First in Line | Drew Starkey

chapter six.. cigarette smoke

"This is so good", I said for the thousandth time.

Drew smirked and laughed wiping the corner of his mouth with his napkin.

"Told ya." I laughed, "I know I know." I shook my head. I took one last sip of my drink (now water instead of beer) and stood up grabbing his empty plate from the coffee table.

"Don't even think about doing the dishes," Drew spoke up watching me collect our messes and head towards the kitchen.

"Um, okay.. whatever you say."

I dropped the napkins in the trash and placed our plates in the sink. There really wasn't much to clean and it was the least I could do.

Plus I needed a distraction from whatever happened not even an hour prior. What was that?

Was it the alcohol? My awkward ass had no clue what to do or how to handle the situation so cleaning things up was the best option to keep me sane and calm.

"At least use the dishwasher" Drew broke my thoughts, "you don't have to do it by hand."

I rinsed out the casserole dish before placing it on the bottom rack of the dishwasher. Drew collected the wine glasses and various beer cans from our unsuspected pregame.

I pushed the bottom rack in and stood up straight again, immediately feeling the heat radiating from Drew's figure being close behind me. He reached around me adding our wine glasses to the rack.

For a second I could feel my breath stuck in my throat; my heart beating loud in my ear.

I pushed the rack in and Drew threw a pod into its compartment before closing it shut and selecting its cycle. I couldn't help but watch him. There is so much about him that I just can't put into words.

"Let's go for walk."

************************************************

After walking a ways we ended up in a quiet area near the water. Our conversation during the trip down was light and mostly filled with banter about how fast my petite legs had to work to keep up with Drew's long strides. We sat down on a bench beside a small fountain that overlooked the water. The moon and stars lit up most of the sky, but it wasn't terribly late so Charleston was mostly still awake too. Other businesses and restaurants lit up the area and various employees were working hard to close and go home.

I unlocked my phone to check the time and to see if I had missed anything important the past few hours, but thankfully there's only a few messages from my friends. I locked my phone and looked over to Drew who was pulling out a small carton from his pocket along with a small black lighter.

"Um, I hope you don't mind if I light up really quick?" He asked, pulling a cigarette from the carton and placing it between his lips.

I watched as he put the carton back in his pocket and raised the lighter to the tip of the cigarette before switching it with his thumb.

The flame danced over the end slowly burning into it. Drew took a drag in inhaling before looking to the opposite side and blowing the smoke out from his lips.

"I don't mind." I quietly said. I closed my eyes, secretly enjoying the familiar smell of smoke.

"That reminds me of my grandmother."

Drew looked at me, trying to read my mind or search for the reasoning in my eyes.

"My grandmother smoked, and I would be lying if I didn't say the smell of cigarettes comfort me most of the time."

Drew exhaled another drag, "It brings back the memories you can remember every detail about?"
He quoted me from our previous conversation when we were in his apartment.

"Exactly."

"Were you close?" Drew asked, I shifted my body on the bench, so I could face him more.

"She was my best friend" I started, "she was one of kind. To know her was to love her." I couldn't stop the small smile that appeared on my face.

We spent the rest of our time talking about our families and life growing up. It was weird hearing some of the differences we experienced as kids with me growing up as an only child and Drew being surrounded by all of his siblings, but we did have divorced parents in common though.

"Are you close to your dad?" Drew asked innocently. I wanted to flat out say hell no immediately, but I refrained. That was too heavy to get into especially this being the first time we're hanging out.

Sometime between our conversation about family my legs ended up draped over his lap. Drew had one hand over my legs and his other hand resting on the back of the bench.

"That's a long story." I chuckled, "A story you definitely don't even want to be a part of." I moved part of my hair around my shoulders. The water was calm and the moonlight cast over in a way you could see the light ripples in the water's movement.

"You're very hard to read." Drew moved his arm from the back of the bench picking up my hand in his.

"I know we just met, but I can see there is so much running through your mind that you need to let out."

I avoided his gaze, keeping my focus on the moonlit water.

"You don't want to hear what's in my mind. It's better if you never know."

Which is true.

I have a lot of baggage and issues that I don't even know how to manage. It's not fair to anyone to have to endure my thoughts.

Here I am already pushing him away. That's all Iknow how to do. Push so they don't try, and I don't end up abandoned. 

********

I'm sorry it's been ages haha! life has gotten really crazy with classes being back in full swing so the second I had a free night I wrote this super quick as a filler :) I'm hoping to write a few chapters this weekend to have on hand for you guys :)