Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters

I parked my car in the neighbor's driveway. Since the Moreno's owned two acres of land, next door was a bit of a walk away. It was nice, though. The slight breeze made it a little chilly.

"You never told me what Izzy meant about your late night ramblings," I reminded him as we walked down the quiet country road. It had just dawned on me that it was Friday, and he promised he would tell me.

"Oh, that," he laughed, sliding his hands into his pocket. "Do you really want to know?"

"If you don't want to tell me you don't have to," I shrugged, hoping he would say it anyway. "It doesn't really matter."

"I don't want to tell you," he nervously chuckled, giving me a sideways glance.

"That’s fine," I lightly laughed. Now I really wanted to know. Was it something bad? Was it embarrassing for me or him or the both of us?

"Alright," Luke sighed. "I'll tell you."

He scared me for a second. He made me think that I had said my thoughts out loud.

"Izzy asked me if I needed any help in the girl area. I was about two seconds away from falling asleep when she decided to play twenty questions, so I wasn't caring what I was saying," he added quickly. He shoved his hands even deeper into his pockets and nervously shrugged. "And I happened to mention that I thought you were really pretty."

I slowly nodded and tried to keep the smile from spreading on my face.

"Well, thank you," I said, trying very hard to make it seem like I wasn't giddy about it. Who could blame me? Every girl likes to be told their pretty, and Luke's embarrassment about admitting it was just a little cute.

"You're welcome," he nodded, relaxing the tension in his shoulders. He seemed relieved that I didn't make a big deal out of it.

I wanted to say something to save us from an awkward silence, but I couldn't think of anything. We weren't even half way to the house yet and it already grew dull.

"Who is Bang Bang?" I blurted. I never did get an answer from Mason. He was obviously someone important since everybody who heard of him loved him. It might be a good idea to find out who he is since I'm going to his house tomorrow.

"You've never heard of Bang Bang?" Luke asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I've heard of him, yeah," I nodded, "But I have no idea who he is."

"He's a rich kid from Norway. If you thought Scotty's house was big, you'll be surprised at Bang Bang's," Luke said.

"What does he look like?" I asked. I would have remembered if I met a Norwegian. There aren’t a lot of foreigners here where we live.

"Blond, tall, shaggy hair," Luke shrugged. "He always has at least two girls on his arms at all times. He was in our English class last year for like two weeks."

"You mean Mikkel?" I asked in shock.

"Yeah. Mikkel Bang," Luke nodded.

"Oh, Lord," I sighed, shaking my head.

"Remember him now?" Luke chuckled.

"Yes," I snorted. "He sat next to me for those two weeks and it was horrible. He always would try and offer sexual favors if I wrote essays for him.”

"Yep, that's Bang Bang," Luke laughed, his white teeth visible in the dark. "He is a hoe. He supposedly throws the most awesome parties ever."

"How so?" I asked, stepping over a large frog that settled itself in the middle of the road.

"I have no idea," Luke admitted with a light laugh. "I'm a little scared, actually. I don't know what to expect."

"This should be fun," I sighed, shaking my head. I hated parties because they turned people into drunk morons. Now I was going to the mecca of intoxicated idiots. How wonderful.

"I should thank you for getting us to go," he laughed. "I mean, you are the one who got us invited."

"Yeah, but I don't really want to go," I admitted, uncomfortably shrugging. "Parties aren't fun unless you're drunk and stumbling around like a blind man on a merry-go-round."

"Then you should drink a little," Luke suggested. "I mean, it's not like you can't handle it. You're Irish! It's what you're built for!"

"Yeah," I laughed. "Maybe I should transfer some of the Irish blood to you. You're a light weight."

"I am not!" Luke shouted, getting defensive. "I was already on my fourth cup of beer before you showed up with Mason. Plus the seven after that and then the keg stand. AND, I didn't get sick the whole night."

"You were puking the next day," I reminded him.

"How do you know?" he asked in surprise.

"Mason told me at night school. You puked as soon as I dropped the three of you back at your house," I told him in between giggles.

"Man, I can't get any credit," he laughed. "I almost threw up in Mason's car, but I thought I would be a good friend to all of you and hold it in."

"Well thank you for that," I smiled, walking into his driveway. "I don't think any of us would have been very forgiven at the time."

"You were pretty mad that day," he slowly nodded. "Telling whores to get checked for STDs after their weekly payment."

"She accused me of tying to get in bed with Scotty," I scolded. "Scotty gets on my nerves. Besides, having to drag in a drunk, singing Luke the night before wasn't exactly helping my mood."

"Yeah, I kind of got the idea you were upset about that the day after," he lightly chuckled.

"Just a tad," I agreed.

Luke hung his head and started laughing.

"What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Nothing," he replied, shaking his head.

