On The Edge

A Friends episode was heard throughout the entire apartment. The conversations reached his ears and he chuckled half-heartedly at the jokes, only having slid in this show as an attempt to cheer himself up. The idea may not have been the best one but it's better than sitting on his bed, curled up, teardrops hitting the guitar strings. Ed blinked away the scenarios of himself, crying, actually ashamed that this has delved that low. He laughed at himself. 

Blue eyes scoped the contents of his fridge looking for another bottle of beer. He had to move things around, pushing moldy food aside, touching things that shouldn't be in a fridge as he searched for the bottle. Ginger eyebrows furrowed - this wasn't his and this is definitely not a brand on his top five. He remembered that this was her favourite brand of vodka. 

Grunting, he uncurled his hunched back and ripped the bottle lid off with a flick of his teeth. It didn't matter if the liquid burning his throat was her preference - it's alcohol he needed and this drink had plenty of it. He turned around, kicking the fridge door closed. Normally this type of gesture would've earned a smug smile since he felt badass when he achieved the small, silly things like this.

He grabbed a packet of chips. Ed merely shoved a hand into the packet since it had been already ripped open. A handful of the snack was forced into his hungry hole and the crunching sounds could be heard as he's chewing with mouth wide open. The careless man plopped back down onto his couch, deliberately setting his legs across the whole seat and pushing a box of pizza off the couch. 

Joey said a simple-minded comment and the ginger man finally chuckled. He stretched an arm out, maximizing the already loud enough volume of the television. As he did so, he took another swig of the drink and almost gagged. Disgusted eyes glared at the bottle. Why? How could alcohol even be allowed to taste so...tasty? It may seem as if he understood women, coming from the media, but in all honest, no human can unfold the secrets and the mind of women.

The scent of apples reach his nose. The smell tickles his senses, his mind morphing into wonderful images forming from that simple scent. Leigh moves around and her head is even closer to his face; he gains another whiff. Eyes shut, he revels in the ever soothing scent of his girlfriend not doubting her choice of shampoo. 

His arm moves from the couch to her waist. The crook of his elbow is folding against the side of her torso while his forearm cradles her body. She wiggles around, Trying to get comfortable with the new position. Her body is slightly leaning on his and their legs are tangled together like the vines growing on some sort of rock formation around the buildings on the other side of the street.

"You smell so great," he murmured. Ed cranes his neck down only to simply nuzzle his nose against the top of her head, for the scent is too intoxicating to not want.

She laughs lightly. "That's what you always say." 

"But it's true." 

The couple gingerly sigh, everything from their thoughts and actions mirroring each other. They both watched the movie with wanted eagerness, eyes plastered on the screen examining each scene - though they loved this film to its last words of the credits, not one of them even paid much attention. They were both too busy wallowing in the sense of romance and contentment of being next to each other. It was one of those moments. One that everyone wanted to last an eternity. 

Since the movie is on tv, the advertisements come on. Leigh reluctantly slides out of her boyfriend's hold only to reach for the two bottles set on the coffee table. She hands the beer to her ginger companion while she sips on her vodka drink. She feels his breath on her neck and can smell a faint scent of beer and scrunches up her nose. 

"I still don't understand why you drink that," she says, grimacing at the bottle. "It tastes filthy."

Ed snorts, taking another round. "At least I'm not drinking some liquid that doesn't even seem like it has alcohol in it. Alcohol isn't meant to taste fruity and nice. It should be like bloody alcohol." He flashes her a winning grin. 

"If I'm gonna be getting drunk, I at least wanna be tasting something decent." 

"I think I have pretty good taste, excuse you," he feigns being offended, leaning down to press a pair of loving lips against the base of her neck. This gesture results with a shiver along her body causing Ed to grin cheekily at this. "I mean, I think you're pretty beautiful."

She laughs lightly, turning her neck sideways so their faces are angled towards one another. An eyebrow is raised as she says, "What is it you want Ed?"

"Now I can't even tell the truth without you accusing me?" 

"No," she teases before pressing their lips together. 

Leigh scrambles from her position to face his body and wrap her legs around his torso. Fingers grip red hair, requesting for entrance and finally, with a soft moan, their tongues find each other, dancing gracefully without hesitance. The alcohol makes the passionate lip-lock feel even more intoxicating. It's in moments like this that he appreciates her tastes.

The man perched lazily on the couch groaned. Even when attempting to get wasted - something Leigh wasn't so fond of - he was still reminded of his ex-girlfriend. That word felt weird on his tongue and mind. He still wasn't used to the fact that she wasn't his anymore and he never thought he'd have to learn to live with it.

He had really thought that she was the one. That Leigh was the one and only, the 'one', soulmate, twin flame; the partner all those chick flicks portray and the ones lusting after romance say. He was never one to give a label to a person you'd want to spend the rest of your life with, unless husband or wife, of course.

Nonetheless he was one hundred percent sure that Leigh was it. She was the one he knew would make him happy in the near and far future, make him laugh even on his last days of living. The girl that he wanted to raise children with even though the thought of being a father terrified him. If Leigh was there, he knew he could get through anything. 

Ed placed the bottle back onto the coffee table. There was something in the back of his mind aching to be remembered. He paused for a second before realizing that she had a stash of beer hidden at the back of a cupboard. 

The thought of real alcohol entering his bloodstream made him feel intoxicated even then. Images of things he could do when fueled with the right liquid entered his mind and he grinned. He'd been trying to get the courage to call the girl haunting his thoughts but was always stopped by the thought of another rejection and brisk goodbye. 

He knew that drinking would lead him to be brave enough to do that. Ed knew she secretly hated drunk calls, though she chuckled when her friends called her on the brink of vomiting up everything while under the alcohol spell. He didn't know if  drunk calling her would make get him pushed further away but he needed to try. And he could explain everything to her. 

Half an hour later, after he'd found the pack of beer, Ed's head was spinning. His vision blurring with threatening tears and he grabbed his phone searching for her name. It wasn't difficult as her number was first on the list despite her name starting with an L. He added a 1 before her name so she'd be up first.

His thumb was a breadth of hair away from pressing the call button when a knock interrupted him. He groaned in frustration then silenced himself as he could pretend nobody was home. At the thought he smiled to him wondering how big of an idiot he was. 

"Ed, I know you're here!" they exclaimed. "I know you're in there ya bastard so open the damn door!" 

The series of knocks were obnoxious and he felt a heavy pounding in his head. Great, a headache while drunk and upset. With a grunt, he dropped the phone on the couch and didn't even bother with a quick tidy up or to hide his empty bottles before getting up to answer the door. 

His head throbbed painfully. Ed gripped the door handle, feeling like the floor beneath would collapse and swallow him whole. Maybe that was what he needed to get out of this misery he was wallowing in. Fainting sounded good too, but he didn't think he had a choice in that one. 

"Could this day get any worse?" he muttered angrily to himself. He looked through the peephole and mentally screamed out profanities. There was no way he needed a visitor and specially not her, anyone but her. 

She knocked again. "I know you Ed. So open the door and let your fave cousin in."

He knew he should've have said that. He practically cursed himself.