Hi.

17. The Day After

I woke up the next morning around six after getting a full six hours of sleep. I was in my bed and remembered the night before. With Ryder and I in the hotel room. I giggled a little bit before rolling out of bed, inhaling the fresh smell of my rooming after going on a cleaning spree for the fun of it and inhaled the flowers and vanilla in the room. Like it never smelled like cigarettes before. (Like the one I had before I cleaned). and got down the stairs. Mom had to work all day, 7-10 tonight.

I came down and Mom was in the kitchen. She looked a bit different. "Hi Mom."

"Morning honey," Mom greeted. "Marley, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure." I said.

"Remember a couple of months ago, I walked in your room and you were doing something...stupid." She said.

"Oh, yes, the smoking." I said.

"You stopped, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, why?" I asked her. She held up a cigarette box and a lighter. Shit, I must of dropped them. "Oh, Lark was here. Didn't he stay all night?" I asked as if all of it were true.

"No, just you when I came back." Mom said. "He was here?"

"I came home from the wedding arond 11:30 and he called asking if he could come over and hang for a while since he was around the area keeping himself occupied. I said it was fine and sometime after he came he wanted to smoke a cigarette and because it was freezing outside I let him smoke inside. I went to bed around half past midnight and I said if he wanted to crash on the couch, he could." I lied perfectly.

"Oh, I didn't know he smoked."

"Neither did I until last night." I said. "Is that going to change your view on him, Mom?"

"No baby, he's a very nice boy from the times I've met him, though he must be busy with school since it's been a while that I've seen him. But I'd rather have him go outside and smoke from now on, okay?"

I nodded.

"Good. I have to leave now. Just leave a note if your going out and with whom, okay?"

"OK." I said hugging her. "Bye Mom."

"Bye Baby."

After Mom left I texted Ryder. He must still be asleep since he didn't answer. I heard a knock on the door and saw Ryder there. I opened it, not caring about my bed hair bun and messy morning appearance in general, and greeted him. He had a to-go bag with him. "So remember I said I was going to Cincinnati this weekend to visit my grandparents and we were leaving early?"

"Yeah."

"Change of plans, we're leaving at 11 instead. So I've got about six hours to enjoy you for myself before my parents pick me up from here," He smiled. "I woke up early to get breakfast for us. Chocolate chip pancakes and bacon for this beautiful Goddess today."

"Shut up, I look like a mess." I laughed.

"My mess." He muttered as he stepped in.

Oh we ate breakfast alright. And quickly too. We still had five hours before his parents came to get him. We took the time upstairs in my room. After about two rounds we settled down by laying on my bed. My head on his shoulder and making invisible circles around his abs while his left arm wrapped around me and pulled me close. He leaned in and kissed me forehead. "You're beautiful."

"You're handsome." I softly said. I blushed. "Ryder, I'm sorry, but...round three?" I laughed. He probably thinks I'm going to be a sex addict now.

"No need to worry or be sorry," He laughed. "Making love is now being the best part of our relationship now. But I don't have any more protection believe it or not,"

"I have some." Kitty had handed me some a few weeks ago. In cased I needed them. "They're in the little drawer over there."

Ryder let loose and reached over to the drawer. He opened it and looked inside for a minute before pulling out a cigarette I kept in there. "Marley?"

"Old." I said.

"Since when did you start?"

"I tried it a few months ago. Just one. After that I got sick and stopped." I told him. He gave me a dark gaze. "What?"

"Lark?"

"Yeah. I tried one with him after I saw him smoking one and I wanted to try it. Like I said I got sick after that." I explained.

"Don't you ever Marley. Not the drugs, not this cigarette or any cigarette. Understand?" Crap, I forgot about the drugs too. I nodded though. "Good." He said, throwing the cigarette on the ground. "I'll get rid of this one for you, okay?"

"Okay," I said.

Ryder then pulled out another condom and we went for another round.

We got dressed before he left. We watched TV until he had to leave. I walked with him to the front door and we kissed a long goodbye before he really had to go. I waved goodbye and watched as the family SUV became nothing but a black dot to me.

I texted some of the girls and asked if they wanted to hang out. Brittany and Unique said later at 8 we could get pizza, everyone else said no. I asked Blaine if he wanted to come along but he said he had some Kurt plans.

Lark called and asked if I wanted to come over. I invited him over and asked to get some more cigarettes for me since the one Ryder took was my last one. By the time Lark came I had ordered a pizza for us.

"Jesus you smoke by the second?" He asked.

"No, Ryder found my last one and threw it out." I said.

"He knows?"

"I said I tried it once, but I don't smoke." I said. Lark frowned at me. "What?"

"Your mom I understand, but a friend? Especially boyfriend? You have to be honest with him. Hell if he tells your Mom on you that's on him." He said. "Don't lie Marley."

"Whatever." I was aggravated now. I needed a cigarette. He handed me a box and a lighter and within thirty seconds I had it in me mouth and soon after began to calm down. "I needed that."

"So how was last night?" Lark asked as he sat down. "Any bed rockers you heard?"

