Once In a Super Moon
Some said the world would end in fire, some said in ice… How it's actually ending? With me stuck here with the biggest tool in the history of all mankind.
The Supermoon was set to beautifully light up the sky on August 10th, 2014. But it wasn't just about a pretty show and an astronomer's wet dream.
Some—enough—believed that it would be the trigger for life as we know it to be over—earthquakes, plagues, volcanic eruptions…
Talk about blaming it on the moonlight.
It wasn't just the religious fruit baskets that read between the lines in the bible either; everyone, it seemed, had bought into the warnings, the media scaremongering, making it such that it wasn't safe to be on the streets anymore. They were uninhabitable.
Assault, theft, general mayhem…any excuse to be a dick.
That's how I came to be holed up in this safety bunker with him-my best friend's brother.
My best friend from childhood, Steph, was away on business when it all got really out of hand, so she was stuck abroad and since I didn't really have any family, let alone any with a safety bunker of their own, she had ordered Edward to share his with me.
I'd always had a soft spot for Edward— but that was because I'd never spent such a long time with him in such an enclosed space. It's funny how your view of someone can change like the tides.
Soon, we couldn't agree on anything, including whether or not this really was our planet taking its final bow.
"Do you really believe all this?" I had asked him on the first day. "That just because the moon's orbit gets a bit close for comfort to the earth, we're all done for?"
"Well I don't think all those fucking people running around like headless chickens out there are doing it for nothing. Since when are you such a know it all anyway?" He'd snapped.
"I'm not…I wasn't…I'm just saying…" I'd stuttered, surprised.
Edward had once said he found it sweet when I stuttered…
He'd apologised to me minutes later, blaming the stress of the whole impending doom thing and I'd forgiven him. He looked hot when he was angry.
A few days after that, with cabin fever setting in, I wasn't so understanding:
"You ate the last packet of Space Raiders?"
We had a limited amount of food and they were my favourite maize snack. Screw the moon; Edward was about to be murdered at my hands for the sake of 20p.
"Sure I did. But there's nachos. Or Twiglets."
"Ew, sick! You're a Twiglet! I don't want those; I want Space Raiders."
"Me? Twiglet? Please!" He flexed his toned arm muscles, showing them off, along with the tattoos they were adorned with.
So arrogant.
But those biceps were just the right side of big, highlighted by the clever positioning of the pin-up girl pictures. I had caught glances when he'd stripped to use the shower before going behind the separating stand.
"Imagine if we run out of food altogether? I might have to… eat you." He hitched up his brows toward the bunker's ceiling, in all their bushy awesomeness.
"You need to get your eyebrows waxed." I changed the subject.
Not that I could really talk: there wasn't much chance of dolling up in under circumstances, though Edward did try to compliment me on little things.
"Yeah, I'll get right on that once I've ticked off Armageddon."
It was summer, but oar's wasn't one of the warmest countries, even with global warming, and the nights got a little balmier than we'd anticipated, so Edward would start a fire.
By day seven, we were low on stuff to burn.
"What if we run out of wood?" I worried.
"I have never run out of wood." His sexual innuendos were getting silly.
"I'm serious!" I scolded.
"So am I." He smirked. "Look, if the worst comes to worst, we'll just find something else to burn."
"Like what?"
"Like…" He looked around… "Your book."
I'd been relieving the boredom by burying my head in the latest instalment in a series of novels I adored.
At times, I'd think I'd catch him in the act of looking on while he let me read peacefully.
"You're not burning my book! That's like blasphemy!"
I'd show him fire!
"It's not an important book; it's a stupid, sloppy vampire romance."
"I like sloppy!"
"Oh yeah?" He stuck out his tongue suggestively.
Oh man, that thing's long…back to the point!
"We could always burn your guitar." He'd been playing to pass the time.
"THAT is blasphemy."
"Why? You're not even that good on it."
He was. He'd regaled me with a selection of hit songs, including It's The End Of The World As We Know It. Did I mention his sense of humour?
He gave me the most menacing look, the slightly scary, knicker-melting kind, like he was either going to kill me or fuck me. Or both.
Fire in the loins.
Light conversation dries up when you're with someone twenty four seven, no matter how much they know. And small talk only gets you so far.
