Wake Me Up

I wake up to moaning. Like really loud moaning. Considering only two people live in this house, and I’m pretty positive it’s not coming from me, my dad must have brought someone home. Ugh. How he managed to pick up girls was beyond me. I look over at my clock. 9:06.

I have two options here. My dad leaves for work at 9:30. I could try to drown out their noises and wait until they leave, sneak out now. Staying is disgusting, but I could put on my ipod and hide in my bed. Leaving would mean I wouldn’t get to take a shower before going to Vic’s.

“Oh Blake!”

Oh Jesus. I scramble to find my ipod as quickly and quietly as I can. I put in my earphones and press play, mostly because anything is better than listening to that. I turn the volume on as loud as it will go. I clench my hands into fists so hard that I can feel my nails dig into the skin on the palm of my hands. I can still hear the banging on our shared wall no matter how hard I try to block it out. I peek out at my clock again. 9:15. Fifteen more minutes.

“Oh, oh! Yes! Oh my god!” the woman screams out while I just clench my pillow harder over my ears. “Blake!”

After this the banging on my wall slows to a stop. I can hear them getting up and moving around. I can hear the front door being opened, everything sounds quiet, awkward. Which is just like my father. Fuck a girl, loudly, with his son in the other room and then kick her out with in minutes. How nice. Wholesome even.

My dad gets ready for work in record time. He doesn’t stop by my room, maybe because he just doesn’t have the time maybe because the sex put him a good mood. Either way I’m glad. As soon as I hear his engine turn on and dive off I jump out of bed and make my way to the bathroom. Vic will be here at around 10 so I have half an hour to get ready. I spend 15 minutes in the shower. A lot of the hot water is gone from my dad’s shower, so by the time I get out I’m practically shivering. For five minutes I stand in only my boxers in front of my closet. Sighing I grab a pair of black jeans and any shirt. When I get out of the shower I attempt to brush my hair out a little but. I’m not very successful.

When I look at the clock again it’s 10:11. Which means Vic should have been here eleven minutes ago. What if he’s not coming? I mean we only live a few streets from each other, so why would he take this long to get here. When I finish getting ready, I start pacing my room. Right when I’m about to really start freaking out, the doorbell rings and I nearly sprint out of the room.

“Hey,” Vic says, smiling cooly as soon as I open the door. My heart does a weird thumping, somehow pushing it’s way out of rhythm. I push my way out the door, shutting it behind me without turning around.

“Hi,” I say, trying to sound as nonchalant as him. It comes out more like shy child. He grins at me anyways.

“So...are we going to my house?” He asks, looking me up and down. I look down, shuffling my feet a bit.

“Yeah, I mean if that’s okay with you and Mike,” I say, suddenly feeling awkward. Don’t get me wrong, I’d do anything to anywhere but my home, but if he didn’t want me there I would stop coming. He didn’t seem to mind when I was there the last time so...

“Duh dude,” he says, “I was just wondering if, uh, you know if you wanted to hang out here?”

“No!” I say, a little too quickly. “I mean, my dad wouldn’t like that very much. He doesn’t like messes.” I want to slap myself in the face for that lame ass excuse.

“Okay, we’ll go to mine then,” he starts walking towards the car but stops when he reaches the door, “Everything’s alright...right?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, even though I know exactly what he means. But it’s better to play dumb. If there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that playing dumb is always better.

“You know, with you...and your dad?” he says, it comes out as more of a question though. I can tell he’s nervous asking this and he should be. He doesn’t even know me. Where does he get off asking these kinds of questions?

“Yeah, of course everything’s okay. Why wouldn’t they be?” I reply. But I don’t look at him. I know that something on my face would give it away. I look too pathetic when I try to not talk about this.

“Maybe because you have bruises all over,” he says, though it sounds more like he’s saying it to himself, “Including on your face.”

“I already told you what happened,” I say. I shift my head forward, making my hair cover my face. Like a wall between us. I hear him sigh but don’t look up.

