"So what did you do today?", I ask, leaning forward with my elbows on the table.
We just ordered and have been waiting comfortably for our food to arrive.
I am on a date right now. Her name is Amanda and I met her at the grocery store, she was buying vegetables, I was buying chips.
I know close to nothing about her, as this is our first date, but I do know she is a vegetarian, which attracts me for some reason, although I don't quite understand why, nor have I put much thought into it.
We're at this vegetarian restaurant, which is much like the kind of place I would never have come to on my own; Amanda picked the place.
All of the walls are green, everything smells like eucalyptus incense, and there was a Buddha statue by the entrance.
I guess Amanda is that kind of vegetarian, I had not seen this coming.
She looked up at me, smiling sweetly before replying to my question, "Ah, my dance class was cancelled, so I got a Reiki massage and I just feel incredible"
I pause before smiling awkwardly and squinting my eyes at her.
"Reiki?"
"Yeah", she smiles.
"That's the massage where they don't touch you?", I hesitantly question.
I can see her quick frown before she just smiles at me again, placing both her hands on top of the table, "Yeah, so, it's about energy. They put energy into your body"
"Yeah, why would you pay someone to not touch you?"
Amanda lets out an airy awkward laugh before gesturing her hands, "Okay, so like I said, they align your energy-"
"There's just, like, billions of people that'll touch you for zero dollars", I state, raising my eyebrows, "Like, do you go to restaurants and pay for them to not feed you?"
She pauses, an awkward smile on her face, before hesitantly defending herself, "Oh, well... so like, it's an ancient ritual from Japan. It's thousands of years old"
I eye her, wheezing lightly and shrugging, "It's old so it must be good, right? Oh, and it's Asian!", I exclaim as she politely giggles.
"I really don't understand why middle-class white people think that Asians are magic", I comment, frowning and looking around.
Amanda chuckles, shaking her head, "Okay, well, I don't think they're magic"
"Yeah, they just mastered energy", I wheeze, squinting my eyes at Amanda, who just eyes me blankly, "I mean, what is this energy? How are they manufacturing this energy?"
I hear Amanda sigh, shaking her head, before speaking up, "Look, it just-"
"Where does it come from?"
"Okay. It just makes me feel good", she sighs.
I hum and nod, looking down at my lap.
"It's not thousands of years old, by the way, it's about 80 years old", I mumble.
"No, I'm pretty sure it's thousands", she awkwardly chuckles.
I look at her for a moment, before grabbing my cell phone and unlocking it.
I can feel Amanda's eyes on me the whole time, I can almost feel the frown on her face directed at me while I distractedly type onto the screen.
"What are you doing?", she quietly questions.
"Googling."
I hear her sigh before setting my phone aside and looking up at her, "Yeah, it was invented in 1922"
She eyes me blankly before smiling politely and nodding, "Okay, so it's like 100 years old. We were both wrong"
"Well, I was pretty close", I comment, chuckling, as I hear her sigh once again, "I mean, 80 is a lot closer to 100 than 100 is to thousands"
She quietly scoffs at me, shaking her head and looking down at the table, "Why can't you just leave things? Let people believe what they want to believe?"
I sigh, leaning back onto my seat and looking up at the ceiling, before raising both my hands and nodding, "Okay, I'm sorry. I'm not not letting you believe it", I pause for a moment, raising my eyebrows and looking down at the table, before continuing, slowly, "Just trying to understand, you know, why an adult would pay someone money to lay naked in a room with somebody that's either crazy or lying to them"
Amanda looks at me blankly for a short while, before sighing, shaking her head, and getting up from her chair, "Okay, I'm gonna go"
"Really? There's just so much vegetarian food coming"
"Yeah, look", she sighs, grabbing her phone and purse, before looking back down at me, "I'm just looking for someone who's, like, kind and gentle, friendly. That's not you"
She turns away and walks off, as I'm left behind on my own, sighing and leaning my side onto the wall.
Normani is sitting in front of her computer, scrolling down through Facebook, a half eaten banana in her hands, when she hears her phone start ringing.
"Arin?", she picks up.
"Hey, I'm coming over", she hears his cheery voice through the phone.
"Uh, nah, I just want an alone night", Normani replies, eyes still on the screen in front of her.
"Well, I thought I'd come by and eat you out while you play Mario Kart", his voice sounds cheerfully seducing.
