One

and I could try to explain to you why this happened, why I feel like this all the time, why it had to go down the way it did, but you still wouldn’t understand so I suppose that's why I'm going to tell you anyway just not now. Eventually. Right now, I'm in the pool with her legs around my waist, my arms around her neck. This is the happiest I've felt all week. I could say I always feel this way with Sarah, but I don't. Normally, she's a pain in the a*s. She's so much of a pain that even when I run into her friends or family they tell me they wouldn’t blame me if I did anything to get away. But for moments like this, I put up with her. In the background, the dance music rattles the giant windows and glass door that keeps everyone inside the house where I like them, except for Tracey, who is just sitting there on the bench next to us staring at her phone. I say staring at her phone because it's very unlikely that Tracey has any other friends because if she did, she would not feel the need to be bothering us every second of every goddamn day.  Anyways, as she majestically hangs from my waist and talks about her day, I look into her eyes and smile. I smile and nod. Say “uh huh” and “oh yeah?” and s**t like that. She says something about a Killers show and right as I'm about to offer to take her, I hear sirens and after a few seconds, red and blue lights appear in front of the house, visible through the glass walls; the chaos of minors with alcohol and drugs trying to escape prompt us to jump out of the pool and throw minimal clothing on. I give her a lift up over the high fence and climb it myself as I hear Tracey yell “Hey don't leave me here!” which I ignore before we run to my car down the block, get in and start driving away.
            We pull around the front and see some people walking off the front lawn to their homes and some people getting arrested and some lucky people who got to drive away. I turn around the corner to get a better look at the people getting arrested when I see Tracey hiding in the bushes on the side of the house, trying to sneak away. Sarah asks if I have any cigarettes and starts looking in the mirror and doing something to her eyes and hair. “Here you go.” I tell her as I light one up and hand her the rest of the pack. “Keep it; I’ve got more in the glove box.” It’s still early and there’s nothing to do at my house except f**k and I’m not really in the mood so I ask her what she wants to do. “I don’t CARE Michael, I don’t care.” I’m not really in the mood to argue with her about it, so I just drive to the Quicker Liquor because I know for a fact that Slim works tonight or else he would’ve been at the party kissing Chris’ a*s, like always.
            “Didn’t think I’d see you here tonight Mike,” he casually says as he hands a middle aged man his change. “Yeah, the party got raided so Sarah and I pulled out early.” He then asks if Chris got caught to which I give him a false account that I saw him driving away. Then he started talking about some girl he had over last night. I took this as an opportunity to browse for a handle while I threw in the occasional “you don’t say?” and “oh s**t, really?”

He was finishing as I approached the counter. “I can’t believe she used her teeth man, her f*****g teeth!”

“Listen here, Slim. When she does that, just give her a little slap. Let her know that’s not how it’s done. And if you can get me an eight ball, that’d be great.” I gave him two hundreds and a fifty and walked out.
            I got to the car and we drove off toward the countryside to this lake Sarah and I like to go to when we’re drinking. It’s only a few miles off a back road and there’s an old gate that’s not too hard to jump. She asks me what I got to drink.

“I bought Grey Goose and Maker’s Mark babe, same s**t I always get.”
            “Well, f**k did you score any blow?” She looks kind of pissed off now, but I have no idea why.
            “I asked Slim for some, but he probably can’t get it for me until the AM.” I look at her, trying to guess what she’s thinking, but she doesn’t respond. She just reaches into her purse, pulls out a bag of pills, and pops a few Oxycontin.

Soon enough we get to the lake and we’re sitting there talking, looking up at the moon, and getting pretty wasted just drinking the alcohol alone. I start telling her how I love her like this, just simple and fun. I tell her I love her when she looks at me like I’m the only one that matters, because although I’ve been quite a s****y boyfriend, she’s been a worse girlfriend. And after all the s**t we have been through, well, f**k. I didn’t know if we’d survive another break-up. Which sends some gears turning, I suppose because the next thing I know she’s on top of me and she’s ripping my shirt off and kissing me and I just lay back and watch the stars in the sky spin, feeling bliss. She makes her way down my stomach and then rips her shirt off. As she looks down at me, I feel complete. She’s perfect, just absolutely perfect.
            “Michael, I have to tell you something.” She says, as she lies down on top of me, pressing her perfect body against mine. I ask her what it is and I should know better by now not to listen to things I know I don’t want to hear, but in this moment I feel like nothing could go wrong.
            “I think this is the last time we’re going to do this. I care about you, and I love you, but I can’t do this whole girlfriend/boyfriend thing anymore.” Imagine my surprise. She’s f*****g around on me again.

“Umm. Sarah, why would you…? Why would you say that?” I can feel my heart start beating faster against her warm, perfect skin.

