Quoth the Raven - 1. Chapter 1

Tommy Fish lay wide awake in bed, staring blankly at his bedroom door with eyes that pleaded for sleep of which they couldn't achieve. Sleep, he needed to sleep. He had been kept up from nine last night to what was five thirty in the morning now, all because of the raven that tapped its beak against the window behind him. Only an hour of sleep.

It was persistent, its loud tapping of the rattling glass the only sound in the whole house aside from Toni's wall clock clicking once every second through the thin walls of the home.

The bedroom was dark, but his eyes were well adjusted to the darkness, his brown eyes catching every little crack in the door across from him. To add to his sight was the sun, gradually rising over the horizon into his window, making it so that he could see every detail of his bedroom, and also allowing him the knowledge that he had school today at seven..

He should be done with high school by now, graduated and- though not in college, going about his own life. College was for pussies with money, but he hadn't actually decided what to do when he graduated this time around. Work. Live. Live. That's all life was, was living.

So, nineteen verging on twenty years old, Tommy had been held back twice in elementary school: once for his attitude of skipping classes and bullying, and the other for just as much. He knew he was supposed to do better. He didn't care to do better.

Tap, tap, tap.

He ignored the raven, staring blankly at the door, his back to its persistent face. It wanted in, and he didn't care to let it. He was tired from work yesterday, laying in his clothes from the day before because he had been too exhausted to change, and now even more exhausted because of the damn bird.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

He didn't know how Toni and their mom could sleep through it. It was louder than Toni's clock, rocking his brain, pounding against his eardrums.

Tapping for eight hours. Keeping him awake through the night for eight hours.

"What," he finally asked, quiet and under his breath, because he didn't actually care to know; he just wanted it to stop.

Tap, tap-.

Quiet. Silence, aside from the clock.

Tommy finally shut his burning eyes, long enough for two clicks of Toni's clock to pass, before a cold breeze suddenly crept up his back. It made him open his eyes again, half lidded and emotionless, just to see that the sun had disappeared from his room. It was dark, darker than it had been- dark like the night that he had stayed up through. And slowly, the coldness on his back traveled down his body, and across the bed to the foot of it, of where when he looked down at himself with only his eyes, he could see a giant black shadow gliding around the bed to his front, bringing the coldness with it.

The Raven's human form. As human as it could make itself; a giant fuzzy, black shadow that hurt the back of Tommy's eyes to look at, with human hands pale as paper at its sides; pitch black fingernails that stretched down its fingers into sharp, deadly points.

It did that. It would pester and pester until Tommy gave in and let it come inside, of which it would turn into this… thing, so that it could speak to its murderer, Tommy.

Murderer.

Weeks ago, this raven had been sitting over Tommy's house, watching him day by day, and never leaving, only annoying. He would come home to see it perched on the porch's roof, staring at him with its beady, red eyes, and drawing an emotion out of him like: pure hatred. He didn't know why and didn't care why. Looking at the raven made him feel the utmost ugliest, angriest hatred he ever had, and one day, he finally put a ladder to the side of the house and climbed up to do the only thing ever present in his mind: kill it. He grabbed it by its squawking head and rung its neck, squeezing until its vertebrates snapped out of place and severed its spinal cord, killing its brain from its body.

Then, he stuffed it into a potato sack and set it on fire on James' front porch. Only, to his disdain, it appeared at Tommy's bedroom window one week later, and the harassment began.

"What do you want," Tommy asked, looking at the shadow with his eyes, watching it as it paused to a stop in front of him, its large black beak turning slightly to the side.

Its beak opened only a crack, and human screaming of men and women, children and infants, leaked out. Screaming, and sobbing, and maniacal laughing that all filled Tommy's ears with a rotten, disgusting feeling, and replacing the ticking of Toni's clock- loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood, yet only wrecking havoc upon Tommy.

Then, like a ghost, a whisper right into Tommy's ear, quiet enough to barely be heard, yet strong enough to drown out the horror that leaked out of the Raven's mouth.

"Kind James is a fake," the Raven whispered into his ear, while standing in front of him, drawing out sounds of bloody murder.

James Parker, the only thing that Tommy actually lived to destroy. A seventeen year old senior of whom he shared classes, a nice guy to everyone, who got good grades, and didn't disappoint, who Tommy gave months of attention to bully. And, all of it was a giant, tooth achingly sweet lie, as the Raven had led Tommy to understand.