"Um, well, that'd just be annoying cause I'd want to concentrate", Normani blankly comments, taking a bite from her banana.
She removes her cell phone from her ear as she hears call waiting beeps, before speaking up again into the phone, "Hang on, Y/N is calling"
She presses the accept button on the screen as I call her name onto my cell phone, "Mani, you hungry? I ordered too much food"
"No, I have plans", I hear Mani's voice through the call.
"Okay, what's Billie doing?"
"She's out"
"And Harry?", I try.
"Also out, I think he's visiting your mom"
"Oh, no", I groan to myself as the waiter approaches my table, balancing three different trays on his arms, as a second waiter follows suit just behind him, "Oh, gosh, no"
I nervously chuckle, hanging up my phone, as multiple plates are set in front of me.
Inhaling deeply, I glance at my many options, fingers hovering above the food. I start off with the appetisers, slowly making my way through the entirety of the meals, quietly humming random melodies as I happily eat way too many pounds of food by myself.
The thai green curry chicken was a bit too salty.
A couple hours later into my long digestion, I'm lying on my bed leaning on my elbows, Cora's head resting on my shoulder, as I listen to the 'connecting call' skype sound effect playing from my laptop. It is cut short just as Ally's face pops up on my screen and I smile big.
"Hi, Ally!"
"Y/N...", she mumbles looking lost as her image and voice quickly synchronise, "Y/N! Hello!"
I chuckle while Ally's smile widen as she leans forward from her seat; she appears to be on an open balcony.
"Hey, do you think I'm nice?", I immediately question her, softly petting Cora's head.
She lightly frowns before answering, "Um, yeah, I think so"
"I'm a nice girl, right? I do nice things", I start rambling, nodding my head at myself, "If there's a little a bit of poo on the side of the toilet bowl, I'll spray it off, you know, with the bidet shower. Even though nobody will even know I did it, I'll do it!"
Ally's eyebrows remain frowning at me, as she hesitantly speaks up again, "Yeah... okay, I think maybe you're nice. Why?"
"This girl said I wasn't nice, right, and I wanted to argue with her, but I didn't feel confident, you know, I wasn't sure, I don't pay that much attention"
"No", Ally adds in as I look at my own face on the screen, squinting my eyes and scrunching up my face, huffing.
"I don't look... I do not look good this evening", I groan, shaking my head as I hear Ally sigh.
"Alright, do you wanna know why I'm calling, or do you want me to just reinforce that you're a nice girl?"
"Can't I have both?", I quickly ask, raising my eyebrows at the camera, "I can reinforce you're an okay lady too, if you like. I'm nice like that"
She hums before lightly shrugging, "Alright"
"You are an okay lady", I state to my computer.
Ally nods at me, sweetly smiling, "Thank you. Now, um, this project that I was working on-"
"Sustainable forestry!", I quickly exclaim.
"Yes", she smiles at me, raising her eyebrows.
"Yes, see? I pay attention, I'm interested in other people"
"Okay, anyway, the project got axed", she continues, as I gasp.
"Oh, no!"
Ally nods, shrugging, "It doesn't exist anymore. So, um, I have to come home for a bit"
"What's going to happen to the forest?", I dramatically cry out as she shrugs once more.
"Eh. Erm, could I stay with you?", she hesitantly pleads.
"Yeah, of course", I instantly reply, wildly nodding my head at the camera, before chuckling and commenting, "Harry cashed in his vacation in vain, he leaves for one second and the project falls apart! And you call yourselves sustainable"
I hear Ally giggle through the computer before shaking her head and speaking up, "Shut up"
"Hey, do you wanna make pulled pork?", I change subjects, looking expectantly at my blonde friend, "I've been thinking about making pulled pork a lot lately, with homemade barbecue sauce?"
Ally opens up a wide smile before gasping and rapidly nodding her head, "Yeah, I've wanted to do that!", she excitedly exclaims, "I would love to do that!"
"Yes!", I cheer, holding Cora closer.
"Okay, we're gonna do that! And, uhm, great", she stammers, looking around before looking back at the screen, "I have to go, I have to go now"
I start nodding before cutting myself in and frowning, "What is barbecue sauce?", I question as I see Ally's face scrunch up in doubt.
