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The normal commotion of Philly had settled down to its nightly white noise with only traffic, construction, and a couple passersby left audible from the Paddy’s rooftop. Tonight, the clouds had stalked off somewhere else and left the rich dark blue canvas dispersed with millions of tiny specks of light. Passing through, the gentle midnight breeze gave no time to leave goosebumps, instead leaving its kisses along the hairs. The harsh plastic of the lawn chair’s arm rest dug into the wrists, surely leaving a mark. The faintest smell of the summer night filtered through the cigarette fumes. The smoke was drifting onto Mac’s face, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by it.
“Wait, stop—so you’re telling me, you seriously think you can defeat a 500 pound lion with your bare hands?”
“Yeah, bro! Listen, if the lion tries to get a bite on me, I juke him—” Mac made a whooshing sounds with karate-like hand movements as a bonus, “—get on top, and take him down. Boom…Why are you staring at me like that?!”
Dennis’ eyebrows lowered back to reality, “I’m genuinely astonished by your absurdity.” He said after a beat. Mac pouted and rolled his eyes, “You know, your big words won’t defeat the lion either, bro.” And so Dennis tossed away his cigarette and stood up, which in turn led Mac to stand up as well, “Well, I’m sure my big words can defeat your “juking skills”, bro.” “Really?” Mac said with a smile playing on his lips, stepping closer, which in turn led Dennis to step closer as well, “Really.” But before Dennis could say another word, all of the air in his lungs was suddenly thrust out of him, sharp, pushing him down onto the concrete.
“Oh, shit! You okay, dude?” He heard as he was rapidly blinking back to this plane of existence, his double vision slowly centering back to singular. Soft hands travelled up the hairs of his forearms, collarbone, neck, and landed on the back of his head. “Yeah—that, just—I didn’t expect that.” He voiced out aloof, and a weight shifted onto Dennis’ thighs. “Good. For a moment, I thought I killed you, but you can’t say I didn’t warn—OOF!” With the force and speed of a bullet, Mac was pounced on and pinned down to the ground, wrists secured in place. “You can’t say I didn’t warn you.” Dennis whispered into Mac’s ear and ground his knee in between his thighs, which rewarded him with a slow, heavy exhale he was able to take in all for himself and only himself.
“Wait, Den,” And so he did. “look at the stars.”
“Hm? What about 'em?” He asked. “They’re so pretty,” Mac said and pointed up, “like, look at that clump! They kinda look like a drawing. The connect–the–dots kind.”
“Which ones? The ones that look like a kite?” Dennis squinted.
“Yeah.”
“Mac, that’s The Big Dipper. It’s, like, the most well known constellation ever.” “Wait, there’s more?” Dennis whipped his head down to the astronomer, “Dude, you seriously didn’t know? I feel like we’ve talked about this exact topic before.” but Mac merely shrugged, eyes not leaving the night sky. “It’s been a while then, bro. What’s that curvy hook one?” Dennis positioned himself adjacent to Mac and lied down. “How are you seeing these—uh, I think it’s the Scorpion one.” “Cool.” Dennis could feel a hand entwining with his own, holding onto him forever. He held onto it with everything he had, never letting go.