Fragment 8

“Seriously,” Smudge stops. She’s staring Michael right in the face. He can’t believe how close their faces are. The music, the world, everything else has seemed to stop of disappear. “Seriously,” her face looks cute, puzzled, maybe slightly frustrated by Michael’s lack of enthusiasm or spark? “Is everything ok?” Michael forces himself to snap back in life.
“Yeah, sorry. Just tripping. Haha. I’m cool.”
“Good,” Smudge smiles.
There’s a sudden crash, bang. The sound smashes up whatever moment Michael and Smudge were having.
“What the fuck was that?” Smudge stands up straight. She looks kinda feline. A cat trying to access a situation. Michael falls over in fright. Some stuff gets knocked off a bookshelf.
Smudge grabs Michael’s arm, which forces him to stand up. She quickly leads him out of the room and into the hallway corridor. Smudge starts banging on the bathroom door.
“Hey! Robert! are you ok?”
There’s a moment of total silence.
The bathroom door opens. Robert looks like he’s been asleep. His hair is messed up and his eyes look tired and glazed over.
Smudge: “Hmmm … having fun in there?”
Robert: “I feel weird.”
Smudge: “Well if you’ve finished making loud noises maybe you should try just lying down for a little bit.”

Smudge leads Robert down the hallway corridor and into one of the bedrooms. Michael walks behind feeling freaked out and jealous in this way that he really resents feeling, he feels bad for wanting Smudge when he knows how close she and Robert are.
“Just lay down here for a minute honey,” Smudge fluffs up a pillow and flattens out the bed. Robert clumsily climbs on.
Smudge: “How’s the trip going for you?”
Robert opens his eyes and sees Smudge leaning over him smiling, like she’s willing him on to have a good time, for everything in his world to feel nice. His vision is blurry. It’s like he’s looking at her through a dusty kaleidoscope.
“I really feel …” it feels like the words splinter apart as they leave Robert’s mouth. He doesn’t finish the sentence. Smudge leans over and kisses him gently. Michael watches and feels a rush of jealousy, sadness, arousal, all run through him at once. He feels guilty for being jealous.