Albino | Luna
School flew by reasonably quickly, and Harley and I had Physics last on a Friday so we were able to walk to the bike sheds together. My family didn't own a car, so my transport to school was my bike, a matte baby blue one with long curved handlebars -- the sort you'd want to ride through the countryside on. Although Harleys family did have a car, on clear days like today she would ride her magenta mountain bike with me. I bent over and unlocked my bike from the rack and Harley did the same and we wheeled our bikes onto the footpath and onto the road.
It was a twenty minute bike ride to my house and slightly more to Harleys but we were both going to mine to pick up my stuff for the night. Although it was only a dinner, when the first of the season landed on a Friday or Saturday we were allowed to stay over for the night.
We pulled up into my driveway and dumped our bikes on the front lawn before running across the grass to the front door and entering my house. "Hi," I called out to anyone who would hear before heading into the living room and up the stairs to my room. My bedroom was in fact the only room upstairs, the stairs led straight to a landing that was the entire length of the living room and my bedroom door. It had initially been an open loft where Dad kept his easels, canvases and paints and all his other artsy stuff but as the family got bigger and the house got smaller they built a wall and it became my bedroom and Dad moved his art stuff into the garage alongside the shelves of Mums medicines and herbs.
I flopped on my bed and Harley took a seat on the window sill, briefly peering into Ashtons room before looking at me, "c'mon lazy ass, pack your stuff. Oh and make sure you grab your sexy lingere, Luke's gonna be there."
She winked and I groaned, throwing one of my decorative pillows at her and she ducked, letting it hit the window and causing the beads sway against each other and making rattling noises. "You should get a curtain, or blinds or something," Harley said, "Ashton probably peers at you getting changed all the time."
I shrugged, "I get changed in the bathroom after my shower in the morning and at night I just sleep in my underwear so I don't really care, he's never seen me fully naked -- I don't think." I knitted my eyebrows together before shrugging again.
"Okay well, if you don't pick your outfit for tomorrow then I will, I'll also pick your pyjamas and underwear," Harley grinned, pushing herself off the window sill and heading for my wardrobe. She pushed open the left door and pulled out my over-the-shoulder bag, throwing it at me as she started filing through my shirts. I groaned and sat up as she pulled out a top that my grandmother had made for me, made. It was literally a wearable patchwork quilt with assorted buttons, but I never had the strength to throw it out just in case she came over and wanted to see that I still had it.
"This will definitely turn Luke on," she giggled, before putting it back and pulling out a grey turtleneck long-sleeve ribbed crop top and chucking it at me as if to say 'put it in the bag'. She continued going through my tops and pulled out a black crop top with a star made from the straps across the upper chest, "pyjama top" she muttered before shutting the left door and opening the right door and going through my pants. She grabbed a pair of fleecey purple pyjama pants and chucked them at me and then a pair of black jeans.
"Now for the fun part," she chuckled, pulling open the top drawer of my shelves and digging through my underwear. She made an excited squeal as she pulled out a lacy purple thong -- in fact the only reason I had a lacy purple thong was because Harley bought it for me. She dug further amongst my underwear and found the matching bralette. It was more of a sexy pyjama set than practical underwear but she threw them at me nonetheless. She also grabbed a pair of basic black briefs and some white socks at me.
She sat down on my bed next to me and pointed out everything, "okay so tonight you are wearing the lingere set under the black crop top and pj pants and then tomorrow you wear everything else," she squealed, "please don't fuck Luke under my roof but like tease him so you can do it under your own one day soon."
I rolled my eyes at her and watched as she grabbed my seat and pushed it over to my wardrobe, standing up so she could see the top shelf. She pulled out a sealed white plastic bag and grinned, chucking it at me and I placed it in the bag with my clothes. I watched as she put the chair back and closed the wardrobe doors, pacing across the width of my room in thought.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, "toothbrush, hairbrush, make up!"
She rushed out my door and down the stairs and I groaned, standing up and heading over to my window to open it. My room was awfully warm and the Neurofen that I took earlier was wearing off and my headache was returning. I stood in front of the mirror and inspected the cut. It was miniscule, barely visible at all in fact, not something necessary to faint over. I was pathetic.
Oh gosh, Luke must have thought I was so pathetic! I didn't cry I guess, but I fainted and that's just as bad. I groaned, there was no way in hell Luke liked me, not even if Michael had confirmed it. Michael was probably just joking, typical Michael. I sighed and fell back onto my bed, the bag bouncing off and landing on the ground. Harley stormed back in, sounding like a herd of wildebeast as she pushed through the door and chucked my toothbrush and hairbrush at me, as well as a little bag of makeup. The bag in fact only contained a lip balm, mascara and a spoolie to tame my eyebrows. Although my hair was nearly whiter than my skin my eyebrows were cursed to be thick and a dark shade of brown, it didn't make sense whatsoever but I rolled with it.
I zipped up the bag and swung it over my shoulder, pulling my hair out from underneath the strap and brushing it to the otherside, "shall we go then?"
"We shall!" Harley laughed, skipping out the door and back down the stairs.