"I don't really know", she mumbles, "I think it's spiced tomato sauce, isn't it? I do have to go, though"
"I think it's sweeter than tomato sauce", I wonder.
"Great, that's what it is then", she states in a rushed pace, before waving sweetly at the screen, "Okay, bye-bye!"
"See ya! Bye!", I grab Cora's paw and wave it at the camera, smiling, as the laptop beeps indicating the end of the connection, "Look at her adorably waving! Ally?"
"So, let's all begin by looking at these two raisins", the therapist's voice travels around the wide room, as she wanders around, calmly.
All patients sitting on the floor quietly listen to the professional's words, as each one of them hold one raisin in each hand at eye level.
Hannah attentively looks at the raisins, not breaking eye contact for one moment. Mom lightly squints her eyes at her raisins, occasionally glancing at Stuart from across the room, who smiles at her, making her smile back, sweetly.
"Observe them, one at a time", the therapist continues, "First, looking at the one on the left. And noticing. And then the one in the right hand as well"
Lauren distractedly glances around the room from her corner, looking out at the windows, having already eaten both her raisins first thing when she was given them. Ginger confusedly frowns at both her raisins, toying a bit with them.
"Are they the same size? Do they have the same degree of wrinkliness? How does the light shine on their folds?"
Ginger suddenly speaks up, cutting the therapist's sentences short, "Mine just look like raisins"
Mom tries to hold in her laughter at Ginger's complaints, as Lauren turns to look at both of them, a smile now on her face.
"Now bring the raisins up to your nose, inhaling any fragrance or aroma"
Mom quickly brings her hands to cover her mouth, as she watches Ginger stick her raisins in her nostrils, making faces. Lauren wheezes from her corner, leaning her back further onto the feet of the couch, trying to keep quiet, as Stuart soon joins in on the chuckles.
"Now, holding the raisins next to your ears", the therapist naively continues, "Roll them between your thumb and your forefinger. Do they have a sound?"
Stuart slowly raises his raisins to his ears, as Hannah is already deeply focused on the task, attentively listening close to her hands movements.
Mom keeps her hands covering her mouth as Lauren shuts her eyes tight, silently laughing at Ginger, as she sticks both her raisins inside her ears, wheezing.
Finally hearing the laughter in the room, the therapist calmly smiles, before commenting, "Laughter is great. Feel how your body moves when you laugh. How are the muscles contorting?"
Mom lets out a high pitched laugh, as Stuart joins in once again, while Ginger dramatically gestures at the raisins in her ears, pretending she can't hear anything.
"Now, place the first raisin into your mouth", the therapist states, as Hannah calmly but quickly starts chewing on her raisin, "Don't swallow. In fact, don't chew"
Hannah pauses, as Ginger, laughingly, sighs loudly in relief, before exclaiming, "Oh, no, thanks, mine have got snot on them!"
Mom quickly forgets about her raisins dropping them on the floor while Lauren lets herself fall onto her back, as the entire room bursts off laughing.
"Well, that's an adorable breakfast", I singingly comment as I walk into the kitchen with Cora in my arms.
I could smell it from my room, and as I approach the kitchen table, eyeing the still warm boiled eggs and pieces of buttered toast, Normani shoots her glance up at me, with wide eyes and a tense look on her face.
"Arin's here. He stayed over. I told him nothing about Jenny. I'm meant to be seeing Jenny this morning. Jenny had a fight with her mom. Jenny's upset. You. Have. To. Help. Me.", Normani tensely yet quietly tells me, looking at me in the eyes while I set Cora down.
"Why are you doing this?", I question Normani, smiling at her misery, "Why are you making these choices?"
And just like that, Arin enters the kitchen with a towel wrapped around his waist. He is glowing as he smiles at me.
"Y/N!"
"Arin", I greet him.
"I was gonna make you some breakfast, but I didn't know what time you'd be up", he gently and annoyingly sets a hand on my shoulder, "Do you want something?"
"Yeah"
"No, Arin, you don't need to make her breakfast", Normani states, as Arin skips his way to the stove.
"Delicious", I comment, a teasing smile on my face, as I sit down by the table.
Arin cheerily turns the stove on, chuckling at the noise it makes and quickly smiling back at me.
I eye him, a judging and tired look on my face. Just looking at his face makes me tired, just so quick. I turn to Normani and see her tensely looking down at her lap, sighing, bringing her hand to her forehead.