Every time it came to his window, it had something to say about James, and Tommy didn't know or want to know how.

James fakes his grades.

A slut.

Depressed.

Liar.

Faggot.

Thief.

Murderer, as the Raven told Tommy this time. It whispered in his ear, in the softest yet most evil voice, "His friend drank too much, ate too much, fell asleep at his feet. Wanted help but didn't receive, not by James Parker; he stood and watched the vomit slip through their teeth. Didn't call for help, didn't call for help until their body never felt."

Tommy stared at the raven's black, blurry form. "What does that mean?" he asked, because it always spoke so weird that he sometimes spent days trying to figure out what secret it had spilled.

The raven's body started shaking, trembling, like it were in the midst of a slow, oncoming seizure. "James had a friend ask for help," it whispered calmly into Tommy's ear, "But not the help of surviving, for the help of depriving."

"I still don't get it."

"Quothe the Raven," it said, and Tommy could feel its voice drag across his skin. And, as if he had blinked, the room was suddenly brightened again, with the sun shining fully through his window, and the bitter coldness of the raven's shadow gone. So was the bird.

Tommy could hear doors opening and closing outside of his room, and a quick knocking took to his door.

Tap tap tap

"What," he said again, and Toni's muffled voice sounded from the other side of his bedroom door.

"Are you awake? It's six forty."

"Yeah."

"Okay, making sure," Toni said and then, silence as she left. Tommy lay in bed for what felt like five minutes but wasn't even one, before sitting up from the mattress and stripping off his shirt, because people only ever noticed the same T-shirts.

He grabbed another off of his messy bed and walked out of his room, to the bathroom, that was locked. He knocked on it.

"Yeah," Toni sounded from inside, brushing her teeth by the sound of it.

"I gotta piss."

The lock clicked and Tommy pushed the door open, the wooden frame hitting Toni in the elbow and causing her to look at him through the mirror, of which he gave an effortless apology and walked over to the toilet.

"I'm peeing, don't look," he said, snapping open the button of his jeans and sliding down his fly, hearing Toni spit into the sink from behind him.

"'Kay." The girl smiled into the mirror, looking at her well-cared for teeth, and then deciding that they'd look better with makeup, so she opened up a drawer to the sink and fished out their mom's makeup that she rarely ever wore. "Hey Tommy, I got an A in my Forensics class," she said, and Tommy tilted his head towards her in acknowledgment.

"Yeah? What for?" he asked.

"What for? For good grades," Toni spoke over his pissing, "Ms. Shaw likes me, and I like her work. We're doing fingerprinting, but my partner is missing like, half of his finger prints because… I don't know, hard labor?"

Tommy laughed under his breath and shook himself off. "What, you gotta take his prints or some shit?"

"Yep. And, Ms. Shaw's car got broken into the other day, so we get to dust it. It's really cool." Toni smacked her red lips. "Or at least, the dusting, not that her car got robbed."

"Hey, little girl, you're starting to sound like a lesbo with a hit for the milf, calm it down a little."

Toni laughed and looked back at her brother, who zipped his jeans back up. "Shut up! Ugh, you're such a douche bag," she said, though she smiled through it. Tommy broke a smile and sauntered up to his sister, slipping his shirt on and squeezing in beside her to start brushing his own teeth.

He knew that everything she said about him was fake, because as much as an asshole who deserved to be put in acid that he was, they were still siblings. He watched over her like a bat from hell. With their dad gone and mom working, he had to look over her. And, she was his full-blooded sister. He couldn't give a rat's ass about their three older half siblings. The one he did care about, Zach, was gone. Fern, Lara, and Regina were Satan's bitches.

So, Toni was his little angel sister, who he actually felt bad for because here she is, a pretty little thing with friends and a high ride to college, with a rotten cargo named Tommy. The rumors about him, he didn't care about. He didn't care about the rumors, or the rotten truths, or the dirty looks from teachers. He cared about the toll it had on Toni.

"Mom's gonna drive us to school," Toni said, and Tommy glanced at her in the mirror, layering makeup that she didn't need to.

"Whafafu-"

"Spit, nasty."

Tommy spat into the sink. "What about work?"

"Work? I don't know, she said she's going later. I'm gonna change, I don't like this top."

"Fucking bitch ass- why are girls always buying clothes they don't like?"

Toni laughed again and slid out of the bathroom. "Why don't guys buy clothes?" She shut the door behind her and Tommy rolled his eyes and finished his teeth. When he was done, he left downstairs to the living room, where their mom Dustin sat on the couch, with a bunch of papers in front of her and her phone in her hand.