"I'll go say bye to everyone," I said, and Harley nodded, beelining straight for the front door. I headed out the back door to where Tree and River were playing swingball and Mum was watering the plants.
"I'm off," I called out and Mum looked over and waved at me, "have fun my darling moonbeam! Stay safe, I love you!"
I rushed back through the house and out to the front lawn where Harley was waiting with her bike leaning against her leg. At the sight of me she draped her other leg of the bike and sat down, foot resting on the pedal as she waited for me to balance my bag on my shoulder and prop my bike up. As soon as I was ready we pedalled out of the driveway and in the direction of Harleys house.
Harley lived with her Mum, Karen and her Dad, Daryl and of course Michael. They lived in a cute wee suburban house with a white picket fence and a tidy garden. The inside of the house was clean and well-decorated with photo frames containing childhood memories and vases with single-stem flowers. Karen was a very neat woman, her children -- not so much. Both Harley and Michaels bedrooms were a mess, the both of them had clothes, blankets, papers and rubbish scattered all through their bedrooms. I dumped my bag amongst the clothing and flopped on her unmade bed, the blankets thrown in random directions and the sheets barely even on the mattress.
"You need to clean this up," I laughed, rolling over and getting tangled with in three different blankets.
"Not all of us have clean rooms like you," Harley laughed, joining me on her bed, "I mean you're a neat freak."
"I am not a neat freak, I just like my room in order. Plus, imagine if Ashton looked into my room and saw this!" I flailed my arms about and laughed, "speaking of, where are the boys?"
"Probably in the shrine room," Harley shrugged. The shrine room was also known as the basement. As well as having a 60 inch television and a Playstation 4, Xbox One and Ninetendo Wii (and too many video games), the entire room was dedicated to DC Comic Book characters. An entire wall was covered with bookshelves containing probably every DC Comic Book ever, shelves contained figures and bobble-heads. Although Karen and Daryl seemed like normal parents they both were scarily obsessed with DC, which to me personally was a very weird obsession/hobby. Alas, they had introduced me to many new characters that I didn't know existed, such as Michael Demiurgos, the archangel that Michael was named after. There had been many dinner time conversations about the DC Universe and I could almost call myself an expert now too.
"I don't really care though," she added, "I'd rather not be in their presence while they play Fifa, like you play soccer all day at school and then come home and play in virtually," she let out a loud laugh, "bloody ridiculous."
"How many people did Karen invite this year?" I asked referring to the amount of food that had littered the entire kitchen when we walked through. Karen always went all out but this time there seemed to be twice as much food as normal.
"Probably the entire office, so like 20 people, Dad is probably inviting a few of his work mates too. It's going to be a full house. We'll probably have to eat in the shrine room with the boys. It's like Christmas but in June," she laughed.
"Fuck," I gasped. Usually there was only 20 people in total, including the Clifford family and the boys and myself, but this season there was going to easily be 40 people in total. I didn't deal well around adults, mostly because they were so different to the two adults I had grown up with and I didn't know how to handle their -- normality. Because obviously my parents were not normal. I heard the doorbell ring and I knew from this moment on I'd have to deal with repeating my name several times and telling strangers how I met Harley (first day of primary school). Thankfully, I had attended these tri-monthly dinners since they started and many of adults did happen to know me but mostly they'd forget. There was this one woman who every dinner asked who I was and when I told her she'd always respond with 'ah yes I remember you from last time!'.
"Can your house even accommodate that many?" I raised my eyebrow and turned my head to face Harley.
"Perks of having an open plan dining/living room I guess, Mum could turn it into a banquet hall if she wants."
"True."
I listened as Karen welcomed the many people into her home just across the hall. Harleys house was only one-story and Harleys room was right at the front of the house, the front door directly next to it. She groaned and I knew that she was already sick of the door opening and closely and the voices of men and women greeting Karen. Daryl wasn't set to return home until seven, and he would be bringing his guests home with him. The doorbell went off again and Harley sighed, "let's just go downstairs, fuck."
We left Harleys room and quickly said hello to Karen as she opened the door before rushing through the door that led to the basement stairs. Our feet padded on the wood as we descended and I turned into the room where the four boys were spread out along the two couches, too busy focussed on their video game to notice our presence. I walked over to the bookshelf and pulled out a comic book and studied the cover before dropping to the ground and sitting cross-legged. Harley joined me and we sat flipping through the pages of the book, silently, just waiting for one of the boys to notice us.
Of course it wasn't until Karen called out for dinner they all got up and turned around and saw us.
"Oh fuck," Michael jumped slightly, "how long have you been here?"
"'Bout an hour," Harley shrugged as we stood up and headed up the stairs, "really shows how observant you are when you're glued to a screen huh?"
Michael nudged his sister and she shoved him back twice as hard, causing him to stumble back and bang into Calum who went tumbling backwards and rolling down to the base of the stairs. We all paused and watched as he slowly stood back up and sent us a thumbs up, "all good," he chuckled, jogging back up to meet us.