"Liar," I snorted, walking a little slower as we approached the front door.

"Dad is getting ready to go to the Bullpen, so you have to RUN to be in the safe zone," Luke informed me.

"I'll just go through the window," I shrugged. "I did it last night."

"Can't." He shook his head. "Jack locked the window."

I let out an irritated sigh and shook my head. There was no way this was going to work.

“Ready?” Luke asked, twisting the door knob.

“Go ahead,” I sighed, ready to baseball slide into his room.

He pushed the door open and I ran like the devil was after me. Out of the split second I as in view of the living room, I didn’t see Mr. Moreno, which caused me to run ever faster into Luke’s small room. I didn’t shut the door in fear that Mr. Moreno would hear it and think Luke was in his room. I just sat on his bed and tried to quietly catch my breath.

“Boy,” Mr. Moreno said loudly. “Come here.”

“Yes, Sir?” Luke asked, his voice still pretty far from where I was.

“If Karen and Colby wake up, just make them some hot chocolate and put in a movie in their room,” Mr. Moreno instructed. “And don’t you dare burn down my house, Boy. I swear I will use your bones to build the next one, got it?”

“Yes, Sir,” Luke answered.

“No parties, either. You can’t have anyone over while the girls are here and I’m not,” Mr. Moreno added. It made me tense up, and I hoped Luke’s facial expression didn’t give anything away. “Got it?”

“Yes, Sir,” Luke replied.

“I’m going to be back real late, so don’t be awake when I get home,” Mr. Moreno growled.

“Yes, Sir,” Luke said for the billionth time.

Mr. Moreno grunted in approval and walked out of the garage door. Luke practically ran down the hallway and into his room before shutting the door.

“Your dad is a little crazy,” I laughed. Mr. Moreno never gave me a reason to be scared of him, but Luke sure as hell was.

“Yeah,” Luke nodded in agreement. “I don’t think he even knows my name. He just always calls me ‘Boy’, and when Jack is around, it’s ‘Jack and the other one’.”

“Well, you’re the younger one,” I said with a small shrug. “Maybe you don’t get a name till you’re eighteen.”

“Right?” Luke laughed. “He’s really hardcore. I don’t understand why Jack is so insistent on pissing him off all the time.”

“What kind of punishments does he hand out? Besides the yard work and eating out of trashcans.”

“Well, when we were little, he made us sit on our knees with our hands behind our head and our faces in the corner. If we did something really bad, we’d have to do a hand-stand with our face in a trashcan. But, I think Mason and Scotty were the only ones who had to do that,” Luke explained.

“He punished Mason and Scotty too?” I asked with raised eyebrows. My dad was lucky if he even got to yell at Wes.

“Oh yeah,” Luke nodded. “He punished anybody who was in the house. You do wrong in his house, he’ll make you pay for it. It doesn’t matter whose kid you are.”

“What about when you guys got older?” I asked, resting my elbows on my knees.

“Well, now it’s mostly yard work,” he shrugged. “It doesn’t sound bad until you’re mowing two acres of land with a tiny push mower. I remember he made Jack snort Tabasco sauce one time.”

“What on earth did he do that for?” I asked in shock and disgust.

“Jack let Scotty take some of Dad’s pain pills to sell,” Luke answered with a small nod. “When dad got a hold of Scott, oh man. That was scary. Scotty had to clip his toenails, and then eat one fire ant for each pill he stole.”

“Damn,” I laughed. That was some scary stuff. That’s not parenting, that’s just being an ass. But I bet they never did it again.

“Yeah, Mom usually doesn’t agree with anything he does. Unless she gets upset enough to pretend she doesn’t care.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had to be punished,” I thought out loud, trying to think of a time that I got in enough trouble to get more than a raised voice.

“Uh, yeah right,” Luke snorted with a grin. “You, Riley middle name that I don’t know Bridges have gotten in trouble for something at one point in time.”

“Well, not anything extreme. The only thing I can remember getting in big trouble for was booing Wes at a school play,” I shrugged. “That’s really all I can think of other than fighting with him all the time.”

“And what punishment did you get?” Luke asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Timeout corner,” I answered. “That’s it, though.”

“It still counts,” he insisted with a smile.

I shook my head with a small smile, not really knowing what else to say. Luke was still leaning against his closed door with his arms behind his back. It grew really quiet, and it was slightly uncomfortable.

“Sorry,” he nervously chuckled. “I’m really bad at this.”

“What?” I asked with a confused smile. What was he talking about?

“I don’t even know,” he replied, shaking his head with wide eyes.

“Are you going to stand over there the whole night or are you going to come over here?” I asked with a light laugh and raised eyebrow.

Luke squished his mouth to the side and shrugged.

“Are you okay?” I asked with a furrowed brow. Not even a few minutes ago we were laughing and talking about cruel parental punishments. Now he’s all jittery and weird.

