Page 12 of What It Means To Be Found

I don’t know what happened.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes, wondering how I got here.

It was like I was sucked into a black hole.

I checked the time on my phone, which flashed four a.m. on the screen.

Thank goodness it was Saturday, and that I didn’t have to wake up for work soon. I could sleep in as much as I wanted with little to no repercussions.

I only had a couple of chapters left. I was ninety percent of the way through the book, and I had made it this far, so I figured I might as well see it through.

How did I get so absorbed in this story? Well, what little story there is. I had a glass of wine that I kept topping off with a bottle I had resting on my nightstand as I read the alien erotica, and even though I was definitely buzzed from drinking nothing but wine the last five hours, I was still aware enough to want to keep reading.

The woman and the alien man had done the deed half a dozen times already, and I was still desperate to see the story through.

Did the author find a way to put crack into her stories? Why was I so invested? Why was I willingly choosing to ignore most of the features the author used to describe the alien man. Horns? Pass. Tail? Pass. The skin texture she kept describing every second she could? Ick.

Everything else? Smash.

I’d smash this alien so hard.

I opened my phone to send a voice memo to my friends, the brightness from my phone screen made my eyes squint and blurred my vision before I found the group chat they had been messaging on earlier while I was reading.

Adam: Logan, you alright man?

Court: Yeah, it looked like you had a busted lip after.

Josh: Need me to ice it better for ya, big guy? (;

Logan: I’m flattered, but the swelling has already gone down.

Beck: Are you in trouble for the fight?

Blah. Who gave a shit. I didn’t participate in the group chat but instead went to tap on either Josh or Beck’s contact information. I was too tired and lazy to make extra taps on the screen that would result in a smaller group chat with the two of them, and I figured I would tell them both in detail my experience with their recommendation at some point. I just wanted to treat them to some live reactions I had thus far. Because my fingers felt a little tingly from the excess wine, I decided to go with a voice message.

“First of all,” I started, hearing my own smile and tipsiness in my voice, “The communication barrier? Hot. The protectiveness? Hot. I get it now. Holy hell. I am so blown away by all of this.” I sent that first, figuring that was a good place to start. I read a couple more sentences before the alien made another grand gesture for his lady friend, making my lady parts warm and my heart melt.

I held my phone up again as I started another voice message. “The things I would let him do to me. I’m so glad I charged my vibrator recently. Hot. Damn!” I laughed a little before I cut off the message and sent that one too. I knew I was intoxicated, and I knew that Beck or Josh would absolutely roast me for staying up late and getting tipsy and reading alien erotica, but they created this monster, so it was fine.

I read a few more lines, my heart rate picking up yet again when it looked like the couple was about to do the deed another fucking time in their little cave. This story had very little plot, but I didn’t care. It was enough plot to justify all the sex for me.

I picked up my phone again for one last voice message. “I’m ruined. I can’t come back from this. Am I into grunting, pushy men with communication barriers now? I’m feeling the feminism leave my body little by little.” I sent that one too, giggling to myself before I finally put my phone down and continued the story.

How the author could balance the line between feminism and possessive instincts was fascinating. I understood that this was clearly fiction and that in reality, I would probably punch a guy in the face who acted like this. However, books were meant to be enjoyed. And I sure as hell was enjoying the shit out of this.

An hour and a half later, I finally finished. I plugged in my e-reader and phone on my nightstand before I simply crawled under the covers and passed out. I had filthy dreams of alien men with weird skin and phenomenal genitalia designed specifically for the female orgasm, for seven hours.

***

My phone buzzing woke me up. Not the sunlight peeping through my blinds. I was a little hungover, but not enough to where I couldn’t slap my hand around and find my buzzing phone. My head was just a little sore, so I stayed lying down as I squinted my eyes at the screen.

Beck was calling me.

I also noticed that it was about twelve thirty, I needed to get up and say hello to Susan and thank her again for letting me move in.

“Beck, how did this happen?” I answered the FaceTime call, snuggling a little more under the covers until they were tucked close to my chin. She was sitting on Adam’s black leather couch, clearly having been awake for a few hours at this point on her Saturday. She gave me a confused look, making me giggle like a crazy person.

“How did what happen?” Beck asked. I pulled my face free from the covers a little bit more so that she could see my lips move. Beck was hard of hearing, and even though her hearing aids happened to pull a lot of weight for her ears, it was still best for her to see the lips of whoever was speaking to her just in case.

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