"Aright, aright. I got one. --What did they call the polar bear who lived at the south pole, and then the north pole?" Perry flashed his award winning smile, momentarily blinding me.
I chewed my lip, searching my eyelids for any possible answer. A polar bear? Poles... Two poles.. Oh m-
"A bi-polar bear!" We shouted in unison, our wicked laughter sounding as mad as a group of witches on a frantic Halloween night.
"Damn, girl! You're good at those." He licked his muddy lips, and smiled again. He clawed out his signature pair of shades, and popped them on his nose.
We sat in a fairly thick silence for a while, every exhaled breath turning into puffs of smog in front of our very eyes. Screw this cold weather.
"Do you..." He says freely, swabbing over the awkwardness of the eerie quiet with his carefree, lax attitude. "D'ya want some food?"
"We got time?" I erected my spine, digging my elbows into my knees. I ignored the constant throbbing in my wrist, irritated to the maximum. It acted as a cruel reminder of the little stunt I pulled at my house that will cost us an $8,500 renovation fee. Cool.
" 'Bout 15 minutes. There's a Starbucks up here." He proposed, shaking his sunglasses lower so that I could look him in the eyes through the miniature mirror, just short of the windshield.
"Okay." I smiled warily, wondering myself where we could possibly park a car the size of a miniature Spanish country.
He grunted, sensing my thoughts, and I blushed a deep violet. "There's a parking garage somewhere up here. My buddy is the managing valet up there."
I nodded in response, scooting over to look out the window.
Crunchy looking leaves floated leisurely down onto the sidewalk, only to be trashed under someone's worn boot in the next moment. The shattered fragments picked up in the brisk wind, drifting away, never to be heard of again.
'Parking from 1 to 10' was advertised just above a sleek looking gate, perhaps freshly painted with an ebony gloss. Perry rolled his window down fully, chatting about nonsense with one of the workers. I paid absolutely no attention, my mind filtering through ideas to think about, one by one. None of them seemed worth while of my time, so I just sat there, entertaining myself by picking at my finger nails.
"Okay, baby cheeks. Hope on out." Perry mooed abruptly, shocking me back into the real world.
I slipped through the open door, and shrugged on my jacket. It was then that I noticed the intrigued, and somewhat aroused looks I was getting from the parking valets.
I swear; one of them howled.
"C'mon." Perry took no notice however, guiding me to the exit and into the street.
Hoards of bustling people rushed to and from their destinations, cursing me to get out of their way. I was tossed and turned from side to side, searching helplessly for that dark skinned chauffeur I so desperately needed to see.
Negatory.
A shadow of a hand appeared on my vision, and I reached for it, only to be throttled to the side of the sidewalk where I caught my breath.
"You crazy." Perry breathed heavily, slapping me on the shoulder. "You want a coffee?"
"Whatever." I gnawed on my lip, sounding a bit more pissed off than I'd intended. He narrowed one of his eyebrows, before urging me onwards and into the coffee joint.
The captivating aroma of fresh coffee beans stirred my senses, and I was suddenly awake, just by the scent. We waited patiently in line, and by patiently, I mean tapping our feet disruptively, clacking our thumbs, and overall, whipping up random conversations to corrupt the ongoing peacefulness of the shop. A few dirty glares were cast our way, but we simply shooed them off.
I would have never expected Perry, out of all people, to be such a confidence booster, when he's by my side. He's almost like a.... dad.
I've tried countless times to imagine that guy in the pictures who's always taller than the rest. The guy that wears ties even when they're not needed. The guy that stays home from work to watch an important football game, who drinks a can of Cola a day, who goes out to a bar once a month with his friends. That guy you can depend on to tell you the truth, to pick up your mood at the end of the day.
Dad.
That word is so foreign, so alien, even thinking it doesn't seem quite right. It's as if I was trying to graph a straight line, but that one point on the paper was just not aligned with the rest. Thanks, Mr. Macafoos, for even plaguing me in my thoughts.
I've tried so many times to picture that guy that was here for me when I was two years old, but I can't even remember.
Last year, Mom's withdrawl on the anniversary date was so bad, she smashed every photo of him in the house with the pointy end of the hammer I got for her to fix the door. She never fixed it.
But still...
I can't remember his face.
Dad.
❀❀❀❀❀❀
"So tell me! What did you learn today?" I poisoned my mood even further by attempting to be hyper, my mouth twisted upright in an uncanny smile, and my shoulders hunched over into the shape of a 'U'.
Mason and Liam exchanged looks, before settling down in front of the screen.
"Well," Liam started, shushing his brother who was beginning to form a sentence. "I learned how to count to 10 in Roman Numerals."
Mason's healed bottom lip dropped to the floor, and he grimaced meanly at his twin brother. "That's what I was going to say, Liam! We're in the same class!"
