bigcitydreams™ ♥ Christofer Drew Ingle

bigcitydreams ♥ Christofer Drew Ingle//{Chapter 7: I Just Laugh}

bigcitydreams ♥ Christofer Drew 

Chapter 7: I Just Laugh

"Darling, you're with him. Whoa. Damn, it's such a shame. Whoa. It's driving me insane..." 

-nevershoutnever.

I snuck out of the house. Tonight was my last night in Joplin, and I was going to make the most of it, be rebellious one more time before it was all taken away from me.

I walked up to Chris's place with my head down, hood up, and my hands in the pockets of my hoodie. His parents were out, so he was having a 'party'; Chris's 'parties' normally consisted of his best friends over getting stoned, sometimes even tripped out on psychedelics or high on whatever other drugs he decided to experiment with at the moment.

I arrived and knocked on the door. Chris opened it. Looked like the party had already started, if his glassy brown eyes were any indication; he was already stoned.

"Hey, love." He opened the door wider and I stepped in.

I sat on the currently empty couch. A few of his friends were sitting around the living room, passed out or smoking a bowl. This was nothing new. The rest were probably either in the kitchen or the basement where Chris normally confined the drug usage when his parents were gone.

I felt his arms slowly slip around my neck as he came up behind me. "Come on," he said slowly. It was obviously the weed making him all mellow and sluggish. "Let's go down."

I unwrapped his arms from my neck before I stood. He smelled just like weed. The whole house did. And I was not going to help him out of it this time if his parents came home and smelled it. Oh yeah-I would be gone by then anyway.

I followed him down to the basement. None of his friends were down there after all; God forbid they touch his music stuff.

I flopped down in a black beanbag that Chris had somehow painted a big red, white, and blue peace sign on.

Chris sat in the other beanbag, a purple one, bong back in hand. He took a drag then offered it to me. I took it from him. Mom is probably right about him being a bad influence on me; he's a notorious stoner around the Joplin teenage population, just not among the uber-dense adults. Let's see, I wouldn't have been introduced to drugs, and obviously I would still be a virgin (not that I minded that one so much, since I loved making love with him) if I had never met him, but I still don't regret any of it. That's what blind love will do.

I took a few drags, just enough that I had a good almost-mellow buzz going, not enough to the point where I was utterly stoned like Christofer. Then I handed the bong back to him and reached over to get the pack of cigarettes and his lighter out of the pocket of his jeans.

He laughed, grabbing my arm before I can even pull the cigarettes out of his pocket to hold me there. The buzz was clouding my judgment, and I wanted to laugh right along with him, just so long as I wasn't stoned.

But I didn't. "Chris," I said quietly, "what are you doing?" I really don't like it when he's like that... All weird and placid...

"Come on, love," he says. He tried to make his eyes look as puppy doggish as he could in this state. It didn't work very well. "This is the last time we'll see each other for a long time. I can't live without you, Brooke." Somehow the bong disappeared out of his hand and he grabbed my other arm whose hand wasn't still in his pocket and tugged on it, trying to pull me down to him.

I acquiesced-trying not to care that he was stoned, reminding myself that, as he had pointed out, this was my last night here-sitting in his lap and letting myself get folded up in his arms.

"Don't do that to me," I said into his shoulder. "Don't remind me. I don't want to leave you. I can't leave you."

"But your big city dreams are finally coming true," he said, a little confused sounding, as if he couldn't understand why I couldn't still be happy since I was getting what I wanted since moving to Joplin.

I shook my head. "Doesn't matter."

"Well, we could still run away tonight. As long as you drive."

I laughed but kind of cried at the same time. "I don't even have a license yet, you know that. And please stop. Don't make this even worse."

He smiled slightly, then kissed me. I tried to let the buzz take over again. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he wrapped his around my waist. I tangled my fingers in his hair, turning in his lap so I was facing him. I really, really, didn't want to do this while he was like this, but tonight I would let it slide because it was my last night here, and anyway he probably wouldn't have gotten quite so stoned if he weren't so depressed about me leaving.

Suddenly my mouth felt very dry, and I was so thirsty. I broke away. "I need water," I croaked, and crawled out of his lap.

I walked up the stairs and into the kitchen. One of Chris's best friends, Caleb Denison, was walking out with a drink in hand just as I was walking in.

"Hey, Caleb," I said.

"Brooke!" he said and hugged me while trying not to spill his drink on me. "I'm gonna miss you! You inspire Chris so much."

"Aww, hun, I'm gonna miss you too." I smiled at him. Caleb is like a brother to me, like a big teddy bear.Especially since he and Chris are so inseparable that they are always making music together when I'm over. More often than not, anyway.

I watched him walk down the stairs, presumably to go find Christofer in the basement.

I opened the refrigerator and looked for a still sealed bottle of water (just in case). I grabbed one, and when I shut the door and turned around I almost collided smack into someone.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" I said.

The guy smiled lazily at me-he was obviously stoned too; who here wasn't?-but he didn't step back or move out of my way so I could get past him. "'S fine." I didn't know him. I'd seen him around Joplin Senior High, to be sure, but I was only a freshman and didn't have any classes with him, plus I didn't make it my business to know everyone in the school.

"Um..." I said. "Can I like...?" I didn't know exactly how to word it. It was probably the M.J. still effecting me.

"Babe, you can 'like' do whatever you want," he replied creepily, and before I had a chance to even blink his lips were on top of mine. I didn't even have time to think or react or fight back or pull away. He put his hand on the back of my head so I couldn't pull away even if I tried, even though I desperately wanted to. This was sick.

He pulled back and I was about to shove him and/or slap him, but for some reason I looked over his shoulder first, toward the kitchen entrance to see if anyone had seen, I presume. And what I saw immobilized me.

Christofer was standing in the kitchen doorway. He had seen.