"What are you doing?" Tommy asked, and his mom looked at him, more feminine than her name, that he had no clue where she got from. The woman looked at her phone again, at the time, and sighed, sitting back in the sofa.

"Trying to get the insurance done before school, but that's not gonna happen."

"Car insurance?"

"No, health. Toni's wisdom teeth are coming in, and she's still seventeen. I can't do anything for you though, sorry."

Tommy shrugged, because he didn't care about doctors, or dentists. If it came to Toni, he did. "So she's gonna be eating applesauce and granny shit for a week?"

"You're funny, but watch your mouth. You don't need anymore trouble at school."

Tommy was going to say fuck school, but Toni came downstairs announcing that she was ready, and that meant that it was time to go.

"See you guys after school," Dustin said, parking in front of the school building, where kids ran to their classes because there were only three minutes until the second bell. One kid tripped and landed on his chin.

"Alright, bye Mom, love you," Toni said and hugged their mom from behind, sitting in the back seat, before getting out of the car. Dustin looked at Tommy and reached up to pinch his chin the lightest it had ever been.

"See you after school. Don't get into trouble."

"Sure." Tommy climbed out after Toni and the two started walking towards the school building, Tommy holding the door open for his sister to let her inside of the cold hallway. Their first class was in the same direction, but Tommy steered a hard right and Toni hummed.

"What are you doing?" she asked skeptically, pausing in her step, but Tommy didn't even look back at her.

"I'm starving." He was. Being awake for more than eight hours now, and his stomach was empty.

"You're gonna be late to class, Tommy."

"You are, if you stand there. I'll be quick," the brunette called back, walking towards the cafeteria where there was a chick who sold snacks all school day. He could hear Toni sigh, but he kept going to the cafeteria because he was already on his way. When he got there, two hallways down from class, he wasn't the only one hungry.

James Parker stood in front of the shop window, smiling at her like they were conversing, and holding his wallet in his hand. How was Tommy so lucky. He walked up to James and put an arm around the noirette's shoulders, making the smile turn to confusion as the younger teenager wondered who was there. Though, the emotion was short-lived. As soon as James looked at Tommy, his expression fell into what Tommy adored.

Fear. Oh, sweet fear.

"Hey James, what you up to this morning?"

"N… Nothing," James said, and looked back at the shop window when the older woman handed him a cup of ramen; water filled to the line at the top, he only needed to microwave it and take it to class to eat. Tommy looked at the cup and brought his other hand to grab and play with Jame's stomach.

"Nothing? You're eating fake food man; come on, what about that diet? You're gonna get so fat the soccer team's gonna mistake you for a soccer ball," Tommy said with a smile, because smiling made it look like harmless banter, and the woman laughed a little herself before telling James the price for the ramen. The noirette watched Tommy for a second before giving the woman his attention and opening his wallet to give her a dollar bill. She took it and put it into her change box, and while her gaze was elsewhere, Tommy leaned in to James's ear, bringing his hand from his stomach to his crotch. "Your fly's down," he said, grabbing the zipper and pulling it up, and James's face got so beat red that Tommy could see the sweat bead on his forehead. The noirette took the ramen and ducked out of Tommy's grip to hurry off, and Tommy held his smile, turning to the woman to buy his own snack.

James wasn't fat, but he did have a little weight on him that Tommy- "Cuts and cuts, if only his lard"- used to his advantage. He was chubby, with blonde hair dyed black; Tommy could tell without the Raven, because of his lighter eyebrows and eyelashes; and freckles that littered his face. Light, but nothing slipped by Tommy.

In school, James always smiled. He always smiled, and laughed, and helped people with their schoolwork, and played the violin, and and and- he was the perfect student. The "and"s never stopped. And that's why Tommy hated him. Why he wanted to break him. Tommy wanted everyone to see the side of James that he saw: red-faced and embarrassed, shy and awkward, depressed and ashamed. He wanted everyone to know what he knew. That James was a faggot, who just got out of a relationship with a guy in his twenties. That he liked to steal whatever he could from drugstores and the mall, and that he cheated for all of his good grades. He wanted everyone to see that James was a fake.

"'Might get expelled," Stuart said through a puff of cigarette smoke, and Tommy looked at him from where he leaned against the side brick wall of Circle K; just across from the school, everyone crowded it to smoke or scream or fight during lunch. There was a crowd of obnoxious sophomores to their right, laughing and jumping on eachothers' backs, trying to draw attention to themselves.

