Page 63 of Escaping Our Reality

Holy shit. I have never wanted to break something so much in all of my damn, miserable life.

Lulu pulls away. Her lips are swollen, her eyes glazed over. She looks like a disheveled sex goddess.

We both quiet, trying to listen for sounds above the panted breaths heaving from of our lungs. Sure enough, there’s another knock, followed by what sounds like stumbling.

“Ella, it’s me. It’s Kristie. Your car is here. You told me I have to knock if you’re home instead of just using my key.” You can tell her words are slurred. Is she high again?

“Are you kidding me right now?” I’m not talking to anyone in particular.

Lulu seems just as flabbergasted as me, mumbling unintelligible words underneath her breath. She crawls off my lap, and the pressure from her body that was providing a small modicum of relief to my raging hard-on is gone. Painfully gone. Very painfully gone.

Raking her hands over her shirt to smooth it, she gasps when her hands brush her own massively erect nipples.

Note to self: My Lulu has very sensitive nipples.

She grabs my shirt from the loveseat and wriggles it over her head. Seeing her in my shirt nearly rips the beating heartfrom my chest. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I toss my hands in the air. “What am I supposed to do without a shirt?”

She smirks, “It’s not your top half you should be concerned with.” She nods at my lap and tosses me a pillow so I can cover myself.

We can hear Kristie struggling to get a key in the lock. The second Lulu opens the door, she staggers in, stumbling over her own feet. She snatches out, folding Lulu in a hug.

Lulu likes to be hugged. I know she does. You can see it on her face. But she only likes to be hugged by people she deems worthy. And I can see that Kristie doesn’t necessarily fall into that category. She falls just short on the Lulu meter.

Lulu pushes Kristie away, attempting to stand her upright. When she coughs in Lulu’s direction, Lulu’s eyes widen and she starts coughing herself. “Oh my god, Kristie, did you drink the whole bar? I hope you didn’t drive here like that.”

So…not high this time.

Drunk.

Kristie waves a hand in the air and meanders over to the loveseat, flopping down. She’s wearing a really low-cut shirt, an extremely short skirt, and fuck-me stilettos. I’m surprised she doesn’t have hypothermia. No doubt, she was definitely on the prowl tonight dressed like that. Since she’s here with us, that must mean she didn’t find what she was looking for.

Lulu steps around the corner, pulling the sleeves of my shirt over her hands. Her back stiffens when she realizes what Kristie’s wearing. “Kristie, I’ve never seen you in clothes like that. You look…”

Kristie laughs, loud and boisterous. “Hot?”

Lulu purses her lips together. “I was gonna say cold.”

I slide my hand over my mouth, trying to politely cover my laugh. Lulu’s damn funny when she wants to be.

“Well, I was just trying to get a date, Ella. I didn’t feel so bad about not dating because you weren’t dating, either. But then,” she waves a hand over in my direction, “you started dating.”

“It’s not a competition, Kristie. You’ll date when the right person comes along. You don’t have to go searching for it. It’s not something you find at the bottom of a shot glass. Look at me, happenstance brought me and Crutch together. And look at Carrie and Caleb. They met in class. Just a normal day in class.”

Kristie flings an arm over her eyes. “Ugh, Carrie.” She sniffles and starts to cry.

Lulu and I look at each other. “Better get her some water.”

I follow Lulu over to the kitchen. Grabbing some paper towels, I clean up the spilled water and melting ice cubes from earlier while Lulu plays nurse to Kristie. I sit back down on the couch and lower the volume on the forgotten movie. Dabbing the mascara from her eyes, Kristie asks Lulu for some aspirin.

Lulu disappears into her bedroom and comes back out, shaking an empty bottle. “I’ll be right back. I’ll walk over to the Big House and get some.”

I sit up, “Do you need me to go with you?”

“No, it’s fine. Stay here with Kristie. I’ll be right back.”

Great. Just great. I don’t really want to be left alone with her for some reason.

The moment the hallway door closes, Kristie seems to invigorate.

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