Nobody's Listening

S I X T E E N

About twenty minutes later, we had all piled into Mesh's Jeep to ride over to my house for a bit. Once again, I was stuck in the middle of the back seat, because Mesh had to take his sister along.

"Sorry about having to bring Kathwren along, guys," Mesh apologized as soon as we got in the Jeep.

"You didn't have to," she snapped. She had the same shade of hair as him, and the same sunglasses obsession. The only immediate difference I could tell was that she had a nose ring. Upon further inspection, though, I found that she was definitely not as relaxed as Mesh. She was always moving, doing little things with her fingers, fiddling with her bracelets, hair, or necklaces. I immediately felt uncomfortable around her.

"Uh, yeah, I did have to; Mom knows she can't leave you home alone. You'll burn the fucking house down."

Kathwren scoffed. "Just because I'm a pyromaniac, that doesn't mean I'll burn the fucking house down, asshole! By the way, everyone, I go by Wren. Something that Brent can't seem to get through his hazy-minded, fat head."

"Oh, fuck you," Mesh seethed. "At least all I do is weed. I don't suck cigarettes down like it's going out of style."

Wren flared her nostrils, her nose ring twitching. She fiddled with her nails. "I don't smoke cigarettes as much as you smoke pot. Fucking stoner."

"Will you guys hush?" Cyd said from the passenger's seat. She rubbed her temples, glaring at Wren in the side mirror. "I'm getting a headache, and you both are pissing me off."

"See what you did?" Mesh raged. "You pissed off my girlfriend."

"Uh, Mesh? Shut up," Cyd told him, smacking his leg a little too hard to be called playful.

I gave Luke a look and he shrugged, rolling his eyes. "Is the Mesh family always like this?" I asked.

"Yes," Mesh and Wren said simultaneously as we pulled into my driveway.

"Well, then," I responded, jumping out of the Jeep right behind Luke. "How about you guys go around to the back and mess around back there while I go upstairs and take a shower? There's a trampoline back there you can mess with."

They all shrugged in agreement and trooped around the house. I suddenly found myself worried that Wren would burn my house down while I was inside, but I pushed the thoughts away. She's not that crazy, I'm sure, I assured myself as I stepped inside my house. It was quiet inside, still the way I left it yesterday. My mom wouldn't be home for another two hours, so I figured she wouldn't mind too much if my friends all stayed out of the house.

Once I got in the bathroom, I shed my old clothes and turned the water on all the way to hot. I slowly unwrapped my hands and found that they already looked almost back to normal. I threw the bandages into the trash and then stepped inside the scalding stream and squealed. "Too hot, too hot!" I cried, turning the water back down to about three-fourths on the crystal handle. I slid back into it and sighed. Much better.

I don't know how long I took to scrub the filth out of my hair and the sticky, salty trails on my cheeks, but when I finally stepped out of the shower, steam had filled the room. I wrapped myself up in a huge fluffy towel and stood in front of the mirror. I watched at my face appeared little by little, first a blurry outline of my face, and each feature appearing slowly afterwards. First my eyes, then my mouth, and my nose materialized last. I looked at my reflection for a few seconds, and then turned. There was no point to stare at what I knew.

I stepped out into the hall and walked to my room, not bothering to hold my towel up. As I walked, I tried to wring out my sopping wet hair. I wasn't paying attention when I ran into something solid and warm. I fell backwards into the wall and down into the floor.

"Oh God, Dezza… I'm so sorry," Luke said, holding his hands out like he wanted to help, but didn't really know if he could. He smiled crookedly and looked away, covering his eyes. "Your, uh… your towel…"

I looked down to see that it had almost fallen off, but hadn't shown anything yet. "Wh-whoops," I stammered, blushing as I pulled the towel more snuggly around me. "A little help?"

He laughed as he lent me his hand. He pulled me up, and we stood closely together. He smiled down at me as he backed me up into the wall. He moved my dripping hair away from my neck and kissed my damp collarbone. A moan escaped my throat and I blushed harder, clamping the hand that wasn't holding my towel over my mouth.

Luke looked up and kissed my hand. "Don't. I want to hear it." He moved my hand and kissed my lips. His lips were slightly wet from my collarbone. Our lips moved perfectly together. Electricity ran through my stomach and fingers, and my knees felt weak. I grabbed at his hair, running my fingers through the soft curls. He licked my bottom lip and I let his tongue explore my mouth. To put it simply, it felt wonderful.

He moved down from my mouth to my neck, nibbling on the tender skin there. I moaned again and pressed up against him, uncaring of how damp I got him. He echoed my moan and returned to my lips, twirling a wet clump of my hair on his finger.

"Ew, guys, gross!" a voice said from our side. We broke apart to find Wren standing there, nose wrinkled but a smile dancing on her lips. "Can I join?"

I slipped out from under Luke's arms and backed into my room. "Uh, no, uh… I gotta go get dressed."

She laughed. "Calm down, guys. I might be bi, but I'm not a complete whore." She winked at Luke and he stumbled back a step. "Okay, I just came up here because I thought I heard you guys, and I was wondering where the bathroom was."

"Just down the hall," I replied, pointing down past us towards the end of the hall.

Wren smiled as she squeezed past us. "Thanks."

As soon as she was in the bathroom, I let out the breath I had been holding. "Oh God, that was horrible," I whispered.

Luke smiled. "Well, I dunno. I thought the first part was pretty great." He leaned in for more kisses, but I pushed him away playfully. He sighed dramatically and started walking away. "Well, hurry up and get ready. I only came up here to see what was taking you so long." He ambled down the stairs, smiling back at me until he disappeared onto the first floor.

Holding my pounding head, I walked into my bedroom, trying to contain my nervous laughter.