The Legend of Luke Gloucester
"So, what's your story? I mean, why are you here?" She asked, stroking her hand up and down my back. We were on the couch in her living room, her being Amelia Oldham. By my standards, the sexiest woman working at Quick 'N Fresh Market. Yea, I know. "Quick 'n Fresh". I embrace it.
"C'mon, babe." I tell her to keep the babbling to a minimum and just use the time we have wisely. Her parents are out on a date and we have the whole house until 11.
"Stop." She grabs my hand and gets off the couch, putting on her shirt. I try to forget about it by putting on the TV but she keeps acting weird. First she wont let me and now she's pacing back and forth behind the couch.
"Meels, come sit down. You're freakin' me out." She keeps pacing behind me so I get up and stand in her path. She stops and places her hand on my chest.
"What? You pregnant or something?" This gets me no answers, just a hard slap in the face, but I guess I deserved it. It's twenty until 11 and she hasn't given me anything to work with. Usually in situations like this I can crack a joke to break the mood and everything will be back to normal but this wasn't like her usual pre-menstrual behavior.
"Have you watched the news lately?" she asks me, quietly. I could barely even hear her. I had to bend down, pressing my ear close to her mouth.
"Ha. No, I don't watch that shit. Some of the other boys do but I prefer Family Guy."
She reaches her other hand up and takes a handful of my shiny auburn hair. Something was really wrong. The last time she grabbed my hair like this was when she told me about her dad attempting suicide.
"Luke, listen. Last night, Janie told me-"
"Okay, stop. Let's go out. To Milaney Park. Just tell your parents you had to pick up milk," I say, taking her hand trying to pull her to the door but she doesn't move. She still is just standing there.
"C'mon. Arnie hooked me up with the good stuff." I pull a bag of narcotics from my back pocket and toss them at her. But she doesn't catch them, she continues to stand still and lets them drop to the floor.
"Those were expensive!"
"We already have milk."
I smirk at her and walk towards the kitchen, opening the refrigerator. I look in the fridge, and yes there are two cartons of full milk, and look back at Amelia. "No you don't." I take both cartons and tear the tap of the top of both with my mouth, dumping the milk down the sink. She stared at me, mouth gaping. I grinned at her and that open mouth turned to a smile. I took her hand and we left.
It wasn't until 3 in the morning that I finally arrived back at Base. Me and my buddies there thought "The Home" sound too Oliver Twist so, us being hardcore Xbox fans, call it the Base. I was way past curfew, obviously, so I had to take the window in. We rigged a way for us to get in and out without the staff noticing. They pretty much leave us older guys to fend for ourselves, anyways.
After I changed and crawled into bed I heard something I stopped hearing in the bunks 5 years ago. Crying. Once you pass age 12 you pretty much get over the whole "my parents left me" bit. But tonight, it wasn't just one wimpy nerd crying, it was a few. And I could almost swear that I could hear Arnie crying too. It was too painful to listen too. I don't care if a major storm was coming or zombies or aliens or what, I just couldn't take it. I pulled my beat up old CD player from my chest on the end of my bed and blasted away until I fell asleep.