The GEEKs

37. lovers' tangle, snakeskin boots, and a spilled candle

"Oh, hey, Lizzy," a familiar nasal voice reaches my ears and does it very efficiently, seeing as Stone is standing inches away from us.

Lizzy and I both automatically pull apart just enough to tilt our heads to look at the guy, just to make sure that he's really there, that we didn't just imagine him, in which case we could move on and carry on. He is, however, actually there. "Hey," I lean back some more and bob my head once at him, wondering if I'm smiling too much and what the social etiquette here is exactly. I can't really feel my lips though so I wouldn't know if I was.

"Hey, Stone," Lizzy giggles.

"Hi, Jerry," he shuffles his usual wide stare to me. Sometimes it's really hard to tell if Stone's a walking, breathing genius or if it's just an empty vacuum behind those eyes... "Kat's looking for you, Lizzy. She's trying to go home."

"Eva doesn't want to stay longer?" Lizzy inquires sweetly and I, in the meantime, let my eyes roam over her face, down the bridge of her nose, across her skin of softest satin, along her luscious lips, her long, deep-black eyelashes...

"Eva's not here. I think she's having a mental breakdown at home or something. Not enough hours in the day, something along those lines," the doofus continues to converse casually as if he didn't just interrupt anything. "You're going back with Mudsellouts."

"They're leaving already?" I voice my wonder.

"What do you mean, already?" Stone snorts a laugh. "It's three a.m.. Lukin already puked all over the urinals."

Three!?? Swear to God, I would have guessed it's only been thirty minutes tops since they stopped playing. I guess it is true, what they say about time being relative...

"Wait...so Matt's driving?" Lizzy's expression suddenly plunges into a deeply worried frown.

"Obviously not, don't be ridiculous. Mark is."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better!?"

"It should because apparently, he didn't have any alcohol tonight. Between you and me though, he's been acting real fuckin' weird lately so he might be on something else entirely."

"Stone!" Lizzy smacks his arm and tries to give him a dirty look but laughs instead.

"I can take you home," I remember that I can also participate in this conversation instead of just watching Lizzy.

"They're literally all in the van, like, right now, just waiting for Lizzy," Stone continues to be the world's worst wingman.

"You can spend the night at my place," I blurt out blankly and stupidly as I look at Lizzy.

"No..." She sighs. "I should really get home tonight. But I'll see you soon, yeah?" She looks at me in a way that makes me feel like she can see right into my soul. Really though, three o'clock??

"Definitely," I say and lean forward, intending to kiss her, while Stone just...continues to stand there. "I'll walk you out," I tell her instead and get up from my seat.

Lizzy and I start walking towards the exit and Stone falls into step right next to us. I give him a mildly bewildered look and his eyebrows dip slightly and...nothing. I shoot him a more obviously confused look and he finally catches on.

"Oh, I'm getting a ride with them," he nods his head at Lizzy. God damn it, Stone, you fuckin' weirdo.

I walk Lizzy and Stone out to the parking lot, although I thankfully only kiss one of them goodnight. Turns out, Lizzy doesn't care about PDA's, as she sprinkles a healthy pinch of sugar on me right in front of a van full of her friends.