Stuck On Loving You

July 2005–

For some teenagers, the summer nights blended into mornings and from there, they'd live like they wished they could for the rest of their lives. They slept all day and when they woke up, they'd do whatever they wanted to. No one was there to control them unless they had a job to do and that's what made them feel so free over summer vacation. For most of those teenagers, some of the nights were full of crazy tales while others were lazy. For two specific teenagers in town, most nights ended on a rampage that ended in make-up sex.

Alex and Lana were always on each other's backs and trying to start fights that shouldn't have even happened. They loved each other with a terrible vengeance, but at the same time, they wanted to kill each other. The tone of Alex's voice would make the girls skin crawl and the way Lana flipped her hair would make Alex want to throw a vase at her.

Tonight wasn't the most different story, but it was one that neither of them would forget. The drinks were being poured, the music was turned up as loud as it could go, and drunk sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen year-olds ran through the house, almost knocking into each other and everything at every turn.

Alex's hair was roughed up as he wore a princess tiara upon his head. In front of him was a drunk, blonde Lisa who had her hand on her hip, bitching about something that he had "obviously" done to her or someone she knew. The uncomfortable feeling made him slump further into the couch with every sentence that ran out of her mouth. He thought that the music and alcohol would drown her out, but he was wrong. Before he knew it, Lisa was straddling him, telling him how much she wanted him now. Their relationship in the past had been difficult, even though it was such a short thing.

"Lisa," the boy struggled to wiggle out of her grip, "this isn't a good idea." His voice was clearly tout, but she wasn't having it.

"Why?" She urged him with a smile. "Is it because of that slut over there?" She hissed at him. At this point, Alex got angry enough to almost fling her off his lap and leave her there on the ground. He wasn't usually the angry drunk, but she was calling his girl a slut.

"She's not a fucking slut!" He screamed loud enough for people that were in a three foot radius to look at him and then returned to their conversations after they realized that it was because of Lisa, the drama queen.

In a different room Lana sat upon the counter wearing a skirt with a cut-off Aerosmith tee-shirt. While one drink was in her left hand, her right hand was on Jack's shoulder. Lana was the definition of the handsy flirtatious drunk. Her face was red and blotchy, something that she didn't care about when too many drinks were in her system. Jack would say something funny and she'd reply with something like, Oh my God, stop it. You're too much. For the past hour her and Jack had gone back and forth, innocently hitting on each other like neither of their better halves even existed. It was innocent and childish. Lana was loyal to her boyfriend and Jack was loyal to his best friend. Nothing was going to happen between them. Actually, in the past year, they've grown to be really good friends themselves.

After a few more minutes, Lana let her eyes scan the house from where the was sitting. In the living room, everyone seemed to be having a good time - especially Lisa. When the looked at the guy she was rubbing up against, she felt her stomach fill with knots and jealousy. In fact, she wanted to run away to her house and fall in her bed while sobbing. Lisa started whispering something in his ear and it was obvious that she started kissing and biting his neck and earlobe. It was the look on Alex's face that made Lana feel worse: he was pissed, but he was extremely turned on.

Lana jumped off the counter, ignoring what Jack was trying to tell her, and ran into the living room. "Fuck. You." She yelled at Alex at the top of her lungs and out the door she went with a bottle of vodka in her hands. Alex's eyes grew wide as he pushed Lisa off of him. He felt his entire mouth go dry while he tried to figure out which way Lana was going and he prayed that she wasn't thinking about driving herself home.

Outside, the weather was terrible. There was a huge thunderstorm going on, making it hard for Alex to see. "Lana!" He screamed as loud as he could, but he heard nothing in response. After running up and down the block, he finally spotted her sitting on the curb. It looked like she was crying, but at the same time, it looked like rain upon her face.

"You're an asshole, Alex, get the fuck away from me." There were clear sobs coming from her throat. She tried her best to hold them back, but it wasn't working. Alex felt like complete shit. His ex was trying to get him and he tried nothing to stop her at the moment. She called Lana a slut and the only thing he could do was get pissed off.

"Nothing back there happened!" His hands turned into fists and he almost punched the tree that was standing tall next to him. "Nothing! At all!"

The yelling went on for a good ten minutes and they even knew that they were waking the neighbors up. They saw lights go on and then off. They weren't even scared of someone calling the cops because all they cared about in that moment was screaming at each other. The fights should have stopped, but they never found a reason to do so.

"Fuck, Lana," Alex finally settled down, "I love you, okay? We shouldn't be screaming in the middle of the night when it's pouring rain. We're both going to catch phenomena if we don't stop this shit." He moved towards her, but she made sure she wasn't going to be touched. His words made sense, but she wasn't that forgiving. "You're the one I want, Lan. Not her. It's never been her and it's always been you. I'm glad you walked into my life. You're one of the best things that's ever happened to me and I'm glad to say that you're my girlfriend. I've screamed that at the top of my lungs before because I don't care if anyone hears it. With other girls, I was ashamed to let anyone know that they were mine. But this," he said while lifting her hands up to meet his, "this is different."

It was clear that Lana was in tears again, but this time it was different. The night went on to be one of the longest nights in their relationship. Yet, when thinking about fights that they've had in the past, their minds always drifted to that one. Maybe it was because it was like a scene from a movie, or maybe it was because they didn't black out and knew what happened then. But to them, it was something special that they carried with them. Who knew that a drunken fight would be that important.