“Well hurry up and get out and I’ll help you pick out some clothes for our trip. Ashlynn actually didn’t even try to look for you,” he says while walking out of the bathroom and closing the door.
I wonder what is going on with Brian. He is pretty cute, and we’ve been spending so much time together. I guess I should’ve talked to him and the other’s more than I have.
I drain the water from the tub and I sit in it until it’s empty. I giggle at the sight of me covered in bubbles and I slide off the edge of the tub and across the tiled floor like a seal. I’m cracking up laughing when Brian shouts at me to hurry up. I hop in the shower to quickly rinse off the suds, the room spinning around me as if I just got punched in the jaw. I brace myself against the wall as the water rush over my skin, turn off the shower and hop out.
I don’t have any clothes in here, so I wrap myself up in a fluffy towel, grab another bottle of wine, and exit the bathroom. Brian is laying down on the bed with his arms folded behind his head. He looks up and quickly lays his head back down on his arms. “You might want to put some clothes on,” he says.
I twirl in a circle and promptly fall on my ass. “Ouch! This towel isn’t as fluffy as it looks! My ass hurts so much right now,” I say while laughing.
Brian looks down at me and starts laughing. He gets up and helps me stand up. We’re face to face laughing when he puts his hands on my shoulders and guides me to sit down on the bed. “Hold on,” he says.
He turns around and walks to the dresser that’s against the far wall. He rifles through the drawers while I struggle to open the bottle and comes back with a pair of boxer shorts and a large green shirt. “Here, put this on,” he says while tossing the clothes in my face. I stick my tongue out before hopping up and pulling my towel off. “Woah! Wait until I turn around!” he says, even though he doesn’t turn around.
“What does it matter. The world has pretty much ended and modesty is far from my mind,” I say while slipping the clothes on. Once that’s finished, I take a huge pull from the bottle. At this point, the house is tilting and I feel as carefree as a child.
“Just because the world is over, doesn’t change the fact that you’re a girl and I’m a guy,” he says while trying to clear his throat.
I look at him while batting my eyes and smirking. “Well Bri, do you find me attractive?”
“That’s a good question, Brian, do you find Kiani attractive?” Derrick asks from the doorway.
“Uh-oh! The warden is here!” I announce, with a deep curtsy complementing my words. Well, it would’ve complemented them if I didn’t stumble and fall into a bedpost. Fuck, that’s probably going to leave a knot.
“What the fuck are you doing in here, Brian?” Derrick asks.
“I’m helping Kiani pick out her clothes,” he answers simply.
“He was also my bath buddy! I took a buddy bath… or a bubble bath,” I say while trying to not have the bedpost hold up all of my weight.
Derrick and his clones stare at me while walking into the room to look at me closely. I smile largely at him while he looks into my eyes.
“Are you… drunk?” he asks shockingly.
“Are you drunk?” I ask him back.
“Yeah you’re drunk,” he states. “Why have you been drinking?”
I mime zipping my lips closed and I look over at Brian. He nods before answering for me.
“She’s just unwinding. She said she never had any alcohol before and this was probably her only chance to do it.”
“I’m sure I asked Ki and not you,” he sneers.
“I’m sure you got your answer regardless of who answered it,” he retorted.
“Derrick get out. We’re busy,” I say.
“I’m not leaving you alone with him while you’re drunk,” he argues.
I straighten up my spine and I look at him. “I said. Get. Out!” I point towards the door with the hand holding the wine.
Derrick stares at me before shaking his head and walking out of the room. Once the door closes I look at Brian and I ask him, “So, where were we?”
He grabs the bottle of wine and chug half of it before pointing towards the bed. “We were getting ready for bed.”
I flop onto the bed, crawling under the dusty blankets and burrowing my head into the dusty pillow. I sneeze a couple of times before I give in and slap the dust off of it. Brian takes another sip of wine before placing it on the bedside table. “Goodnight,” he says as he turns to go.
“Wait!” I call out. “Can you stay with me tonight?”
He stares at me, not even attempting to make a move back towards the bed. I can see the question in his eyes.
“I’m afraid to sleep by myself.”
His eyes widen at my confession before slowly going back to normal. He strips down to his boxers before pulling back the comforter, slapping his own pillow, and climbing in to lie next to me.
“So what do we do now?” he asks.
As I’m thinking about his question, he leans over me to grab the bottle of wine. For just a moment, our chests are pressed together. He looks down at me with his arm still extended, our noses now brushes. All I can do is stare into his warm brown eyes, trying to force myself to focus on just him and not the room spinning as if we were caught in a tornado.
We exchange breath for a few seconds, when I notice that his eyes are focused on my mouth. I don’t know what comes over me, probably the alcohol, but right now I don’t really care about anything but this moment. A sly smirk grace my lips, causing his eyes to shoot to mine in confusion. I reach up, threading my fingers into his soft hair, and pull his mouth to mine.
For a second, he doesn’t respond to my kiss, before relenting with a groan. I hear the clatter of the bottle being dropped back onto the table before I feel him grab my face with his newly empty hand. “Ki,” he breathes, breaking off from our kiss. “Ki, you’re drunk. We shouldn’t be doing this.”
