You're bleeding

LG wasn't the kind of person I would normally hang out with. She tried way too hard to be cool. But, like I said, she lived three doors down and we rode the same bus to school and all.

We made it to Mikes party that night. Mike was kind enough to give us a change of clothes. We had to have belts to hold up the jeans he gave us and the T-shirts looked like dresses on us, but we were just happy to have the dry clothing.

Mike's parties weren't stoner parties. They were coke parties and I wasn't ever a big fan of coke. After bumming a cigarette from some stranger, I took a seat on his couch and just watched as everyone bounced off the walls. James showed up about an hour after we did, telling stories about how he got away from the cops at Red's party. I didn't believe a word he said. We were all story tellers.

Acid made its way around the party goers and I took that instead of the coke. Hell, I was up for a good trip. I stumbled back to the back room. There was some chick banging on the drums and some guy making the worst noise I had ever heard on the guitar. Trying to escape the racket, I somehow ended up in the kitchen sitting on the counter against the wall.

LG was on the sofa making out with RM, the local coke dealer. I couldn't stand him, nor his brother, James (the same guy who said that I should go out with him.) They thought too highly of themselves and I hated the way they treated women. Actually, all the guys in the South Side treated women horribly.

It was this summer that I figured out that I was attracted to women. But...I was attracted to guys, too...a little. And I had my eye on BG's girl, Sam. She was absolutely gorgeous. BG was a looker, too. Together, they were the most beautiful couple I had ever seen. But, he treated her like shit. He hit her and had even "pimped" her out to feed his coke addiction. For that, she lost a lot of her appeal. But I still had my eye on her.

Rich was RM's best friend. I didn't like him much...well, I didn't like him at all. He thought he was God's gift to women. Blond hair and blue eyes and a rock solid body that he loved to show off. He was arrogant and self centered, pretending to be a bad boy, but I saw right through him.

He invaded my space by sitting on the counter in front of me. My only route to get away from him was to crawl through the scattered mess on the counter. I was tripping way too hard to pull off such a maneuver. For the longest time, he just sat there and smiled at me with his perfect white teeth, his jaw twitching every now and then. I simply ignored him and focused on the room of people who looked all out of proportion.

He must have starting talking to me, and when I didn't respond, he touched my leg. I jumped and smacked his hand away from me.
"Hey! Easy. I just wanted to know how you liked the party so far." He held both his hands up where I could see them and they looked fuzzy, like they had fur all over them.
I shook my head to try to get better focus and the fur melted away. "Its alright. But don't, I mean DON"T touch me."
He nodded his head. "Got it."

Sam walked by and caught my eye as Rich rambled on and on about something. I watched her walk up to BG, who was on the sofa beside LG and RM, making out with some other girl. I remember thinking how could she stay with a guy like that? She said something to him and he stood up and back handed her across the face.

Fuck maneuvering through the mess, I knocked it all over the place as I pushed through it. She was on her knees, crying, and he kicked her. I jumped in his face and pushed his sorry ass back down on the couch. Rich came out of nowhere and jumped between us. Its a good thing too. If BG would have swung at me, I wouldn't have been able to figure out which fist was real.

I helped Sam to her feet and I walked her out the front door. She was bleeding from her nose and her mouth.
Sadly, it wasn't the first time I had seen him hit her and I was pissed as hell that she kept going back for more.

"I'm sorry," she cried.
"You're sorry? For what?" I tried to keep the anger from my voice but it wasn't working. "If that was my boyfriend on the couch making out with some other girl, I would have beat the shit out of him."
She looked up at me with blood smeared all over her face. My great trip was about to turn into a gory one, real fast.
"I shouldn't have said anything to him," she stuttered.
"You are fucking kidding me?" I put my hand over my face to block my view of hers. It was starting to freak me out. "Why are you with him, anyway? You are way too fucking beautiful to be with a guy that treats you like that."
Through the crack between my fingers, I saw her staring at me like I had just spoke Russian or something.
"You think I'm beautiful?" She took the bottom of her shirt and wiped her face as clean as she could. "He says I'm disgusting."
I deemed her weak, right then and there. And I had no tolerance for weak people. She had let him alter her perception of herself and she believed him. How could a woman let that happen to herself? (I feel like a hypocrite writing that. But that's later.)

"You are beautiful and he is full of shit. He's just telling you that so that you will stay with him." Since most of the blood was gone, I let my hand down but I couldn't look at her lip or nose. I had to stay focused on her eyes. And they were sparkling like stars with the tears that were in them. Mesmerizing.

I blinked my eyes and she moved that quick. She was standing in front of me and her hands were moving towards my face. I thought it was the drugs that made her seem so close but when she kissed me, I knew it wasn't a hallucination. I could still taste the blood on her tongue. I wanted to push her away but at the same time I wanted to pull her closer. The kiss was so nice that I really didn't want it to end.

The front door flung open. I wasn't worried that whoever it was saw us kissing. It was pitch black outside and my back was toward them. We both turned around. The world kept spinning even though I knew I had stopped moving and the figures that were coming toward me were blurs.

BG walked up to Sam, slowly, and Rich and RM were right behind him.
"I'm so sorry, baby. I didn't mean to..." His words trailed off to a whisper.
LG came out of the house and put her arm over my shoulder. There was no need to watch BG and Sam. I already knew what was going to happen. She was going to believe his bullshit words and leave with him like she always did.
"You ready to go?" I asked LG.
She looked at her watch that I couldn't focus on. "Yeah. Lets go get our clothes."
"Hey, I'll give you a ride," Rich offered.
I shrugged. I wasn't looking forward to walking home tripping the way I was.
We collected our things and were about to exit the room when LG stopped me.
"You're bleeding," she said, wiping her thumb over my lip.
I walked over to the mirror and saw the streak she was talking about. "Not my blood. Its Sam's." I used my shirt to wipe away the smudge.
LG crinkled her eyebrows together with a questioning look.
"I helped her stop her bleeding. Must have got on my hands or something," I lied. She didn't need to know.
"Okay." She opened the door and we walked out.
Rich was waiting outside. As much as I hated him, I was glad for the ride.