Running With Scissors

Chapter Six

"...Um, okay...Remind me to never bring this up in conversation again."

"You betcha."

A moment later I came traipsing into the living room, arms full of bags of popcorn, Doritos and Lays alike. There's a reason why my stepmother is so fat-She buys all of this stuff, then won't let anyone else eat it. Thankfully, I know many of her hiding places. Dangling from my fingers is a six-pack of coke, and clutched between my pinky and ring finger is a massive bag of M&Ms. Yes, she's very fat.

"Hey, would one of you lazy idiots like to come over here and help me?"

They both turned to look at me, smiling sweetly. "Nope."

It ended up being a close call-Just as I locked my door, having set up everything the pigs and I needed, I heard the front door open. Gavin, who'd watched as I scrambled across the floor to slam the door shut, facepalmed when I tripped over a chip bag on my way back to the bed. I stood up again, face burning. "An empty chip bag," he crowed, "Of all things, you tripped over an empty chip bag!"

Percy joined in on the laughter, even though she hadn't actually seen my dramatic downfall to the cursed chip bag.

It took over three hours of nonstop Harry Potter-ing, the first three movies of the series, to be exact, four bags of popcorn, two bags of Doritos, three bags of Lays, the six-pack and the entire bag of M&Ms before the two urchins would leave. Sandwiched between the two of them, I spent the entire time lapsing between uncomfortable and completely, absolutely, undoubtedly comfortable. It was the latter that scared me more than the former. On one side of me I had an excited, energetic, unnaturally quiet fangirl, and on the other, a guy who had rested his head on my shoulder the entire time, completely ignoring the fact that I kept looking at the crown of head as if he would be able to see and therefore know that I was very confused.

Nonetheless, I put up with both of their antics for the three hour span, laughing along with Percy when the appearance of the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets caused Gavin to jump and, of course, fall off the bed. So much falling, I swear.

I ushered them quickly out of the house, closing the door behind the three of us. The sun, at this point, had just about already set, casting the sky in a milky twilight that highlighted everyone's face in a strange, sharp way. Percy departed quickly, saying something about dinner, though it seemed impossible that she'd have any room at all after all of the mid-movie junk food.

That left Gavin and I, of course. For whatever reason, he decided to stay seated on my porch, and, seeing no harm, I sat down on the front steps next to him. "What's up?" I asked after a few moments of silence, tucking my hands under my thighs. He shrugged. "Dunno. Guess I don't quite feel like going home yet." I raised an eyebrow. "Gavin, we barely know each other. You've been acting like my own personal stalker. I did just about nothing to help you while you were getting the crap beat outta you. What makes you think I'd let you stick around?"

He turned to look at me, a cheeky grin on his face. Even with the painful-looking bruises and black eyes, it still managed to make him positively glow. Silly optimistic boy. "My full name is Gavin Arthur Kimball. I'm sixteen years old. I've been living with a foster family since I was four; they still haven't officially adopted me. I'm not very interesting, and I have a bad habit of latching onto people."

I chuckled under my breath. "Yeah, like I didn't already know that." He turned to full-on glare at me. "Yeah, this is the moment when you're supposed to tell me your stupid flaws, not make fun of mine, idiot. Way to be smooth." It was hard to take his anger seriously, given he looked more like an annoyed kitten than anything else.

"Alright, alright. My middle name's Alexander. Angel Alexander Douglass. Uh...I'm seventeen, I stayed back in, like, fifth grade. I have a demon of a stepmother, and my Dad turns a blind eye towards all the shit stuff she puts me through. I'm, well, pretty much the opposite of you-I'm not one for making tons of friends, or hanging out in a crowd. I prefer loneliness, I guess."

Gavin nodded, looking back out at the street. He began to toe the loose board acting as a support for the handrail, then nodded again. "Yeah. Cool. I used to, y'know, be like that. I guess. Before...Yeah." Before I could ask, he changed the topic, and the conversation went from there. It was a half hour before either of us noticed the time, and I walked him home, waving from the sidewalk as he disappeared into the ramshackle building.

The walk back to my house was a short one, just long enough to allow me to think about the afternoon I'd spent with the two lost stooges and laugh about it, before remembering that my life home wasn't exactly rainbows and fabulous-ness. In the mood to keep my spirits up, I decided to skip walking all the way through the house, instead scaling the tree placed conveniently next to my window, opening the glass and sliding inside.

I threw myself on the bed amongst the mess of chip bags and empty cans and stared blankly at the ceiling. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what had just occurred here, in this very room of mine. Percy and Gavin, whose friendship I suppose I should've seen coming, had jumped me demanding movies, even though one of the two I'd watched get beaten up and done nothing about it. That part still got me.

I'd tried to put the boy off as much as possible, and still he wanted to talk with me, hang out with me, be friends with me, even. It was strange. Different. I definitely wasn't accustomed to it. Granted, Percy had pretty much forced her way into my life, but at least I hadn't met her with resistance like I had him. And even after he shouldered his way in like that, there was a part of me that was actually starting to enjoy his company, and I wasn't terribly sure how to feel about it.

I focused my vision on a hairline crack stretching across the entirety of the ceiling; zigzagging crazily before reaching either side. Ugh, I didn't know what to think, what to feel. Since when was my life the equivalent of a whiny teenaged chick's? Not that I'm referencing the Queen of the Blondes, Elizabeth. No, of course not.

After doing a mass clean-up of the trashed bedroom, which basically meant shoving all of the junk the Harry Potter marathon had managed to collect under my bed, I moped downstairs for the siren call of 'dinner.' I could see from the bottom of the staircase that my father was already seated, staring off into space, while my stepmother busied herself draining spaghetti. At the sound of the dreaded second-to-last stair creaking and squeaking, both adults turned to peer at me, and both smiled almost immediately.

"Hello, Angel dear! Come join us at the dinner table, would you? I made your favorite; spaghetti with meatballs." I eyed the table suspiciously as I crept closer, and, when I spotted no bombs planted anywhere conspicuous, I sat down at one end of the table, the adults on the other side. My father sighed as I did so, but didn't voice his opinion about it like he used to.

Five minutes later I'd scraped my place clean, and was about to jump up when my father stretched over, placing his calloused hand over my wrist. I stared at the connection with obvious distaste. "Dad-"

"Angel, I just wanted to say that I'm very proud of you." I lifted an eyebrow. "Proud?" He nodded. "Proud. You had some friends over today, didn't you? I'm happy you're finally extending your circle beyond yourself." I made a disgusted noise in the back of my throat, yanking my hand out of his grasp so I could jump up, taking my plate with me. "Thanks, Dad," I spat, "If you knew me at all or paid attention to me at all, you'd know that I've had friends for years now, good ones. Percy, Tobey and Gavin. Look 'em up, they're golden."

I dashed away before he could speak another word, dropping my plate in the sink and running upstairs. Once in my room, I fell face-first on the bed, groaning loudly. What had I done? Had I just referred to Gavin as my friend? Well...Considering the boy wouldn't give up, perhaps it wouldn't be that bad to call him what I was starting to see him as. A friend.

I, Angel Douglass, had indirectly made a friend. For fuck's sake, somebody get me a medal.

~'~'~

Song of the chapter- Get Down On Your Knees And Tell Me You Love Me by All Time Low