“Hey, don’t do that,” he says, he uses his right hand to brush my hair back, pushing it behind my ear. Then, tentatively, he grabs my hand out of my lap and holds. He threads our fingers together as if we’d been doing it for years. It makes me feel warm. “I still want to see your face.”

“Maybe I don’t want you to see it though,” I say, trying to make it sound playful. He laughs.

“That’s very selfish of you.”

“Me? Selfish? Never,” I say bringing my other hand up to rest over my heart.

“Yes selfish,” He says, driving towards his house, “How dare you hide such beauty from the world?”

“I don’t have much beauty to hide,” I say. I mean for it to come out jokingly, but I can tell it makes him upset. He frowns.

“Shut up,” he says, pulling into his driveway. He stops the car and then looks at me. “You’re adorable.” Before I even have time to get embarrassed he lets go of my hand and gets out of the car. I half-expect him to walk over and open my door for me. Instead he makes his way to his front door without looking back. I scramble out of the car and up to the front steps. Once I’m in the house I can see Mike laying on the couch with a sweatshirt and jeans. Which would be pretty normal except for that fact that someone if sitting on his stomach. And he doesn’t look too happy about it.

“Tony get your fat ass off of me!” he shouts, attempting to roll off the couch. Another boy with spiked up hair walks into the room with a box of fruit loops.

“Finally you’re back! Do you know how hard it is to hang out with just these two? So much sexual tension. Hey who is this?” he asks, coming up to me. He looks me up and down, almost like he’s checking me out. I squirm a bit in his gaze, very uncomfortable.

“Jaime this is Kellin,” Vic says, pointing at me, “And Kellin this is Jaime.”

“Nice to meet you Kellin,” he says, and then reaches in for a hug before I can even say anything. I hug back awkwardly and wait for him to let me go. When he does I step closer to Vic, silently wishing that I had the nerve to wrap my arm around his waist. Not in a romantic way. more in a “hey I don’t know anyone and I’m not good at this kind of stuff, help me” I don’t.

“And that is Tony,” Vic says, pointing to the laughing boy on top of Mike. Mike squirms more violently, though it seems useless.

“Kellin! You have to help me!” Mike shouts.

“Um why is he sitting on you?” I ask timidly.

“All I said was that Harry Potter was better than Star Trek!” Mike shouts.

“No, you said Star Wars was the worst thing known to man and it could never reach Harry Potter’s level,” The guy, Tony, says, “Which is obviously just not true.”

“Sorry Mike. That was just rude,” I say, and laugh when Tony grins up at me. Suddenly Mike builds enough power the flip himself over, pulling Tony down at the same time. For a second they just lay there, Tony on Mike’s chest. I’m almost positive they’re dating when they both seem to catch on to what they were doing. They both sit up, with red faces. Mike sits on the far left side while Tony sits on the far right. Oh.

“You guys are so dumb,” Vic says. He sits down, pulling me with him. I land in his lap and he wraps his arms around my waist. I’m not sure when he decide to get this touchy, but hey I’m not complaining.

“So what are we watching today?” I ask, shifting back so my back is against Vic’s chest.

“I was thinking a superhero movie,” Mike says. When he thinks no one is looking he scoots a little bit closer to Tony.

“What about Thor?” Tony asks. They all nod, thinking.

“Or X-Men?”

“What about The Amazing Spider Man?” I ask, They all look at me like I’m crazy.

“Are you serious?” Jaime asks, after some silence.

“Yeah?” I reply. I’m not sure why they’re acting like this.

“Dude no,” Mike replies, “Like never.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because it’s awful!”

“What? It can’t be that bad!” I say, because I had such high hopes for it. I mean it has Emma Stone in it and I freaking love her. But they all glare at me.

“It was so bad I wanted to claw my eyes out,” Mike says.

“It was so bad I’d rather watch Daredevil,” Jaime says.

“Or even Ghost Rider,” Vic chimes in from beneath me.

“It was so awful I’d rather watch Elektra,” Tony laughs. They all join in like it’s the most ridiculous thing anyone could have said. I don’t really keep up with superhero movies(or comic books for that matter) so I’m not sure what all of this means.