I kiss along his jaw, not really caring about his words or even trying to hear them.
“Ki,” he groans.
“What’s the problem?” I ask, exasperated.
“The problem is, you’re drunk. I won’t take advantage of you.”
“Then you should drink more so that you can be drunk too,” I counter.
He groans before slamming his mouth back to mine, his tongue forcing my mouth open and plunging inside. My body is on fire. I can’t seem to get enough oxygen, and if this is the way I go out, that’s fine with me.
His hand leaves my face, only to reach down to brush against my hip. I bite down on his bottom lip, quickly sucking it into my mouth to ease the sting. I can feel his hard length press against my leg as his hand creeps up my side, slowly making its way to my right breast. I moan into his mouth, arching my back so that I can press my chest firmly against his.
Our kiss picks up its intensity, causing the already spinning room to go even more out of control. His grip on my breast tightens and his thumb brushes against my nipple, sending electricity down to my stomach.
Wait. Isn’t it supposed to go lower than that?
Now that I think about it, the room is spinning even more, and I don’t think it’s because of this amazing kiss.
“Brian,” I breathe. I turn my head away from him, but he continues kissing down neck, hitting spots I didn’t even know I had. Butterflies set off in my stomach, or at least I hope they’re butterflies. “Brian.”
“Yes, Ki?” he whispers back, sliding his tongue up my neck so that he can suck on my ear.
I moan, pressing my body even closer to his. I tilt my head so that I can capture his mouth with mine, loving the heat that comes with his touch. His thumb picks up a rhythm, flicking my nipple while his tongue taste my mouth. The butterflies increase in intensity while the room continue to spin.
I’ve never been kissed like this before.
I think I’m in love.
I feel like I’m on fire.
No…
I’m about to fucking thr
ow up.
I toss Brian off of me and fight my way out of the covers. Once I’m free of my constraints, I hop up and sprint towards the bathroom.
“Kiani? What’s wrong? Did I do something?” I can hear him wrestling to get out of the covers, but I can’t focus on him right now. I fling myself to the toilet, barely lifting the lid in time before I throw up all of my mystery food. I don’t recall eating a lot of food, but with the amount coming up, I must have really pigged out.
Brian kneels behind me, rubbing circles into my back as I continuously heave the rest of the contents of my stomach into the toilet.
“Damn, Kiani, you really did a number on yourself.”
I shoot him the bird while my heaving subsides. I spit just a few more times, trying to clear my mouth as much as possible.
“That won’t save you,” he laughs. “You’re going to have to brush that mouth to get all of the throw up out of it.”
I rest my head against the toilet, which is disgusting because Lord knows when it was last cleaned. Brian wraps his arms around my waist, lifting me up and carrying me over to the sink. “Here, the least you can do is rinse your mouth out.”
I want to cuss him out, but I know that my breath probably smells terrible. I turn on the tap and use my hands to scoop the water into my mouth. After rinsing out my mouth a bunch of times, I brush past Brian and head back to the bed. My head is still spinning, but not as much.
Brian crawls into bed after turning off the lights. I roll onto my side, looking at him without actually seeing him. “Well,” I whisper. “I didn’t expect tonight to go like this.”
“Neither did I, but I’m glad it did.”
“Does it always spin like this when you’re drunk?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “I’ve never been drunk before.”
“Good, it sucks,” I laugh. Silence drapes over us, and I can’t tell if it’s comfortable or awkward. I start to fidget, trying to get comfortable even though my head is already killing me.
“Come here,” he whispers. He grabs my arms before I even had a chance to move, dragging me against his side. “I can feel you overthinking everything. Just close your eyes.”
“But don’t you want to talk about it?” I ask, placing my head on top of his chest. How is this so comfortable?
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“But-,”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Ki. Go to bed.” He kisses me on the forehead and settle into his pillow.
There are so many questions rushing through my mind, but said mind is also still spinning. I decide to take his advice and close my eyes. His heart beats in a strong, steady rhythm that lulls me quicker into unconsciousness. I don’t know what tomorrow may hold, but I’m happy to be where I am right now.
9
Derrick
I walk out of Kiani’s room and down the hall to my own. My room isn’t small, but it’s not as large as Ki’s. I can tell that this room was a guest room because it has a generic black comforter and black dressers. The walls are painted a light cream color and there’s a small cream couch against the wall right in front of the window. I don’t care about the decor, as long as I have a soft place to sleep for once.
I walk over and flop down on my bed while my mind continues to race. I don’t know how I’m supposed to react to seeing Kiani naked for the first time since we were little kids. I never stopped and thought about the fact that she’s not that little girl that I used to mud wrestle with and skip rocks down at the lake with.
Her tall body has leaned out a lot, but that’s not a surprise since we barely have enough food to keep weight on. Her breasts… I should just try to get the image of them out of my mind before it drives me crazy. It’s safe to say that I never thought of Ki as a woman until right now. She’s always been just Ki to me.
Beyond my apparent confusion of seeing her like that, I’m pissed off that Brian saw her like that as well. What is going on between the two of them? One minute she barely speaks to anyone except Isaiah, the next she’s best friends with Brian.