We all chuckled and bounded into the kitchen to serve ourselves dinner. Of course, Karen and Daryl made sure to introduce us to all their co-workers and they all chirped over how beautiful or handsome we were. One woman questioned whether I was an albino and I shook my head, pointing to my eyebrows and telling them that my eyebrows were in fact not drawn on but naturally dark. A few nodded and before anyone else could question my appearance Karen shooed us into the kitchen to get our dinner.
"My dear," Ashton mocked the lady, "are you an albino?"
I hit him on the top of the head with my fork and he flinched, before pretending to stab me with his knife and I held up my plate as a shield.
"Come on you two," Luke chuckled, "less play, more food."
"What are ya? My mum?" Ashton snorted, moving along to stab Luke and I turned towards Harley who had nudged me. She leaned into my ear and whispered, "Luke totally split that up because you and Ashton were getting pretty close." As she leaned away she wink and I rolled my eyes at her because she was being ridiculous.
Eventually we were all back down in the basement, I had a pile of mashed potato and some roasted vegetables and a bread roll on my plate that I was happily eating. An episode of Bobs Burgers was playing on the television as we all sat on the couches, I was squashed between Harley and Luke. Harley was on the very end of one couch and I noticed that Calum was on the other end of the other couch, the seating seemed rather strategically planned.
"So," Harley said slowly before placing a piece of carrot in her mouth.
"So?" Calum responded.
"Let's do something fun tonight," she nudged me with her elbow and I found myself rolling my eyes, again.
"Like?" Ashton asked cautiously, everyone in the room knew that Harley was a very outrageous person.
"Singstar!" Harley cheered and everyone groaned, "I'm kidding! We should go on a walk."
"A walk?" Luke asked, he didn't seem very intrigued by the idea, and honestly neither did I. Walking was exercise, and I think last night I had done enough exercise for the rest of the year.
"Yeah, see where the night takes us. An adventure!"
"Sounds cool to me," Calum shrugged and Michael scowled at him, "of course it does."
Calum rolled his eyes, "I think we should go. Try find a crane or something to climb."
"How cliché," Ashton chuckled, "let's go light fireworks by the lake while we're at it."
"I have fireworks," Michael and Harley stated simultaenously and they grinned at each other, "jinx!"
"Okay and then we can go on a rooftop and get wasted," Luke chimed in, adding to the list of cliché things to do.
"Don't forget getting high," I added to Lukes idea.
"One problem," Ashton declared and we all looked over at him, "where do we get alcohol and weed from?"
"The alcohol cupboard," Harley shrugged, "and I know someone here has weed," she chuckled and all eyes fell on me, causing me to blush and choke on the piece of bread in my mouth.
"How, and why?" Michael raised his eyebrow at me and I shook my head.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I choked out before turning to Harley and hissing, "it was meant for tomorrow for us not them."
"Where'd you get it?" Ashton asked, none of the boys had believed my lie, obviously.
"My house?" I said nervously, "I mean, yeah, but I'm not telling you where because you can't steal it because I only take a little at a time so Mum doesn't notice."
"Ooo, Luna's a naughty girl," Michael teased.
"Shut up Michael," Harley groaned, "we sometimes just go to the abandoned hospital and smoke a blunt. It's pretty chill, but it doesn't mean you can come. Have you guys ever even been high?" she scoffed and all the boys nodded. "Wait what?"
"Courtney Maddisons 16th birthday," Ashton nodded his head, "Luke got so plastered, Michael had a threesome," I spat out my mashed potato, "Calum got naked in front of like 100 people and I, I took the birthday girls virginity. Fuck yes, such a good night."
"Geez Luke," I nudged him, "everyone gets wasted at parties, you should try be more fun," I teased.
"No," Luke shook his head, "Ashton doesn't mean plastered as in wasted, I mean I was wasted too, but I literally got plastered. Courtneys house was being renovated and her Dad had left the stuff you plaster the walls with out and I got covered in it and stuck to the wall."
"Oh," I gasped before laughing, "how exciting."
"Yeah we all got high for the first time that night," Michael nodded, "good times."
Harley stood up and stood in front of the television, her hands on her hips, "okay, so is it sorted? Tonight we indulge in cliché teenage activities?"
We all nodded and she cheered, "let the most cliché night ever in history begin now!"
a/n
the fun begins next chapter dun dun (josh) dunnnnnn
--
side note: luna and harley aren't stoners, they don't fit into that (skeleton) clique either. they just do a bit of recreational marijuana every now and then.
marijuana is illegal in nz and aus so pls don't actually do it (like so many people in my hometown do tho rip). you can be the judge if you feel you want to do it, i have no doubt in your judgement. just do it away from people that could snitch like do it in a forest under the trees or something. if its legal where you live make sure to get it legally and yada yada yada bc thats all fine and dandy.
--
ok but how many twenty one pilots references did i manage to make. (the answer is only 8)
also i'm seeing twenty one pilots in 34 days!!!!!!
--
thank u all for reading
vote, comment, do what you wanna do
much love
xo ty
[celebratory update bc 5sos won the worst band award for the third year in a row!! go boys! woo]