Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters

I made the mistake of telling Luke that the main character of the movie reminded me of him. He disagreed and often pointed out the differences between them. The main character of the movie, Columbus, said his life long dream was to tuck a piece of hair behind a girl’s ear. Luke would loudly say ‘I’ve done that before,’ and then move a piece of hair behind my ear. When Columbus said he’s never kissed a girl, Luke proudly declared that he has, and kissed the top of my forehead. I wanted to tell him to shut up and that I got the point already, but I liked the attention because he was talking about things he’s done with me.

When the movie was over, Luke kept his arm around my shoulder and walked out of the theater and into the insanely bright parking lot.

“I really need to invest in some shades,” Luke groaned, shielding his eyes with his other hand.

“First dates usually aren’t this boring,” I told him as we walked towards the car. The parking lot was a little fuller now. “It’s just because you know me already. First dates are all about talking and ‘getting to know each other’.”

“Nah, this wasn’t boring.” Luke shook his head. “I thought it was funny. You pretty much hid behind my hand the whole movie.”

“It was so bloody and gross,” I cringed. “I didn’t know it was going to show people skidding across the pavement on their face, or puke blood out of their mouth.”

“It’s a zombie movie!” Luke exclaimed. “What did you think it was going to have? Flying cars and talking spiders?”

“No, I just wasn’t expecting all of the gore,” I shuddered.

“Luke!” someone called from behind us. We both turned to see Amanda sprinting towards us. Part of me wanted to trip her, but I would possibly feel bad for it later. I wrapped my arm around Luke’s waist while his arm was still draped over my shoulders.

“Your phone dropped out of your pocket,” she said, handing him a small device.

“Oh, thank you,” Luke smiled.

“No problem,” she grinned. “Did you like the movie?”

“Yeah, it was really good,” he nervously laughed. “You should sneak in there sometime and check it out.”

“I’ll do that,” she nodded, fiddling with a silver chain that was wrapped around her neck. “See you later.”

“Bye,” Luke waved as she quickly walked back to the theater. He didn’t move a muscle as he watched her go back to the ticket booth and talk to the family who was patiently waiting for her return.

“Do I just suddenly become invisible when she’s around?” I blurted, immediately wanting to slap myself in the face. It didn’t matter, anyway. Luke didn’t hear what I said. He kept his gaze locked on the brunette who printed out movie tickets.

“It appears that I do,” I mumbled to myself, ducking under Luke’s arm and making it the rest of the way to my car.

“I’m sorry, what?” Luke asked, trying to catch up.

“Huh?” I replied, unlocking the doors.

“Did you say something?” Luke questioned, taking a seat in the car. “I didn’t hear you.”

“Nope, I didn’t say a word,” I answered, trying to keep the attitude from leaking out of my voice.

“Well, what do you want to do now?” he asked, continuing his search through my CD booklet. “We’ve got a lot of time before Bang Bang’s party starts.”

“I don’t really know,” I said bitterly, driving towards Luke’s house. My plan was to drop him off, and say that I had to be back at my house before Dawn went to work at two.

“You’ve got a pretty nice collection here,” Luke complimented, once again flipping through the rest of my CD case. “Your brother has a good taste in music, I’ll give him that.”

“Yeah,” I snorted. “That doesn’t exactly make up for the major chemical imbalance he has going on.”

“Is this him?” Luke asked, holding a picture in my face.

I took the picture from him, and held it against my steering wheel. Sometimes Wes would send me pictures of him to show me what he looks like now days. His letters were often short; he didn’t really know what to say to me that didn’t bring up the past. The picture showed a tall man with a shaven head wearing a maroon button up shirt and a leather jacket. He looked like a respectable guy in the picture, but all I could think about was the traumatizing thirteen year old boy.

“Yeah, that’s him,” I grumbled, handing Luke back the picture. “He’s 22 now. That picture is from March of last year. He looks pretty much the same, except now he has a little bit of hair instead of looking bald.”

“He looks like a dude I saw in a movie,” Luke said, studying the picture.

“Ben Foster from Alpha dog?” I guessed.

“He’s the one that played the kid’s older brother, right?” he questioned.

“Yeah. The drug addict older brother of the kid who was snagged.”

“Yeah! Dude, your brother looks just like him!” he gasped, jumping in his seat a little.

“Yeah, I know. I thought of him the whole time I watched that movie.”

Luke stuck the picture back into the CD case and continued to investigate. I slowly drove towards his house, hoping Jack would allow his brother entry to his own house. It’s been almost three hours since he kicked us out.

“Do you hate your brother?” Luke asked carefully.

“No,” I sighed, turning onto the highway. “No, I don’t hate him. I know that the way he was wasn’t completely his fault. His dad, Jordy, abused him. Jordy had some psychological issues himself.”

“Like, what kind of abuse?” Luke asked slowly.

“Not sexual, if that’s what you’re thinking,” I answered. “He used to beat the hell out of Wes. He almost killed him a couple times.”

“Did he beat your mom, too?”

“No.” I shook my head. “That’s why he used to beat on Wes all the time. He couldn’t hit my mom. I have no idea why, but he wouldn’t do it. She used to intentionally piss him off because she hated him. She only stayed with him because of Wes. But when she found out that Jordy was beating on Wes the way he was, she left him and came over here where she met my dad.”

“That’s fucked up,” Luke whistled.

“Yeah. That’s why my mom really didn’t want to send Wes to Washington when he started really acting out. She felt bad for the longest time. But Jordy ended up dying from a car accident, and Wes’s step mom Laurie took care of him. She has been so good to him, and her and my mom became really close because of that,” I explained, my heartstrings tugging a little. I always had so much respect for Laurie because she helped my mom get over the guilt of sending him to his insane father.

“Your dad didn’t do anything like that, did he?” Luke asked with a furrowed brow.

“No, my dad was a cheater,” I lightly laughed. “He was fun to be around though, as a kid before he left.”

“I’m sorry your family is messed up,” Luke said apologetically, putting his hand on my thigh. At first, it made me slightly jump, but it went unnoticed. The gesture was comforting, and I let him get away with it.

“So, where do you want to go?” I asked, putting my hand on his. “My house or yours?”

“Well, I’m not sure if Jack is ready to let me back in yet. But, do you think we can swing by my place for a minute? I’m just going to pick up some clothes to wear to the party, and then if it’s cool with you, just chill at your place until it’s time to go to Bang-Bang’s,” he answered, nervously shrugging.

“Yeah, that’s cool,” I nodded, sliding my hand off of his to return it to the steering wheel. He kept his hand on my thigh, and later moved it to unbuckle his seatbelt.

“So this was like a pretty legit first date,” Luke nodded, walking to the front door of his house. “I got to learn a little bit more about you.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But hopefully your date won’t tell you things as disturbing as that.”

“Even if she did, I wouldn’t pay attention because you’re story is more interesting to me than hers could possibly ever be.”

"Not even Ms. Amanda's story?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not even hers," he smiled.