"What the fuck for?" Tommy asked.

"Mr. Graff caught him and fatass Michelle doing it in the art room," Evelyn answered and stole the cigarette away from Stuart, who scoffed.

"Where the hell did you hear that?" he asked.

"Michelle."

"Fucking bitch- we weren't doing anything, she was jerking me off."

Tommy laughed. "Man, you know where her hands have been?"

"Fuck you Tommy, like you get any good ass."

"Like hell I do." Tommy leaned over to Evelyn and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her to him and getting smoke blown into his face. She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked at Stuart.

"Are you saying I'm not fine ass?"

Stuart glared through a pink face. "You fuck everyone, Evelyn."

"Yeah, with good fucking dick. You're all for the girls," Evelyn spat at him and turned her attention back to Tommy, kissing his exposed neck of a summer T-shirt, though he wasn't particularly in the mood with the sophomores and nudged her away.

Stuart was an idiot on the verge of jail time from his taste of women. He liked younger girls, fifteen, sixteen, he said he liked how shy they were, or their boobs. And the jail time was surfacing because of a video that he had filmed of fucking a fifteen year old that he leaked to his other fucked up friends. Tommy wasn't into any of it and had Stuart blocked on social media for ages, but this time he was glad, because someone had ratted and now all of the guys with the video were being watched.

Tommy was Stuart's friend, but he was utterly disgusted with him. So was Evelyn, though she and Stuart had a feud riding on deadly if Tommy weren't there to stop it.

And, Tommy had had enough of Stuart checking out the sophomore girls, and pushed off of the wall. "Come on," he said, "I'm sick of this place."

Stuart scoffed. "Go on, I'm gonna get some chips."

"You're coming too, dipshit," Evelyn said and grabbed Stuart by the arm, but he pulled away and she shoved him. Before he could do anything to her in return, Tommy pushed him forward to start walking.

"Knock it off, asshole."

"You guys are both dicks, always fucking ganging up on me."

"Wouldn't have to if you had any kind of brains."

"I'm gonna fucking beat the shit out of you one day," Stuart said and Tommy looked at him as they approached the road.

"You're gonna beat me up?"

"Yeah, I am."

Tommy watched him for a second before smiling and shaking his head, and breaking off to run across the street as cars whizzed by for lunch hour. His friends followed him and they walked on the grass, making their way to the main school building. Though, it looked like Tommy had lucked out again. James Parker walked with two girls, some younger teens that he chose to hang out with, one of whom Tommy knew was a bitch, and the other just a normal dumb teen.

This time, James saw Tommy before he could get the upper hand, and Tommy saw the way the noirette said something to his friends, through a smile, before turning to part ways with them. So, he elbowed Stuart for his attention and ran up the yard to James, of whom he caught by throwing an arm around his shoulders again.

"Hey, Jamie! Whatcha up to? Skip lunch?" he asked, and the bitch, Edie, gave him a sideways glance.

"What are you doing? Get off him," she said, even moving forward to grab Tommy's arm, but Stuart's fucked up self stepped in between, giving her a smile that was far from friendly. The other girl, Diana, kept her mouth shut.

"Come on James, I asked what you're up to."

"The library," James said, but he didn't look at Tommy. Evelyn hummed and crossed her arms.

"Library's across campus. I think you were just trying to find us and hang, huh?" she asked, though she wasn't looking for an answer.

"Leave him alone, you guys, don't you have anything better to do?" Edie sounded, and Stuart laughed, keeping her at bay.

"What you got in mind?"

"Knock it off, Stuart," Tommy put in, looking down at James, who tried wiggling out of his grasp. He only tightened it further, bringing his other hand up to play with his dark dyed locks. "Alright, I wanna play a game, you guys wanna play a game?" he asked, though he only looked at Evelyn. The dark haired girl shrugged with a side smile and looked at Stuart, winking and nodding towards Tommy and James when he caught her gaze. He pushed Edie back by her chest, making her stumble backwards while keeping her footing, and then started walking off from the group.

"Sure, we'll play," Ev said, and Tommy smiled to James, who still didn't find his gaze.

"Alright James, monkey in the middle." The brunette let James go to put a hand on the back of his head and thrust him down forward, so that he could grab the younger teenager's shirt from the bottom hem and strip it off of his body. As soon as it was off, James tried to grab for it back, face beat red, but Tommy chunked it across the grass to Stuart. When James didn't move, Tommy nudged him. "Go on, get it, lard-ass."

