Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters

Luke and I didn't stay up much longer after Boy Meets World was over. We just sat on his bed and I helped him with some of his homework. I was surprised that he didn't flat out ask me for the answers. He was actually trying to figure it out by himself. We had to turn in a little early. Mr. Moreno kept walking by his bedroom door, trying to figure out why his light was on. Luke slept in Jack's bed and offered me his. He insisted that because I was his guest, I had to take his bed.

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. It was a very comfortable mattress. The middle sunk in so it was like sleeping in a bean bag. Luke seemed to have fallen asleep as fast as I did. The room quickly filled with his light snores.

It wasn't long before I was awaken by something pressing against my back. I threw my arm over my side to touch the mystery object that was nestling itself against my body. I ran my hand across the small, furry creature.

My eyes shot open and I immediately sat up the. The creature was a cat. The sleepy animal looked at me, the light from the porch reflecting on its eyes, turning them into bright rubies.

I frantically pushed the sheets off of me and tired my best to get away. Because the sheets weren't completley off of my body, my feet tangled into them and made me land face first onto the floor.

"Aw, shit," I groaned, pushing myself up from the floor and holding my aching face.

The hissing noise the cat began to make made me forget about how bad my face hurt. I stumbled to my feet and jumped on top of Luke, who was completely oblivious as to what was going on.

"Luke!" I whimpered, violently shaking him awake. "Luke, wake UP!"

"Wha?" he asked sleepily, opening his eyes.

"There is a cat in here," I informed him, my voice cracking.

"It's probably just one of the strays Karen caught," he sighed, closing eyes and settling his face back into his pillow. "She's lucky dad hasn't found it."

"Luke, you have to get it out of here," I said sternly, shaking him a bit more.

"Just open the door and kick it outside," he yawned, keeping his eyes closed.

"No, Luke, you don't understand," I insisted, pulling his eyelids up so he was forced to look at me. "I am scared of cats."

"You what?" he asked, sitting up on his elbows.

"I am scared of cats," I repeated in a shaky voice.

"Of cats?" he questioned, a smile appearing in voice.

"Terrified," I nodded.

Luke started laughing and crawled out of bed. I sat against the wall holding my knees against my chest. I hated cats. I was absolutely terrified of them and for a good reason.

Luke grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck and threw it out the window. It didn't seem to bother him at all that the cat was angrily screeching at his lack of care. It almost made me want to cry. The damn creature was sleeping against my back for who knows how long. I shivered from the thought of going back to sleep on that bed. The cat’s hair could quite possibly be everywhere. I didn’t want to lay in, over, or around it. Chills of disgust ran up my spine as I thought of it.

Luke shut the window and stood in front of the bed with his arms crossed over his naked chest.

“Even in the dark I can see how pathetic you look,” he teased.

“Shut up,” I grumbled, trying to forget a cat was anywhere near me.

“Why are you scared of cats?” he chuckled, crawling back under the sheets.

“You don’t want to know,” I mumbled, lying down next to him.

“Want a pillow?” he asked, scratching his head.

“No, I’m fine,” I answered, closing my eyes.

“So why do cats freak you out?” he chuckled.

“I swear if you make me tell you, you’re going to have to deal with me crying,” I warned him, hoping he would drop it.

“As long as it's not hysterics, I can handle it,” he nodded, closing his eyes. “I’ll probably fall asleep before you get it all out.”

“Thanks, Luke,” I scoffed, snuggling into the warm blankets.

“Spill it,” he sleepily mumbled.

“Well,” I began with a sigh. If every night I stayed here made me cry, I would stop coming. “When I was eight my brother was thirteen.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother,” Luke interrupted with closed eyes.

“Yeah, well you’re fixing to find out why I don’t mention him,” I sighed. “Our next door neighbor had a cat that would always crawl under the fence into the yard. One day my brother, Wes, caught the cat. At the time, my mom was in the kitchen with my dad. Wes was outside, and I was in the living room. Wes called me outside to watch his new stunt.”

I had to pause to prepare for the recollection of what happened. It was traumatizing what he did to that poor cat, and an eight year old girl should not have seen that.

“When I went outside to see what he wanted, the cat was already buried up to its neck in the dirt. Wes ran over the cat’s head with the riding lawn mower, spraying the both of us with cat the rest of the cat’s body and threw it at me.”

“That’s fucking sick,” Luke growled.

I shivered at the memory of Wes slinging the bloody, limp remains at the cat and hitting me in the back with it. The thud sound it made and the splash of blood and guts that stained my shirt repeated itself in my head.

“Yep,” I agreed with a sharp breath, trying not to vomit. “I had to sleep in my mom’s room for almost two months because I would refuse to sleep in my room. I just wouldn’t go to sleep. I’d stay up for almost twenty hours because I was so paranoid that a cat would climb into my window.”

“What did they do about your brother?” he asked. “Did he become a serial killer?”

“No,” I laughed. “Well, kind of. My mom sent him to Washington to live with his dad after he pulled that stunt. Jordy, Wes’s dad, put him into military school. He was in the Marines, but was kicked out because of drugs.”

“I’m guessing you don’t talk to him either?” Luke said, pushing his hair out of his face.

“He sends me CDs in the mail all the time. Every CD I own is from him,” I answered. “But we don’t talk on the phone or anything unless it’s an emergency. He flew down here when my mom died. He helped me sell the house and move all our stuff into storage. He seems to have straightened out a lot since then. But I just can’t really forgive him for that.”

“And I thought Jack was an asshole for putting frogs in my cereal,” Luke chuckled.

“Ew!” I giggled. I’d freak out if someone threw a frog into the bowl of cereal I was trying to eat.

“I might sound rude, but how the hell are you not a skitzo?” he asked quite bluntly.

“I honestly have no idea,” I sighed.

I suddenly felt that I had shared too much with Luke. I shouldn't have told him all of that in one night. He probably didn't shove me out of his bed yet because he was too tired. He most likely thinks I'm some deranged nutcase now.

“You’re pretty amazing, dude,” he complimented. “For serious.”

“I do try,” I laughed, confused be his reaction.

Luke laughed and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to his chest. At first, I was kind of shocked, but quickly got comfortable with it. He was very boney, but warm and comfortable at the same time.

“Jack is scared of snakes and clowns,” Luke informed me. “We should scare him next time he is here. You wear the clown mask; I’ll throw the boa on him.”

“Uh, you can do that by yourself,” I chuckled. “Jack already hates me enough.”

“Well, then he’d have a reason to,” Luke grinned.

“You do realize you have to wake up for school in four hours?” I reminded him.

“I know,” he groaned.

“Then shut up and go to sleep,” I demanded, kissing his chest and closing my eyes.