Judgmental Morons

18. Drama Llamas Share a Room

"I thought of it first."

"I will RIP YOUR THROAT OUT."

"No need. We'll settle this in a mature, civilized way." Alex said before taking his hand out of his pocket. "Rock, Paper, Scissors".

Five minutes later, Alex was sitting gleefully on the bed while I headed over to the tiny bathroom in a bad mood, having lost to the little dipshit.

"Thank God they had toothbrushes to spare." I muttered.

"How'd you know they're not used?" Alex hollered from the bed.

"Shut up or the used toothbrush will be jammed up your ass."

*

*

*

"Good night, Meg," Alex called out from the other side of the room as I tried to get comfy in the couch. "Try not to traumatize me with your horse-snores."

"I don't snore, Alex. Good night. Oh, and don't suffocate me with your stupid overnight, 'kay?" I said in a fake sweet voice before switching off the lights.

"Meg? Can I ask you something?" Alex's deep voice floated over.

"Sure," I said, suddenly nervous at his serious tone.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but...why the orphanage? I mean, you know, because of...um..."

I leaned back against the pillow and stared up at the dark ceiling. "What makes you think I'm an orphan?"

"I...I just assumed, I guess. I mean, you told me about your dad and I just thought maybe your mom was a touchy subject for you."

"She is a touchy subject for me."

Alex fell silent, but I continued. "My mom's not dead."

"She's...not?" Alex sounded bewildered.

"No," I tried to keep all the bitterness out of my voice, "She's just too unstable to take care of herself, let alone me."

There was a pregnant pause, followed by a sudden shuffling noise, a loud thump, and a muffled "Fudge!" I scrambled to turn the lights back on, and the faint yellowish light illuminated a shirtless Alex lying on the floor; he seemed to have gotten tangled in the covers and fallen off.

When did he take his shirt off? WHY did he take his shirt off? How come he could take his shirt off, but I had to keep my bra on?

Turns out I was right about his finely toned muscles though. Just saying.

"What...are you doing?" was the question I decided to ask.

"I wanted to come over and sit next to you, but I fell," Alex said before narrowing his eyes at the covers. "Anyway, scoot over."

I pulled myself into a sitting position while Alex sat down opposite me. He seemed quite oblivious to the fact that he was missing a shirt.

"Go on," he said gently. "I think you need to talk about this."

Once he said that, all the feelings I'd been repressing for the day flooded the pit of my stomach. And for some strange reason, I realized I needed to talk about it, too.

"My parents met when my father was a senior at college and my mom was a freshman. Pretty cliché story: they fell in love, got married, and had me. We were a happy family, you could say, until I turned thirteen. That's when I started to realize that my parents weren't as happy as I'd thought they were. Dad had to spend many late nights at work, and Mom was getting quite paranoid about it."