Ethan knocked on the door to Leah's bedroom. "Hey, it's me," he said. Leah opened the door, smiling. Having just finished their second year of university, both of them were happy to be on summer break.
She was wearing a tank top and short shorts that showed off her skinny frame.
"Hey Ethan, come on in," Leah said. Ethan entered and plopped down on the bed. Leah's room smelled like vanilla perfume and weed.
"I got some new stuff to smoke," Ethan said, pulling a joint out of his pocket. "It's supposed to be really good shit."
Leah sat down next to Ethan, crossing her skinny legs underneath her. "Nice," she said. "Let's spark it up."
Ethan lit the joint and passed it to Leah. She took a long hit, holding the smoke in her lungs before finally exhaling.
"Wow, that's smooth," Leah said.
Ethan took the joint back from Leah and inhaled deeply. As he held the smoke in for a moment before exhaling, he could already start to feel the weed taking effect, his senses dulling slightly as his body relaxed.
"So what have you been up to today?" Ethan asked Leah casually as he passed the joint back to her. She gladly accepted it.
"Oh you know, the usual boring stuff," Leah replied after taking another hit, smoke escaping her lips. "I tried watching some Netflix but nothing looked good. Mostly I've just been hanging around the house being lazy."
Ethan nodded. "Yeah I feel that. I was supposed to meet up with some friends today but they all bailed last minute. Not much else to do in this town during summer vacation."
Leah laughed. "Right? We need to find some better hobbies than just smoking weed in my bedroom." She glanced around the room as if searching for inspiration.
"Hey this is a great hobby," Ethan protested with a grin. "But you're right, we should get out and do something exciting soon. For now though, just chilling and smoking is pretty nice."
Ethan was starting to feel a pleasant buzz as the weed worked its magic. His whole body felt lighter, his thoughts slower but more introspective. He could tell Leah was likely feeling something similar from the way she was sunk back into her pillows, eyelids slightly lowered as she passed the joint back to Ethan. The late afternoon sunlight filtered in softly through the curtains.
Leah took another long drag from the joint, holding the smoke in her lungs before tilting her head back and blowing a stream of smoke towards the ceiling.
"Hey, random question," she said, turning her head to look at Ethan again. "Do you think insects have feelings?"
Ethan blinked, caught off guard by the strange question. The weed was really starting to hit now, making his thoughts fuzzy.
"Uh, I don't know," he said slowly. "I never really thought about it before."
Leah pursed her lips, looking up at the ceiling again contemplatively. "I think they do. Like, flies and stuff seem so panicked when you try to swat them. They must have little fly emotions."
"Huh, yeah maybe," Ethan said. He took the joint from Leah and inhaled deeply before continuing. "Here's another weird thought - do you think the government puts secret cameras in birds to spy on people?"
Leah let out a giggle, covering her mouth with her hand. "You mean like robotic pigeon drones? That would be so crazy!" Her eyes went wide with amusement.
Ethan chuckled too. "Right? I read this weird conspiracy theory online that some birds aren't real. Like they're animatronic drones that the government uses for surveillance."
"No way!" Leah exclaimed. "I could totally see that being true. Nothing would surprise me at this point." She shook her head, giggling again.
"Want to spark up another one?" she asked. "I'm feeling super chill already but I could definitely go for more."
Ethan grinned and pulled a second freshly rolled joint from his pocket. "Way ahead of you," he said. He lit it up and the smell of weed soon filled the room once more.
Ethan handed the freshly lit joint to Leah. She took a long drag and passed it back, breathing out a stream of smoke with a contented sigh.
"Mmm this stuff is really mellow," she said. "My whole body is tingling."
"Yeah this is some top shelf bud for sure," Ethan agreed. He inhaled deeply from the joint, the hot smoke filling his lungs.
Leah chuckled sleepily. "Imagine if aliens are already living among us. They could shapeshift to look human and blend in."
Ethan squinted his eyes, picturing strange creatures hiding behind normal human faces. "Yeah, I bet there's a ton of aliens at our school. Mr. Jenkins is totally an alien."
They both laughed at the absurd idea of their strict math teacher being an extraterrestrial in disguise. "Oh my god, that would explain so much!" Leah said. "I bet that's why he's always lecturing us about focuses on math. It's an alien plot!"
Leah shifted her position so she was now lying down, her head resting in Ethan's lap. She gazed up at him through half-lidded eyes as he took another hit. Smoke curled lazily from his lips.
"For sure," Ethan said, taking another hit off the joint before handing it down to Leah. "They want to take over the world by improving our math scores. It's diabolical."
Leah exhaled a stream of smoke upwards as she laid across Ethan's lap, her legs dangling off the side of the bed.
"What if ghosts are real but they're just invisible...and they walk through walls and stuff because they're in another dimension?" she mused, her voice languid from the weed.
Ethan looked down at Leah's face resting against his thigh. Her eyelids were low and her lips curled into a faint smile. He found his eyes lingering on her petite frame laid out in his lap.
"Yeah, that makes sense," Ethan replied after taking another long hit. "And what if the ghost dimension overlaps with ours like radio frequencies...so sometimes the signals get crossed and we hear weird ghostly voices or whatever."
