Poison Ivy League

Chapter 6

Chapter Soundtrack

Thnks Fr Th Mmrs - Fall Out Boy

Cosmic Love - Florence + The Machine

Mexico - The Staves

My emotions were scattered, a few falling in front of me and getting trampled by my pounding feet. I stormed over to Florence who was still chatting up some guy in the field. I took her by the arm and she dug her heels into the dirt, grudgingly following me.

“What the hell, Emma!” Florence wrenched herself out of my grip, about to run back to the guy when I said it.

“He dumped Rachel.” I could feel my cheeks heating up, my stomach scrambling, “I mean, Leo broke up with Rachel.” Florence went pale. With a gentle nudge, she led me towards the bar.

Florence waved at the bartender and she brought over the order that Florence had placed earlier. Three shots were placed in front of us and Florence tilted her head back. One.

“So… He really dumped Rachel.” Florence stammered, the alcohol seeming to already get to her. I knocked my head back and I could smell the fumes in my nose, my eyes watering.

“Yeah. I guess so.” My responses were childish and shell-shocked. We were going to get drunk. I could already sense it. Two minutes into the conversation and both of us cheered our small little shots and tilted them back, my nose then streaming. Two minutes, two shots. Three minutes, three shots. We tilted our heads back like clockwork, slowing down as we got to five minutes.

“They were together since freshman year, you know.” Florence’s words were starting to slur together to create a glob of words that ran into each other. I giggled.

A million childish jokes and two shots later we were practically falling into each other.

Guys passed us by and we gained a beer. I was so scared of dying. The thoughts of over-drinking were muddled with the usual high of the alcohol. Giggles, guys, every movement was too fast and every movement too slow. It was confusing, a labyrinth trapping myself inside of my own brain. I twirled and I stumbled and Florence and I started falling down and soon the bar started to close up: liquor sales stopped and the loud music paused. The magic of the evening was lost in the sea of evacuating twenty year olds.

We stumbled around in our high heels, tripping over everyone’s shoes and our own feet. The sidewalk seemed to have cracks that mysteriously appeared. We were the last people to file through the back doors of the hole-in-the-wall bar. Some vagrants were still sipping on their drinks, staring blank-minded at the ancient television screen that sat behind the sleeping tender. Some customer reached blindly over the counter in the early-morning light, grabbing a bottle of mystery brew and pouring it in his mouth. I had to remind myself over and over again that this was Britain, the polite accents aiding my memory.

I felt someone tap my shoulder and I felt Florence walk past me, leaving me in the middle of the street.

“Emma!” Leo.

“Wha-” I fell into his arms and he caught me without a waver in his strength. He picked me up like a little kid, my head cradling in the nook in his neck. I felt like a child being carried to their room. I caught glimpses of the world as I slipped in and out of consciousness, Florence sober enough to hold herself upright as her taller brother led her to his car parked a good half-mile away from the bar. He opened the back door and she laid down in the back seat, her words sounding clear but incomprehensible to my drunken mind. Leo kissed to top of my head, setting me in the passenger’s seat which leaned back a great deal. He got in on his side and started the car, vroom-ing away from the outskirts of campus as quickly as possible, heading inwards towards the dorms.

This was Leo: Sexy, confusing Leo Haul who had broken up with Rachel. I curled up on the console and sat my head next to his elbow. I yawned, waking up suddenly as the car came to an abrupt halt. I didn’t even attempt to get out. Leo helped Florence out to the stairs, watching her carefully climb back up. He came back to retrieve me.

“Florence…”

“Made it up the stairs.” Leo said simply, sweetly, finishing my slurred sentence. I nodded. He tried to help me out of the car but finally gave up when I refused to uncurl from my tight position. He sighed and I laughed at his failure like a toddler, asking where we were going.

“You can stay at my apartment tonight…” he trailed off as if he had more to say, but if he did he didn’t show it.

We arrived at the seemingly looming tower that he lived in. I precariously got up, following him carefully into the elevator and collapsing against the war that smelled of burning tar. The fluorescent light flickered and I meekly covered my eyes. Leo picked me up and carried me to the room, grabbing a key swiftly out of his back pocket and unlocking the door. He didn’t have a couch.

He set me down on his bed. I grabbed at the covers and the pillow that my head laid on. My clothes smelled like liquor and, in my dazed state, I asked for a shirt. He threw me one and left the room as I put on the shirt, being anything but deft. I curled up in a blanket.

Leo headed to the opposite side of the bed, three or four feet away.  I fell unconscious as Leo whispered to me “Good Night.”

A short and sweet chapter for you guys. So who is Leo Haul? I wonder too. I don’t have a huge direction for this book which excites me because I have motivation to complete it. I will post very soon (or try to). Between school and extracurricular, it is hard to write so I will try my best.

See you next time Socially Awkward Flower Munchkins!