Take Me to Loveland

Red, Red, Wine

~*~Clemens'sP.O.V.~*~

I was on my to Liv's house. After checking the internet, I found out that it wasn't that far from where I was staying, so I opted out of taking a taxi, once again. My first experience with taxis here had left a bad taste in my mouth. The walk was nice, there were a lot of trees with long willowy, branches and bunches of stringy gray moss dangling down along the street. They seemed to make a canopy in some parts of the street, it was very different from the streets back home. It was a warm, breezy evening.I could see light bugs flashing ever so often, and could smell outdoor cooking coming from somewhere. I loved being outside,especially in places I've never been before. There was so much going on, so many things to look at, that I lost myself, and had to redirect myself. I had walked three streets too far and had ended upstanding in a cul-de-sac of mail boxes.

As I turned to go back to where I needed to be, I saw Liv walking up the street heading toward me. She was wearing blue jeans and a pale pink shirt that said"Molly's Boutique" on the front of it in girlish text. Herhair was pulled back and she had a small, black top hat pinned to the side of her head. She was walking fast, staring at her phone, while smoking a cigarette. I stared for a moment, she was totally oblivious to everything around her. I studied the expression on her face. She looked bothered by something, annoyed maybe. Her brows were furrowed,and she exhaled every drag of her cigarette in short breaths.

I let her get closer before I called out to her. Her head bolted upwards, and her eyes fixated on me. I jogged up to her.

"Clemens,hey, why are you creeping around my mailbox?" She teased,walking closer to the wall of mailboxes, pulling apart a set of key son her bag.

"I'm not creeping, I was redirecting myself." I said indignantly.

"Oh, so you were lost again?" She turned and gave me a teasing look, her hand cocked on her hip. She looked so cute, I couldn't help but smile and laugh.

"Yes," I admitted, putting my hands up in surrender. "I got lost. I was so distracted by the pretty scenery, I forgot where I was going."

Liv smiled and looked around the area, then back at me. "It is a pretty neighborhood. I've always thought so, anyway." She turned back to the mailbox, unlocked one of the small doors, and pulled out a stack of magazines and white envelopes.

"It's good to see you, Liv." I said. "I like your little hat." I pointed to the frilly top hat on her head.

Liv blushed, reaching her hand to her head and pulling the hat off her. She tucked it back in her bag. "I forgot I was wearing that dumb thing. I just got off of work. But thank you, it's good to see you too."She moved closer to me, with her arms out. I pulled her close and hugged her. My heart pounded against my chest and I felt my palms starting to sweat as I pulled away from her. I stuffed my hands in my pockets, and looked at her.

"I was happy to hear from you," I told her as we started walking in the direction of her house.

"Yeah... I'm really sorry for blowing you off. I actually didn't message you to come here." She said, pulling her hair down and running her hands through it. I guessed that this was something she did to calm her nerves.

"I only have one phone number in this phone so far, and it's yours." I said,perplexed.

"My sneaky best friend stole my phone and pretended to be me to get you to come see me." Liv explained,still picking at her hair.

We turned onto her street. "Why would she do that?" I asked.

She pointed at a medium sized brick house to the left of us, and we started walking in the grass toward the front door. Liv looked at me. "Because I couldn't." She said, and then she opened the front door and beckoned me to follow. I decided not to ask Liv right away what she meant by she "couldn't". Couldn't what? Talk to me? See me?I started to realize that Liv was a fairly complex girl who had a lot of reserves about things. She didn't seem sure of what she wanted. It was almost like she was going through life closing every door that opened for her, and for reasons that she probably didn't understand.All these realizations about her only made me want to get closer to her. I made a note to myself to have a chat with Rhiannon and thank her for taking matters into her hands.

"Rhiannon!Clemens is here! You better fucking not be naked!" Liv shouted as we turned a corner and came into the living room. It had a nice suede black couch with a matching loveseat, a small flat screen TV and a bright pink area rug under a dark wooden coffee table. The house smelled like roses and lilies, with an undertone of tobacco and marijuana. I laughed at Liv's home bound greeting to her friend.After hearing so much about her, I had been anticipating meeting Rhiannon. She sounded like one hell of a person.

"Naw, bitch, y'all missed that train ten minutes ago!" came a female voice from the hall. I whirled my head to see a short, tan girl with chin length curly black hair coming into the living room. She was wearing a tight blue t-shirt and shorts that went to her knee. "Oh hey! You're the guy!" She beamed at me. I outstretched my hand and we shook.

