Luke started snickering, and not looking in my direction.

“Riley, have I told you how incredibly sexy you are now that you’re angry?” Mason asked with a playful grin.

I shook my head at him and returned to driving. Luke craned his neck to look at Mason.

“Damn, Squid,” Mason whistled. “If looks could kill, son.”