Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters

Louie was nice enough to share his vodka with me. It was disgusting and made me want to puke, but it at least it loosened me up so I wouldn’t kill anybody.

“It’s because you like him,” Louie sighed, wiping his mouth after taking an abnormally large swig of Grey Goose. “You wouldn’t want to pull his nuts out of his throat if you didn’t.”

“Yeah, I know,” I grumbled, taking the almost empty bottle of alcohol from the clearly drunk teen next to me. “I just don’t want to do anything about it.”

“Why not?” Louie asked with a small shrug. “You should go for it. He sure as hell wouldn’t say no. “

I tried to recover from the burning taste to answer Louie. I should have waited for Kevin to bring me something to drink. I probably wouldn’t have liked it much either, but it couldn’t be worse than this.

“I’ll just have to restrain myself from killing him the next time I see him before I can say anything,” I wheezed, handing him back the bottle. “Not that I would say anything anyway. I’d rather sleep with Travis before I said anything to Luke.”

“Well, you can’t slap chop his nuts every time he’s with a girl when you haven’t told him you like him,” Louie chuckled, his face drooping with intoxication.

“I’ll do whatever the hell I want,” I growled, fiddling with the plastic shower curtain. I was surprised how comforting the bathtub was. At first, I thought Louie was being weird by sitting in the bottom of the tub, but it was actually quite nice. It was very isolated and small enough to feel all alone, even though there was a body in with me. Louie said we were the drunken pirates of the Sears Sea before he discovered that the tub was made by Mikkel’s dad, not Sears.

“Are you guys in there?” Luke asked, slowly cracking the door open.

"Nobody wants to talk to you," I spat, my words somewhat slurring together and my grip on the shower curtain tightening.

"Dude," Louie whispered, nudging my ribs. "What did I just say? You gotta be nice to him."

Luke obviously didn't take the hint. He entered the small bathroom with a glass full of dark liquor in his hand.

"What are you two doing?" he laughed, staring down at Louie and me.

Louie shot me a warning glare. Instead of risking another painful nudge in the ribs, I kept my mouth shut and continued to stare at Luke.

"Rizzle is just makin' sure I don't throw up," Louie shrugged.

"Nice," Luke chuckled, taking a seat on the toilet. "Kevin wanted me to give you this," he said, holding the glass for me to take. "He said he couldn't find you, but I knew you had to be up here baby-sitting."

I silently took the glass and chugged all of its contents. It didn't taste nearly as bad as the vodka did. It tasted sort of like watered down tea.

I handed the glass back to Luke, who wore a surprised expression.

"And I thought you didn't like drinking," he laughed, putting the glass on the sink counter. "So, are you guys planning on coming out anytime soon? It's just now getting fun downstairs."

"I don't think I can move without falling over, bro," Louie sighed, slamming his head back against the shower wall. "I think I'm gonna pass out here in a minute."

"Are you drunk, too?" Luke snickered.

"Yeah, and you're an asshole," I grunted, stumbling my way out of the bathtub.

"Me?" Luke asked in surprise. "What did I do?"

"Oh, God," Louie muttered, covering his eyes.

"You? What did you do?” I repeated, folding my arms over my chest.

“Yeah, what did I do?” he asked, his eyebrows knitting together in irritation and confusion.

“First off, you told Mason that you saw me naked when you already told me THAT YOU DIDN’T,” I shouted, throwing my arms into the air. “He told damn near everyone I go to school with, so thank you for that.”

Luke stared at his shoes and scratched the top of his head before he decided to interrupt my ranting.

“Look, I didn’t see anything. I did, I just didn’t get a good look because I fell,” he said.

“I’m sure,” I snorted. “Then you had whoever the fuck that was sitting on your lap. How did you go from 'Der-der-der. My name's Luke. I don't know how to talk to girls' to rubbing on some half naked bimbo's thigh!?"

“What does that have to do with anything?” Luke asked in surprise, slowly getting up.

“AND WHO THE HELL IS THIS AMANDA BITCH?!” I shouted, ignoring his question. “WHERE THE FUCK DID SHE COME FROM!?”

“What do they have to do with ANYTHING!?” Luke shouted back, in my face.

“You’re really dumb if you don’t get it,” Louie laughed, clearly enjoying the fight.

Luke shot Louie a hateful glare before he turned his attention back to me.

“I agree with Louie,” I said, nodding towards the midget in the tub. “You’re extremely thick if you don’t see it.”

“If I don’t see what?” he asked loudly, his arms furiously crossed over his chest.

“EXACTLY!” I yelled, throwing my arms back out. “Even fucking Ray Charles could see what’s going on here!”

Luke raised his eyebrows, waiting for an explanation.

“Do I really have to spell it out for you?” I asked darkly.

“Please do,” he spat.

“I get mad every time you’re with or talk about a girl. Do you know what that’s called?” I asked slowly.

“Jealousy?” he asked, sounding completely unsure.

“And why do people get jealous?” I continued to question

“Because they want something somebody else has?” he guessed, his eyebrows climbing higher on his forehead.

“And why do I get jealous when you’re with another girl?”

“Because you want me,” he answered, his head tilting a little.

“There you go,” I said with a small shrug.

“SQUID SOLVED HIS FIRST MYSTERY! We should hook him up with Shaggy and Scooby-Doo for some proper training.”

“Shut up,” Luke growled, making a threatening move towards Louie.

“I’m too drunk to care, man” Louie laughed, holding up the empty bottle of Grey Goose.

Luke rolled his eyes and looked back at me.

I looked down and bit the inside of my lip. I could feel my cheeks grow hot as embarrassment flooded through m body.

Luke put his hands on my face and made me look at him.

“How jealous do you get?” he smirked.

“Shut up,” I blushed.

He quickly pressed his lips to mine.