Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters

Louie interrupted our lip connection. He kept complaining that he was already on the verge of throwing up, and that watching us play tonsil tennis wasn’t helping calm his stomach.

Instead of staying upstairs, we rejoined the party and played a round of beer pong. You would think that bouncing a ping-pong ball into a cup would be the easiest thing in the world. Wrong. It’s harder than the pre-calculus exam I took last year. Luke and I ended up losing to Kevin and Danny. Kevin admitted in his drunken stammer that he was disappointed in my lack of drinking experience.

After the beer pong failure, I tried to play Mason in a game of BS. I ended up winning, but only by default. He couldn’t really see the cards clearly. TJ ended up taking his place, and won easily. It was frightening how good of a liar he was. I wouldn’t leave a boiled egg with that boy.

Luke ended up getting pretty smashed. The first time he puked, it wasn’t so bad. But by the third time, I threw in the towel and called Dawn. She was in stitches the whole ride home. She had never seen me drunk, and Luke keep launching himself out of the window every thirty seconds to unload whatever he had left in his stomach.

I didn’t start getting sick until Luke passed out on my bed. I tried to sleep, but he kept bouncing the bed from jumping up and racing to the bathroom. At first I thought he might have had alcohol poisoning, but then Dawn promised to take care of him when it was my turn to start throwing up chunks. She sat us both down and made us both drink as much water as we could hold before allowing us to puke again. I made her write down a reminder for me to never get drunk again.

As soon as I became aware of the awful taste in my mouth, I immediately regretted last night. I didn’t even drink that much, but it was more than what I was used to. I had never been drunk before in my life, and downing half a bottle of vodka, a glass of whatever Kevin gave me, and how ever many cups of beer from the game of beer pong wasn’t exactly a good first time experience.

I stumbled towards the bathroom, thankful that it smelled of febreze instead of the horrors it went through last night. Dawn must have cleaned up after Luke and I passed out, and even bought an extra toothbrush.

I brushed my teeth and went into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. Dawn was asleep on the couch with the remote lying across her tired face. I laughed to myself as I drank the water and walked back to my room.

All that I could see of Luke was his tangled hair and bare back. If my body didn’t feel like I had been ran over by a truck, I would have poured the water on him and made him take a shower and brush his teeth. He was sweating, and it smelled of alcohol.

I tried my best to go back to sleep, but Luke kept stirring and groaning.

“Luke, I fucking hate you, you drunk son of a bitch,” I whined, burying my face deeper into my pillow.

“I know. I hate me, too,” he painfully groaned. “God, it’s hot in here.”

“The hottest room in the house,” I sighed. “There’s a toothbrush in the bathroom if you want to use it.”

“Is that a hint?” he asked, his voice muffled from being smashed into the pillow.

“Yeah, it’s a hint.”

Luke slid under the blankets on his face and drug himself into the bathroom.

I was tempted to open the window, but I didn’t want to move more than I already had to. My body ached, my head felt like it was being crushed in between two trains, and I just felt so worthless and exhausted. I couldn’t wrap my head around how Mason and the other kids could do this every weekend. It wasn’t worth it.

Luke miserably crawled back onto my tiny full sized bed and nosily threw himself under the blankets.

Again, if I had the willpower, I would have made a comment about his constant sighing and groaning.

“I’m never going to a party again,” he mumbled.

“I’m certainly not,” I agreed, squeezing my eyes shut as if it helped bring sleep quicker.

Luke kept fidgeting around and didn’t stop until I could feel his breath on my back.

I instantly shot my eyes open and slammed my hand to my chest to make sure I was covered. I still had on my bra, but couldn’t for the life of me think of where my shirt went to. I just slowly sank further underneath the blankets, hoping it would go unnoticed.

“You’re funny when you’re drunk,” Luke chuckled.

“How so?” I mumbled, staring at the floor in hopes of seeing my shirt somewhere.

“I dunno. You’re just so social and funny when you’ve got some drinks in you,” he answered. “Not to mention talkative.”