I sigh before turning my face back to Arin, "Uh... Hey, Arin", I hesitantly start when Normani shoots me a pleading look, "Mani and I need to go and get some groceries for my mom, so... Do you need me to give you a lift to the station?"
Arin turns around, after setting the eggs on the stove to boil, leaning against the fridge casually and shrugging, "Yeah, well, I need to get some groceries. That could be fun"
Normani immediately turns her face to me as I sigh, "Okay, yeah", I look back at Mani, quickly giving up, "Alright, this has to happen, yeah?"
Normani sighs, "Okay"
"Arin, Normani has something to tell you"
Normani's head shoots back up, "What? I thought you were gonna tell him"
"Nah"
Arin looks between the two of us, a confused look on his face, "What? What, Mani?"
Normani lightly shakes her head, "It's nothing, we can talk about it later", she replies, quietly.
I sigh, internally judging Normani, before turning back to look at Arin, "Normani has been seeing a girl. A child girl"
"She's 18", Normani complains.
Arin pauses, before awkwardly chuckling, "Oh. Okay. So... What, are you guys, like, girlfriends or..."
"Um, kind of... Sort of", Normani quietly stammers, "It's not really... Not sure about that..."
I look at Normani for a moment, squinting my eyes, before speaking up, "Yeah. She is sure. They spoke about it and they decided they are girlfriends"
Arin slowly nods, looking at the wall blankly as I add in, "She is her girlfriend"
"Right", Arin mumbles, before awkwardly nodding and looking at Normani, "Cool"
"Is Y/N coming to the therapy choir?", Lauren asks mom, getting her to look up from her magazine.
They were both sitting at the open patio along with Hannah and Ginger, after having lunch. The day was chilly but a bit sunny, the plants were shaking as the cold wind hit them.
"Harry's coming", mom says.
"Is he bringing Y/N?", Lauren asks, casually.
"I don't know", mom distractedly mumbles, "You want to call her?"
Mom starts a call on her phone before passing it to Lauren, who quietly replies, "Um, sure. Yeah, okay"
Arin's shoulders shake as he angrily butters my toasts, complaining loudly at the kitchen, "All these chats where you tell me I'm too fragile for casual sex, they haven't been about me at all, have they? They're just... Because you're too much of a pussy to tell me about her!"
Normani sighs, keeping her head down, "I didn't say you were too fragile, I was just concerned you might still like me too much"
Arin throws his head back as he lets out a forced laugh, "Ha!"
I lean back on my chair, a smile on my face, as I watch the situation happen in front of my eyes. Normani's uncomfortable huffs are a great point but Arin's angry breakfast making is truly the star of the show.
My cell phone suddenly starts ringing as mom's picture pops up on my screen, drawing my attention from the spectacle to the call.
I quickly pick it up, pressing the phone to my ear and speaking up, "Mom? No, not now, this is a bad time, this is a really bad-"
"Oh, no, no, hey", I hear the familiar raspy voice enter my ear, "it's Lauren"
"Oh! Hey, Lauren", I cheerily greet, quickly getting up and moving away from the kitchen, suddenly feeling more cheerful than I was two seconds ago.
"Uh, this is weird. Suddenly, I realise this is very weird for me to call you from your mom's phone", Lauren mumbles to the phone, as mom looks up at her, expectantly.
"No, it's fine", I assure her.
"She just dialled", Lauren continues, "Anyway..."
"What's up?", I lean my side against the wall by the living room, smiling at Lauren's stammers.
"Hannah is in a choir", she starts.
"Oh, yeah, the mental choir", I comment.
"Er, therapy choir. They're kinda sensitive", she corrects me, "Are you coming?"
"Yeah, of course", I quickly reply as I hear Ginger's voice on the background going 'You think this is skin cancer?'.
"Is she coming?", mom asks Lauren, ignoring Ginger.
"Yeah, she's coming"
"Is she bringing anybody?", mom asks.
"Um, you bringing anyone?", Lauren asks to the cell phone.
"Um...", I run back into the kitchen as I start hearing Arin's complaints again.
"Mani, do you want to go to a mental choir?", I pop my head into the kitchen.
"Tonight? I can't, I'm busy"
"Doing what?", I inquire as Arin quickly turns his head furiously to Normani.
