Illuminate

Kelly (flashback)

Parker took three shot glasses and filled them to the brim with tequila.

“Okay, Kelly, I’m gonna make you a deal,” he slurs.

“Yeah? Go for it.”

“If I manage to hold down these three shots, you have to kiss me.”

Kelly snorted. “I’d do that anyway, idiot.”

Parker’s eyebrows shot up, his eyes practically popping out of his skull as he stared at the (very intoxicated) blue-eyed beauty standing (more like swaying) in front of him just feet away. He gulped harshly, blinking a few times to check if he was hallucinating. Then, out of nowhere he did what he’d wanted to do for years.

He took two big steps forward and collided his lips directly onto hers, placing one hand on her jaw and the other around her waist. Kelly’s body immediately warmed up to his as they shared the most passionate kiss of their lives. Parker’s hands slowly trailed down her thin frame before reaching her upper thighs, mumbling a “jump” in order to have her wrap her legs around his hips.

Their kiss never broke, and Parker stumbled over to the counter to gently place her atop of it. Parker used his now free hands to destructively clear off the counter around her, effectively pouring over the shot glasses and creating the biggest mess on the counter but he couldn’t care less.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this,” Parker confessed, shifting his attention to leave bite marks on the base of her neck. However, all Kelly could process was how heavenly his touch was. “Fuck that John guy. You’re mine now,” he murmured, going over her previously existing hickies to darken them and symbolically mark himself onto her.

“Bed, now,” Kelly managed to say, though she didn’t want him to stop, not even for a millisecond.

Parker picked her back up with ease.

“Your room or mine?” he murmured against her skin.

“Yours.”

They kissed once again as he walked towards the general direction of the hallway, removing each other’s shirts as they travelled. Parker, still being a drunk mess despite the fact that he’d sobered up immensely in the last five minutes, ran into a wall, causing Kelly to grunt before bursting into laughter. He let her down gently onto the floor.

“Sorry,” he laughed. “S’accident, I swear.”

Kelly responded by unashamedly unbuttoning her jeans right in front of him, using the wall to support her balance. Parker stared at her in shock for probably the thousandth time since they’d met. However, he was quick to follow suit. He then lunged forward for her again, wrapping his arms around her.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Kelly,” he told her, picking her up once again, bridal style this time, to take her to his room for the best night of his life.

*

Simone

It was now nearly one o’clock in the afternoon that Sunday, and Simone gave up hope that either one of her friends would wake up any time soon. Quite honestly, after hearing their night, she wasn’t too sure she could look them in the eye for a while anyway. She decided to call one of her best friends back home.

“What’s up, buddy?” Kevin answered, not bothering with a typical greeting.

“Hey, friend,” Simone greeted from the warmth of her bed. “How are you?”

“I’m good. It’s hot as ass here. How’s it there?”

“I’m currently trying not to die for multiple reasons,” she admitted honestly with a sigh that she couldn’t hold in.

“Why’s that?”

“Firstly, it’s fucking freezing in this apartment and I’m too confined to my bed for two reasons in that alone. One, it’s managed to hold some of my body heat and if I leave my bed I die. Two, if I see Kelly or Parker I might die too. So this is my basic survival. Kelly and Parker had sex last night and that’s really weird because, like, as everyone except Kelly knows, or knew, I don’t even know anymore but anyway Parker’s in love with the girl but he’s never done anything about it and Kelly’s never said a word to me about having feelings for him which I would think would’ve happened by now and it hasn’t.”

There was a pause on the end of the line, signaling for Simone to continue. This is why she loved Kevin. He was such a good listener and could handle/translate all of her rants, getting her to calm down and sort it all out better than anyone else ever could.

“I met a boy almost 48 hours ago and I’m feeling a significant amount of shame. I’m practically obsessed. Well, I am obsessed and it’s really bad but Kevin, he’s just like me but even better. Not as shitty, anyway. He’s an improved version of me. He likes Bukowski and he’s the British Adonis-”

“British Adonis?” Kevin asked. Simone hummed in confirmation. “Continue.”

“So yeah, he’s from England and he’s smart and beautiful and he’s my British Adonis, except he’s not really mine because I haven’t even known him for two days and he wouldn’t ever been interested in me anyway because he’s too smart for that. Oh, and I’m on the other side of the fucking country and I start at a new school tomorrow and I don’t even know how I got accepted into this damn place because I’m stupid as shit.”

Another pause on the line.

“I’m done now,” Simone sighed, catching her breath. “Thanks.”

“Firstly, that is really peculiar about Parker and Kelly so if I were you I’d try to find out what’s going on with that, not as a nosy bitch but more so as a concerned friend and roommate trying to keep peace and order within the living space,” Kevin told her calmly, making Simone nod her head in agreement even though he obviously couldn’t see. “But I would also advise waiting until you could look either or both parties in the eye. And about this ‘British Adonis,’" Kevin teased, "I’m sure you’ll calm down soon. You know how you are. Bless your heart but you’ve gotta stop idealizing people. If you do that you’ll dismiss all the inevitable flaws these people have, no matter how significant these flaws are.”

Simone opened her mouth to retort, Kevin began to speak again.

“And I’m not saying you’ve been asking for the pain that’s been brought onto you. That’s not your fault. I’m just saying you should try harder to reduce the garbage that gets dragged into you life. Also, you definitely wouldn’t have gotten accepted if you weren’t dumb. So stop that.”

Kevin and Simone talked on the phone for an hour more, catching up on each other and talking about random shit in general. Eventually, he had to get off the phone to go to work, so Simone decided to leave the confines of her bed to get some food from the kitchen. She compromised, wrapping her blanket around her body before getting up. The extra dragged behind her as she walked but she didn’t care. She grabbed a banana off the counter and peeled half of it, taking a bite of it and humming in appreciation.

Not even a moment later, a purple bed head opened the door in the hallway and stormed out, making an A-line for the front door despite the fact that she was only wearing a large t-shirt.

“Fuck you, Parker!” she shouted angrily, not even noticing her friend staring in the kitchen in silence, before leaving the apartment and slamming the door behind her.

“Fuck you! God damn it!” he shouted in his room, followed by a loud crash echoing throughout the apartment. A few minutes later an even angrier Parker emerged from the room, him too ignoring Simone and slamming the door behind him.

“God forbid we have even a day of no drama,” Simone murmured to herself while shaking her head. She took another bite of her banana before sulking off to her room, deciding that the only solution to her problems now was to sleep the day away.