Nights and Weekends

“You look terrible,” Josh said as I crawled through his window, “What the fuck happened tonight?” There was more than a hint of anger in his voice but I knew it wasn’t directed at me. I knew he wouldn’t judge me for what had happened but still I didn’t want to say it out loud. I never said it out loud at first he always had to pry it from me. “Come on Reese let’s not play the games tonight just tell me what happened.” I shook my head and pulled off my shirt knowing he would have a new one for me. “Are you kidding me what happened?” His eyes were focused on the cuts that ran across my chest from when I was thrown down. “Reese,” His voice dropped to a whisper and he took my hands in his, “Please just tell me what happened, you haven’t looked this bad in a while.”

“They wanted to go skinny dipping, I didn’t so they ripped my clothes off and threw me into the lake. When I tried to get away from them I fell and slid a bit on the ground, that’s what the cuts are from.” I said trying to pull my hands away. “They just didn’t want to take no for an answer tonight. They were drunk, we all were. It was a celebration because the team made it to state.”

“That isn’t an excuse to hurt you.”

“I mean I should have just done it because it wasn’t going to hurt anything. I was just drunk and tired and wanted to go home. I took so many shots tonight it was crazy. Can I have a new shirt now please?” He pulled away from me and grabbed a tank top from off of his bed. “And maybe a towel so I can dry off?” He nodded his head and ran off as I put on the tank top. There was a slight streak of red on the tank top. “Shit.” My hand shot up to my head and pulled it away to find it covered with blood. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Josh said coming back in holding out a towel for me. I showed him my hand and he began to freak out. “Where did that come from?”

“My head I must it must have gotten cut when they threw me in the lake. I didn’t even know until I saw the blood on the tank top.”

“Calm down.” He put his arm around me, “calm down and let me look ok? I’m sure it’s just a small cut.” He started to move my hair around looking for the cut. “What the hell Reese?”

“Did you find it? Is it bad?”

“I found something, it’s not a cut though.”

“Do I have lice?”

“How would that even be a concern right now? What is on your neck?” My heart fell as all the words escaped me. “Did Tucker do that to you?”

“Just find the cut.”

“I found it, it isn’t bad. Just let me go get something to clean it up with. We are going to talk about it though.”

“You probably think I’m the stupidest girl in the world huh?” I asked him when he came back with a wet washcloth. He placed the cloth and on the cut and tried to clean it. “It’s not that I don’t know this is wrong and that I shouldn’t be letting this happen to me. I mean I don’t even have the whole delusional I love him thing going for me.”

“Don’t worry about it I’m not judging you.”

“Maybe you should be. You know you’re the only thing I like about this place. You always have been ever since we were kids.”

“I’m going to place this part of the conversation on you’re drunk, don’t worry.”

“Thanks. Is it better?”

“All cleaned up and doesn’t appear to be bleeding. I told you it was nothing to worry about. Now your neck.”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Can we just go to bed?”

“Reese.”

“Josh.”

“Fine.” I slid my jeans off and crawled into his bed he laid down next to me and I wrapped my arms around him. “You’re lucky.”

“That someone as great as you takes pity on me. You’re my best friend.”

“I think If I was a real friend I wouldn’t let you go back to him.” Josh kissed the top of my head lightly but I didn’t move or say anything. “Seriously though if he is willing to choke you to the point of bruising your neck what else could he be capable of?”

“He didn’t mean to. He was drunk, and he was mad because I wanted to go home. He said I was embarrassing him because I wasn’t a huge fan of the strip beer pong they were making me participate in. Please Josh please it’s not a big deal. Just drop it ok?”

“I don’t want to drop this, I’m tired of you coming over here beaten this bad.”

“Then I won’t come over anymore after tonight. It’s not that big deal to me.”

“It’s a big deal to me though. And don’t you dare stop coming over if you ever not show up on a weekend I’m calling the cops.” The tone of his voice through me off and I couldn’t believe what he was saying. A smile came across my face as I snuggled in closer to him. “I worry about you is all.”

“Well I guess if that’s the case I can’t stop coming over huh? Unless I want everything ruined.”

“Exactly and I know you aren’t going to throw away your life that easily. Go to sleep now ok we’ll take care of this in the morning.”

“You know I’m going to be gone by the time you wake up.”

“You might be surprised tomorrow.” He turned his TV on, the light by his bed off, and pulled the sheets over us. This sleeping arrangement still felt weird to me even though it has been this way for a month or so it still felt weird to feel his body near mine. “What do you want to watch?”

“Anything I’ll probably just fall asleep anyways.” I said my voice already pointing to the fact I was half asleep. He chuckled slightly and flipped through the channels. Within minutes I was sound asleep.

