the boy who was afraid of the dark

saturday 11:15, lucas

just like a normal morning in the life, i woke up to loud banging.
very loud banging.
i slowly opened my eyes, still confused about everything.

by the looks of the living room and not my bedroom around me, i took in that i was sleeping on the couch.
wait. no.

i was sleeping on eliott, who was sleeping on the couch.

i lifted my head, and the banging became louder as i drifted further into consciousness.

i looked down at him, rubbing my eyes.
his eyes were still closed, and he had a faint smile on his face.

he breathed steadily and happily.
he looked so peaceful.

"LULU! you dumb shit, let us in!!!" more banging from the door.

"oh shit." i jumped up, finally realizing the situation i was in.

oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. what now?

eliott's eyes fluttered open. he awoke not from the loud banging, but from the lack of pressure on his body when i got off.

i felt bad.

he rubbed his eyes, and quickly propped himself up on his elbows when he realized what was happening.

"who's that?" he tried to snap to attention, but i could tell he was still tired.

"LUCASS!!!" more banging.

"ONE FUCKING SECOND YOU IMPATIENT ASSHOLES!!" i screamed back. "JESUS HOLD ON TO YOUR BALLS!"

eliott raised a playful eyebrow at me.

"it's basile, arthur, and yann. they like to show up unannounced sometimes." i directed back to him chuckling.

then realization settled in.

"oh, fuck!" he jumped up and grabbed his phone from the table. "where do i go?"

"uhm," i ran around the apartment, helplessly panicking. "okay okay. hide in the hallway closet, right? then i'll tell them i'm sick and ill try to get them to leave as soon as i can."

it was a desperate gesture. a grasp at anything to help us out of this almost impossible situation.

"you want me to hide in the closet?" eliott narrowed his eyes at me. i could detect the joke in his glare.

i giggled sort of cluelessly at him, and shrugged, "do you have a better suggestion? unless you wanna go out the window..."

he stood up, and walked over to the window, which looked over the city that was four stories below. he leaned over, looking down, then quickly stepped back and looked up at me.

"ya that's not an option," he decided. "the closet it is."

thank god.

"that's what i thought."

i grabbed his hand and dragged him into the hallway, stuffing him into the actually quite spacious hallway closet.

he looked around, and shrugged, "i could get used to this."

then he sat down against the side wall.

i rolled my eyes and chuckled, leaning down to kiss him on the nose, "don't."

then i closed the closet door, and pranced back over to the living room, where my worst nightmares were banging on the door from outside.

i slowly opened the apartment door, just to be greeted with the three of them pushing past me and marching in.

yann turned back around to look at me, "fuck took you so long?"

"i was sleeping." i showed him my middle finger.
"it's 11:20 ?"
"i'm hungover."
"you ditched the party last night."
"what is this? an interrogation?"

at this point, arthur and basile were already over at the couch, setting up the PS4.

"yo, lu," basile lifted up a plain black sweatshirt. "who's sweatshirt is this?"

when i say my heart stopped, i mean it physically stopped beating. i stood there in shock, a thousand million completely stupid excuse swirling through my head.

i guess i wasn't the only terrified one, because something fell down in eliott's closet and everyone's head snapped in that direction.

fuck. FUCK!

"what was that?" arthur looked back at me.

i didn't answer.

yann turned to the closet, but i jumped in front of him.

"it's nothing." i smiled, blocking his path.

"let me through," he tried to snake through, but i stepped in front of him. "i'll just make sure."

"nope. all's good," i turned my smile out for everyone to see. "you know, i'm actually feeling quite sick."

no one's expression changed. they all just stared at me blankly.
i threw a cough in for good measure.
"okay and...?" basile shook his head inquiringly.

fuck me for having the best friends in the world. usually when one gets sick, we all just stay over until we're all sick and then eat and play video games until we're better.

"i don't think you guys wanna catch this one. i'm also still pretty hung over." i began circling them like a herding dog, pushing them towards the door.

"but what did you even do last night?!??" yann turned back to me as i continued pushing him out.

"don't worry about it!" i smiled.

they were so close, almost at the door, when a phone rang from the closet.

fuck it.

i full on shoved them out the door.

"okay no. what the FUCK is that-" yann protested but i shut the door in his face and locked it.

"BYE!" i yelled back through the door.

i propped myself up on my tip toes to peep through the keyhole and watch them shuffle away together in confusion.

when they were finally out of my line of sight, i let out the fattest breath of relief.

"oh my god." i banged my head against the door.

"wait what??? but we're off season ??" i heard eliott complain from behind me.

i turned around to see that he had let himself out of the closet, and was now talking on the phone.

he sighed, and slumped his shoulders, "ugh. fine, i'm on my way, chris. but tell coach i'm gonna be late cause no one was up to receive the email at 6 A fucking M."

he hung up, slipping his phone into his pocket.

"what's wrong?" i looked up at him.

he reached behind me to grab his coat from the rack, "coach decided to spring a spontaneous off season rugby practice on us since it's saturday morning and we'd all be hungover from the friday before. he loves torturing us."

"oh," i sighed, and looked down. "that sucks."

i don't want him to go. he spent the whole day here before, but it still wasn't enough.

"hey," he picked up my chin with his gentle fingers. "i'm still off season for two more weeks. i'll spend every free minute i have with you and only you, okay? i promise. i'll even come back after practice and maybe even shower here."

he grinned and winked mischievously at me.
i couldn't help but grin back. i quite like that idea.

he went in for a short kiss, then pulled away too soon and slipped out the door.

i sighed.

ugh, i miss him already.