Soft morning light was filtering through my bedroom window, casting long yellow squares that patterned the floor. My mouth was sticky and my head ached— it felt like my brain had detached from my spine and was rattling loose in my skull. As I blinked away sleep, I was struck with two sudden realizations:
I had kissed August last night.
And then I puked all over the floor.
I cast my sheets aside and sat up in a rush, anxiously glancing around the room. Any evidence of my sickness from last night was gone; the floor had been scrubbed clean and the carpet now smelled vaguely like chemical cleaner. There was a pile of clothes neatly folded on my desk, and when I picked it up, a sticky note fluttered to my feet.
Everything's been cleaned, the note read in a messy scrawl, just make sure you drink some water. - A
"August," I said aloud, as though I could suddenly manifest him into the room. My body flushed with embarrassment as I tried to remember what had happened after I emptied the contents of my stomach all over our clothes scattered across the floor. The party floated back to me in fragments: there were a lot of drinks and longing side-eyes and the sensation of the backs of our hands brushing secretly amongst the crowd. I remembered the way his hands felt as they tangled in my hair. We had kissed, and then kissed some more, and then ended up falling on top of each other and into my bed.
But then I puked and the night had gotten a bit fuzzy.
August had been annoyed of course, but he was always annoyed, even when I wasn't projectiling fluid over his possessions. I remembered him grumbling under his breath as he got up and banged around my room.
"Don't you have any fucking quarters?" he sighed, pawing through the drawers of my desk as I lay slumped across my bed. I was spent— the last of my energy had been forcefully exiled from my body.
"You trying to rob me?" I replied, and he sighed again, pausing to flick me square in the forehead.
"I'm trying to clean up your fucking vile," he said, "For, unfortunately, the second time."
After he'd managed to gather up enough change for the laundry room, he left, carrying the bundle of our soiled clothes at an arms length.
"Wait!" I exclaimed, and he had paused in the doorway, eyebrows drawn tight. It was so late that the sun had begun to rise, soft glimmers of warmth that glowed distantly in the night. My body wanted to sleep, but my mind was wide awake and stumbling over itself to try and make sense of all that was happening. From somewhere very far, I heard the low whistle of the train.
"You don't have a shirt on," I pointed out. August looked down at his bare torso as though in surprise. I imagined a bleary-eyed student wandering through the building after a long night, shuffling past the laundry door with a casual sideways glance and being struck dumb by the appearance of August (who for all intents and purposes looked like a Greek God) sitting humbly amongst the tumbling washers and dryers, a handful of coins dwarfed in his large palm. He'd give someone a heart attack.
August frowned. "Because you puked on my shirt." His pants had somehow been spared. He turned again to leave.
"Wait!"
He sighed. I felt like he must be out of breath, from how much he was always exhaling around me. "Yes, Ruby?"
Everything had felt so blurry, so upside down. The chain August always wore lay stark on his bare chest. I had liked the way it had looked hanging between us as he balanced carefully over me. I didn't have any feelings for August, or at least I liked to say that I didn't, but I felt like I needed him here tonight, beside me. I wanted to see the way his dark hair looked fanned out across my pillow case.
YOU ARE READING
They Owned the Night
Romance"Do not try to escape," he warned me, "They'll find you. They always do. And when they do, princess, they'll make sure that you never try to leave again." Ruby always knew that there was something strange about Pine Creek. But it isn't until she mee...