“Hey Reese,” Josh said softly shaking me, “Wake up.” I mumbled slightly as I opened my eyes, he was kneeling over me a plate of breakfast sat next to him. “Hey sleepy head I thought you said you were taking off early?”

“What time is it?” I asked not sitting up.

“It’s almost 11.”

“Shit,” I sat up quickly but then laid right back down, “Fuck I have a hangover.”

“Here, I brought you water.” He handed me a cup and I took a small sip, “And some hangover food.”

“Your girlfriend must really love you, you’re amazing.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend. You know that.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot I’m sorry. I guess that’s good for me though. That means you can hang out on Fridays. Joking of course I know you have a life outside of waiting for me.”

“Thanks. Anyways you should probably eat. You probably have to meet up with Tucker later right?”

“Yeah I’m supposed to be I want this hangover to go away first do you mind if I hang out here for a while? Or if you were going to be doing something that’s fine I can leave I just didn’t really want to deal with him yelling at me and shit. No it’s fine I’m sorry I asked I can I’ll go.”

“Stay, I’m not doing anything today.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, stay.”

“You are the best I swear the goddamn best.” I reached for thee breakfast place and picked up a piece of toast. I started nibbling on it as he grabbed the other piece and nibbled on it mimicking me.

“So would you like to explain to me about last night?” He asked pushing the plate closer to me.

“I already explained it pretty well I thought. I really don’t want to talk about it anymore, it was stupid. The only reason it got so out of hand is because we were all really drunk.”

“Have you ever thought about maybe…”

“Not drinking? I can’t do that,” His expression turned curious, “Being drunk is the only thing that makes them tolerable.”

“Why hang out with them then?”

“Because I need out of this town, you know this.” He sighed and put his toast down onto the plate giving me a look, “Don’t judge me for it please. You know colleges don’t just look at grades. The extracurricular activities are what get you in.”

“Yeah because getting drunk and beat every weekend is really what is going to make you college material.”

“No, but being student council president, head cheerleader, captain of the dance team, and involved in other various clubs will.”

“You’re already all that.”

“My junior year. I need to keep it into senior year if I can get reelected to all that then I’m safe to stop hanging out with them next year. I mean Tucker will be at college next year I’ll be so damn safe away from all those idiots life will be perfect. But until I am reelected I need to hang with them because let’s face it they rule the vote. They are the dance team, the cheerleaders, the student body. And if I’m hanging with them then others will vote for me too because I’m the cool kid. It’s all politics.”

“I know you don’t have to explain that to me. I’ve known your little plan for years.”

“And it is working so well. So do you really not have plans today or are you lying to make sure I’m well taken care of today?”

“Not until tonight, and my family is all gone for the day so you can roam freely. No questions.”

“Cool and thanks for the breakfast but I don’t really eat when hungover. Sorry it looks like you did a lot of work but food just makes me wanna puke and I hate puking.”

“I didn’t do all that much work anyways.” I curled back up under the covers and nestled into the pillow. “Are you still tired?”

“Just a little. Or maybe it’s the fact that your bed is so damn comfortable that when on it my eyes just want to shut. You wanna nap or should I just get out of bed?”

“No a nap would be perfect, let me go put the plate away.” He left quickly and I started rearranging the pillows so they were better placed for comfort. He climbed into the bed and instinctively I laid my head on his chest. He moved his arm around me holding me tightly as I drifted into sleep. He muttered something under his breath but I couldn’t make out the words.

“What did you say?” I asked moving away from him.

“Nothing important, lay back down.”

“No what was it? I want to know.”

“Just that this feels right ya know.” I smiled and laid back down where I was at.

“Yeah I’m glad that this worked out as well as it has.” My eyes started to close as he turned on the TV and started flipping channels.

“Josh.” I said shaking him slightly, “Josh your phone is ringing. Whoever it is has called a few times already. Wake up.” His hand reached over to his night table where his phone was and started feeling around for it.

“Hello,” He answered sleepily. “No I didn’t forget, well maybe I did a little I was still sleeping. Yeah ok see you in a bit.” He hung up the phone and turned to me. “You don’t have to leave but John, Jess, and Stephen are on their way over here right now. They are like 4 minutes away.”

“I better leave.” I jumped out of the bed and searched the floor for my clothes only to remember that they were ripped. “Shit.”

“Keep the tank top and here you can borrow some shorts. Sorry it isn’t the most fashionable thing but it’s all I have.”

“You’re the goddamn best sir.” I kissed his cheek before throwing the shorts on. “The goddamn best. I don’t know if I’ll come over tonight. I might have to stay with Tucker. Don’t call the cops.” He laughed as I climbed through his window and took off running towards my house.