Burn it Down

~Tyler's POV~

Luke had never been high on anything before and I was glad that if anything, he decided to do it once before we did our business.

Watching him was funny. He was grabbing Megan's hand and pinching himself with it asking her repeatedly if he was real which made the rest of us laugh so hard I'm pretty sure we might have pissed ourselves a little.

"Yes, for the millionth time you're real." Megan told him.

His eyes were huge and he honestly looked terrified. I knew how shit like this could go in the dark. Every human being has this instinctual fear of the dark simply because we can't see into it, and we can never determine if it was truly safe, so a lot of times when you're high that deep fear can manifest as trees turning into monsters or other shit that confuses and scares you. That was getting to him right now.

"You scared, man?" I asked him making Tiffany chuckle.

"No...I'm just..." Luke looked at Megan and hyperfocused for awhile. She stared back at him and it was clear she was handling herself better than he was.

Tiffany shot up suddenly, making Luke jump. "We have those fireworks in your car!"

"Oh yeah!" I said, getting up with her. We both bolted through the house and grabbed the keys from the kitchen counter before running out the front door. I had a lot of fireworks for the fourth of July and we had never used them all so I figured we could set them off here. Probably a bad idea, but we were so far back that I didn't think a few could hurt. Besides it was Saturday night and it wasn't even 10pm, so I highly doubted anyone was sleeping.

"What the fuck is that?" I heard Luke ask Megan who was slowly prodding him out to the car.

"It's a rock, honey." She told him. We got him as high as we could and he was higher than us.

I rummaged through my trunk and handed off a few things to Tiffany before closing it.

"Fuck this shit, I'm lighting another one." Megan said.

"Wait for me!" Tiffany shouted, handing me all this stuff back.

"I've had enough, I think." Luke said, his huge eyes all over the place.

"Yes, you have." Megan laughed and kissed him. "Wanna go grab the bag off the back table?" She asked Tiffany who all of a sudden turned into an Olympic sprinter making me roll my eyes as I fumbled around with setting all these fireworks up on the ground.

Tiffany came back with the baggy and handed it to Megan who stared at the three remaining it it.
She sighed and looked at it for awhile before shrugging. "Fuck it." She laughed and took a joint out before handing it to Tiffany who looked confused.

"Each get one?" She asked with a muted disbelief.

Megan nodded. "Why not?"

"Fuck yes!" Tiffany squealed and took the two out of the bag and put one in my hand as I came up to everybody.

While Megan and Tiffany lit theirs I opened up the back seat of my car and took out a comforter I had in there. I kept it for picnics and shit or just going to the park but now was a good time for it.

"Move your asses." I barked and the two stepped out of the way before Megan came back and grabbed Luke who was still off in space.

I shook out the blanket and settled it onto the ground before sitting on it, quickly being joined by the other three.

Luke and I laid down, Tiffany and Megan were cross legged but Luke just scooted closer to Megan until his head was in her lap.

"Alright let's regret doing this." Megan laughed, taking a deep inhale and holding it before doing her best not to cough it back up.

I grabbed my lighter and lit up as well before poking Luke in the ribs with my foot.

"Dude you're so fucking out right now." I laughed at him and expelled my smoke mixed with the fog of my breath in the chilled air.

"Yeah." He said softly making Megan cackle at him. That seemed to get him because all of a sudden he was roaring with laughter. He didn't stop either, he didn't even stop when he was laughing so hard tears were streaming down his face.

We all took another hit and this time Tiffany gagged.

"Don't swallow the smoke, dummy." I told her.

"I don't try!" She said, slapping me across the chest with the back of her tiny hand.

"I didn't even feel that." I said with a grin, taking as deep an inhale as I could.

Megan mimicked me only she held it in for as long as humanly possible before shooting the smoke out of her nose.

After about 15 minutes we were all pretty much like Luke.

"Maybe this was a bad idea." I said, not believing how light my head felt. It was like a balloon filled with helium ready to fly away.

"My mouth is fucking dry as shit." Tiffany responded.