"I'm Clemens," I said to her. "You must be Rhiannon."

"You pronounce it funny, but I'll forgive it, since you're not from here," She said. Liv threw her a reproachful look. I laughed at her.

"Yes, yes, my English suffers through my accent. Not much I can do about."I laughed, putting my hands up.

"Oooh, Liv, he's so much cuter in person!" Rhiannon exclaimed, lightly pinching my cheek for emphasis. I felt my cheeks burn, and I watched Liv's face go from reproachful to completely mortified. I thought it cute, despite my own embarrassment.

"Oh my god, Rhiannon! Why would you say that? You're so embarrassing!" Liv shouted.

"Hakuna your ta-tas, trampzilla." Rhiannon said, putting her hands up."Go change out of your work rags, and chill the fuck out. Smoke a bowl. I'm heading to the liquor store for booze. And don't give me that look!" she said, Liv had been scowling at her. "You're gonna have a whiskey sour like a big girl, and you're gonna like it.We're having fun tonight, and you're just gonna have to step outside yourself and enjoy it." And without another word, Rhiannon sauntered off, grabbed her car keys and bag and walked out the door.

I let out a soft whistle. "She's intense. But I see that she means well." I said to Liv.

Liv tossed her hair back. "I know she does, she's just so up front with everything.She has no filter on her and just says anything she wants." She said. "Anyway, I'm gonna go get changed. You can smoke in the house. I won't be too long, and we'll smoke a bowl before 'Rhi-tard' gets back." She turned to go down the hall, then stopped and looked at me over her shoulder. "Please don't ever tell her Icalled her that." She added.

"Cross my heart,"I grinned. Liv smiled back at me and disappeared down the hall and I took a seat on the couch. I had a sneaking suspicion that she was attracted to me, which the thought made me very happy. I really did like her. You could say I had a crush... In fact, Phillipp did tell me just that the other day when I was talking to him more about her and how I hadn't heard from her since I first mentioned her to him. I couldn't help but think during those two weeks of not hearing from her, that I had scared her off somehow, and agonized over every detail of our day together to see where I went wrong. Phillipp had to be the one to tell me that it probably wasn't me at all. Of course he was right.

Liv came back about ten minutes later wearing black and blue stripped skirt that reached the floor, and a white Batman shirt. She was carrying a small glass pipe, a ziplock bag, and a spice grinder. She plopped down next to me on the couch, crossing her legs as she leaned over the table and started breaking up the weed and putting in the pipe.She then handed it to me to light.

"Guests always get the green hit," She said. I put the pipe to my lips and sparked the lighter to it, inhaling deeply. I passed it back to her and she took her hit. I looked at her while she smoked. She seemed a lot more relaxed this time than she did last time. I hoped it was her getting used to me. I hoped I would see more of her personality as opposed to her shutting down at every turn. We passed it back and forth, not really saying much through coughing fits.

"Sorry,"Liv gasped through a cloud of smoke. "I really need to clean my pipe out."

"It's fine," I rasped. Liv got up and went to the kitchen for a moment, coming back with a few cans of soda. She offered one to me as she sat back down. I took the soda and opened it, eager to be rid of the feeling of cottonmouth. Liv grabbed the remote off the table and turned it on, casually flipping through the channels. She pulled her legs back onto the couch, crossing them so that her left knee rested on my thigh. I didn't know if she meant to do this, or was so high she didn't notice. I debated putting my hand on her leg, but quickly rebuked it. I didn't want to push her too far and make her uncomfortable around me. That was the last thing I wanted. Instead, I kept my hands in my lap and kept my face forward, watching the television with mild interest.

It wasn't long until Rhiannon came home with carrying a load of bags. "I went a little overboard, but I was standing in the store buying whiskey and sour mix, and I realized that we didn't have any beer, oryour favorite wine, so I shopped a bit more." She said. Liv rolled her eyes and got up off the couch.

"Any excuse to shop, babe. You know you can't go anywhere for just one thing.I stopped expecting anything less than that years ago." She teased her friend. "Now give me wine!" She trotted towards Rhiannon, who was unloading her bags on the table, taking out a case of beer, two bottles of red wine, and a large bottle of whiskey. Liv seized one of the wine bottles and took it into the kitchen. I decided to go into the dinning room.

