Hello readers, and welcome to my romance-centric story, I'm in Love with a Monster. Even though this story is about the relationship between Luna and Sam, I don't support the LGBT community, so I'm making Sam a boy instead of a girl. I know some of you might hate me for that, so you have been warned. I'm also a guy doing my best to write from a girl's perspective, so if you see something that sounds weird when you read it aloud, blame it on that.
Chapter 1
My name is Luna Loud. I'm the third eldest of eleven children, with nine sisters and one brother. I'm a full-on metalhead, a rock star just like my idol Mick Swagger (I even have my own band!), and as such, I hold the title of "the loudest Loud." So far, nobody complains as long as I don't jam out too late at night or too early in the morning. But enough about me; I want to tell you the story of how I met the love of my life, and all of the adventures we had together...
...
It all started one chilly October morning when I was sixteen years old. Me and my siblings (minus Lori, the oldest, who was attending college in Great Lakes City) all had the day off from school due to a teachers' conference. Mom and Dad were both at work, Mom at the Royal Woods Gazette and Dad at his restaurant. Technically my older sister Leni was in charge, since she was the oldest one still in the house, but she was far from the sharpest tool in the shed, so she left it to me to keep the rest of the sibs out of trouble. I didn't mind so much, mostly because I had my little bro Lincoln to help me. He was the one in the middle, and because he had to deal with ten (scratch that; make it nine) girls every waking moment, he was cool as a cucumber under pressure.
That day, I was sitting on the couch with my eyes closed and my headphones on, listening to my soundtrack CD of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (you wouldn't know it just by looking at me, but I'm a HUGE fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, and have been ever since I read The Lord of the Rings as a middle school literature assignment). I became aware that Leni, Luan, and Lynn were trying to ask me something, so I paused my music and asked them what was wrong.
"Nothing's wrong, we were just discussing what we find attractive in boys and wanted to know your opinion," explained Luan, who age-wise came right behind me (and Lynn right behind her). I hesitated, not knowing how to answer. For some odd reason, people seem to think I'm gay, which isn't true at all. Not only am I strictly attracted to men, I'm attracted to manly men: men with muscles, calloused hands, and plenty of body hair to go around. Not the sissy pretty-boys that shave in places that aren't meant to be shaved just to show off. My sisters might find this disgusting, though.
Before I could answer, I heard Lola, one half of the twins that were tied for third youngest, yell from the front door, "Luna! There's some ugly bum sleeping on our porch!" That immediately set off warning bells. We lived in one of the nicer neighborhoods, and we were definitely not known for being frequented by drunks and/or addicts. I quickly ran to the door and stood behind Lola, who was pointing at the body that lay sprawled under our porch swing. My breath caught in my throat; despite Lola's claim, he was far from ugly. His face was gaunt but chiseled, with greasy shoulder-length hair the color of damp sand and scraggly unshaven chin-whiskers the same color. He wore a filthy olive tank top tucked into baggy camouflage cargo shorts, with a black leather belt that was flaking in places. His arms and legs were covered in long wiry man-fur, just the way I liked it, and the soles of his bare feet were hard and black, like he'd never worn shoes in his life. He was tall, too: at least Lori's height, if not taller. In summary, he looked like a grungy, hairier version of Chris Hemsworth's Thor.
What surprised me the most, though, was the dude's age. He couldn't have been much older than me, maybe Leni's age at the oldest. A strange desire to help the strange boy however I could sparked inside me. Seeing as my other siblings were crowding in behind me to get a closer look, I quickly made up my mind.
"Alright, Lynn, Lincoln, grab his legs. Let's bring him inside before he freezes to death," I ordered. I walked over to the boy and grabbed him under his arms, the two sibs that I called on each grabbing a leg just below the knee. Together, the three of us carried him into the house and draped him across the couch, assuring Lola that we would sanitize it later. I attempted to remove his top so that Lisa, second youngest and scary-smart child prodigy, could give him a once-over, only for it to get tangled in something around his neck. Namely, a tarnished pair of military dog tags. Most of the letters had been rubbed off, the only legible word being SHARP. He was all skin and bones, and under all that body hair (there was hardly a spot on his body that didn't have hair), his arms and torso were marked by dozens of scars of various shapes and sizes, visible proof of a hard-knock life on the streets. His fingernails and toenails were long and yellow, and both had the consistency of a dog's claws.
I watched as Lisa pulled out some type of scanner and scanned the whole length of his body, the device letting out a high-pitched chirp when the process was complete.
"Hmm...curious. Despite his lack of weather-appropriate apparel, he does not appear to be suffering from hypothermia," Lisa said, reporting the scanner's findings. "However, he appears to have very recently recovered from a bout of food poisoning and is obviously suffering from an extended period of malnourishment. The scanner also picked up traces of a possibly cannabis-derived drug in his bloodstream, resulting in his current stupor."
Great. He wasn't cold, but he was hungry and high. And if the dank, musky smell he gave off was anything to go by, he was in need of a hot shower, too. The best thing we could do for him right now was let him sleep off the weed, and I said as much to my siblings.
"Well, I am not staying in the same room as a dirty, homeless loser!" Lola huffed and marched up to the room she shared with her twin, Lana. You'd think she'd be used to at least some amount of filth, considering how much time Lana spent fixing cars and rolling in mud pits. The other sibs each went about their own business, leaving me to keep an eye on our unexpected guest.
Happy Veteran's Day!