Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters

Dawn was a little anxious about me staying the night at Luke’s house without his parents’ knowledge. She kept lecturing me on the importance of safe sex and demanded I take a strip of condoms with me. I just put them back in her dresser when she wasn’t looking. It wasn’t like I was going to use them for anything. Luke would just probably make balloon animals out of them if he even touched them at all.

Mason sat at the dining room table messing with his cell phone and impatiently waiting for the sandwich I was making him.

“Squid is freakin’ going nuts,” Mason grumbled, furiously tapping the keys on his cell phone.

“What do you mean?” I asked, putting a ham sandwich in front of him and sitting in the chair across the table.

“He’s blowing up my phone telling me ‘I’m almost home,’ and crap,” Mason snorted. “He probably mugged Scotty for some bottle rockets and put them at the bottom of his board so he can get here faster.”

“His board?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “Doesn’t Jack bring him home?”

“Not on Thursdays,” Mason answered. “Jack takes Izzy home and stays with her. Luke rides here on his skateboard. We’re probably going to be a little late if he doesn’t get here soon.”

I shook my head in disapproval. The Moreno brothers lived fifteen minutes away from the school by car. That would be about two hours on foot. That poor boy. Jack wouldn’t even go fifteen minutes out of the way so he could drop his little brother off at home?

“Selfish asshole,” I mumbled darkly, shaking my head.

“Who?” Mason asked, getting a little defensive.

“Jack,” I answered.

“Oh,” Mason said, relaxing the tension in his shoulders. “I thought you were talking about me. I was about to say girl you have some nerve! I’m driving you here so you can fuck Squid. Don’t tell me I’m selfish.”

“For the last time, Mason,” I sighed. “I’m not going to have sex with Luke.”

“Then what are y’all going to do tonight?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know. Sleep?" I shrugged. "I'm not like that and neither is he. So get that out of your head."

"Dude, okay, we get out of school at eight. You'll probably be here around eight thirty. Those Satan children go to bed around the same time. Squid is in his room by ten, and Papa Al is yelling at the TV until eleven. You’re going to be up and awake for a while, and I can guarantee you something is going to happen," Mason explained, slamming his fist onto the table.

"Then I guess we'll talk until we pass out or we'll turn in early," I shrugged. "I don't know. But I'm not going to be all over him. I don't even like him like that."

Mason snorted and coughed, slapping his hand over his mouth so he wouldn't spew pieces of his sandwich at me.

"Yeah, right!" He managed to yell from beneath his hand. "How many times do we have to go through this, Rizzle?"

"I don't," I stated. "Luke is just a friend. I have absolutely no interest in him and he has no interest in me."

"Yeah, that's why he invited you to spend the night at his house, in his room, without telling his parents," Mason nodded.

"I'm serious, Mason. He does not like me," I said sternly. He was really getting on my nerves with this whole thing. He had been here for twenty minutes, and this was all he could talk about.

"See? You do like him," Mason sneered. "If you didn't, you wouldn't be getting mad that he doesn't like you."

"I swear I'm going to hit you," I threatened.

"I like being hit," he winked.

I rolled my eyes and him and continued to tap my fingers on the table. I wanted to get this day over with already. I wasn't really looking forward to school, even though I was sure I would get a few laughs out of it. Travis, Louie, and Kass weren't all that bad. It was just TJ that I had a distaste for. I was kind of dreading spending the night here with Luke. There was a very large possibility that I would get caught and that would make me lose my job. Mr. More o had already talked to me about not messing around with him while his daughters were here. Even if I wasn't on the clock, they'd still be in the next room. And if Mr. Moreno did catch us, he wouldn't believe it if we told him that all I was doing was sleeping there. It was just a headache waiting to happen.

Luke busted through the front door and ran into the living room like the devil was after him. He didn't have on a shirt or a beanie, and he threw his skateboard and backpack into the air.

"I-I'm here!" he exclaimed, panting worse than a thirsty dog. He slowly tripped his way into the dining room and collapsed on the title floor.

"I-I'm h-h-here," he breathed. “I made it. I made it in time. Holy shit."

"Damn Squid," Mason laughed. "You dying?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I'm dying bad."

"Want some water?" I asked, looking at the pitiful, shirtless creature that was lying on the floor.

"Yeah," he said breathlessly. "Water. Water. Water would be awesome."

I stood up and started to make him a glass of ice cold water.

"Anyway, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," Mason continued. "All you have to do to get into his pants is to make out with him, touch his dick, and then rub on it. Shizzam, you're ready to go."

I was just about ready to kill him. He was purposely trying to make me seem interested in Luke. I looked at him with the death glare, only getting a bright smile from him in return.

"What?" Luke asked, still trying to catch his breath.

"I'm just telling Rizzle here how to get laid," Mason shrugged. "She came to Doctor Love for some help."

I set the glass of ice cold water in front of Luke since he was lying with his arms tucked into his chest. Mason grinned at me as I took a seat across from him at the table. His smile turned into a shocked face when I kicked him as hard as I could in the kneecap.

"Aw, fuck! he gasped, holding his knee. "What the hell?!"

"You need to learn how to quit lying," I told him sternly. "If you were Pinocchio, people in Germany would be making shelter under that nose."

Luke tried to laugh while he was drinking, almost causing himself to spit all over the floor.

"You shut up," Mason spat, glaring at Luke. "You have to have on a shirt to laugh or speak."

"It's hot outside, bro," Luke warned, shaking his head. "I was skating here, and then I saw that you guys had twenty minutes till school started, so I picked up the pace. Lost some clothing along the way."