"Yeah, well. I said it first, so tough luck." He giggled, sticking his tongue outwards to the point where I thought it would fall right out and crawl away.
"Oh yeah?" Mason flustered, brushing his hair from his eyes. "Well, I'll tell her what Nate taught us!"
"No! I want to!" Liam cried in worry, wanting to be the first to expose whatever their ludicrous brother had revealed to them. Probably something explicit.
Scarlett Johansson explicit? Maybe.
"Too bad! --Ela, Nate said to us that you're stupid when it comes to math, and really annoying. More so than we are!"
I felt a blood vessel pop inside my head, and my vision grew blurry with rage. "Oh, did he? What else did he tell y--"
"What's up little man?" The Devil himself paraded into the room, sportin a red baseball cap, fairly dirty on either rim. I scowled up at him from my crouched position, and swore vengance to the Gods.
You think you can talk about me? Okay, Nate. We'll see.
"We were just telling Ela about what you taught us this morning! Before you left for school?" Mason inclined, rising up on his haunches. "About how bratty she is, oh! You said yourself 'she's more annoying than both of you put togeth--'"
Before he could even finish his big reveal, Nate's hand clamped over his mouth, sending him into a pit of muted agony. Mason whined, before prying his hand off his mouth, and licking his lips.
"H-He doesn't know what he's talking about..." Nate avoided my blazing eyes at all costs, focusing on a lump of hair right in front of his eyeball.
"Sure he does! This morning, at breakfast, you said you can't stand her!" Liam pouted, scratching the back of his head. He glanced between us, whirlwinds dancing inside his confused corneas.
Nate sighed greatly, his ears turning a prickly color of scarlet. "I'm going to go pick up my girlfriend, Lindsey. I'll be back in a half hour."
I followed him out, my body stiff and sore from being in one locked form too long. I frowned sinisterly, and poked him on the shoulder, right where I know there to be a pressure point. He flinched, and rubbed that same spot, before turning around, and giving me his best, brightest smile.
"Hi, Angel."
"You told Mason and Liam what?" I gritted my teeth, enjoying the feeling of hissing out my anger, slowly.
"Relax. They kept asking about you; I didn't know what to tell them." He chuckled, batting his eyelashes. "I know you'll forgive me though, because you love me."
The cogs in my brain grinded to a painful stop, and I'm sure one of my eyes mimicked what most people classify as a 'tick'. "I don't."
"Sure you do. You just don't know it yet." He scrambled the top of my head, making my hair matted and messy, before fleeing through the door, and shutting it softly behind him.
I will kill him.
I hurtled my way towards the door, grabbing that signature cutting board on my way out, when I stopped in place.
An idea glazed over my brain, and I laughed a bitter laugh.
Oh boy. Oh, you will pay, Nathaniel. You will pay...
After I'm finished with you, you'll wish you never laid eyes on me.
❀❀❀❀❀❀
"Are you sleepy?" I twirled a piece of his limp, lifeless hair away from his eyes. I gave him a feeble smile, which he returned with a minty fresh yawn.
"N-No..." He blushed, slopping his hands across his face. "I mean, I guess so."
"I think you are." I giggled, pinching his cheeks. He turned on his side, away from me. I could hear his moderate, high-pitched squeals, but decided not to act on it. "Mason and you really had a good run around, today."
Liam burried his head under the blankets, coiling around his stuffed bear, as a snake would around it's prey. "Yeah. Mason and me."
His body stilled for a while, seeming dead, and unwanted. It hardly looked like he was breathing...
My eyebrows drew together, and I rubbed circles on his arm. "Liam? You okay there, champ?"
In an instant, he walloped down into the bed, lying on his back. I almost flew up into the air, but thankfully, my hands caught onto his comforter. I groaned out my aggravation, and closed my eyes, willing myself not to scream. Today could just not get worse, could it?
However, when I returned my gaze on him, I noticed the shiny droplets of dew gathering in the corners of his eyes. His eyebrows twitched and spasmed, before he closed his eyes tightly.
"Mommy, Natty, and even you would never understand..." His voice sounded hoarse and lame, cracking ever so often into octaves I've only heard of by Mariah Carey.
"Tell me, Tweedle Dum. What's gotten you down?" I cooed him, rocking his bed ever so slightly.
He let out a muffled cry, before twisting in his sheets to face me. His blue eyes stung mine, showing me his hidden pain and desolation.
"Mason's not older, you know." He began, his bottom lip quivering to the point where I thought he'd break down and weep his guts out. "I am. By four minutes."
I smiled awkwardly, unsure of what I should say.
"Everyone always says: 'Oh, Mason and Liam! Yeah, I know them! Mason and Liam!' No one's ever said Liam and Mason." He scrunched up his nose, plucking out his bear and stuffing his face into it's furry embrace.
