Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters

As the night went on, I couldn’t have been more comfortable. There was no pressure or awkward feelings anymore. Luke resumed his regular speech patterns and I kept calm-even though he got off the hook super easy. We watched TV and talked about the camping trip. I still wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to go, but the plans they had seemed pretty cool.

Our conversation turned into deeper stuff. He wanted to know more about my future plans, and I wanted to know more about his childhood. From what Luke said, he and Jack used to be really competitive with each other and fight all the time-not unlike the twins.

“Luke, its one o’clock in the morning,” I informed him, running my fingers through his hair. “I need to go home.”

He lifted his head off of my stomach and glanced at his alarm clock. “Or you could stay?” he suggested with a shrug.

“I don’t have any clothes with me, and my toothbrush is in the car,” I told him, stretching out on of his curls.

“You have an extra toothbrush in your car?” he laughed.

“Yeah, it’s my travel toothbrush,” I answered. “I can’t go a day without brushing my teeth. It’s just gross.”

Luke swished his mouth to the side and rested his chin on my stomach. “You can borrow one of my shirts and in the morning, you can go next door and drive your car over here so it looks like you just got here. My dad saw your car in the neighbor’s yard last time and started asking questions.”

I continued to stretch out his curls while I considered his plan. It would work, it was just a matter of how early Mr. and Mrs. Moreno started moving around the house.

“Please stay?” he asked quietly. He lifted up the bottom of my shirt and started to kiss my stomach and hip bone.

I wasn’t surprised by his method of begging. It made me nervous as hell, but I couldn’t say no. It would only hurt his pride if I rejected the plan.

“Mmm, I don’t know,” I shrugged innocently.

Unsatisfied with my answer, Luke bit down as hard as he could. I howled in pain and instantly twisted my fingers in his hair for pain relief.

“Luke, stop!” I commanded through painful giggles.

Instead, he bit down even harder.

“Alright! Alright! I’ll stay!” I shouted, trying to shove his face away from my body.

Luke lifted his head up and wiped his spit off of my hip.

I glanced down at where his mouth was latched. “You broke through my skin!” I exclaimed, propping up my elbows to get a better look.

“It’ll heal,” he laughed, pulling my shirt back down. “So you’re staying?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I said, massaging my throbbing side.

“Cool,” he smiled, showing all of his pearly white teeth.

“That really hurt, you ass,” I whined, punching his shoulder.

“Sorry,” he insincerely shrugged, pulling off his shirt. “Maybe next time you won’t take so long to answer.”

I crawled off of his bed and started to take off my belt. “Do you have any shorts or something I can wear?”

“Yeah, sure,” he answered. He made his way to his dresser and threw a pair of blue basketball shorts at me. Luke kept his back turned to me and pretended to pick up clothes that were on his floor.

I quickly stripped off my jeans and replaced them with the somewhat baggy shorts. When Luke turned off the light, I snapped off my bra and threw it onto the floor.

“I’m really not going to wake up in the morning,” Luke groaned, jumping onto his bed. “Neither are my parents. They never stay out this late on weekdays.”

I crawled over Luke and nestled myself under the blankets. “I hope they’re alright.”

“They’ll be fine,” Luke shrugged. He turned over onto his side to face me. “You glow in the dark.”

“So do you,” I countered, pointing at his barely visible arm.

“You only see it because you know it’s there,” he argued, sliding his hand over my stomach.

I grabbed his arm and slide back away from me. "Luke, go to sleep."

He let out a deep sigh and mumbled "Goodnight."

***

Luke’s alarm wasted no time in blaring indie rock music. Luke groaned and slapped his alarm clock, making it crash to the floor.

“Why the hell did we stay up so late?” he moaned.

“I don’t know,” I sighed, stretching in place. For once, Luke didn’t have a single body part stretched across my waist, or even touching me. I was quite glad. My body wasn’t sore or cramped with another person’s weight on top of me.

I crawled down to the bottom of Luke’s bed and stood up. If I was going to get out of here before the Moreno’s started waking up, I needed to get dressed pretty damn quick.

“Does it matter what shirt I borrow?” I asked through a cracking voice.

“Nope, just pick one,” he answered, flipping over onto his other side. “Wake me up when you’re ready to leave.”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. I scanned through the closet for a shirt that looked like it wouldn’t fall to my knees. Despite his lanky limbs, Luke constantly wore shirts three sizes larger than him. The Janis Joplin shirt would have to do.

By the time I got my bra on, Luke started to move around a little bit more.

“Damn,” Luke chuckled.

“Shut up and go back to sleep,” I blushed, putting my arms through the holes.

Luke’s bedroom door flung open, making me jump right into the shirt.

“Boy, what did I--” Mr. Moreno stopped dead in his tracks and stared at me. He closed his mouth and turned to look at Luke.

I couldn’t hear a word he was saying. The sound of my heart beating against my ear drums blocked out everything Mr. Moreno was saying, or possibly shouting. My body shook from my nerves jumping around. My stomach dropped to the floor, and my lungs shrank into my neck.

Mr. Moreno pointed from me to Luke and walked out of the door, shutting it behind him. I quickly sat down on the edge of the bed to keep myself from passing out.

Luke rushed to my side and put his hand on my back. “It’ll be fine, I swear.”

My stomach flew back up to my throat. “What did he say?” I asked nervously, covering my face with my hands.

“Just for the both of us to get dressed and that he’ll be back in two minutes. Didn’t you hear him?” Luke questioned.

“N-no,” I choked. I closed my eyes and tried to keep myself from crying.

How could I be so stupid? It wasn’t like me to be spending the night with a boy in the first place! Even the previous accounts were a mistake! And now I’m losing my job over it. Mr. Moreno already warned me not to be over here while the girls were in the house, and he also warned Luke not to have anybody over when he wasn’t home. My breathing went out of control. Without a doubt, I lost my job.

“Riley, it’s going to be okay,” Luke said, quickly pulling on a pair of jeans. “I promise. You’ll be fine.”

“You have no idea,” I breathed, keeping my face hidden. “I lost my job and now I’m going to behind on bills, and I just can’t--”

The bedroom door opened and then shut again. I moved my hands away from my face and kept my gaze down. Staring into the eyes of Mr. Moreno while he fired me would send me into hysterics for sure.

“Sit down, boy,” Mr. Moreno barked.

Luke instantly sat down next to me. “Dad, I can explain. It’s not--”

“Shut up!” he snapped, making both of us jump. “Look at me, both of you!”

I sucked in my lips and slowly turned my head to face Mr. Moreno. His brow was furrowed and his hands were balled into deadly fists by his side. I wanted to look away from just sheer fright.

“I’m gonna tell you this once and only once,” he growled. “If you’re mother finds out about this, I’m gonna act like I didn’t know about it.”

The tension in my shoulders relaxed. “I-I’m not fired?” I asked in disbelief.

“No,” he snapped. “But if the two of you get caught, or somebody gets pregnant, I’m putting an end to it. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” Luke and I both said quickly.

Mr. Moreno rolled his eyes and muttered to himself as he walked out of the bedroom door.

I couldn’t believe it. It seemed too easy. My body started to calm down and my ears started to burn red.

“Well, that went well,” Luke smiled brightly.

I gave him the dirtiest look I could before I put my shoes on.

“What’s that look for?” he asked bitterly.

“I’m glad you weren’t worried about my job at all,” I snorted. “I have to go get my car. Do you want anything for breakfast? I might as well get you some while I’m out.”

“Burger King Croissant?” he asked hopefully.

“Sure,” I sighed, pulling on my jacket. I didn’t want anything to eat. Even though I was off the hook, my stomach was still in a sick whirl.