Burn it Down

~Luke's POV~

I was smiling at Megan, the music far too loud. She was dancing badly and hopping around to some electronic song that she had apparently been enjoying. She was into this shit, and I stayed into metal.

It was Friday night and we had come to her grandmother's house about 20 minutes outside of Allenspark. We were literally in the middle of nowhere it seemed, and there were no neighbors. Honestly, I had wondered after only a short time if I actually died and this was my heaven. Perfect seclusion. This was what I had always wanted.

We left school early today and took off because Megan literally couldn't wait anymore to get here. She went on all week about how excited she was to go back to her grandmother's house, since her mother had renovated it and added some additions. When we had arrived, Megan nearly had a stroke because supposedly there was almost nothing remaining of the original house.

This was a decent sized house. Smaller than Megan's current house, but not by much. The front of the house was completely wood minus the several panels of glass that broke up that wood. In the middle of the house, there was glass running up the entire height of the house. This made it bright in the afternoon, and set the house into shades of red, pink and orange as the sun set. It was very white, crisp and clean in here. It smelled of furniture polish, like pledge. I was immediately happy here, and there was a large covered patio out back which gave us a view of the mountain directly behind the house. In front, there was a large-ish pond with a dock that you could sit on and rest your feet in the water.

But back to Megan and I, she was still dancing, and I was still smiling at her and watching every movement as I sipped at a beer. Megan asked Tyler to hit up his older brother to buy us alcohol. Tyler's mom and dad ended up kicking Tyler's brother Byron out of the house for drug abuse and so Byron lived with some friends and Byron made it no secret that if I ever slipped up, he'd catch Megan. Unsurprisingly, he was happy to oblige to her demands in exchange for one kiss on the cheek which made me roll my eyes so hard it actually hurt. But we were in possession of beer and vodka, and I guess I couldn't complain.

Finally the music died and she plopped down on the couch beside me and grabbed her glass cup full of vodka and cranberry juice and laid her legs across my lap. Her wild hair was a fucking mess and I laughed at her and squeezed her calf.

"What?" She asked, taking a drink.

"Just your hair." I sighed and touched a subtle wave. "I've always loved your hair."

She smiled at me, but it was almost a vacant smile. She looked down and took a drink before staring into the cup as if she could see the future in it.

"There's a problem, isn't there?" She asked, causing my stomach to flip. I don't know how she managed to read me as well as she did, but she was hovering on the edge of discovering who and what I was.

"What do you mean?" I bluffed.

There was a hesitant moment. Finally she sighed and looked up at me, her wild hair making me want to giggle.

"You've been distracted for a long time. Angry. I just wish I knew why. Some days I feel like there's...something scary about you."

I had to lie, and I was so much better at it. I practiced with my parents and now I was kind of happy about it.

"I'm just so sick of the school, love. I'm ready to move away from this place. I'm ready to go to school and get a job so we can start a life without those assholes in it. You know? I'm ready to have a good life."

"Is that it?" Her voice was unbelieving. I was never good at lying to her and while she had begun to start believing my lies, she was still wary of everything I said.

"What else would it be?" I raised an eyebrow at her and waited a moment before she finally bought it and then I stroked her head. I just wanted to enjoy the time we had left.

"I dunno. I'm too drunk, so who knows." She laughed, and took yet another drink.

I sighed to myself in relief and took a drink too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday night was less awkward. Tyler and Tiffany ended up coming out and for that I was grateful.

"Aaron told me to give you this." Tyler said, handing Megan a small paper bag. "I don't know what's in it. He told me that it was yours but you could share it if you wanted."

Megan raised an eyebrow at Tyler and slowly took the bag from his hands. Opening it she reached in and I heard the rustle of a plastic bag. "What the fuck?" Megan said, pulling the plastic bag out before erupting into laughter. "Oh my fucking God, Tyler! Your brother gave me a bunch of fucking weed."

"No fucking way!" I blurted, taking the bags from her and rifling through them. He had given her a substantial amount of marijuana which he had already rolled for her.

"I've asked him how many times? He doesn't give me shit!" Tiffany ripped the bag from my hands making me stare blankly at it. Megan must have noticed because she took it right back.

"That's because he wants Megan, not you." I said before I could even think.

Tyler and Tiffany both stared daggers at me and after Megan looked up from eyeing her goods she sighed. "God dammit I'm going to share. Why are you all getting so pissy? If it's a huge fucking deal I'll send it back."

"You don't send Aaron's shit back." Tyler said. "He has the good shit."

"And you've smoked, right?" Megan questioned.

Tyler faltered and opened his mouth.

"Didn't think so." She said, waving us to the back porch. She was right. This would be our first experience with pot. My first experience with any drug. Tyler and Tiffany bypassed this one, I never understood why, and went straight into coke, ecstasy, mushrooms and acid.

Since it was dark Megan flicked on the light to the back patio which had a wood awning thing and we all sat and pulled up to the small rectangular glass table that sat off to the side.

"Are we all in?" Megan asked, fishing for a joint from the baggy with her little fingers.

"Fuck yes!" Tiffany blurted, shaking in her seat from excitement.

"Tyler?" Megan asked, fishing in her jeans pocket for her lighter.

"You know it." He responded.

"Luke?" Her eyes came up to me. It took me a moment but I nodded at her.

Slowly, she put the thing to her lips and lit it, taking a deep inhale off of it before coughing, smoke billowing out of her mouth. She stuck her tongue out because it must have tasted as bad as it smelled. Tyler commented on how that was a good thing, but I wasn't sure and just took his word for it.

The joint got passed from Megan to Tyler, to Tiffany, and then finally it was my turn and my stomach knotted up. I had never done drugs and never really had a desire to, but when you've got 6 months to live, you might as well do everything you can.