Was something going on with them this whole time and I never saw it until now? Or has the close proximity brought out their newfound friendship?
Just the thought of something more going on between them two has my chest tightening up and my temper flaring. I’m not mad because I have feelings for Kiani, I’m simply trying to protect her. Right? That has to be it.
When we were in middle school, Kiani found herself dating one of the most popular guys in the school. Turns out he only asked her out on a dare and broke her heart. I won't lie to you and say that I didn’t allow my temper to get the best of me. There was no way that I could sit by and not beat him up after holding Kiani after she got that break up text. She never cries, and she cried a lot that night and many nights after.
I’m just trying to stop that from happening again. Even though I know she could look out for herself. I’m just trying to have her back.
I lay back and look at the ceiling. Sam would have handled this all so much differently and way better than I did.
Sam.
Sam was my first kiss, and we never told Kiani about it. We were young, and we just wanted to get it out of the way. Sam was a different friend to me than Kiani. I always saw Kiani as a sister, until now. Wait, no. She’s still my sister.
But Sam. When we lost Sam, I thought I was never going to be able to breathe easily ever again. Sam was tough, but I always felt like I had to protect her more than anyone else. Kiani could handle herself in a fight, she is insightful and she’s not afraid of anything, besides letting me and the other's down.
Sam was a spitfire, but she was so small, and she couldn’t really fight. And I loved her. Dammit. I loved her, and I couldn't even tell Kiani that when she asked. Why couldn’t I? We have always been honest with one another, so why can’t I tell her the truth?
I know Sam is out there. I can feel it in my heart that she is, and I’ll hate myself if I don’t at least try and look for her. I can’t leave Kiani, but I can’t keep going and leave Sam behind.
I don’t know what to do, but I need to figure it out before first light.
10
Kiani
I wake up with my head pounding. I can’t remember much of last night besides my bath and my argument with Derrick. I stretch out my arms and I come into contact with a warm body. I tense up before turning my head and seeing that it’s Brian, sleeping peacefully beside me. I’m completely confused as to why he’s in my bed.
As I look at Brian, I can’t help but feel a little jealous. Boys always have super long eyelashes without trying. His eyelashes rest upon the top of his smooth caramel cheeks and mine wouldn’t even touch my lower eyelid with them squeezed shut. Ok, I may be exaggerating but still.
I shake Brian until he wakes up. His brown eyes look at me for a while before they actually see me. He cracks a smile before putting a palm up to his face and blowing out his breath. He scrunches up his face and rolls onto his back.
“My morning breath is pretty serious right now. I don’t want to assault you with this death,” he jokes.
I laugh before turning on my back, too. “I’m pretty sure my breath smells like hell as well.”
“Before you ask, you got drunk off of wine, stripped naked in front of me, kicked Derrick out of the room, and then we went to sleep.”
I turn my head back towards him and yelled, “What?!”
He instantly covers his face, eyes pretty much bulging out of his head. “Oh wow! You pretty much seared my eyebrows off!”
“What do you mean I got naked in front of you?!” I ask while ignoring his jibe.
“I mean you got undressed and said that you didn’t care if I saw you naked cause the world is ending.”
I grab an extra pillow and put it over my head. I’m so embarrassed. I can’t believe that Brian saw me not only drunk but butt ass naked. And why is he in my room?
“That doesn’t explain why you’re in my b
ed,” I say.
“We didn’t do anything. You asked me to stay with you because you hate sleeping by yourself.”
“I told you that?”
“Yeah.”
“No one knows that, not even Derrick,” I say. I didn’t always have a problem with sleeping alone, but ever since I lost my mother, I’ve been having trouble with being by myself at night.
“I struggle with sleeping by myself sometimes too. The terror of the past creeps into my dreams every chance it gets,” he says quietly. He reaches over to grab my hand, either to comfort himself or me, I don’t know which.
“I can’t wait for the day when all of this is behind us. The day where we can just lay back and actually grieve and heal from the things we’ve been through.”
“I can’t wait for the day when we’ll be able to feel more than hunger, fear and thirst all of the time. A time when we can explore other emotions.”
“I remember you asking me if I was in love with Derrick,” I blurt out.
“Yeah? What of it?” he asks.
“Well… I was wondering if you’ve ever been in love?”
He’s quiet as he contemplates my question. I don’t know what made me ask him that, but I figured I had a right to ask since he asked me.
“I had a girlfriend once,” he finally responds. “I don’t think that I ever really fell in love with her, but I liked her a lot.”
“What happened to you guys?”
“Her family had money and mine didn’t. They were a part of the first wave of ships to leave.”
“So, she just left you here? If she had so much money, why didn’t they take you guys with them?”
“Because her parents never wanted her to be with someone like me,” he says, tone turning bitter with whatever he must be remembering.
“Like you? What do you mean by that?”
“I wasn’t part of her world. I didn’t go to country clubs. My family didn’t host yacht parties. She was out of my league, yet for some reason she wanted to be with me.”
Kiani’s Journey- Mayhem Page 7