Observations Of The Long Night

1:32am
She had only been kissed once—and now, as an official adult, that simply wouldn’t do. No more waiting around for the perfect move, the ultimate checkmate. The chessboard had been shattered by an invitation to come over to his house. Slipping out the backdoor, she ran to her car in the rain followed by her three older sisters—not by blood, of course—who were of course there to make sure she went through with it. This was, after all, so unlike her. She went through with it. While putting her shirt back on and trying desperately to contain her smile which was plain as the moon, she thought about her first kiss. And her second kiss. And about how, really, they were one in the same.

2:45 am
The porch was cool and dry, despite the thunderstorm purring in the giant umbrella of night. He opened the sliding glass door just a foot and slid through, careful not to keep the door open too long. The porch was a den of unfavorable affairs: a half-downed bottle of beer on the table, trails of smoke disappearing everywhere, and dirtier than the clouds of smoke were the words floating from the mouths themselves. Just stepping into the room, they politely requested that he take a cold, long drag. The ends of their sticks flared in the storm. They were his little pale-skinned devils, fiercely beautiful and unhealthy. To his right sat his little bookish angel, who opened his mouth to speak and could taste only smoke instead.

8:29 am
He had many dreams for only having slept two hours. He was set loose in grocery stores, charged to rescue dolphins from a tarry pool, and saw brilliant yellow fireworks streaming in the night sky. But these were all quick dreams, like rooms in a museum. He dreamt mostly of blankets. Thick, woolly, smothering. They covered him in layer after layer, suppressing his ability to breathe, until the blankets formed a looming fortress over him, and passers-by could only guess at who was inside. Then he would wake— blanket-less and shivering. He wanted just to cuddle with her on the couch but never did, on account of his un-ignorable morning erection.