Lead Me Out of the Dark

Sorting the Remains of Yesterday's Catastrophe

“Erm, can you get out of my bed? Your breath stinks like Hell.” Deck commented. I grinned, moving to let out a long breath in his face.

                “Oh dear god, stop! For the love of all that’s Holy-” he yelled. I winced immediately, stopping my smelly breath assault. His words were like knives to my brain. I groaned, falling back onto his bed. I pressed my fingers to my temples, desperately trying to get rid of the pain.

                “I’ll go grab you an Advil, Hangover Holly,” Deck grumbled. I couldn’t help but smile at his corny joke. He seemed to be taking a long time. I jogged to the bathroom, wincing at the brightness of the lights. I shut them off quickly, deciding to brush my teeth in the darkness. Even the sound of the water rushing out of the faucet felt like an attack on my brain. I used mouthwash just to make sure my breath was alright. I took a shower as quickly as humanly possible before changing into some sweatpants and a hoodie.

                “Here,” Deck said, walking into the room a couple minutes later. He placed a blue pill into my palm. I downed the pill quickly. He gripped me by the hand and started leading me somewhere. He led me to the basement. He’d turned off all of the lights and dimmed the light on the TV so that it wasn’t so harsh. He had a movie already in the disc player, and he settled me on the couch, wrapping blankets around me, as if I was a child. He handed me a plate of something. I took a test sniff. It was toast. My stomach groaned in response.

                “If you don’t want to eat now, you don’t have to,” Deck said. I nodded gratefully, placing the toast back on the table. Deck handed me a cold can of something. I took a small sip. It was ginger ale.

                “There’s also water on the table, if you want it,” Deck showed, gesturing towards the glass he’d left there. He picked up a remote and pressed play. It was a movie that had just come out, called Silver Linings Playbook. It had only just come out of theaters.

                “This came out of theaters like yesterday! How’d you get this?” I asked as the main menu came on. He shrugged. I noticed that he’d turned the volume down on the TV, too.

                “I have my ways,” he teased with a lilting smile. My stomach flipped over. He was just too adorable. He pressed play on the movie, but I couldn’t stop staring at Deck. He seemed to notice, because he turned, staring back at me.

                “What?” he asked.

                “This… all of this… it’s just so sweet. Thank you so much,” I thanked him, my lips curling upwards into a smile. Deck shrugged again, moving to smooth out a part of the blanket near my shoulder.

                “Yesterday was my fault, so I guess I did all of this to say sorry. I had no idea that idiot would take you to a scary movie. I thought you would have an annoying time listening to football stories for a while and then you’d never speak to him again,” Deck lamented. I reached over, pressing my lips to his cheek. I don’t know why I did it. I guess I just got caught up in the moment.

                “Apology accepted,” I declared. He had more than made up for yesterday. Deck stared at me for a long moment. I wished I could decipher the expression on his face. He cleared his throat, turning towards the movie and pressing play.

                “Uh, anyways, I thought this movie was kind of fitting,” he said. The movie turned out to be about two people, one who had undiagnosed bipolar disorder. The other was a girl who had depression, as her husband had just died. Either way, they were both really messed up in the head, and they ended up falling in love with each other. I thought the movie was hilarious and fitting. We began casting the characters as characters in our lives almost immediately. When the main character finished reading a book, only to scream What the FUCK!? And proceeded to throw the book out the window, Deck immediately cast the character as me.