"Nothing", Mani mumbles.
"You're seeing that girl", Arin accuses, his hand on his hip.
I snap my fingers before concluding, "Billie will want to come", and I run towards Billie's room hearing Arin groan in the kitchen.
"Tell her to come early for dinner", mom tells Lauren, who is hearing Arin speaking indistinctly in the background.
"Um, your mom wants you to come early for dinner", Lauren speaks into the phone.
"No, I don't wanna eat there again, the food is too soft", I complain, opening the door to Billie's room.
"She says the food is too soft", Lauren tells mom.
Mom shakes her head before saying, "Yes, okay, the food's soft, I want her to visit anyway"
"Billie, do you wanna go to a mental choir?", I ask, popping my head inside Billie's room.
She turns her head to look at me before nodding and saying a quick 'Yeah'.
"Billie's coming", I say into the phone, walking back to the kitchen.
"She wants you to come visit anyway", Lauren tells me.
"Yeah, okay", I reply as I sit back down at the kitchen table, "See ya, bye"
I hang up just as Arin angrily drops a plate in front of me, "Breakfast"
"Ooh, thanks", I say, cheerily, as my fingers hover above the food.
Arin suddenly turns around, furiously, putting his hand on his towel covered hip, before complaining loudly, "Why did I make you breakfast? You suck, I hate you!"
I frown and shrug, a piece of bitten toast in my hand, chewing, "I didn't do anything"
"God, what am I doing?", he yells, moving pans around the kitchen.
Normani sighs before lowly saying, "Look, I know I fucked up, but we talked about it a lot and you agreed we were just friends, alright? It's not a big deal, it's not like I was obliged to tell you, it's not like I broke any rules"
"You told Y/N you had a girlfriend?", Arin inquires impatiently, as I nod, biting onto my toast, "And Billie, right? And Harry?"
"Yeah", I nod again.
"That's every single one of your friends, Normani", Arin complains angrily, his voice cracking, "You told all of your friends but me, and why's that? Because it's a big deal! It's news you tell people!"
I quietly wheeze to myself as I place some egg into my mouth and Normani sighs anxiously, "I just didn't know what to say", she says.
"You know what? I may not be your boyfriend, but I'm still a human with feelings, and you just wanna use me as a flesh jack", Arin groans, accusatively.
"I'm sorry, okay? I'm really sorry!", Normani exclaims as Arin glares at him.
"You are so pathetic", he growls through his gritted teeth, "You're lazy and you have no self-esteem and you have a fat, fat nose"
"Weird body hair", I add in, pointing at Normani, as she glares at me.
"And you're not even that funny!", Arin yells at her, "I mean, Billie and Y/N are so much funnier than you"
"Wow", Normani mumbles, raising her hands.
"Shut up", Arin growls.
I chew my breakfast happily as I watch Arin inhale deeply, before placing his hand back on his hip and turning his face to Normani, "What's her name?"
Normani looks at me, pleadingly, as I blankly look at Arin before replying, "It's Jenny"
"Jenny?", he gawks at me, with a disgusted look on his face, "That girl who's been leaving fucking selfies all over your facebook? Oh, my god! I thought she was 12, she looks 12! I though she was your niece!"
Normani slowly sighs before hesitantly speaking up, "Look, I get it. I'm sorry. But Jenny's actually really mature, we like all the same things"
Arin scoffs and shakes his head, "Normani, that doesn't mean she's mature, it means that you have the brain of a 16 year old girl"
"She's 18. I'm sorry! What more do you want me to say?"
"You need to learn to close your mouth when you're resting your face", Arin growls at Normani, moving around the kitchen angrily.
Mani looks at me as I arch my eyebrows at her, adding in, "Solid point"
Suddenly, our attention gets drawn back to Arin as we hear him saying into the phone, "Hi, Jenny?"
Normani quickly turns around, widening her eyes, "Is that my phone?"
"Yeah, erm, this is Arin. Has Normani told you about me? Great. Do you mind if I put you on speaker?", he asks before instantly doing it and throwing the cell phone onto the kitchen table.
"Why? What's going on?", we hear Jenny's voice through the call, sounding confused.