"Your cousin and I." I smiled. "It was awesome."

"Ohhh that is crazy!" Lark laughed. "Tell me again why you need fa-breeze?"

"Oh Mom said she doesn't want the cigarette smell in the house, so that's to cover it." I told him. "If you wanna smoke weed than go in my room. She rarely goes in there unless I'm doing homework."

"Deal." He said, taking weed out of his pocket and stood up. "I'll be down in a bit."

He was up there for an hour before he came down for pizza. Totally high as hell. I was on my fifth cigarette and singing, though my throat hurt a little. I handed him a slice and we began watching Spider Man that was on TV. He stayed as high as he did, telling me random things, until he cooled down about four hours later. "Damn, I need a brownie."

"I have cookies. They're home made that I made the other week with my Mom. Sugar cookies." I said.

"bring on the munchies!"

We ate the whole jar. We watched another movie before he asked if I wanted to go upstairs and smoke weed with him. I shrugged. I had nothing else to do and I'll shower before I leave.

We smoked a couple of joints together in my room. That was all he had, nothing hard. We smoked until the end of our last joint before laying on the ground in my room and staring at the fan above my bed. "Ever notice that, that fan has wings?" I asked.

"Shit... it's like rainbow brite...got drunk...puked on it...haha." Lark said. "Heyy, wanna go shower?"

"What!?" I cracked up while grinning.

"I mean, we gotta shower...before we go...no water wasted...right?"

"haha...I shower...Ryder only...shushs," I giggled. "No tell my Mommy!"

'I'm telling your Mommy!" Lark laughed loudly. "Your Mommy gonna know...her baby...Ryder... being sexy!"

We both laughed again. I had to use the toilet so I got up and left the room and walked into the bathroom. I didn't shut the door behind me and pulled my skirt and underpants down. As I peed I realized that the whole frigging bathroom was hot so I tied my hair up in a ponytail. I flipped my head over, facing my own croch, and tied up my hair. When I faced up I saw Lark standing there with a silly grin on his face.

"Larky!" I laughed, putting my hand out thinking I was covering his eyes. "No Lookly! Ry-Ry only!" I laughed.

"I no screwing you!" Lark laughed, smoking another joint. "I was going...through bras...found more joints in them..."

"Oh yeah...Zandra give...two days ago...holding or taking..." I muttered as I grabbed toilet paper. I didn't care at this point so I wiped myself, still sitting down, and flushed, still sitting (making Lark laugh hard) and pulled my bottoms up before standing on my feet. Lark kept laughing at me while I washed my hands. "Marley flushy while sitty..."

"Shush!" I giggled. I turned around and went back to my room to smoke another joint.

We had three more joints before we stopped. We were so high as hell I could barely remember things we said or did. I remember at one point Lark thought he saw my lamp as his girlfriend and flashed my lamp. He tried to screw my lamp and failed and he turned to me and said, "Why no Molly screw with me?"

"That's lamp silly!"

"Oh, okay!" He laughed. He put himself away but proceeded to take his pants and shirt off. "I hot, you hot?"

"No, I feel good." I giggled, grabbing a cigarette and lit it up. I smoked. "Want puff?"

He took it and smoked a cigarette puff. We shared that cigarette until it ran out. We then laid on my floor again until hours later when we cooled down. Lark got his shirt and pants on and we went to eat some more cookies from the cabinet. Lark looked at the time. "Damn, it's 9... 've gotta go now. Need help with anything?"

"Just take any weed back. leave the cigarettes and smelly perfume crap here." I said.

He got out of the house by ten on the dot. I had fifteen minutes to make my living room and bedroom smell cigarette and weed free. I put both fans on high, sprayed a lot of squirts of fa-breeze into them both and waited until the entire room smelled like ginger and rosemary. By the time I put the living room fan on the car came in. Mom came in minutes later.

"Hey Mom." I greeted.

"Hi Baby. Did you stay in all day?" She asked. She spotted the empty pizza box. "Oh you went out?"

"Yeah with Lark. Then we came back and he got pizza for us and we watched Spider man." I smiled.

"Well that's good." She smiled.

Once Mom was settled down we turn the TV on to watch and episode of The Golden Girls. During the middle of the episode Mom was sharing her crazy work stories to me and we both laughed.

"Oh Marley, these are stories for your grand kids." She laughed. "Just don't make me a Grandma now."

"Mom!" I laughed.

"Don't you think I don't know what look on you and Ryder's face. I'm okay so long as you use protection, okay?" I nodded. "Good. But now grand babies now."

"Don't worry. I'm going to avoid pulling a Quinn Fabray.

When I went to bed I went to see my phone messages and saw my phone had been off all day. As soon as it turned on I had 7 missed calls from Unique, 4 missed calls from Brittany, 3 from Ryder and messages from the three of them. Ryder was checking on me so I said I was fine. I then remembered I was suppose to meet Brittany and Unique for pizza. I apologized to them both saying I fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 9.

Wow, getting high makes me forgot a lot of things.