This is Euphoria

-24-

My eyes click open, almost mechanically. I immediately lift my arm to shield my sensitive eyes. The sunlight streaming into the room in vast amounts seeps through the skyline and grazes the room gently. I sit up steadily, each movement this early languid.

I vaguely remember falling asleep in this unusual spot, the lack of comfort of the hard floor causing my neck to ache. Bringing my hand to the place my neck and shoulder meet, I attempt to soothe it by massaging the tender area.

"Your neck hurt? I can't imagine the ground being very comfortable," Kai's sudden voice startles me, largely due to the fact I hadn't realized his presence before. His long body is stretched out a few feet down, staring contently ahead out unto the day.

His chest is bare, other than the tattoos inked into his skin. A silver chain with a cross pendant hangs from his neck so inconspicuously. He's worn it so often it's somehow morphed to be apart of him now, like the watch tattooed on his forearm or the faint freckle on his cheekbone.

"A little," I croak, now consciously aware of my dry mouth. "What time is it?"

"Quarter to two," he responds airily, though this information causes me to jump to my feet. I've never slept this late before. And I don't even know why I did today, I wasn't even drunk last night, he was.

"I have something to do," I surprise myself by murmuring. Yeah, that's right. I have something to do. I rush into the bathroom and fumble with the toothpaste before managing to put some on the bristles.

"Alright.. do you need me to drop you off somewhere?" His voice mirrors my own confusion once he reaches the doorframe.

"No. Vera," I simply answer before grabbing the mouthwash. In a record of time, I sort myself out and finish up in the bathroom.

"I'll see you," I tell Kai. I back away against the door before opening it to go. I leave him in a perplexed state, I imagine. I walk with a feverish haste to get outside; to leave this what right now seems like a stuffy building, though it isn't, and to breathe a gulp of fresh air.

Luckily, Vera is in the area. I feel guilty for not making more time to see her as of recently. But once her overwhelming questions start piling up, I allow myself to feel slightly less guilty.

"Would you just stop asking about him!" I exclaim crossly. The nature of her questions is not something I feel like discussing.

"But it's about him, isn't it? It's got something to do with him," she pries on, interested to see whether or not I'll shed light on this topic.

"No," I lie.

"You're lying," she detects easily.

"Okay, so what if I am?" I respond gruffly.

"What's the big deal? And why are you getting so defensive? You can tell me Athena, we used to tell each other everything," she says this with what I assume to be a hint of sadness, but whether that's a ploy to get me to open up or not I don't know, or honestly even care because frankly I want to talk to someone about it, about him.

"Fine," I sigh defeatedly. And so I tell her. I tell her how I love the way his green eyes gleam under the sunlight. And that somehow he always wakes up before me. I tell her that I've seen his impressive stamp collection, which initially he was embarrassed about. That he has an expensive watch on his night stand that he never wears. And so far, I've counted 47 tattoos in total, but he might have more that I just haven't seen yet. I tell her about that one time he got drunk and jungled four apples and never dropped not one.

I tell her so much that by the time I've just finally begun to feel like I've scratched the surface we're in the parking lot of my complex.

"Oh my god," she speaks for the first time since my spiel, "you like him!"

I don't waste my energy to deny it.

"C'mon! We've got something to do," she says, smiling mischievously.

an: i was gone for a minute but im back again, #backonmybullshit. but i loved writing this chapter and make sure to stay tuned for the neck one ;)