Save Me [A Norman Reedus fanfiction - Part 1 - COMPLETED]

Chapter Thirteen - Pizzas and Prayings

'I can't believe that you actually can eat that thing!' Mingus said, making faces like he was about to throw up in any second while we were sitting around the kitchen table and were eating our pizzas. He and Norman had their boring, usual pepperoni ones, but mine was something out of the waltz.

'I can't believe that you can always eat that one...' I winked at him, showing some more of mine into my mouth. Even if I felt hungry, I knew I would be lucky if I could eat one slice of the whole pizza, without being overfilled and sick. Both Norman and Mingus looked at me almost disgusted, as I was munching on the yummiest thing on Earth - at least, it was for me.

'Yer a pretty lucky chic that ya have a pizza maker friend who can be corrupted to make ya that crazy stuff.' Norman added, motioning toward my dear food.

'Guys, this is just regular pizzabase with soured cream, broccoli, shrimp, cucumber, tomato, bacon and some maple syrup.' As I listed the toppings of my prescious pizza, the boys mimicked like they had never heard about any more horrible thing beforehand. 'Pussies.' I mumbled, eating some more, feeling that I was close to reach my limit.

'Manu is a freak as well.' Mingus said. 'But his normal pizzas are good as hell.'

Truth.

Manu had a craft pizza restaurant a few blocks away. I knew him because his younger brother, Jorge (we just called him Taco) used to be my druggie friend - until he died. But however, Manu and I became good friends by this tragic accident and he always tried to keep me together, keep me away from the other "shitheads" as he called them (just as Norman called them "motherfuckers") and soon Manu and Norman became allies. Manu created me my favourite pizza first and he even put it on his menu, naming it "inspiReira" - tough noone ever ordered it, excluding me.

'You haven't tried mine, Ming, so don't judge so easily.' I acknowledged him.

'And I'm not gonna try that stuff, that's for sure!' He declared and I pouted my bottom lip at him, like I was upset by his rejection. 'No!' He protested more and I tried to look even more hurtful. 'Reira, stop it! I won't...'

'Please! For my homecoming! Just one tiny bite!' I begged him, showing him my shiniest smile. He just rolled his eyes and took a slice of my pizza.

'But if I'll become sick because of it, you have to clean up after me!' He treathened me. A sweet and sour memory came into my mind, from the first year together. I sneaked back to my room through the firestairs after a long night party, completely drunk and high and only the eleven years old Mingus was home, waiting for Norman to come back home from a quick grocery shopping. Norman had thought I was at Eos' place for the night. Mingus, hearing the noises from my should-have-been-empty room, carefully peeked in and found me laying on the floor, almost unconcious. He didn't want his dad to find me like that, so he tried to put me into bed, but as he tried to pull me up, I suddenly threw up right in the middle of the room. I would never forget the lil man, as he desperately tried to save my ass, trying to work on the clean up as quickly as he could. And he did. Norman never knew.

'Of course. I owe you with a cleaning up.' I said with a half-hearted smile and our eyes were locked to each others for a brief moment, knowing what I meant. Only Norman looked like a bit confused, but he remained silent and was more engaged with his son's death trial with the "crazy stuff". And Mingus did that also. He took a huge bite, almost the half of the slice for all at once and chewed on that quickly, trying not to feel the taste. But when he finally started to actually feel it, his face suddenly lightened up.

''sus, it's cool!' He exclaimed with such an enthusiasm. Norman and I looked at each other, trying to figure out if he was fooling us or not. But Mingus tookone other bite of the pizza and he convinced me totally that he liked it.

'Well, if that's that cool, I gotta try it as well.' Norman said, taking away an other slice of my pizza. 'Even if I feel sorry for taking food away from you when you need it more.' He addressed this to me and I only shrugged.

'I'm filled up anyway, so come on guys, eat it all up!' I said, pushing the plate to their direction.

'You should eat some more later. We take the rest to the fridge.' Norman said, then put the slice back onto the plate.

What, has he already changed his mind?

But before I could call him a coward dummy head, he went to the fridge and pulled out a glass of champagne. Mingus and I looked at him like he had lost his mind and when Norman realized our gaze on him, he put his hands in the air as a defense. 'Alcohol free.' He let us know, showing us the label of the bottle. 'So my underaged son can celebrate the shiny event of my foster-daughter's first day of her new life.' He said, with the proudest voice ever. But I knew that the champagne was alcohol free mostly because of me. He put the bottle down on the middle of the table and my mouth went dry immediately. The tastes of different kind of drinks came into my mind and I so wanted to pour them all down on my throat.

No, I can't! I can't anymore.

I heard but couldn't turn my gaze off of the bottle, that Norman put three glasses on the table. As he took the bottle, to open it, I followed every movement of his in the process. Altough I knew the drink won't contain any alcohol, I needed its taste more than anything. I found Norman too slow.

Open it, damn it!

When we finally heard the pop of the bottle as it was finally opened, I almost clapped in happiness.

This is just sparkling grape juice, Reira!

Who cares?

Norman poured some into each glasses and I watched in amazement as the fizzy foam towered up so fast, it almost ran out of the glass. When he finished, Norman sat back on his chair and raised his glass up to a toast. "Reira, I couldn't be even more happier that yer finally at the start of a very new life. I want ya to know that I'll be by yer side - always!' His words, tough I had expected something like those, caught me off guard and made me emotional. He raised his glass even higher and so did Mingus. 'To Reira!'

'To Reira!' Mingus echoed and they both take a big gulp of the sweet drink.

I, on the other hand, took a second of waiting and whispered a desparate praying in my head, begging God to give me strenght for being good enough for my... my... my family. Because that's what we were. A broken but solidary family.

And I raised my glass to them, before I poured all of the champagne down on my throat, imagining it was a real one.