Angels

Chapter 13: Memories

Adam and I went on a bar crawl, laughing and joking along the way before we decided to gatecrash a fraternity party. We were both taking pictures with each other and posting to social media. In one picture where we are particularly drunk, Adam plants a sloppy kiss on my cheek and I pull away laughing. We play beer pong as a team in the frat house basement and when the host comes down with the police as we're gate crashers we make a break for it through the laundry room. We haul our asses through the window and run down the backyard laughing and hop over the chainlink fence as we escape our legal enforcing pursuers.

We eventually lose them and find ourselves outside Dominoes. We order a pizza and while we wait for our order we go into a nearby off-license to buy some cheap wine. We grab our pizza and walk to a location labeled 'moonlight point'. We sit there drinking our wine and eating our pizza, laughing, taking pictures and talking.I suggest we play a drinking game and he suggests 2 truths 1 lie.

"Okay, I'll go first," I say, "I have been arrested for flashing my tits at a highway, I played an end of year prank at my high school where I hijacked the end of your speech with a male stripper and I've smoked pot."

He takes a sip of his wine thoughtful and I smirk, "I'm going to say the pot smoking is a lie."

"Damn you know me well!" I laugh, taking a swig of my wine, "Your turn."

"Okay, I have fallen asleep during sex because it was that bad, I've never been in love before and I've hooked up with a guy before, but only once," he says, grinning.

"You've surely been in love before," I say, thinking, "surely that one is the lie."

"No actually, it's falling asleep during sex," he smirks, "sex with me is always good."

I scoff, "Show off."

"Well, you know it is from experience," he winks.

I roll my eyes and kick him with my boot. H rolls away laughing before rolling back and resting on top of me. We stare at each other our breathing heavy and intense.

I swallow nervously and lick my lips before saying, "This situation sure brings back memories..."

"Yeah...it sure does..." he says quietly, still giving me that intense look.

We stay like this for a while in silence before he sighs and says, "We should get back to the hotel. It's late."

I nod in agreement and we sneak back as quietly as possible.

The next morning, well, afternoon, my head is pounding and the light burns my eyes. I take a shower and pull on some leggings and an off-shoulder white t-shirt and put my hair in a ponytail. There's a knocking at my room door that makes me wince, I grab some shades and open it to find Colin stood there grinning and holding some takeout coffee to me.

"Come on, there's a diner across the street that makes some good food that's perfect for hangovers," he says in a gentle voice, handing me some aspirin which I take gratefully.

He orders us some pancakes with some fruit as toppings and gets me some water and a fresh green smoothie. He sits down next to me in the small booth. I sigh and lean my pounding head against his shoulder. He puts his arm around me and strokes my arm while looking at me with sympathy.

"I saw your adventure with Adam on social media," he comments, "you two are going to be the deaths of each other the way you both party."

I let out a low chuckle that causes me to wince before saying, "Next time, we'll take you and Doris. We almost got ourselves arrested."

He laughs and pulls me closer to him, "Looking forward to it kitten."

There's a brief silence between us before I suddenly break it, "Colin?"

He grunts and I say, "I don't know a lot about you," I state, "but since Doris and Adam tell me a lot of their personal problems, I want you to know you can do the same."

He looks at me a little surprised before giving a small smile and nod. We sit in silence as we eat our food. Colin breaks it this time, his arm is still around me and we're still incredibly close. He finishes his pancakes and places a warm hand on my cold thigh.

"My mom was a junkie," is all he says, I turn to look at him and hold his hand sympathetically, and he continues quietly to explain his home situation.

His little brother's death, his mom sleeping with strangers to cover her fixes, how he got into music and how it helped him cope with the abuse of his father. I sit and listen to him. I don't say anything. I just listen. I could never have guessed that his talent and passion for music came from such tragedy.

He looks me in the eye and says, "I know that losing your dad must have been tough too, but you had your Uncle to look out for you."

"I would have been dead if I hadn't been so lucky," I reply, looking away.

He squeezes my hand forces me to look at him. He's giving me a look that's a mixture of sympathy and confusion. A look that says; I'm listening.

"My mother blamed me for my father's death," I began, shakily, "we weren't even supposed to have been out that day, we were supposed to have been preparing dinner for our guests that night, but I badgered my dad to take me to the park. After the funeral, mom still wasn't coping. She didn't get out of bed most days, and when she did, she was at the bar or the store buying liquor. One day, I was about to leave the house to walk to school with my friend when she came stumbling into the house drunk and high on something. She screamed her lungs out at me and smashed a vase over my head, knocking me out. She dragged me to the bathroom by my hair and ran a bath. She tried to drown me. But by some twist of fate, I got lucky. My friend had convinced his dad to walk with us to school that morning, and when I didn't come out at the usual time they let themselves in to look for me. That's when they found us and rescued me from my mother."

Colin is looking at me, visibly shaken by what I've revealed to him and I finish my tale, "My Uncle found out and filed for custody of me and my mother was put in an institution instead of prison. She's still there and she's a lot better than before. She sends me letters every now and again, expressing how sorry she is, that she misses me, but I don't write back."

Tears are falling down my face, but I don't realize that they're there until Colin wipes them away with a tissue. Colin holds me as I cry my eyes out and strokes my hair comfortingly...

The rest of the tour goes off without a hitch and a few weeks later, we're back in New York at our 9-5 jobs.