"Leave him the fuck alone!" Edie cried out bitterly, though James was forced to give in and headed to Stuart to get it, having to run when Stuart took off into a giant circle around the group. Tommy looked at Edie and Diane and shook his head in annoyance.

"Fuck off, don't you got study group or something?"

"No, fuck you- you can't-"

"Edie, stop it," Diane said and grabbed Edie's arm, shutting her friend up before Evelyn's mean ass could make them cry. Ev, raised a hand up for Stuart, and he threw the shirt to her. Tommy caught it first and toyed with James for a minute, holding it up over his head in a thin, muscular arm of leather bracelets and a chain, making the chubby teen look utterly pathetic in his khaki shorts and jiggling torso as he jumped for the clothing.

"Reach, reach, fatass, you're never gonna get it with that body."

Edie jumped out to try and snatch it, but Stuart grabbed her from behind and swung her around, making her cry out angrily. It made Tommy look back at his friend in disgust. He tossed the shirt to Evelyn, who took off running with James behind her, his body shiny with a sheen of sweat from both the exercise and the heat of the embarrassment. Tommy walked around Stuart to pinch his neck, giving a quick whisper for him to knock it off again, in his ear. The redhead glanced at him before scoffing and letting Edie go. He looked like he was going to say something bitter to Tommy, but James's shirt flew into view again and Tommy caught it before it hit him in the face. Looking beyond the clothing, he could see James approaching, but Stuart quickly stuck out his foot and tripped him, knocking the teen down flat onto his face.

It made Stuart and Tommy both burst out laughing, Evelyn giggling as she made her way over.

"Oh my god, the whole town just rumbled!" she cracked, making the laughter get louder. When James didn't get up immediately, Edie and Diane came to his aid, helping him up to his feet and allowing the real damage to be seen, of blood leaking from his chin in what looked like a wound from a rock that he had probably fallen on. The laughter slowed to a stop and Tommy tossed the shirt to Evelyn, who tossed it to Diane. The young teen used it to put against James's bleeding chin.

"Fuck man, you're gonna get in trouble," Stuart mumbled under his breath to Tommy, who looked at him sideways.

"Me? You fucking tripped him."

"Tch, like I knew there was a fucking rock."

"We're going to the nurse," Diane said, to James, and Edie looked back at the older teens to direct a, "And we're telling the office!"

"Oh, yeah, do what you want, you fucking bitch," Stuart said, kneeling down and picking up another rock to throw at her, but it was an intentional miss over her shoulder. The whiz of it made James look over, and Tommy smiled crudely at him.

"Yeah, faggot, let your girls take care'a ya, make us the big bad monsters," he said, hollering the last of it as Diane urged her friends away. Tommy spat after them and turned to look at Evelyn, but something behind her caught his attention like a body.

The raven, standing across the street on the sidewalk of Circle K, its blurry, black shadow of a body swirling over with such a static effect that it made Tommy want to pass out. Its hands shook uncontrollably at its sides, like a car passing by a white picket fence on the freeway. Blood leaked down from its big beak, black as the beak itself, down onto the concrete beneath it and into a thick, tar-like puddle.

l.l

James had enough sense in him to not tattle on Tommy and his friends, but the brunette still got stuck an hour in detention for sleeping in Government; though he couldn't be blamed: it was a boring, pointless class that he constantly was in trouble for skipping, sleeping, or fighting in, because the other seniors were "so smart" and he just- snapped.

So, he had to walk home alone, on the empty streets of kids hanging at the beach or fucking. At least, that's what he would do, if he weren't so damn tired. He was luckier than fuck that he didn't have work today, because he was ready to hop into bed and pass out.

Walking home, there were no birds perched on his house, something that always made him calmer. He hated stray animals. Hated them more than he hated James.

He walked into the house and smelled bacon immediately, and the smell drew him to the kitchen, where he saw Dustin at the stove, laying some pieces of raw bacon into a hot pan. The teen walked up to his mom and slipped passed, backing up to the counter and gripping the edge to hop up for a sit-down.

"Dinner?" he asked, and his mom looked at him with her eyes.

"BLTs. And I'm not happy."

Tommy laughed. "What for?" he asked, watching as Dustin walked off to the sink to wash her hands. The bacon in the pan popped hot grease against Tommy's bare arm as the strips cooked, shrinking as they were drained of their moisture.