Normani seems to be nervously sweating as Arin glares at her, and I speak up, "Uh, Jenny! This is Y/N, you're on speakerphone and Mani and her ex boyfriend Arin are here"
"What?", Jenny's voice echoes around the kitchen before Arin angrily cuts in.
"Jenny, Normani has something she wants to tell you"
Normani cautiously looks over to Arin as she lowly asks, "What are you doing?"
"Tell her what you did last night", Arin lowly commands, his voice cracking.
"Arin..."
"Fine", he states before dramatically sighing and turning to the cell phone on the table, announcing loudly, "Jenny, Normani and I had sex last night. Twice"
Normani quickly leaves her seat, kneeling down to maintain her head at the same height as the cell phone, her face close to the microphone.
"Normani?", we hear Jenny ask, unsure.
I bite my egg, leaning back against my seat, watching and chewing my breakfast.
"Jenny?", Normani calls through the phone, but Jenny doesn't answer, "Jenny babe?"
"Babe?", Jenny questions Normani's words as Arin furiously rolls his eyes.
"I... I know I fucked up, I know I did, but it was the last time, I promise"
"What?", Jenny's voice sounds hurt.
"I'm sorry, I'm just", Normani stammers, "I'm just saying I'm really sorry. How can I make it up to you?"
After a quiet moment, Jenny speaks up again, "Look, don't worry about it, I can move on. You two obviously have issues to sort out"
Normani rapidly shakes her head, "Jenny, listen, there are no issues for us to sort out"
"Normani-"
"We're just friends", she assures Jenny, just as Arin angrily takes the cell phone from the kitchen table, throwing it into the plant jar, as the water drips out.
"Fuck, Arin!", Normani complains, as I hold my laughter.
"Just put it in rice!", he growls, before sobbing, "You know, it'll be fine in a few days"
Normani quickly takes her phone out of the water, trying to dry it with her shirt, as I decide to speak up.
"Is this a bad time to tell you Ally's coming back?"
Normani freezes and slowly turns around to face me, her jaw on the ground.
"Next week", I add in, biting into my toast.
I watch her pause and stammer to herself for a bit, in shock.
"I gotta go. I'm going", she lowly says before quickly exiting the kitchen.
As soon as Mani's out of sight, Arin starts loudly sobbing as he sits down at the table, across from me.
I continue chewing my breakfast as he turns to me, "She's such a bitch"
"Yeah", I agree, "I mean, I told her she was a bitch"
"It's like you don't realise that she's such a bitch because she's got this stupid face, but she's just...", he groans, looking up at the ceiling, his voice cracking, "She's such a bitch!"
I blankly look at his crying face, before stating, "She really has indeed been a bitch"
I focus back on my breakfast as I hear him sigh, "She's like a puppy that shat on the rug, you know? Like, what's the point of getting annoyed?"
I slowly nod, hesitating. I don't think there's a single thing I would feel comfortable on saying right now. I try to think of jokes but come out empty.
I stay quiet for a while as I watch Arin sob looking down at the table. I shuffle a bit before hesitantly speaking up, "Arin, I have to go get dressed"
He slowly looks up at me with watery eyes and a pleading face, even though I'm not quite sure what he could be pleading to me.
"Yeah. I... I don't think you can stay", I slowly and awkwardly add, almost whispering, as he starts to blankly nod his head before whispering.
"Yeah, I'll just... Get out of here"
Mom blushes and smiles down at her own lap while exchanging quick glances with Stuart from a distance. She was seating on a bench in the open patio right beside Ginger, who rapidly looks between the two lovers, as Stuart was sat on a different bench, across the patio, smoking a cigarette, shirtless.
Even without knowing about everything that occurred on the hide and seek day, Ginger could feel the sexual tension and all the distance flirting from miles away.
She teasingly smiles at mom, who blushes once again, before speaking up, "He loves you"
Mom scoffs, her face as red as a tomato, "He doesn't love me"
"He does", Ginger insists, whispering, "And you love him"
"I don't!"
"You do!", Ginger accuses, a smirk on her face.
"I don't love him!", mom defends herself, blushing harder by the second.
"You do! Go and say hello", Ginger tries pushing mom out of the bench.
"No", mom huffs, embarrassed, resisting, "I will later"
"No, go now! What else have you got on?"
Mom quickly glances at Stuart once again, blushing as she noticed his eyes never left her, before turning her head back to Ginger.