“Yeah, you’re not too quiet yourself.”

“I never said I was,” he coughed, shielding his mouth with his hand.

Luke kept mumbling about the things he remembered from last night. I tried my best to ignore him and go back to sleep, but was interrupted by a warm hand gently gliding over my back.

“Luke, I’m trying to ignore you,” I miserably grumbled.

“I kind of got that memo,” he whispered, his lips planting small kisses along my shoulder.

“Obviously not,” I muttered to myself, trying to go back to sleep.

It was getting harder to ignore him as his lips traveled from my shoulder to my neck, and his hands sliding down to my thighs.

“Do you remember what you said last night?” he asked quietly, his breath tickling my neck.

Taken aback at what he had said, I slowly turned over in his arms to try and get a glimpse of his expression, so I would know if it was serious or not.

“I’m sure I do,” I said uneasily. “You just have to refresh my memory a little bit.”

“After you exploded at me about Amanda in the bathroom-what you said about the whole jealousy thing-remember?” he asked hopefully, his hand making its way up towards my bra clasp.

My muscles tensed up. I wasn’t exactly planning on telling Luke at all, much less in the manner that I did. Hell, I didn't even want to believe that I liked him in the first place! Embarrassment flooded over me, turning my answer into a weak "Yes."

Luke's arm tightened around me-yanking me closer towards him-and pushed the matted mess of hair from my face before resting his hand on my cheek.

I was too embarrassed to look at him, and kept my eyes directed towards the crumpled sheets. When he started to stroke my cheek with his thumb, I built up enough courage to look at him. I could tell that my face was blood red by how hot it seemed to feel.

Of course, Luke didn’t know my sudden color change since his gaze was locked on my chest and his hand slowly creeping up my elbow. Luke's hand continued making its way slowly up my arm, removing itself and then hovering, shaking, in front of my chest. His fingers twitched as he moved it forward slightly, then pulled it back. He had a look of concentration on his face as he started moving forward again, then pausing and pulling it back.

My body went painfully still. I had no idea what to do. I never had been in a situation such as this. I couldn’t just let him lay there with his face beet red, pretending I didn’t know what he wanted-or was trying-to do. I was probably just as red and scared as he was.

After another moment of his shameful blushing, I decided to shut my brain off and take a chance. I grabbed Luke’s hand, and placed it onto my bra covered chest, my pulse quickening as I waited for his reaction.

I certainly got his attention back. He quickly lifted his head and stared at me with slightly raised eyebrows as if he was silently asking for my approval. His nervousness wasn‘t very well hidden.

I slowly nodded, trying to keep my own nerves from showing.

Luke returned the nod and crept his gaze to where his hand rested. He took in a quick breath before lightly squeezing my boob. Again, he shot me a questioning look.

And again I nodded.

His face started returning to normal color as he proceeded to feel on my bust, but I don’t think mine ever did. I was scared out of my mind. My ears continued to blast the sound of my heart and my breathing slowed down tremendously while I waited for Luke to make his next move.

Without warning, Luke pushed me onto my back, jumped on top of me, and aggressively smashed his lips against mine.

I immediately tangled my fingers into his already matted mop of hair and moaned against his lips. It surprised the hell out me, but I wasn’t going to complain or try to stop him.

It was a challenge to not giggle like an idiot when he started tickling my neck with his breath, or when his hands had a death grip on my ticklish ribs, but I managed. Things started to slow down a while later when we heard Dawn turn the TV back on.

Luke unburied his face from my neck, keeping his eyes clenched shut while he tried to catch his breath.

My ears, along with the rest of my body, instantly started to burn in anticipation of what he was going to say.

“U-uhm,” he began, his voice slightly cracking. He quickly pushed his tangled curls away from his face and tried to continue to speak. “D-do you mind if I take a quick shower?”

I let out a sigh of relief and put my hands on my cheeks in order to calm down the heat.

“Yeah, sure,” I said breathlessly, glad that was all he was worried about.