"I get calls when you're in trouble, Tommy. And I'm sick of 'em." Dustin turned the sink on, squirting her hands with some dish soap to start washing them. Tommy scoffed under his breath.

"Oh yeah, well hey, it ain't like I try to-"

"No Tommy, you do try. You try real fucking hard to look like a badass at that damned school, and I'm sick of signing reports on your behavior," Dustin said and shut the sink off, turning to look at her son with a bitter expression and shaking the water from her hands. Tommy knew better than to give her any rude remarks right now, watching her and feeling a few drips of water hit his skin. "I love you Tommy, and I always have, always will. But you gotta do something good with your life, because this ain't it." Dustin watched her son's face for a minute before sighing and walking to the counter on the other side of the stove, away from her son. He watched her pick up a knife to start slicing a tomato, and sat silent for a while, listening to the bacon pop and sizzle.

After a while, he finally asked, "Where's the little babe?"

"Toni went to the mall with some friends, 'thought she'd told you."

"No."

A silence lingered in the air between the two, and after a while, Tommy slipped down from the counter top to flip the bacon for Dustin, who never looked at him, slicing the tomato into fine layers. "I'm gonna go and pass out," he said, "So you can just wrap my sandwich for me."

"Why?"

"Tired as fuck. I have work tomorrow."

"On the weekend?" Dustin finally looked at her son, catching him crunching on a piece of bacon from the plate of cooked slices. He nodded, licking his lips and talking through the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, eleven to five."

Dustin put her hands on the counter and looked more fully at her tall son. "I don't like you working."

Tommy laughed and gave his mom a funny look before shrugging her off when he noticed the expression in her gaze. "Come on Mom, you can't expect me to lounge around like a fucking asshole, can you? You can barely afford the bills as it is. Toni'll freak if her phone service goes out."

"And that's my problem. You outta be studying, hanging out with friends. You shouldn't be looking like you stayed up all night." Though, he had.

"Mom, it's alright. I see my friends enough, I don't need their faces staining my dreams." Tommy put the cooking fork down and gave his mom a half smile to calm her down. "Alright, I'm gonna take a nap. See ya."

Dustin put her knife down and stepped over to her son to put an arm around his broad shoulders. "Okay. Goodnight." She was too short to kiss his cheek, so she kissed just below his jaw and pat his back once before turning back to the vegetables. Tommy left the kitchen after, turning to go upstairs and into his bedroom.

Down the hall were photos of he and Toni's half-sisters, out of respect for their shared father, Quinn, because he was no longer there. He wasn't, and neither was Zach: any photos of the two were stored away in Dustin's closet. Zach was Dustin's first son, from when she was sixteen. He's be thirty one now, the same age as Quinn's daughter, Lara. Lara, Regina, and Fern, were all in their thirties right now: results of Quinn's also being a teen parent.

It sucked that Zach wasn't on any of the walls, because he had been Tommy's best friend. He was the cool kid, the one who wore a leather jacket and was still able to hang with the popular kids. His being gone took a toll, on everyone. Quinn had been gone twelve years too early to be affected, but even his asshole daughters were. Fern was thirty three and in and out of jail for identity theft, Lara was living out of town with her own life, and Regina was thirty, spending every minute she could on running marathons. They didn't call, or stop by, or send letters. They just up and left Dustin to cope on her own, with sixteen year old, asshole Tommy.

That was three years ago, and Tommy only turned into more of a dick.

The teen went into his room and walked over his floor of scattered clothes and condom wrappers, and old cigarette ash followed by too many hot sauce packets from Taca Bell, to go and lay down on his bed of more scattered clothes.

He woke up to a dark room, not even knowing when exactly he had fallen asleep, but seeing on his clock that it was verging on nine p.m. He felt shitty from napping for so long, but he sat up in bed and climbed off of the mattress to leave his bedroom, dark from the night sky in the window. He followed Toni's ticking wall clock to her room, so that he could open the door and look inside. Toni's bedroom light was still on, but her bed was also still empty. He flicked the light off and reached into his pocket to get out his phone and call her.

"Hello?" Toni asked, picking up after some rings. Tommy headed downstairs so that he could go outside and smoke a cigarette, since the last time he did inside, Dustin almost lost her voice yelling at him.

"Don't "hello" me, you fuck. Where are you?" He unlocked the front door and stepped out onto the porch, getting out his pack of cigarettes to slip one out and light.

"Well jeez, what'd you do, get yelled at?"

