• It was raining cats and dogs the night Joseph “Joey” Wheeler came knocking at my door. I should have left him outside, in the hallway, dripping wet, like the dog he is. Let him sleep on the damn dollar store welcome mat my landlord Yugi insisted I have. But what would all the neighbors think? So I let him in.

    He was blown out of his mind high and laughing every five seconds like he’d just heard the Pope fart. You know you’d laugh too if you heard that. He crashed unceremoniously onto my eight hundred dollar leather couch. Do you even realize what water does to leather? Eight hundred dollars worth of it?

    “ Mind if I sleep in my clothes?” I mind that you’re even here at all but no, I kept my mouth shut. Why bother? He was on a bender and too far away to care. “ I spent the night dancing, I’m drunk I suppose.”

    “ Want a doggie biscuit?” It was two am. I had to get to work in a couple hours and instead of sleeping, I was entertaining a stray.

    “ Oh come on, don‘t be like that. I know what you need.” You should have seen his face. How embarrassing it was. Fish lips puckering the air with his eyes shut tight. I was tempted to go for my camera but squashed it when he opened his dilated eyes once more. I think he was aiming for seductive but instead got a sloppy, drunken smirk.

    “ Wheeler, the sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead.”

    “ Come again?”

    “ Never mind.” I turned to go make coffee. He was either going to keep me up with his complete nonsense or pass out any second. Either way I wasn’t going back to bed. b*****d.

    “ There’s a place in the dark where the animals go. The guys and girls can take off your clothes in the cannibal glow. There's this one girl, Juliet, loves the beat. Got everyone in the place lusting after her.” I honest to God had no clue what he was on about but again, he was high. It was probably the new girl at Duke’s strip joint. That was his second favorite place to hang out. My apartment was the first…unfortunately.

    “ I thought her name was Tea.” He snorts, louder than necessary.

    “ Come here. Blow me before I leave.” It was my turn to snort.

    “ As if, you know I’m not touching you with a ten foot pole.”

    “ Fine, then I’ll just have to touch you instead.” I knew he wasn’t going to do much so I sat down and waited for him to drag his sorry a** over. Drank my coffee with no sugar.

    “ I’m the one you loathe but you can watch me corrode.” Whatever he was on, had him well versed in poetic bullshit.

    “ Wheeler…”

    “ Joey. My name is Joey. I like the way you say it…so say it.” By then, he’d actually gotten up and was stumbling towards me. Every fourth step he tripped over “ invisible objects” or so he’d like to blame. Dripping water on my carpet. On my hardwood floor.

    “ Joseph. Go home.”

    “ Oh you c**k tease.”

    Even I couldn’t stop the grin from forming on my face. There was something just so Goddamn undeniable about Joseph Wheeler that made me even tolerate him and his haphazard lifestyle. I assume that that same undeniable factor is the reason I fell for him in the first place.

    “ One kiss and I’ll surrender.” He was standing in front of me, hands in the air like the cops make you do when you're about to be arrested. He was still wearing his ratty leather jacket, the one I got him three Christmases ago. I swear he never took it off. His shirt stuck to his skin like his hair clung to his face, the little he had now. His jeans couldn’t have been any tighter and I’ll be damned if that wasn’t turning me on.

    “ Joey, your high. Go home. Go to bed. Call me later. Just leave me alone.”

    “ Only the sane leave and abandon. I’m in love with a vampire.” And now his hands were all over me, running through my hair, up my shirt, down my sweats. Callused and cut, nimble and knowing, finding every spot he knew would get a rise out of me. His lips landing anywhere I let him.

    “ Joey…stop.” I said between a breath. I had work in a few hours. An empire to burn out. I was tired. He was high. He wouldn’t even remember in the morning. All excuses I tried telling myself before his lips found mine.

    I could taste the alcohol. Taste the chocolate. Taste the cigarettes. Taste his disease. Dear God did I want him then and there when he bit my ******** lip causing it to bleed.

    “ Drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands Romeo.” He let go of my face, brought his hands down to my waist, started tugging at my sweats.

    “ ******** you Wheeler.”

    “ ******** you Kaiba.” and he laughed into my neck. A wicked sick laugh, his breath thick and muggy. I held him there, soaking my clothes and my heart with his own. Maybe it was the rain water slipping through his hair or maybe it was just warm spit but I felt those tears roll off his face and onto my skin. “ You take all the pain away from me.”

    “ Then why do you do this to yourself? ” To me. Why do you always do this to me Joey? I ********…

    “ Cause I love all the poison. It’s quicker than chemo.” He laughed again, sicker than before, wetter, and gripped me tight, his arms wrapping up and around me, crushing me. I couldn’t breathe so I dug my face into his shoulders and bit down. He was still standing, leaning heavily on me. We were going to hit the floor if this continued. I don’t think we mind. It was my turn to speak in arbitrary verse.

    “ Give me a shot to remember. Something so bright the sun is ashamed to rise.”

    So he let go of me. Threw off his jacket, slipped out his shirt. Shook his head, sprayed water on my face. Grabbed me by the waist and pulled me to him, bleeding me of all the air in my lungs. Biting my ear he whispered.

    “ Gladly.”