“It’s just that my parents are going through their divorce and my shrink says that I should be careful in relationships so I don’t hurt anyone and I don’t know what to do. I just don’t want to hurt you. There’s so much s**t going on next semester and right now there’s a lot of crap on my mind and I just think we should take a break for a while.”
            I just stared at her. There was nothing I could say that could make this lump in my throat go away. “So, I don’t think I’m in the mood anymore Sarah. I think I should just take you home. There’s nothing I can say. Just… f**k.” She insists on me leaving her there to gather her thoughts and that she would call Tracey for a ride. I tried to convince her to let me stay with her, in case some wild animal came along but she pushed me away. So, I just got in my car and drove home. When I got there, the house was empty, except for Emily, my sister, on the couch, swapping spit with her loser boyfriend. I went up to my room, opened the balcony door, and just screamed. As loud as I could, I screamed. My neighbor’s dog started barking and I yelled at him too. I just felt like s**t.

I found my Rocky Horror DVD from my shelf, put it on and packed a bowl at my desk. I sat down on my beanbag chair, smoked it, and the last thing I remember was singing along to Time Warp.

~

I wipe the sweat off my forehead and look down at this… thing. She’s bent perpendicular to this bed with silk sheets and I’m on top. How did I end up here? The last thing I remember was hanging out with everyone at the party, drinking, and the next thing I know I’m over this mammoth of a thing just taking care of business… and where? Am I even hard? F**k. Let me break this down in my mind. Her hair looks like a bird’s nest, but that isn’t the problem. She appears to have hair all over her back and I look down and can’t even see myself entering her. She’s so large that I fear for our lives at this very moment, as if McDonald’s will claim its right to her life right when she’s in bed with me and I’ll be stuck having to explain what happened. My name will be in the paper, everyone will know she died f*****g me.

            “Yes baby, harder!”  I hear the creature squeak out in between sweaty groans and dense laboring breaths. I can’t believe this. I’m actually hard. I push myself off of her and back up against the wall behind me. I try to gather my thoughts as I look down at my lanky body covered in sweat and strands of loose hair. She turns around and asks me if I want to do anal. I sidestep and almost trip on a bottle of vodka while I try to process the whole scene.

            “I’m so sorry, umm,” who the f**k was this person? “Err, I’m really sorry but I’ve got to go. You’ve been lovely, you really have been. I hope to see you again sometime and maybe we can… finish? If you would be so kind as to tell me where my clothes are, then I’ll be out of your way.” I cringed internally at what she could possibly say or do in anger. This mammoth-like creature could certainly crush me without hesitation.

            “You took your clothes off in the kitchen, don’t you remember?” she asks while she lays back on the too small twin sized bed and pulls the too small comforter around her body.

            “Thank you so much.” I run down a dark never-ending hallway into a large open space where I see the kitchen and find my clothes, tossed to the corner by the fridge. I throw my clothes on and check for my keys, wallet, and phone. I dash back to the room where Snuffleupagus is resting.  I say goodbye and run out the door with no intention of ever f*****g seeing her again.          

When I get outside, it’s all dark except for the streetlight a block away. I start walking towards it to get a look at what street I’m on, to find a sign of where I am. I get towards the end of the street and see a four way stop accompanied with a street sign signifying this is Oak Drive. It’s the same four-way stop I see every day I leave my parent’s house which so happens to be the corner house. I run upstairs, and take a shower, attempting to scrub every inch of my body thoroughly as to chip off the filth that was apparently the new neighbor my parents got while I was off in school. After I felt that I was clean enough, I put on some Pink Floyd, and started texting Chris. If anyone knew what happened to me last night, it would be him.

 I remember that last night I arrived at Tim’s party with him. I was going with him to try to pick up some clients, so I was holding. He urged me to have a few drinks and after I sold the supply, we sat at the bar, just downing down drinks and smoking and telling stories about college. The last thing I remember clearly was unsuccessfully trying to get this girl’s number. She appeared to be more into the douchebags trying to f**k her at the party than my conversation. I went to the bathroom and ran into… Michael? Slim? I don’t remember, but I bumped some lines and got barred out and then I blacked out. My phone vibrated, bringing me out of my mind. It was Chris. I turned off the music and answered the phone.
            He first asked if I was okay. “Yeah dude, I’m home. But f**k, you have to come over, something crazy happened.” He told me the party got raided and that he lost me and began speaking a thousand miles an hour until I just told him to get his a*s over to my house and hung up. I grabbed a Red Bull from my mini-fridge, turned the TV on to Adult Swim, opened my window, and lit up a cigarette.

Author's Note

Can you see the personalities of the characters unfolding?
How is the imagery?