Rhiannon beamed at me."What's yer poison, Deutsch-boy?Beer, wine, or whiskey?" She asked, using waving her hand at the bottles on the table.

I couldn't help but crack up at the name Rhiannon called me. "I like all of them. I'll just have whatever Livi is having."

"Didja hear that, Twinkletits? Pour a glass for your guest!" Rhiannon called to the kitchen where I heard Liv going through the cabinets for a glass.

"I'm not deaf, Cuntwaffle. I heard the man!" Liv retorted, coming into the room, carrying a glass of wine in each hand. She passed one to me as she walked around the room to the stereo that was on a shelf on the wall. I sipped my wine and watched with mild curiosity as Liv began looking through a magazine of CDs.Finally, she selected one, put it in the player, and turned it on.

"This is my favorite mix CD. I think Rhiannon bought it for me... I can't remember..." Liv was saying as a vaugely familiar song came through the speakers.

"No, I didn't buy it, I made it for you with love, and Limewire." Rhiannon said as she started opening the bottle of whiskey and sour mix she bought.

"Oh yeah... your Nana was so mad when the computer crashed. She grounded you for a week." Liv sipped her wine and sat down at the table. "Have a seat, Clemens. We don't drink in the living room."

I sat down in the chair next to her. "But we were drinking soda in there..." Rhiannon spoke before Liv could reply.

"And I'll tell you why soda is okay, and booze isn't. It's because of this one," She pointed at Liv. ("Oh god," Liv grumbled.) "Okay,here's the skinny, this is my Nana's house. I grew up here, after my mom died. Well, now Nana's in a home, so she gave me her house.Anyway,when Liv and I were about seventeen, Nana let me and Liv drink the rest of a bottle of red wine that she had opened for her nightcap.And we were drinking in the living room, and Liv was such a lightweight back then, the tiniest bit of booze would have her slurring and falling down. Well, she fucking spilled half her glass on our couch. Back then, it was beige, so it stained. Nana was so pissed, she made me pay for that upholstery you see on it today."She paused to to take a swig of her freshly poured whiskey drink. I found myself on the edge of my seat listening to her share memories of her and Liv. "So, upon my authority, no one who is drinking alcohol in my house near those couches. Because fucking hell that was a lot fucking money. I had to bust ass through winter break to get that shit."

"Oh, yes it's so dramatic. Two-hundred dollars, jeez. I'm so sorry you had to make pizzas for two weeks."Liv said sarcastically. I sat listening to the two for a moment,listening to the music, which I was starting to recognize. I started chuckling out loud.

"What's so funny?" Liv asked. I sipped my wine.

"I'm just laughing at how Rhiannon crashed her computer for Tokio Hotel music." I said. Now,honestly I didn't have an issue with Tokio Hotel, I just came from the same country, and they blew up very quickly and were absolutley everywhere. You couldn't turn on any music channel without seeing them or hearing them. Or turn on the radio without hearing them. It was kind of comparable to Justin Bieber's rapid success in the States. But Tokio Hotel were larger than that even. I didn't really care too much either way about them. But I wanted to prod the girls for a reaction.

"Shut your floundering cake hole, arschloch."Rhiannon sneered at me. I laughed, though I was confused about most of what she said. Understanding that she didn't appreciate my comment. "Tokio Hotel are my jam. Shit, they're bout mine and Liv's all time favorite band."

"I'm just saying it's funny to me. In so many ways." I said shrugging. "You don't understand because you didn't grow in the country they started in."

"And they're not my 'all time favorite'." Liv said,standing up from the table. Her glass was empty. I looked down at my own to see that mine was too. "Would you like another glass,Clemens?" I nodded, handing her my empty glass. Liv sauntered toward the kitchen.

"Oh, that's right!" Rhiannon said suddenly. "Milky Chance is your latest music flavor!"Liv halted, muscles tense. I couldn't see her face, but I assumed that it was beet red. I giggled a bit, feeling the wine rushing to my head. I was feeling giddy all of a sudden.

"Shut the fuck up, Rhi-Rhi. I know where you sleep!" Liv said as she stalked out of the kitchen. Rhiannon's nose wrinkled at the name Liv called, her but said nothing as she drained her glass and poured herself another glass. Liv returned a moment later with refills for both of us. As she sat down and got settled. I leaned in close to her ear, not caring about how close I got.

"You know, it's okay to like my music." I whispered lowly in her ear.