Perfectly Imperfect

Chapter 27

Author's Notes: Again, just want to say I don't condone drug use. Or unprotected sex. Or dating anyone like Ian from this story because he's king of bad influences. Also, sorry it took so long to update! My creativity has been pretty bone dry lately. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

The trip wasn't exactly the kaleidoscope of colors and insane hallucinations David had expected, but it was surreal in its own way. The world seemed brighter, the trees melted their leaves and the rain fell in iridescent crystals from the sky -- each producing their own internal rainbow before shattering on the ground. David was fascinated by how the mud seemed to rise up around his fingers as though consuming him -- that was until he really thought about it and jerked away, afraid it would swallow him whole. Ian reached out for something unseen, claiming the sky was rippling which prompted David to look up, but he couldn't see what Ian was talking about. As a matter of fact, he couldn't focus on any one thing.

His vision blurred in and out, resetting only when he blinked and seeing deep into his soul when his eyes were closed. The trip carried on for a few hours. David became highly self-aware of his body and consciousness -- marveling at the fact that he was alive and how his mind was separate from his body. It was incredible how he could have thoughts, feelings and impulses that no one else could see or hear but him. He wondered if everyone could do this, or if he was the only one. During this time, Ian tried to talk to him, but David couldn't remember how to form the words to answer him -- so he laughed. And Ian laughed. And that was how they spent the height of their high. It was also around the time Ian ate the second half of his shrooms.

At some point he forgot his fear of the mud and laid down on the ground, making mud angels while looking up at the sky. All of a sudden, a realization dawned on him. He was on top of the world and the sky was really beneath him. David shouted to the trees that he defeated gravity; the rainbow raindrops fleeing from him and retreating to the clouds. Gravity fought back, though, and the world began to spin -- slow at first and then  lightning quick. He clutched the dirt, hands sinking into the mud as the most intense rush of vertigo overwhelmed him. David managed to stumble to his feet and stagger a few steps away, only to drop to his knees and throw up.

Throwing up didn't bother him, though. Nothing bothered him. Like with weed, anxieties and depressions were so far from David's mind. There was so much more to the world than to get caught up in being depressed. Everything was so vast and large and beyond them. There were so many details David never noticed before, and as he looked over at Ian and saw how wrapped up his boyfriend was in looking at his own hand, he realized there were still details even Ian hadn't seen.

David came down from his high over the course of the following hour, returning to normal awareness but still maintaining some of the visual obscurities. In this state, he got to observe Ian and how the pupils of his eyes had nearly swallowed the blue irises completely. He watched as Ian seemed like he was having the time of his life in his own world. And as bad as he knew it was, it made David feel good to have shared this experience with Ian -- to have had this experience in general. Many people never got to have the thrill or the insight shrooms had bestowed on them. David wanted to try them again, but next time in a different spot with music or other stimuli to add to the visual, aural, and tactile experience. Even now, as he was sobering, he reveled in the sensation of squeezing mud between his fingers and how it made his skin buzz pleasantly.

Ian struggled to wedge his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, having enough control of his body to take one out and light it up. "I am sooo fucked up. The cow ain't got nothin' jumping over the moon."

"What?" David laughed a bit -- the absurdity of the statement was amusing but so was the lingering euphoria of his high.

Ian simply pointed skyward before sitting back and enjoying whatever it was he was witnessing. David crawled over to him, getting close before he shifted his position to lay down, resting his head on Ian's lap. Ian looked down at him and used his non-smoking hand to reach out and stroke David's hair. David swore he made a sound akin to a purr, closing his eyes contentedly. It was so comfortable to lay here like this, to be here like this, and to be with Ian like this. He was so relaxed and calm, he didn't even realize when he drifted off to sleep -- but he could honestly say the dreams he had weren't any stranger than the dreams he lived while he was awake.