skyfall

1

.

And he's singing his theme song in the middle of the hallway

where anyone can hear
and know
when you get back from the airport two hours early

carrying both cases of luggage
up the stairs
and down the hall
to the room,

you two will share,
your ears assaulted with the perfect
off-key harmonics of

why so delirious
don't you know, everywhere I go

until he sees you and screams

"Luke!" voice echoing
words spilling from him
like bad wine
last regrets and lost chances
as he tells you how he's been

waiting
for hours and hours
because he forgot the damn keycard in the room
and he was too afraid

of the hotel clerk's wrath to go
ask for another
because this is the third one today

and you really should have known better.

.

The convention doesn't officially start
until sometime tomorrow
so you both decide

to go out for dinner
and drinks

at the bar across the street
where you both fit into the booth
side by side
your arm on his shoulder

laughing
at everything and nothing
until three in the morning

when everything always seems funny
(and blurry)
and you're not really sure how you made it back

to your room in one piece
stumbling through the door
and sobriety
to fall across the bed, face first

arms and legs
everywhere.

And you can hear him throwing up in the bathroom
as your brain starts to slow
and you really
should have know better

but the drinks were good and the night
was young and in the end
all that matters

is you had fun.

.

6 am
is way too early
(and 3 am way too late)

but you're up and out the door before he can protest
the light
reflecting in his eyes as you go.

(Though you can hear him mumbling behind you
through the closed door
about all the injustices in the world
and bad hangovers
as he falls
back to sleep.)

And the panels last all day
hours and hours
of games and fans and

people

running up to you
past you
around you

everywhere you look
somebody is there.

Recording,
laughing and running, playing
games and there is
so much energy all around you

all you want is to go
lay back down
and sleep forever but

you're here now and
Wildcat is hungry
he yells for the hundredth time outside the booth

for FarCry. And you all agree
to go to the bar
across the street
where the drinks are grand
and the time

seems to last
forever.

.

And you're standing outside
the bar
sending a text to Delirious to
wake up
get dressed and
eat something like a sane person when you realize

you're missing your wallet
it's not in your back pocket where it should be
and you're struck by fear
as you search the ground around you
frantically hoping
against hope

until your friends see you
and ask
what's wrong, why
are you acting this way?

And you remember this morning
falling out of bed
and setting your wallet down
on the nightstand as you

put on your pants.

.

"Likely excuse!"
follows you when you tell your friends
you forgot your wallet
then turn and

run

so fast you're almost to the front door
of the hotel
when you realize

that wasn't the truth at all.

It was back
in the convention, just before the last panel
when weary with

hunger
fatigue and unease
Delirious hadn't responded to you for hours
that you dropped your wallet in the locker
you rented by the front door
with your hotel room key
(and sanity)

so it wouldn't fall
and be lost.

.

The knocks at the door
are loud and insistent
and wake him from the nest of blankets and sleep
he's carefully placed himself in

cocooning himself
like a mammal in the den

all softness
and warm things. Grumbling
as he rolls off the bed
and falls

bam

to the floor, completely
entwined in sheets and blankets
and the last lingers of a hangover as he
answers the door

and stares

at someone he should know
does know
but can't quite place between the
nagging sensation
of alligators in his stomach
and baboons
in his head

nausea
that disorients him as

Marcel stares back
and the sheets start to slip.