"Rizzle, you're driving," Mason bitterly informed me. "Since you want to mess up my knee and all."

"That's fine," I shrugged. "Catch you later, Luke."

"Call me when you get here," he said, rolling onto his back so he could see us.

"Yeah, yeah," Mason snorted. He leaned down and sucker punched Luke in the stomach.

"Was that necessary?" I asked as Mason walked away from the gasping Luke who was holding his stomach.

"It was a love tap," Mason shrugged, opening he front door an making his way towards the car.

The drive to the school was far from silent. Mason spent the whole time cursing me for being so smart. He was planning on cheating off of my homework so he wouldn't get a zero. But since my assignments were different from his, he was screwed.

We were only three minutes late to class. The students were all still wondering around the classroom, talking to each other and ignoring the fact that there was a teacher in the room. It wasn't like he cared. He was too busy trying to fix the pencil sharpener. Someone stuck a pen in it and it jammed the tiny machine.

"Dude, I thought you weren't going to show up?" Travis said to Mason, sitting up in his chair.

"Yeah, we thought that she was cutting out the middle man and jumping into bed with Squid already," TJ snorted, stretching his legs and slamming his feet into the basket of the desk in front of him.

I rolled my eyes and ignored the snickering that Kass was doing. I threw my bag on the side of the desk and sat in front of Travis. Mason took a seat in front of Kass, and immediately demanded homework from TJ.

"Yo, where's Louie at?" Kass asked, looking around the room for the short blond kid with the mad cow lick.

"He didn't show up," Travis snorted. "He and his chick got into a brawl or something. He said he's going to try and chill at Lago's house tonight so he doesn't end up killing a hoe."

"What she do know?" Mason asked, furiously scribbling onto a blank sheet of paper.

"She came home drunk and he asked where she was. She started yelling at him because he's supposedly cheating on her. She slapped him and threw an empty beer bottle at his head. So he grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back, five oh style. She donkey kicked him in the nuts and he slapped her," Travis explained. "He says she's been picking fights a lot lately."

"That short shit is gonna end up drowning her in a toilet," TJ sighed, shaking his head. "I'd be fucking crazy if I was with that bitch. She's fucking bat shit insane."

"Why is he even with her, dude? She doesn't even fuck him," Kass asked, rubbing his eye.

"I don't fucking know," Travis shrugged. "He likes them bitchy and fucked in the head."

I just kept quiet and worked on the second part of my Hamlet essay. I had no idea who they were talking about so there was really no reason for me to listen. I couldn't see Louie slapping a woman, though. He seemed nice. Yeah, he looked like a little thug wanna be, but he was sweet in a disgusting boyish way.

"Rizzle, can I see your bag?" Travis asked, leaning forward in his desk so his chin was on my shoulder.

"Why?" I asked with a confused face.

"Just let me see it," he shrugged, reaching down to grab it from the floor.

I quickly kicked it underneath my desk and raised an eyebrow at him.

"What for?" I asked.

"Hiding something there, Rizzle?" TJ asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No," I answered, giving him a quick glance before returning my gaze back to Travis. "What do you want with it?"

"I just saw something in the corner of the back and it looked interesting," he answered.

"He wants to see your underwear, okay?" Kass stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Forget it," I snorted turning back to face the front of the classroom.

"Too bad," Travis muttered, before he quickly snuck his hand under my desk and yanking my backpack into the air.

I turned around and tried to get it back, but he leaned backwards in his chair just enough to where I couldn't reach it.

"Holy shit," Travis gasped, pulling out a long strip of condoms and holding them up in the air. Dawn must have snuck them back in after I put them in her drawer.

"Dude!" TJ exclaimed, straightening up in his chair, staring at the line of condoms that were dangling from Travis's hand.

"That's like a whole sixteen pack!" Kass stated with wide eyes.

I slapped my palm to my forehead and shook my head. What a thing to do. Hold a bunch of condoms in a classroom while the teacher is just a few feet away.

"Dude, there is no way in hell that Squid is going to use all these," Travis told me, shaking his head.

"Not in one night, at least," TJ snorted. "You'd be lucky if he doesn't explode if you just look it."

"Right?" Mason chuckled.

"No, you just, ugh!" I was so embarrassed. I'm going to kill Dawn the next time I see her.

"Since he's not going to use them, can I have them?" Travis asked folding he strip in half.

"Go ahead, I'm not going to use them," I answered, grabbing my bag off of his desk.

"I'll let you have one," he said, ripping one off of the strip.

"No, that's okay," I assured him, holding my hand up. "I'm not going to use them for a while."

"You better half those with me!" TJ shouted at Travis. "A three pack is fucking seven dollars."

"But I need these," Travis whined, holding the small squares wrappers to his chest.

"Half it," TJ demanded. "Eight, eight. Hand them over."

"Seven, seven," Mason corrected. "Hand me two."

"God damn it," Travis grumbled, ripping the tiny squares apart. "Kass, you want to steal some too?"

"Nah, man," he answered, shaking his head. "I'm good."

I continued to work on my essay. It was hard to focus on my work because I was so ready to punch Dawn in the stomach. I told her many times I didn’t need them. And now three idiots behind me are talking about how they were going to use their new pocket treasures.

“Hey, I wasn’t done looking through your bag,” Travis whined, leaning forward to make another grab for it.

I wrapped my foot in the handle and pulled it out of his reach, giving him a death glare.

“Fine,” he muttered, slamming his back against the chair. “Hide your damn slut suits. I don’t care.”