"And that makes you mad?" I said quietly, hoping I won't anger him by my word choice.
"Y-Yeah?!" He outraged, clearly having bottled up emotions finally spill out. "Mason always plays with the bigger kids in school. They played soccer today, yeah? And when I told them I was older, they didn't believe me! I don't want to be shorter than him! I'm older!"
He wailed out, his sobs sounding miserable, and depressed. I patted the back of his head, twisting some of the long locks of hair away from his ear.
"I know. I know, Tweedle Dum, I know." I sang, impersonating the best motherly figure he's ever gonna get.
I lulled to him for minutes on end, hoping he's at least quieted down. I gazed down at his sleeping face, only then noticing the light snores that escaped his nose.
I stalked out of the room, grateful that I decided to discard my shoes at the door, for my socks seem to absorb the sounds of my masterful stomps more so than my grungy Converse.
I regathered the daring and feisty side of my conscience, stapling a feigned determind look to my face, and trampled into the eldest Rider brother's dorm.
Nothing's changed, practically. Except his bed's unmade, and a pair of baseball shoes that were flung earlier laid in a heap by the hamper.
Do it for revenge... He's seen a semi-naked body before! Do it for revenge...
I grinned nastly, stripping of everything until I was left in only a bra and sheer panties. What a day to wear my lucky panties. What a day.
Maybe that's why the girl at Starbucks gave me two dollars extra in change!
Either that or she's a high school drop out.
I shrugged these unnecessary thoughts out of my mind, tackling the problem at hand.
7:30 now. Nate said he'd be back later with his girlfriend...
I giggled hysterically, thinking ahead of my expertly planned scheme.
He will come in with his girlfriend, 'Lindsey'. They will see a half naked girl in his bed, waiting for him to come home. She will dump him, he will be embarassed.
Victory for Ela Fischer.
I threw together his bed as best I could, before I became too antsy, and took off under the blankets.
They meshed with my skin, the soft cotton working wonders on my stress. I moaned in delight, and laid back just for an instant, memorizing just how his covers feel. I'll have to ask him where he got these.
After he's done killing me for doing this to him.
I sat upright after a few minutes, smoothing down my hair, and petting back the sheets until they were in the proper places that I wanted them to be. My bare stomach left me slightly exposed, as well as my cleanly shaved thighs. It's just... wearing a bikini. Do it for revenge.
I heard the familiar smack of the chain on the lock, signifying we have company. Show time.
"Your house is huge! And like, awesome!" A feminine ditz said sweetly, her tone sounding like the most calorific Reece's Piece's baglet of candy I've ever consumed. I momentarily gagged, before finding my cool again.
"Thanks, yeah. --My brothers are prolly asleep, so let's keep it down, a'right?" He said smoothly, his regular playful tone seeming to have committed suicide somewhere along the way.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Her tangy voice came nearer, when finally, the door burst open, and the light was flicked on.
Standing in my presence were not only the hidden teddy bears beneath his bead, but Nate Rider himself, and a tall looking blonde I can only assume to be 'Lindsey.'
"Hey, baby." I whispered, my chest tingling with nervousness. "I was thinking you weren't ever going to come back. You just said you needed to pick up some condoms in 'your size' from a special place, since... well, I probably shouldn't revisit the topic."
Nate's jaw literally dropped to the floor, as his eyes raked down my body, and back up again. I bit my bottom lip, it quickly turning pink. I slipped out from under the sheets, exposing my annoyingly long legs, and stupidly short torso for the plain view.
"You said you needed to pick up your 'special size' from another 'special store', because regular drug stores don't sell XXXS size condoms." I hooked my thumb inside the waist line of my underwear.
I finally took the time to notice the wide eyed blonde in the doorway, her mouth open in a quite evident 'O'. "Oh! You picked something else up, too? --Will you be joining us tonight?"
"U-U-Uh..." She croaked out, her glossed lips spitting out salivia like a sprinkler.
"Ela..." Nate growled, his tone deep, dark, and looming. "What the--"
"Oh, did I not get it right?" I threw my head back, and faked an attempt at crying. Thank you, 'Acting for the Stage: Level II' class! "You told me dressing up like your mom turned you on! I just thought wearing her bra would spark something, but I guess I was wrong..."
"Jesus Christ!" Lindsey finally yelped out, her cheeks a flushed color of pink. "Don't ever think about talking to me! I hate you, Nate Rider!"
And with that, she burst out of the room, tears streaming down her face in buckets. I smirked at him, as I picked up the remainder of my clothes, and threw them over my goose bump covered body.
"Ela..." He said starkly, his voice lapping up every momentary joy I had had, and replaced it with unconditional and excruciating fear. "You have exactly 5 seconds to run, before I pound your head into your body, you'll be pooping out your own hair."
He didn't have to tell me twice.