Drunk

Naturally she didn't believe in love or relationships it was obvious in all of her actions in just the short time I had spent in her presence so far. She wore it in her walk and her talk and in the way she worked so hard to appear so sure of herself. Naturally someone like her put up walls and set restrictions. From what I learned from our drunken game last night the only love she had ever seen was through her mother's experiences and every chance she took ended in divorce. In Kingsley's mind love was living in the dust kicked up by someone else's feet. It was let down after let down broken up with short intervals of intense happiness. She would never waste her time. I bet she hadn't even tried.

I wondered to myself what it would take - what it would be like even - to change her mind.

"When was your last boyfriend?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Third grade." She replied simply taking another sip.

"That does not count." I informed her slowly as if I were explaining the rules of a game we weren't even playing to an illiterate.

"S'all I got curly." She told me with a shrug. "It counted to me until I caught him kissing my cousin under the tree in my own back yard."

"Did you burn their houses down?" I asked.

"Nahh. Not quite. I did however cut Amber's hair off while she was sleeping."

Then it clicked for me for a second. "Amber at the party last night?"

At this she laughed for a second throwing her back in a way that looked like it should be slow motion in a movie before returning her eyes to me and shaking her head slowly. "No. She is in no way related to me."

"Then why were you giving her eyes?" I asked wondering at what point I would over step my boundaries but up until this point it seemed Kingsley was an open book offering any information I wanted without a care.

At this though she got quite. Looking at the Jack bottle as if deciding if she was too drunk to take another sip if for nothing more than to entertain herself.

"She thinks I tried to sleep with her ridiculous older musician boyfriend with god awful sideburns who said the word "pretentious" more times in one day then I have in my whole life." She scoffed passing it off as a joke though I knew there was more to it just from her actions. In that moment she didn't seem quite as sure of herself or as blunt and forth coming as she usually was but at this point I decided that was probably my boundary and opted for a subject change.

The alcohol had started to take its effect as the world was seeming to lose focus and blur around the edges and I couldn't imagine how she was still coherent at all having drank a bit more than me. Suddenly even sitting up the way we were became a task and I found myself having to lay back on the towel with hands folded beneath my head.

"I'm drunk." She informed me as if reading my thoughts and she flopped backwards onto her towel. "I was planning on swimming but I'm 'fraid if I get in the water now I'll drown." She said with a smile.

"I wouldn't let you drown." I said honestly.

"You're drunker than me curly." She said with an adorable giggle.

I thought about this for a second before propping myself up on my elbows and looking down on her. I have to admit looking at her from this angle with the light from the now setting sun on her face and her blonde hair splayed around her and her lips pulled up in a smirk it was difficult not to kiss her. She hadn't even mentioned last night and I was starting to wonder if she even remembered or if this was the kind of thing she was use to and she didn't even feel the need to bring it up again. Either way I was struggling with not being weird or staring at her too long but the drunker I got the harder it became.

"Maybe but I still wouldn't let you drown." I said with a frown. To this she just shook her head with that smirk still plastered to her face.

"S'bout to rain anyway." she pointed out lazily directing a finger to the sky.

She was right. The sky hadn't been growing darker just because the sun was going down. There were dark rain clouds hanging over us and as if on cue the first rain drop fell smacking me right in the fore head and I glanced to the water to see Zayn and Cammi heading our way.

In mere seconds the sky opened up in a torrential down pouring and we were scouring for our things before they all got completely soaked but it was a useless effort as I could already feel the tissue of my shirt sticking to my body completely soaked and my curls dripping water.

I glanced over at Kingsley to see she had for the most part abandoned her efforts. She had her arms spread and her face turned to the sky with an open mouthed drunken smile and even drunk and stumbling in the pouring rain she was a type of beautiful almost impossible to describe in words. her brown eyes were wild and her hair stuck to her face in places but the smile she had was simple and bright and excited like a child experiencing something for the first time and I stared at it for a moment to commit it to memory before she snapped her focus to me with that same smile just as Zayn and Cammi reached us grabbing their bags.

Kingsley grabbed hers at the same time I did mine and then she grabbed my hand in hers tightly and pulled me along with her as we ran giggling and tripping over our own limbs in an attempt to reach shelter.

When we finally made it to the porch we were both giggling like drunken school children clutching our stomachs and gasping for air. She easily let go of my hand and proceeded to pull her cover up off leaving her in just her bikini. She plopped down in a chair at the very same table we had our game at last night. She folded her legs at the ankle and propped them on the table as she rummaged through her bag coming up with a cigarette and a lighter.

I stared at her for a moment eyes trailing down her body before I heard someone clear their throat right next to my ear. I spun around completely facing Zayn's smirking face so Kingsley didn't see the flame rising in my cheeks.

"We're just gonna go on upstairs and watch a movie. Are you two coming in?" Cammi spoke with a smirk identical to Zayn's and when I turned to see Kingsley she looked nothing more than bored as she rummaged through her partially soaked bag for something with a cigarette dangling from the long fingers of her right hand.

"Mhm." She hummed. "After this joe. I'm bout to order pizza to soak up the drunk. You want anything?" She was still digging through her bag not even looking up.

Zayn shook his head and Cammi announced that they didn't want any before grabbing his hand and leading him inside and straight up the stairs no doubt to finish what they had started in the water.

I took the seat next to Kingsley and she finally located her phone yanking it out of her bag with a triumphant grin.

"What sort of pizza do you like curly?" She asked tilting her head to the side in a way I noticed she did most every time she asked a question.

I shook my head mumbling something along the lines of 'doesn't matter.' And tilted my head back to look at the roof of the porch in an attempt not to look at her as scenes of what happened on this very table last night kept playing through my head and I wondered how it was so easy for everything to be so casual and non-awkward to her.