Plus, there's nothing like the apocalypse to get you to delve into deeper topics you might avoid at a dinner party: religion, philosophy…sex.
"Yeah, so she was like, sucking me off, and the other one was on my face…" Edward was telling me stories about his conquests again. Of which there were many.
"So, how about you?" He stopped for breath. Any special encounters you wanna share? Last confessions?"
"Not really. My sexual history's not that remarkable. I mean, Riley was the main one."
"Riley?" He seemed interested, so I continued.
"He was my first. He made it as mind-blowing as he could for me. And after that, we were like rabbits—wherever, whenever. You know how it is."
"Yeah" Edward laughed, but his face didn't match the gesture. It was…forlorn? Woeful? Maybe I'd just be locked up in this place too long and I was imagining things.
Then, like a spring, he went back into typical pig man mode, talking about tits and anal and two-timing girls.
I had never taken him to be that way, but I guess you can be wrong about people.
"So basically, what you're telling me is you're a womanising arse hole?"
"Don't hate me 'cos I'm beautiful." He winked.
And the criminal thing there? He kind of was beautiful, if you could block out major personality flaws completely. But I couldn't.
In a way, time ceased to exist when you weren't going about your normal routine. But at the same time, it was all there was. We had a clock and a calendar to keep track.
So we knew when the 10th of August rolled around. As we knew when it approached 6 o clock, the time at around which the super moon would get closest to the sun.
Edward's mood went down super fast in the lead-up: he wasn't listening to anything I said; he wasn't going out of his way to annoy me…He was hardly speaking at all.
"Edward, look, I know this hasn't exactly been easy and I know there are probably a lot of other people you'd rather be here with but, I just want you to know that if there's something you want to say before you know…whatever… you can talk to me."
"Before that thing that you don't believe's really gonna happen happens?" A sudden burst of energy had him giving me all hell again.
I had made a mistake, thinking he would open up to me.
I made my way back to the couch from where he was slumped at the small table, letting him stew in his misery.
But he struck like lightning, rising from his seat. He grabbed me firmly and spun me around, invading what was left of my personal space. No escape.
"You wanna know what I wanna say? I mean, aside from the minor fact that I'm scared we're gonna die soon?"
I was startled by the sound of his voice: so much tension.
"I wanna say that this hasn't been easy. It's been excruciatingly hard."
"Edward—"
"I wanna say that actually I can't think of many people I'd rather be here with at all."
Wait, what?
"That I've always been attracted to you but never had the balls to act on it."
Was it over already? Was this a parallel universe?"
"And that…"He was panting in time to my heavy breaths.
I anticipated his finale within a finale.
"And that I don't want to die a virgin."
No, this was it. Had to be.
But when some time had passed and we were both still standing, it began to sink in: we were alive and this was the truth.
"Wait, you mean Mr tatted up biceps, Mr Don't Hate Me 'Cos I'm Beautiful, Mr I should have a degree in sexing up women is a… virgin?"
Silence. Such silence.
Laughter. Much laughter. Mine.
"Oh, you think that's funny? Well, let's see how funny you think this is." His surge of anger seemed to turn into a sexual rush as he kissed me hard and threw me down onto the couch.
I tried half-heartedly to slap and push him away, but that only seemed to cause a surge in his sexual appetite for me, which in turned increased mine for him, like a rolling bale effect.
I reciprocated with kisses just as ardently. We clasped at each other, redirecting the passion of all of our petty rows, which no longer mattered. We communicated better this way.
Our egos and defences were down. We were too weak to resist any longer; there may not be much longer.
His heavy scent beat out that of the earth that had been all I could smell for so long. It made me tingle low down, no doubt releasing more of my own hormonal perfume.
I wanted to keep tasting him more than any luxury item I'd been missing.
I was rapturous at the idea that Edward was losing his virginity to me, though he certainly didn't fuck like a virgin, from my experience.
As if activated by some unknown force, he took me like the tides took the sands of the shore. I rose like the seas to meet him, thrust for thrust, feeling better with each one. I clawed at his back; bit at his flesh—anything I could to release the rage inside of me. I wished it could go on forever, but knew all good things could not. I was right on the edge, about to fall off and then…total darkness.
Had the world ended or just moved?