"Not yet. Where the hell are you at? See the fuckin' time?"

"It's only nine, Tommy."

"Says the kid who's been out since four. Get your ass home, Mom made BLT's, and she'll blow an aneurysm if you aren't back." He could hear her talking to some girls on the other side of the phone, and he dragged from his cigarette in wait.

"Okay, I'll be back in thirty minutes."

"Bullshit, make it ten."

"Tommy-"

"Fifteen or I'm fucking up your room."

"Tommy, you asshole." The phone call clicked off and Tommy looked at his phone's screen before locking it and putting it away. He took a long drag from his cigarette before dropping it and stomping it out to start off away from the house.

It was stuffy out, with the summer air. The humidity clung to his skin like he'd jogged, and it was verging on the slight of uncomfortable, but that was summer for you. He kept on walking to the park, because it was just around the block, while the beach was a mile walk down west. He knew a girl lived on the other side of the park that he'd fucked a few times, and he didn't have anything to do. Maybe she'd have some weed or booze. Preferably cold, because he was still a little drowsy.

He walked ten minutes to her house, a small little thing of which he knew which room was hers and could just walk up and knock, unlike the movies. He walked up to the house and knocked on her dark bedroom window, not really bothered if she was up or not.

A light came on in the bedroom and he saw a shadow walk up to the window before the curtains were peeked out through. A green eye with a red eyebrow, of which belonged to the girl named Madison. When she saw who it was, she drew open the curtains and unlocked her window to slide open.

"Hey," she said, "You look tired."

Tommy shrugged a shoulder. "Look it, don't feel it. Did I wake you up?"

Madison smiled and shook her head. "No, I was on Instagram. You wanna come in?"

Tommy scoffed under his breath and leaned on the side of her house. "I don't know, we gonna have a mix up like last time?" A mix up, involving Madison's creaky, cheap ass bed waking up her dad and having Tommy have to beat off at the park. Madison laughed and ducked away from the window out of view.

"Okay, then do you just wanna smoke?" she giggled through the sound of a drawer opening. Tommy moved to lean on the window sill, peeking his head inside to watch her ass as she bent over. Her room smelled like a sweet perfume.

"Is fucking and smoking out of the question?" he asked, and Madison looked back at him, her long hair swaying.

"I thought-"

"What, you ain't up for the outdoors?"

Madison twisted her lips before turning back to the little dresser. "Well, sure, but I'll have to change." Out of her very short pajama shorts and spaghetti strap tank-top. Which wouldn't be a problem, but they were white, and that was the most visible thing in the dark.

"Here, I'll pick for ya." Tommy hoisted himself into her bedroom, knocking things off of the dresser in front of her dresser clumsily, and making the girl turn around to push him back outside by his head, laughing under her breath.

"Tommy, knock it off."

"Well come on, don't leave me hanging."

Madison gave him a look through a big, amused smile, and tossed a bag of weed for him to catch before walking off to her closet and opening the door up.

"Mm, 'my gonna get a show?"

"Tch, you wish." The girl grabbed a black T-shirt to pull over her white tank, and slipped on a black skirt over her shorts before slipping them off to throw back into her closet. Then she toed on some sneakers and walked over to the window to climb out with Tommy's help. As soon as she put her feet onto the grass, Tommy pushed her against the house, putting his face into her neck and breathing in her sweet scent. She let him kiss and suck on her neck for a minute before pushing him off of her so that she could look at him, her cheeks pink from the arousal and the nighttime humidity.

"Let's get high first," she suggested, and Tommy crinkled the bag in his hand. He sucked his teeth.

"Okay, got a pipe?"

"Um, no? What about you and your papers?"

Tommy groaned under his breath. "That shit's expensive."

"So are cigarettes," Madison laughed, "But I smell them on you."

"When don't I smoke," he muttered under his breath and leaned back inside of Madison's bedroom window to grab a mechanical pencil from the dresser underneath the window frame. He slipped the grip off of it and tossed the pencil back inside before looking at Madison. "Got a fat ring or something?"

Madison rose an eyebrow at him before pulling a thick ring off of her finger that read "DAD". She handed it to Tommy and he crammed it into one end of the pencil grip for a burner, and then he opened the baggy to start stuffing some weed into the other end.

"Alright, there ain't no filter, so don't choke," he said. Madison shrugged, watching as Tommy put the "pipe" to his lips and pulled out his lighter to light it for a puff. He held the smoke in and handed the pipe to Madison before motioning towards the road, of which they started walking while she smoked. She suddenly coughed and Tommy laughed at her, a light airiness coming over him. "I said don't fucking choke."

