Mornings
sucked.
Hungover and annoyed, Devin McKay
groped around for a spare pillow, desperate to block out the joyful singing of
a songbird. Jamming it over his head barely blocked out the tweeting, and oh
joy, was that a second one joining in?
“Go away.” He groaned, rolling over, burying
his face in the pillow, while clutching the second pillow over his head. Even
pressing his hands over his ears did little to keep the trilling from seeping
through.
“Oh my god will you go away!” Shooting
his hand out from beneath the blanket, he grabbed the first thing his fingers
touched, hurling it in the direction of the birds seconds before his brain
reminded him that there was a window in the way. Glass shattering prompted him
to sit up, scowling in dismay at the gaping hole in the glass. Jagged pieces clung
to the frame, and through the spider web of cracks, golden sunlight poured
through, stinging his eyes.
Smacking his palm to his forehead at
least blocked out the light, so he did it a couple more times.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” he muttered
beneath his breath, each smack punctuating a word.
Lowering his hand revealed the clock
still sitting on the edge of the end table. Mocking him with the time. Nine-thirty
was way too early for how much he’d drunk the night before. The way his head
and stomach felt, his liver was still struggling to process it all. Scrubbing a
hand over his face, he stumbled to the bathroom to relieve his bladder,
shivering as he passed in front of the hole. On the way back to bed he searched
for his cell phone, the realization that it was the device that had made the
hole quickly dawning on him.
“So stupid.”
But silent. Goal accomplished. Flopping
backward on the bed he lay there waiting for reason to kick in. He’d have to
call someone about the window, maybe someone down at the hardware store would
know who installed glass panes. Shit, that was if the phone hadn’t gotten
broken too. The whole process of having to get dressed, back out of the garage,
and head into town was too much for him to contemplate right now. The phone had
a case, a damn good case. In fact, it was the case that was the likely culprit
for the broken glass, not the phone itself. It would be fine. He’d just lay
here for a few minutes then go find it.
Letting his eyes drift shut, he
yanked a blanket across his chest and gave in to the sinking pull of the
mattress.
He was startled awake by loud rattling.
Opening his eyes, he barely had time
to duck something hurtling towards his face. One arm caught in the blanket, he
thrashed to get free, roll over and see what the hell was going on.
It was the flapping that led him to
duck again, loud as it propelled itself his way. Sure as shit, the birds weren’t
done with him yet. One of them had decided to investigate the hole, and
apparently, couldn’t figure out how to get back out.
Great, how did you catch a bird
without hurting it?
Just as he was trying to puzzle that little
mystery out, his doorbell rang.
“Are you fuckin’ shitting me right
now!” he growled, ducking as the bird flew at his head again. “Go away! You too
bird. Fuck off already. I’m up! What more do you want?”
Apparently, it wanted to express its
displeasure at his little stunt with the phone, because it didn’t just fly over
him this time but crapped all down his shoulder as the doorbell chimed a second
and third time.
Grabbing the sheet. he swiped at the
mess on his way to the door, intent on giving the person on the other side a
piece of his mind. Didn’t they know you were supposed to wait before pushing
the button again?
Yanking it open, the bellowed ‘what’
he intended to give died on his lips as he stared into the most gorgeous pair
of hazel eyes he’d ever had the privilege of gazing into. Only after he’d
stared into them long enough to study the depth of colors there, did he take in
the rest of the package.
Wavy brown hair, high cheekbones, three
earrings in one ear, five in the other. There was a whole piercing party taking
place on his face. Nose, eyebrows, cheek, lip, delicate silver chains running
from ear to cheek, two little charms, the moon, and sun, hanging off them.
Somehow, all the glittering silver and colorful stones did nothing to detract
from his beauty. If anything, they enhanced it. Drew the eye to the angles and
planes that made up his features.
“Are you Devin McKay?”
Was he….
“You’re joking, right?”
“No sir. Do I have the wrong
address?”
Unfuckinbelieveable. Did this guy
really not recognize him?
Okay, so, he couldn’t have been more
than twenty-five, but that didn’t make him too young for Devin’s music. Hell,
it had only been six months since he’d stepped away, so how could this little
punk not know who he was?
Unless it was all a ploy.
“You trying to serve me papers for
something?”
The kid’s left eyebrow went up, and with
it, a pair of side-by-side purple piercings. “No sir.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, quit with the
sir shit, it’s too early in the morning for you to be making me feel old.”
“Sorry, Just, are you Devin
McKay?”
“I’ll answer that when you tell me who
gave you this address.”
“Linus Duffy.”
Go fuckin’ figure.
Rolling his eyes to the heavens, Devin wished the whole damned morning would
end. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Fine, I’m Devin, now what do you want?”
“I um…you have something kinda
smeared on your chest just...there.”
He wore a fingerless glove on his
left hand, form-fitting and worn. Devin glanced down to see a portion of the
bird’s present clinging to his skin. Swiping at it made it worse and all he could
think about as he stood there with a soiled sheet in his hand was the demise of
Linus Duffy.
No comments:
Post a Comment