"I can't just walk over, he's not even wearing a shirt", she mumbles.
Ginger smirks teasingly before grabbing the hem of mom's shirt, "Oh, I can fix that. You take this off"
Ginger starts pulling on mom's shirt, as mom immediately starts holding her own torso tightly, in attempt to keep her shirt on, trying to wave off Ginger's hands.
"Ginger, stop it!", she yells in a whisper, glancing embarrassingly at Stuart, who laughed watching the situation.
"Take your shirt off, you'll have something in common!", Ginger commands.
After some shuffling, Ginger gives up, letting go of mom's shirt. She sighs deeply before smirking again and getting up from the bench.
"Oh, don't worry, I'll get it", she jogs across the patio over to Stuart's bench, "Yoo-hoo! Hi, I'm Ginger"
Stuart smiles up at Ginger, cigarette peeking out of his lips, before waving and quickly glancing over at mom.
"We saw you in Mindfulness", Ginger adds in, mentioning the early therapy session.
"Stuart", he greets her.
"Stuart, would you like to meet my friend Rose?", she points at mom across the patio, who blushes and looks away, "Come on"
Ginger starts guiding one shirtless Stuart across the patio, over to the bench she was previously seating on.
"Stuart, this is Rose", Ginger excitedly introduces as they reach mom's bench, smirking at her, "Rose, Stuart"
Stuart smiles and nods in mom's direction before speaking up, "I'm really into roses, actually. Scent. Beauty. Velvety texture. Roses have got it all"
Mom looks down at her lap, blushing once again and smiling sweetly. Ginger beams enthusiastically, looking back and forth at mom and Stuart, before he nods at them and turns around to walk away.
"I'll leave you to it", he smiles before moving back to his bench.
Ginger immediately frowns, looking back at mom, who seems to be starstruck, looking into the void.
"Oh, I don't think that went very well", Ginger mumbles, upset, as she seats back down on the bench besides mom.
Finally, mom wakes up from her daydreams, looking over from Stuart to Ginger, "What?"
"I said I don't think that went very well", she repeats, huffing, and slapping mom's shoulder when she laughed at her.
"I feel bad about leaving Arin behind. That makes me, like, a good guy, right?", I state, looking ahead at the traffic through the front glass of my car.
Billie's seating on the passenger seat, but she's got her head stuffed on the back seat, as she reaches her arm over to the floor of the car. She furiously nods, sarcastically, before looking up at me, "Oh, fuck yeah. So much empathy, Y/N", she jokes.
I nod as she goes back to stammering onto the back seat, "Yo, tell me, what else do you feel guilty about, man?"
I look out through the car window thinking, before replying, "Ah, I feel bad about famine... Syria, you know. Uh, places that used to rent out DVDs"
I turn my head to look back at Billie, just as she adjusts herself back on her seat, putting something in her mouth and chewing.
"What are you eating?"
"I was hungry", she responds, "There was a peanut M&M in the back"
I raise my eyebrows at her, shaking my head as I look back at the street, "We have a whole car, we can stop and get food"
"I didn't wanna make us late for the mental choir"
Normani sees the pebble she just threw up knock onto the second floor window and fall back on the ground in front of her. She bends down once again, grabbing another rock and throwing it up again.
Then, she finally sees Jenny come into view, who visibly sighs at her before pointing over at her balcony in annoyance.
"What the fuck?", Jenny yells at Normani, angrily stepping into the balcony.
"Hey"
"Why didn't you just ring the doorbell?"
"I didn't want your parents to worry", Normani replies looking up, her eyes squinting against the sunlight.
"About what?"
Normani shrugs before responding, "Just me, I guess"
Jenny loudly groans before complaining, "Oh, god, so much self-loathing!", she sighs in annoyance before looking back down at her girlfriend, "Look, can you... can you just go?"
"Can I please just come in for a minute?", Normani pleads, "I'm really thirsty"
"There's a tap over there", Jenny points over at a corner of her front yard.
Normani sighs before looking down and slowly walking towards the water tap, "I'm sorry, Jenny, it's the last time I swear"
Jenny groans at Normani, as she watches the girl bend down, placing her mouth below the tap, uncomfortably, "I don't get it. If you wanna be with him so much, just be with him"
"Oh, my god, no", Normani mumbles, drying her mouth on her hand before continuing, "I do not want that, I swear"
She walks back to the middle of the yard, looking up at Jenny, regret expressed on her face, "What can I do to fix this?"