"Any allergies I should know of?" She asked and at that I brought my eyes back to her and shook my head slowly giving her a look.

She just shrugged. "I almost killed some guy Cammi slept with once. I was trying to be nice and when he came down to leave I handed him a peanut butter granola bar for his hangover and turns up he's allergic to peanuts. It was quite traumatic. I had to call an ambulance and everything and I don't cope well in stressful situations when I'm sober. Needless to say he never called her back. I make it a habit to ask people allergies 'fore I feed them now."

I laughed at this and watched as she searched for the number to the pizza delivery. I was slightly more sober than before the rain but my tongue still felt thick and my limbs were heavy and lazy.

"You can go change in the down stairs bathroom and I'll be in after I order." She told me holding the phone to her ear and taking a long drag from her cigarette.

I nodded and stood up.

"The door off the living room."

I just nodded again grabbing my bag dragging myself in the direction of the door. When I opened it the cold air hit me and I shivered glancing around until I located the door. I had air dried a little so I wasn't dripping but I was still wet and my curls were an unruly sight. I sighed and reached in my bag grabbing out a pair of grey sweats and a black t shirt as well as a brown 'scarf' as Kingsley called it and I smiled at the memory of her picking on me for it from only this morning.

I changed my clothes and tied the headband in my hair to keep my curls from my face before stuffing the wet ones in a plastic bag I brought and setting them with the rest of my belongings.

When I walked out Kingsley was already sat on the couch in short black shorts and an oversized white t shirt. Her hair was near dry in kinks falling in her face and she was staring down at her phone with a deeply concentrated look on her face. I sat down next to her at a distance that put just enough space between us so that our legs weren't touching but she swung around so that her mostly bare legs hung over the arm rest and settled her head in my lap so naturally it was as if there weren't just two thin layers separating her face from my crotch. I was beginning to wonder if she was doing this on purpose just to mess with me or if this really was just in her nature in such a way she didn't even notice.

"My mom keeps trying to text me. Too drunk to deal with her being drunk." She mumbled tossing the phone on the coffee table and shutting her eyes.

For a moment I thought she was sleeping until the doorbell rang and she hopped up to retrieve the pizza.

I briefly thought about her answering the door in those shorts but then I realized we were hardly even friends having only hung out twice. If she'd wear them in front of me she'd surely wear them in front of any one. She was in her knickers the first time I saw her.

She got the pizza and paid the man at the door before turning and heading for the stairs.

She reached the second step before turning back to see if I was following. "Coming?" She asked.

I gave her a face.

"I won't try to rape you or anything." She did remember last night." 'Sides my tv's bigger and my beds comfier."

I shrugged and got up to follow her.

Her room was for the most part exactly as I thought it would have been. It was messy with clothes thrown everywhere. She wasn't lying about the TV. It was huge mounted on the wall. Her bed was huge as well taking up a good bit of space. It was in the shape of a circle covered in a large fluffy white comforter with at least six black pillows strewn across it.

She sat on the bed cross legged with the pizza box in from of her and motioned for me to join her. I sat in front of her on the other side of the box and she flipped the TV on and started searching through the channels before settling on re run of How I Met Your Mother.

We chewed in comfortable silence for a bit before set down the second half of her third piece and let out a breath.

"I feel better now." She announced and I watched curiously as she crossed the room on and climbed her dresser. She then opened the small window just above it before pulling open the top drawer of the dresser and rummaging through it coming up with a lighter and a cigarette. She brought the cigarette to her lips and lit it discarding the lighter. She had one knee pulled up to her chest and the other dangling off the dresser as she aimed her smoke out of the open window.

She didn't even look at me as she spoke. "What was her name?"

"Who?" I asked with my eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"The girl that left." She said simply and I cringed a little but then I realized I had hardly thought of her the past two days.

"Mona."

"Mona." She repeated the name nodding her head as if the name helped her understand. "Why'd she leave?"

She was still looking out the window still acting as if she wasn't interested but I knew she was or she wouldn't have asked.

I shrugged even though she couldn't see it. "I guess I scared her off. I said I loved her. She didn't say it back and acted real strange the whole following week. I figured she'd dump me not leave town. I went to her apartment and everything. Empty. I don't think she left because of me I assume she was planning on it but she could have said something. She could have told me. I guess she didn't have the nerve after I went and told her that."

I ended it with another shrug as if it wasn't a big deal even though it was. I was amazed by how easy it was to talk to Kingsley about this. When I finally looked up from my pizza she was looking at me with unreadable expression.

"Cowardly." She said after a moment. "I may be a bitch in a few ways but I would never leave someone hanging like that."

I was little taken aback by how strongly she seemed to feel about this. She turned her face back to the window and continued smoking. "I wonder how my dad left my mom sometimes. I mean I was obviously the reason but how do you go about leaving someone in that situation. I wonder if he just skipped town and stopped answering her calls."

I stared at her for a minute blinking a few times wondering how she could talk about something so personal with me so easily as if it wasn't even an important matter. I silently wondered of she'd talk about this with any other person as casually. "Why don't you ask your mom?"

She turned to look at me with a small smile. "She'd rather light herself on fire than talk about him."

She tossed the cigarette out the window into the rain closing it and slid off the dresser before walking over and grabbing the empty pizza box exiting the room without another word.

I stared at the door for the moments it took her to return. She walked right back in and got back in the bed burrowing into the covers and motioning for me to join her.

I got in under the covers on the other side of the bed leaving a generous amount of space between us turning my eyes to the in which another rerun of How I Met Your Mother was playing.

"'M sleepy." She mumbled running her hands over her face. I had to admit the day and the alcohol had taken its toll on me as well and my lids were growing heavy.

"After this episode you can have the guest room. Door directly across the hall." She informed me and I nodded even though I was sure we were both already drifting.