I could feel Chance's eyes glued to my back as I chopped up tomatoes and lettuce for tacos. At first I found this slightly unnerving, but I kind of got use to it after about ten minutes.
"It's done!" Hero shouted pulling the beef off the stove just as I finished the vegetables.
"Brandy?" I asked.
"I think I've grated enough cheese for everyone to have their fill for a month," she answered looking at the plate full of it.
"Then I think we're ready," I said pulling the taco shells out of the oven.
I didn't make them, but my mom always use to heat the taco shells up before serving them, and I kind of picked up a lot of her kitchen habits.
"Will someone get the sour cream out of the fridge?"
"I got it," Brandy said trying to get off Alexander's lap, and failing miserably.
Guess Alexander liked it when she sat on his lap. Not surprising. He wasn't shy about the fact that he liked her.
"Hero's closer," I said trying not to laugh at Brandy's blush.
He complied with my wishes without comment, and set the sour cream on the counter were I was lining up the rest of the food.
"Okay," I said looking at the boys, who were staring at the food without blinking, "Ladies first."
"But I helped!" Hero protested.
"And that is why you get to go third. Come on Brandy. If we don't eat first I don't think there will be any left for us."
This time she managed to convince Alexander to let her up, but only after a promise that she would sit on his lap for dinner.
Hero grumbled something about being sexist, and how he should be allowed to go with the other cooks, but he waited patiently as Brandy, and I both made a couple tacos each before getting his own.
As I predicted there was nothing by the time Chance and Alexander had gotten their plates full.
I think they eat even more than Hero.
That's saying something considering Hero ate twice as much as Brandy, and I put together.
We were all eating when I heard the front door open, and footsteps started coming toward the kitchen.
"Wow," I heard someone say from the door way to the kitchen, "You actually have company."
"Hi mom," I said going over to give her a hug, "What are you doing home?"
"Got off work early."
"Getting off at five instead of eleven or midnight is really early."
"I was talking to a friend on my break, and they said that you had people coming over. Forgive me for being doubtful, but I had to see it for myself. So I kind of took the rest of the day off. Who's here?"
"Brandy is the only other girl, Hero is the one who currently has sour cream leaking out the sides of his mouth. They're the twins that come over regularly. Alexander is the one with brown hair. I have no clue why he's here other than that he would make a cute couple with Brandy, and Hero decided that he was going to make it so they could spent a little more time together."
"I disagree with Brandy and him making a cute couple!" Hero put in.
"Your her brother. It's your job to disagree," I told him before I finished my list, "The last one who is staring is Pri... I mean Chance."
When I actually called Chance by his real name instead of Prick I think he went into shock.
He'd never heard me call him that.
It was kind of funny to see the expression on his face.
"Nice to meet you all. If you hadn't figured it out by Elizabeth's reaction to me, I'm Elizabeth's mom."
Hero wiped the sour cream off his face, and smiled, "Nice to meet you too Mrs. Drazi."
Brandy was blushing bright red, but said a nervous "Hi," before looking at her plate.
I think Alexander felt awkward. he just kind of stared at his plate until Brandy elbowed him in the side. When Brandy elbowed him he gave a quick, "Nice to meet you," before staring at his plant again.
Chance seemed to recover from the shock of me calling him by name then, and stood up to shake my mom's hand, "It's a pleasure meeting you Mrs. Drazi. I can see where Elizabeth gets her looks."
Was he calling me beautiful?
Has he done that before?
Maybe when he was trying to wake me up that one time. I don't really remember.
She looked at his hand, then up to his face before pulling him into a hug, "I'm so happy to meet you. I didn't think my daughter would talk to anyone, and I was so happy when I found out she talked to you on the first day. It was kind of disappointing when she almost called you as Prick when she first told me about you, but I was pleased that she at least talked to you."
Her reaction surprised me. She didn't give Elliot a hug when she first met him.
Maybe she's more surprised that I talked to a guy that wasn't gay on the first day than that I talked to someone on the first day of school, and eventually let him come over to my house. Or maybe she though I was lying when I told her about Chance.
Probably the second one.
She pulled back and looked at my friends, "You can call me Alice."
They kind of looked at her with just as much shock as I'm sure Chance was experiencing.
After a few seconds Brandy smiled, and got up. She walked over to my mom, and gave her a big hug while thanking mom for letting her come over so often.
When everyone went back to eating mom turned to me, and glared, "Why do you call him Prick? He seems like a nice person."
I shrugged, and went back to my seat to finish my dinner.
"That's not a very good reason."
"Best I got."
She stayed silent for a second, before looking around.
"Is there any left?"
"Nope. Did you not notice the three boys? There wasn't even enough for seconds, and I'm fairly sure this is more of an after school snack than dinner."
"I'm so glad you recognize that," Hero said looking at me with relief.
I rolled my eyes, and looked at my mom, "There's some fresh fruit in the fridge though."
"Thanks."
She grabbed an apple, and watched us with more joy in her eyes then I'd seen in a while.
I don't think I realized how much she worried about me.
"What movie do you guys want to watch?" I asked as I scanned my eyes over the movies on the shelf.
I did rent a movie, but I don't think they would want to watch it. Hero failed to realize that I was renting Romeo and Juliet when he said we could watch the movie I rented.
"What do you have?"
"That's a long list. Why don't you just come chose?"
"Didn't you rent something?" Chance asked from behind me.
"I don't think you want to watch the movie I rented. Unless you really want to watch a movie about a couple of idiots that get married one day and kill themselves the next."
"Sure why not?" Chance answered.
"You have 'Romeo and Juliet'?" Hero scoffed.
"Which one?" Brandy asked from her seat on the couch.
"The one with Leonardo DiCaprio."
"Let's watch that!"
"Let's not."
"I don't mind."
"If you really want to watch it I'm okay with that."
Not sure who said what, but it seems like the general consensus is that it's a good idea. I don't know why though. Romeo was an idiot for killing himself, and Juliet was worse for following his example. The only reason I rented it was so I didn't need to pay attention to my English teacher who seemed to think that no one in her class had read it.
I put the movie in, and went to sit on the floor in front of the couch.
Normally I sit on the couch, but I didn't feel like sharing a seat with Brandy and Alexander. That would probably get slightly awkward later.
I would have taken the chair, but Hero was too big to kick out of it.
Chance sat down beside me, and took my hand to trace random patterns on the back of it.
I don't know what it is about movies, but they always make me sleepy. They usually don't make me go to sleep, but I always feel like I will before it's over.
About half way through I was leaning my head against Chance, watching with my eyes half closed.
Chance pulled me into his lap, and let me rest my head on his chest.
That was a lot easier than trying to rest it against his shoulder.
I could feel my eyes getting heavier, and they started to stay closed longer when I blinked.
Finally I gave up, and just didn't open them again.
Chance shifted me so I had my head resting on his arm, and I could feel a blanket being wrapped around me.
This seems oddly familiar....
I tried to open my eyes, but they wouldn't stay open, and Chance told me I should just go to sleep.
After that I didn't even try to stay awake. I just let Chance hold me as I slept.
I felt someone kiss my forehead, and brush the hair away from my face, but I was too tired to open my eyes anymore. Instead I let a small smile form on my face.
There was a bright flash of light for a second, but I ignored it and snuggled into Chance more.
"That has got to be one of the cutest pictures I've got of her," my mom whispered before there was another bright flash of light went off behind my eye-lids.
Guess there's another picture of me with Chance.
Oh well.
I already know my mom won't delete it.
That was my last thought before I was completely oblivious to the world.