"There's...some water over here." Megan laughed, pointing to this pond.

The look on Tiffany's face made me lose it.

Luke at some point had gotten up and was doing nothing productive to Megan's hair. He was just touching it over and over. Sometimes he'd braid it and then other times he'd just shake it everywhere.

"You going to be okay over there?" I asked him, taking out my pack of cigs from my pocket and tossing one to everybody.

He ignored me as Megan and Tiffany picked up the cigarettes. Once Megan had hers lit, she turned to Luke. "Somebody was talking to you." She said, handing him a cigarette.

"What?" He asked vacantly, taking the cigarette from her hands.

"Are you gonna be okay, man? You're really out of it." I repeated.

"I feel like I could eat a whole grocery store."

Tiffany's face was not easy to describe right now, and the only way I could do it was by saying if it was a text message, it would have just been a series of exclamation points and nothing else.

"Should we set these fucking things off?" I asked Megan. My eyes felt heavy.

"Maybe another weekend." She said. "It's late and it's cold. We could do it for New Year's when anybody seeing it is less likely to send the cops out on 4 kids with alcohol and marijuana."

"Very true." I said, standing up.

Megan joined me and pulled Luke up and thrust him at Tiffany. "There's two pizzas in the freezer. Take him inside and get that shit started."

"Absolutely." Tiffany nodded. "Come on Luke let's go make some god damn food before we starve to death."

Once we watched them wobble away, I opened my trunk and started putting the fireworks back while Megan folded up the blanket.

"Have you noticed anything weird going on with Luke lately?" She finally asked me as she shoved the blanket back into the car.

I furrowed my brow and looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"Is he like...secretive? With you, I mean."

I laughed. I knew she was onto him. "Secretive? No. We don't hang like we used to though. So if he is, maybe I'm just not picking up on it. Why?"

"I dunno." She admitted. "Just something about him has been way off and I can't put my finger on it. Once upon a time I believe he would have let me read his journal and now he won't let me near it. I feel like he's hiding something but I couldn't tell you what that was or why I'm thinking that. It's just weird."

I finished putting the fireworks back and closed the trunk before coming to the side of the car and leaning against it with her. "Luke is like a cat."

Megan's stoned brain had trouble processing what I said just as I had trouble wording things with my stoned brain. "Yeah?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Cats don't show that they're in pain or that they're sick. It's how they survive. They can't show it or they're likely to get scooped up and eaten by something bigger so they just don't show that stuff. Luke is like that. If he's hurting or anything he's not going to want to show it because he wants to appear strong."

"I guess I understand. I asked to see his journal once and he just told me it was personal stuff that he gets over. Just shit that bothered him. So that makes sense. I just wish I could help him and I don't know that I can if I don't know what's wrong." She scratched her head full of hair which Luke had made a mess by playing in it.

My fucking brain was thinking up a million ways to keep her out of his business. To give her a lie that would make her stay away from the business Luke was plotting in that journal. "I've read it." I lied.

She looked at me excitedly. "What's in it?"

"We've talked about it before but mainly it's him saying he doesn't think he's good enough to have you. He rants about me. He rants about Tiffany. That's where he blows off steam. I'm sure you've had those days where little shit just bugs you really bad. That's what he writes about. It's just a way for him to get it off his chest and out of his system. I swear to you it's fucking nothing. It's just where he keeps his pissed off teenager thoughts. If he doesn't show it to you, it's just because he feels embarrassed that stupid shit like that gets to him. He deals with it, and that's how he does it. He's kept a journal like that since I've met him. Don't worry."

The relief that gave Megan was clearly visible. "Thanks, Tyler."

"Let's get inside before they manage to burn the house down trying to make a pizza."

Nodding we walked in, watching Luke and Tiffany sitting in front of the oven.

"What the fuck?" I asked. "What the hell are you guys doing?"

"We're watching it cook, duh." Tiffany responded without even looking away.

Megan laughed so hard she fell down. Luke scrambled to help her up but she had tears in her eyes still. Taking a deep breath she turned the oven on.

"You guys are stupid." She smiled.