“No,” he laughed, shaking his head.

He was really confusing the crap out of me. It was kind of scary. I didn’t know what was going through his head at all, and there was definitely something going on.

I stood up and walked over to him, which made his eyes grow even wider.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked with a small laugh.

I grabbed his elbow and dragged him towards the bed. He stopped walking and stared at me with a very confused face. He was obviously battling with himself about something. I put my hand on his cheek and raised an eyebrow at him.

“Luke?” I questioned, very worried about what was going on. All of the sudden he just went stupid on me. I wasn’t really sure on what to do.

“Alright,” Luke groaned, rolling eyes. “Please don’t hit me.”

“Why would I hit you?” I asked, taking my hand off of his face.

"I was wondering if I could try something without it being forced by two six year olds and not just to piss off my brother," he said.

"Luke, what the hell are you talking about?" I asked with confused chuckles.

Instead of answering me, he pushed a piece of hair behind my ear and directed his gaze to my lips.

"Oh!" I gasped, finally realizing what he was talking about.

"Yeah," he sighed uncomfortably.

"That’s what you're being all weird about?" I asked through laughs.

"Well, I mean how am I supposed to ask?" he exclaimed. "'Hey, Riley, can I kiss you?' I mean, come on. Nobody goes for that!"

"You could have just went for it," I suggested.

He quickly pressed his lips against mine. It was over in about three seconds, but it wasn't bad.

"Just like that," I said quietly. I was a little surprised. He caught me off gaurd. I wasn't expecting him to do it right then.

I thought he was going to get extremely embarrassed and sit on his bed. But again, he surprised me. He went in for another kiss that lasted longer than the previous, and then another that lasted longer than the one before that.

It wasn't long before he had me pinned to the wall with his tongue in my mouth.

It scared me how much it didn't bother me. I actually liked it. It felt good to be kissed by someone and have their hands gripping my sides. It was exciting. The only thing that was awkward about it was that it was Luke. I didn't really see him as the sort of person who would have a girl pinned against his bedroom wall while he made out with her. He looked like the kind of person who wouldn't know what to do. Especially with this being his third time kissing.

He pulled his face away from mine and started to kiss on my neck. Where my hand was placed on his, I could feel his pulse racing. I could only imagine how fast mine was going.

My eyes opened when I heard the bedroom door creak. Jack stood in front of the door with his arms crossed and his brow furrowed. He looked like he was about to bull rush us.

Luke didn't stop. He either didn't hear the door or he was ignoring the fact that someone was there. He was actually getting a little rough. It wasn't sweet, small kisses. It was more like harsh, hungry bites. I wasn't complaining, though. I was enjoying it.

Since Jack noticed I was looking at him, I figured it would be wise to tell Luke he was here. I was having trouble finding my voice. Luke had found a more sensitive spot on my neck and started biting and sucking on it.

"Luke," I managed whimper. I tried to get the rest out, but I couldn't. Luke took me saying his name completely different. Instead of slowing down, he became even more aggressive by slamming his body against mine and practically sucking my neck off.

My body jerked and I moaned both in pleasure and shock. That certainly didn't help Luke's aggression calm down one bit. Jack's once angry face turned into shock as his eyebrows climbed higher on his face and his grimace faded.

"Luke, stop," I managed to breathe out. I was hoping it would sound like a command, but it ended up coming out like a plea.

"Why?" he whispered, his grip on my sides tightening.

"Jack is here," I informed him between pants.

Luke's lip movement stopped and his death grip on my waist loosened.

"Oh, no. You don't have to stop because of me!" Jack cackled.

Luke instantly spun around on his heels and slammed his back against my chest, causing me to groan in pain. It was like he was trying to very unsuccessfully hide me with his body.

"Does dad know she's here?" Jack asked with a very smug grin plastered on his face.

"Not unless you tell him," Luke replied darkly.

"Trying to grow some nuts?" Jack teased.

"What do you want?" Luke snapped.

"I'll cut a deal with you, Squid," Jack began. "You don't tell dad I'm at Izzy's, and I won't tell him she's over here."

"Deal," Luke agreed without hesitation.

"Where is the old man, anyway?" Jack asked, sitting on his bed. "I didn't see him while I was sneaking in."

"He left for the Bullpen a while ago," Luke answered, stepping away from me. I was glad he did, because he was crushing me. "How come you're back here?"

"Izzy's dad showed up, so I have to cruise until he goes to bed," Jack answered. "Squid, turn on the TV. It's almost ten. Deadliest Warrior is about to be on."

"Aren’t you going back to Izzy's?" Luke asked. "I mean, there's the drive here and back. That's plenty if time for him to fall asleep."

"And leave you two here to have all the fun?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. "Absolutely not."