"Fuck you, it shot down my throat."

"Aw, poor babe."

They walked for a bit, smoking until their legs and bodies felt funny, and Madison was giggling at everything. Tommy walked her to the park, where she lay on the merry-go-round and had him push her, making her so dizzy that she couldn't even sit up when the ride had stopped. Tommy climbed onto the merry-go-round and leaned over her, looking at her bloodshot eyes that looked at him. She laughed at nothing and it made Tommy laugh, and he was too high to even notice when he asked, "Want me to fuck you here?", so he asked again. Madison nodded while giggling.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." She brought rubbery hands up to wrap around Tommy's neck, and he dropped down to kiss her, a sloppy kiss that she returned with another giggle while opening her legs as his waist came down lower to hers. He brought his mouth down to her neck to bite her flesh again, making her face heat up from the burn of it and the warmth from the outdoors. He licked the bite, giving a refreshing coolness to the flesh as the moisture dried, and sat up between Madison's legs so that he could undo his jeans and pull himself out. He leaned over her again and flipped her skirt up, bringing a hand to grope at her pussy though her panties, of which he could feel were damp. He lay over her and kissed her again, the girl slipping her tongue into his mouth and moaning when his fingers pulled her panties to the side to rub her clit, her juices soaking his fingers and making a natural lubricant for her swollen clit to throb in burning pleasure, the girl breaking the kiss to pant hotly against Tommy's face.

"You're so fucking soaked," he said, pushing his fingers into her pussy and thrusting them against the swollen, hot insides of her woman, making her flesh sticky with sweat as she moaned and whimpered, biting her lip and breathing heavily.

"Just fuck me," she said, holding onto him around his shoulders. He kissed her again, pulling his fingers out of her pussy to grab his dick and stroke it, strengthening his throbbing boner and slicking it up with his wet fingers. He lowered his hips more and put his head against her pussy, rubbing it against her opening with deep breathing through his nose, before pushing it inside, groaning as he entered her slick, tight walls.

Madison gasped and moaned loudly when he started moving his hips, thrusting his cock in and out of her pussy with light squelching sounds from the wetness of her arousal. "Oh, fuck," she moaned loudly, and Tommy hushed her to be quiet, dropping his head and sighing at the friction. He fucked her for a little longer, into a blissful mess, until she suddenly put her hands to his chest and said, "Wait!" Tommy cursed under his breath but kept fucking her.

"What?"

"I forgot a condom!"

"I'll fucking pull out," Tommy said and fucked her harder, deeper, making the sensations even better, to the point that Madison was coming on his cock, gripping his shoulders tightly and gasping beneath him, her legs closing around his hips and her pussy tightening around his cock in a sensation that made him have to slow down before he came inside of her. When her orgasm was over, she swallowed and breathed beneath him, putting a hand to his chest.

"Don't forget to pull out," she murmured, of which he nodded.

"Yeah, yeah." He pulled his cock out and slapped it against her pussy to get a break from the friction, and pushed it back inside of the cavern of tight muscles from her orgasm, making him groan and shut his eyes at the pleasing pressure. "Fuck." He rested for a moment, composing himself, and then started fucking her again, quickly and to the hilt, making the pins in his gut gather and stir for an orgasm. He breathed. "Oh, fuck.."

Nails dragged across his cheek lightly, ghosting, and he opened his eyes to look at Madison, but she was gone- a big shadow in her place, blurry and fuzzy, and making his head hurt. Red eyes looked at him and he jumped back.

"What the fuck?"

"What?" Madison asked, standing in front of him on the grass, while he knelt on the merry-go-round. She was fixing her clothes, snapping her panties back into place. Tommy looked down at the merry-go-round, at himself, but all that was there were drops of cum. "Yeah, you came inside," Madison said, "But I'll just get a day-after pill. I'm on birth control, too."

"But..."

"It's fine, but for now on, it's condoms or no sex." The girl bent over to kiss Tommy's cheek, and then pointed off towards her house. "I'm gonna go home, it's like, eleven."

Tommy nodded, though he didn't know if he was really listening.

"Well, see ya."

"...See ya."

Madison started walking off, and Tommy climbed off of the ride, since he had apparently already tucked himself away. "What the fuck," he muttered to himself and looked around at the park, but it was completely empty.