In All This Chaos

I woke up with the light breeze of the air conditioning caressing my face as I untangled myself from the blankets of this very familiar room. The bright Arizona sun was peering through the cracks of the curtains and I could make out the figure of the body lying next to me. I saw the nearly-mullet, messy brown hair, lanky frame, and tattoo on each side of his collar bone that read “unus amor”; Latin for “one love”. It was John – John O’Callaghan, one of my closest friends.

I couldn’t help but let out a small giggle to myself when I noticed his mouth was hanging wide open, in a peaceful sleep. As much as I didn’t want to wake up that sleeping “angel”, I had to. It was Thursday morning and we had to get to school. It was early May and there was only two weeks left, and I was not willing on missing any days of review. I don’t know about John, but I cannot fail any finals because coming to summer school in this scorching Arizona summer heat is a total bitch. Especially since the school districts to cheap to put AC in every classroom.

I nudged him forcefully in order to jolt him awake. I knew it worked and he was back in consciousness when he groaned and threw a pillow over his face. I gently moved the soft down-feather pillow to expose his ear, and whispered to him seductively, “John,” I held out the “oh” sound in his name “Time to get up.” When all I got was another groaning response, I took the liberty to slip my hand under the covers and gingerly dance my fingers over his bare stomach while whispering, “Come on, Johnny O, we gotta go.”

His voice was raspy and he sounded groggy as he whined, “Noo.”

Now that I knew he was awake I took the pillow off of his face and threw it to the other side of the room, along with stripping the covers off of his lanky frame and revealing that he was only clad in boxers.

“Yes,” was my response after doing such things.

“You’re a bitch, you know that?” he asked rhetorically.

“You love me,” I stated as I leaned in and kissed his cheek. I finally crawled out of bed myself and noticed that I fell asleep in my underwear and one of John’s old oversized tee shirts. I shrugged to myself and made my way over to his dresser to find myself something decent to wear to school.

“How are you not completely hung-over?” he asked, now propped up on his elbows in bed.

“I’m not as sloppy as you,” I told him with a faint smile on my face as I rummaged through his shirts and recalled some of the events from the previous night.

It was Tim’s eighteenth birthday, and of course we made the best of the night. It was the birthday boy, Tim Kirch, his girlfriend Ashley, John O’Callaghan, Max Sission, Eric Halvorsen, Jared Monaco, and I. All I remember is that we started the evening at our go-to hang out place – parking lot 8123, and everything after that is in a constant blur. I don’t even know why or how I ended up at John’s place, but I’m not complaining.

“Bull shit. You drank just as much as the rest of us.”

I shrugged, “I can just hold my alcohol better than you can.” I found John’s blue and white Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers shirt and put it on right there. “Now stop staring and get your ass out of bed. We’re gonna be late.”

“Since when do you care about getting to school on time?” he questioned as he finally got his ass out of bed.

“Since I have a good feeling about today,” I replied as I looked around the cluttered room for my denim shorts. “Oh, and most likely all the guys know I spent the night with you, so I really don’t want to give them something to talk about,” I added.

“I don’t they even remember anything that happened past eight.”

“Well I’m not chancing it.” I was now dressed and he was still standing on the side of the full sides bed, stretching.

Silence overcame us and I knew what was going to happen next. I then sprinted full force to the adjoining door that connected the bathroom to his bedroom. Once I was in, I slammed the door square in his face, calling behind me, “You snooze, you lose.”

“Bay, I hate you,” he called back.

I opened the door a crack to see him standing there with a playful gleam in his bright green eyes. “I love you, John,” I said back, leaning in and kissing the tip of his nose. “I’ll be out in five,” I smiled widely when I pulled away. “Go get dressed,” I ordered him.

“You have five minutes, I’m counting.”