“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” Vic says, “Elektra was possibly the worst movie I’ve ever seen.”

“True,” Tony says, “Okay...How about Wolverine?”

“Yeah!” they all say. I just nod along, kind of afraid to admit that I don’t really know who Wolverine is. I feel like they would offend them, they seem to be pretty into this stuff. I watch as Mike gets everything ready while Jaime and Tony go get food.

“Hey,” Vic says, moving me around so that we’re facing each other. “You’re okay with all of this, right? All of them?”

“Yeah,” I ask, frowning at him, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You just seem...quiet,” he says.

“I’m alway quiet,” I say. He moves a little closer.

“Don’t be,” he says quietly. He moves closer, rubbing his nose against mine, “I like hearing your voice.” Just as I think he’s going to move closer, just as I think his lips are gong to brush against mine Jaime walks in and Vic pulls back swiftly. I stare at him for a second before turning back around and smiling at Jaime. I shouldn’t feel this disappointed.

We spend the next few hours watching movies(Time that I sent on Vic’s lap) and I learned a few things about super heros. Like the old Spider Man movies(the ones with Toby Maguire) were good except for the last one. And that the Avengers was awesome. And that Steve Rodgers was totally in love with Bucky Barnes. When it started to get dark out I sat up and got off of Vic.

“I’ve gotta go,” I say, smiling down at Vic. He smiles back and gets up, following me out the door. All of the guys yell out ‘Bye Kellin’ before we shut the front door. We walk to the end of the driveway before Vic stops me, grabbing my hand.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” I say, smiling. He moves closer, our noses touching.

“Hi.”

“Hello there,” I whisper back.

“Have I ever told you that I really like your eyes?” he whispers, leaning his forehead against mine.

“No I don’t think that you have,” I smile at him.

“Well I have a whole list of things I like about you,” he whispers.

“Yeah?” I raise one eyebrow, “And what are they?”

“Hmm, your hair, your nose, your lips...” he trails off.

“My lips, huh?”

“Yeah they just look so...kissable.”

“Bet they feel even better,” I whisper. He smiles and finally, finally, leans in further. I know it’s supposed to feel magical and wonderful, but this is my first kiss so it’s weird. And when Vic slips his tongue into my mouth all I can think of is how weird this all is. It tastes weird and feels weird and I’m weird and he’s weird and it’s all just weird. But I like it. I like Vic. When we pull away we keep our noses touching. My eyes are still closed.

“Are you sure you can’t stay?” Vic whispers. I smile back, but shake my head a little.

“No.”

“Is it because of your dad?” he says.

I hope he can’t feel me tense.

I push back and look at him.

“What about my dad?”

“I mean, is he...is he the reason you can’t stay?” he asks, looking down.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I reply.

“Does he..Kellin does he hurt you?” I push Vic back hard. So hard he stumbles away, looking shocked.

“Fuck you.”

“Kelin I was just-”

“No, shut the hell up. How dare you? You don’t know my father. You don’t even know me!” I shout, backing away from him.

“But Kell-”

“Fuck you,” I spit out. I’m not sure why I’m getting so defensive over my father especially considering Vic’s accusations aren’t wrong. I turn around and begin walking back home.

“Kellin!” The angry feeling in my chest only rises when he says my name. I wheel around and stomp back to him, shoving my finger into his chest.

“No you know what? You’re such a conceited little...shit head! I don’t want to stay the night with you so you come up with this story about my dad? Did you ever think that maybe I didn’t want to hang out with you? That you’re the problem?” I don’t know why I’m saying these things. I don’t know why I’m still pushing him, why I’m defending my piece of shit dad. “Or is that just so impossible for you to accept the maybe someone doesn’t want to spend all of their time with you?” he doesn’t respond so I turn around and begin walking away again.

“Kell, come on.” I raise both hands above my head and flip him, making sure he can see exactly what I’m doing.

I should’ve known it would end like this. Everything was too perfect. This whole day, meeting someone and having friends. It was all too perfect. And All good things come to an end.

All good things have to come to an end.

Especially when they're mine.