Breathe

fourteen

"Look what I found," Conan said when he came back into the room the next day. I was laying on his bed, Kian was back on the beanbag, and some weird music was playing – not that I minded it.

He dropped a pack of cookies on the bed when he collapsed next to me, and I reached for it to give it a closer look.

"Can't," I said, letting them fall back on the bed. "They're with wheat."

"So what? You dieting?" Kian asked, already crossing the room to get to the cookies. I shook my head as I watched him rip the pack open.

"Celiac."

A smug grin spread on Kian's face as he shoved a whole cookie in his mouth before saying something unintelligible. Conan rolled his eyes, jerking the pack out of his friend's hands.

"You're fucking disgusting. Go back to your corner."

Kian quickly swallowed, his grin not having changed the slightest when his dark eyes fell on Conan.

"Not without the cookies."

"Nah. Get your own, these are ours."

I rolled my eyes. I just told him I couldn't eat them.

Kian leant down in an attempt to get the cookies back, but Conan was faster and held them away from him. Soon enough they were wrestling on his bed, causing me to quickly retreat to the carpet before I could get involved in anything.

I was tired, I wasn't exactly excited to be here, but most of all, I was freaked out. I couldn't stop thinking about yesterday, how Asher had touched my earring, how he had invited me over. How he had found out about the cigarettes.

Conan finally pushed Kian off of him so he fell on the floor with an unpleasant sounding grunt, before getting up himself.

"Fuck you, Kian. I hope you choke on those cookies," he said. "Let's get out of here kid, I need a cig."

"I'm good," I replied, forcing a smile at him. He stopped in his tracks, one of his eyebrows slowly wandering upwards.

"You're what? It's just a quick smoke."

"Yeah, and I said I don't want to." I shrugged, hoping he would just leave me alone about it already. I really didn't want to smoke anymore.

"Just smoke in here," Kian said, grabbing the pack of cookies and walking back to the beanbag.

Conan rolled his eyes. "You're so fucking stupid. My parents would kick me out in a heartbeat, you know that."

Kian rolled his eyes. "Not my problem."

I briefly narrowed my eyes at him before looking back at Conan. "I'm good, thanks," I repeated. He shook his head, obviously not pleased, but grabbed his stuff and went out into the backyard by himself.

Kian munched on a cookie, watching me. "You sure you're not just dieting? I heard there's lots of those anorexic kids coming from cities."

Once again, I was momentarily speechless. Kian was just one big question mark to me. "I'm not anorexic. I just don't wanna get sick for a cookie."

"But you're willing to wreck your health for a small burning stick," he replied, his attention returning to his snack. My brow twitched, but I didn't look away.

"You don't smoke?"

Kian laughed a little, but it was dry and humorless. "Just because I'm best friends with a walking chimney doesn't mean I'm the same level of stupid, dude."

I shrugged. "Wouldn't be hard to believe."

"Nah. Smoking was never my thing," he replied, sitting up a little. "I'd rather eat this shit and get fat."