Jenny just quietly eyes her for a moment before turning around on her feet and walking back into her room.
Normani just sighs, mumbling to herself as she walks away, hearing Jenny's door shut close, "Fuck, fuck, fuck"
"Yo, why didn't you order any food?", Billie questions me, biting onto her burger as I drive us out of the McDonald's drive thru, sipping my lemonade through the plastic straw.
I swallow my drink before turning to her, "I don't wanna encourage them, you know? I'm sticking it to the man"
I see Billie look at me, a trace of a smile on her face, as she points at the cup in my hand, "Dude, they still profit from lemonade"
"Yeah, I was just very thirsty", I chuckle, looking back at the traffic ahead.
"So you're not really sticking it to the man", Billie comments, chewing on her fries, "You're just not being outwardly friendly to the man"
I nod, "Yeah, I'm politely expressing disappointment in the man"
I see her nod at me, looking out at the window as I turn my head to do the same. The cars around me don't move one bit, as I watch numerous people walk around in the street.
I glare at this one blonde guy who's crossing the street right in front of my car, with a casual smile on his face.
"Pedestrians are making me fucking furious", I groan, biting on my straw, "Why is that guy smiling? Who does he think he is?"
"Maybe he's thinking about love", Billie says, and I turn my head to look at her and she's got this teasing smile on her face as she looks at me, a joking air around her.
I shake my head, scoffing, "You don't know that. He could be thinking about eczema"
Billie shakes her head at me, looking back out at the blonde dude, who is looking both sides right in front of us, before crossing the rest of the street.
"I really doubt that", Billie replies.
"Oh, you love him", I tease, "Billie's going to marry this guy"
I see her raising her eyebrows, following the guy with her eyes, "Alright, he's quite attractive, bro, could be worse"
I eye her for a while, biting in my straw, before questioning, "Worse than marrying someone you have no sexual attraction to and it's impossible for you to feel romantic love for?"
Billie shrugs, raising her eyebrows and responding, "Guys have their strong points", she takes another bite from her burger, "He can create babies every time he masturbates, that's impressive, like a baby gene machine"
I drive about two feet forward before stopping the car again, drinking from my lemonade before speaking up again, complaining, "Yeah, but you'll hate the baby. You'll hate the baby for trapping you in a miserable marriage"
Billie jokingly gawks at me before protesting, "Don't say that about my marriage!"
I laugh before shaking my head and looking back ahead, "I just feel sorry for him, I feel sorry for this guy"
"Aye, man, I think I'd do a good job of pretending to like my family", she states confidently.
I shake my head, "Nah. He's never gonna understand why you don't love him, you're gonna fight in front of the kids, it's very sad"
She smirks at me before commenting, "You'd be worse"
I gasp, offended, "No, I wouldn't! Would not"
She nods as she continues, "Yeah, you would, even if you married a nice chick"
"No, I wouldn't! Why? Why?", I turn to face to her, upset and impatient.
"Because you're not really interested in caring about others", Billie calmly replies, as if it were obvious.
Whoa.
I gasp, and frown down at my lap, before looking back up at her, offended, "Yes, I am, I'm interested in caring about others", I protest, "I care about Cora, I keep Cora alive"
Billie smiles teasingly at me, "Dude, her water bottle is always empty. I fill it"
I look away from her, eyeing the traffic ahead and hiding my face behind my lemonade cup, annoyed, "Nah. Nah"
I drive another two feet forward and stop the car again. I can't bring myself to look at Billie right now, and honestly, I'm not really sure why this is bothering me so much.
I guess I never really cared that much if I was a nice person until the moment everybody else started telling me I'm not. And the fact that this is coming from Billie instead of a stranger I met at the grocery store.
Suddenly I start feeling Billie's eyes on the side of my face, as I continue to avoid her glance.
She frowns quickly and pokes my arm, "What?"
"No", I shake my head, looking out at the car window, sipping my lemonade, "No, nothing"
Billie laughs at me before speaking up, "Are you annoyed at me? You are, you are angry"
I stay quiet, continuing to bite onto my straw, my eyes not leaving the street, as she keeps on poking my side, "You are, you're annoyed, you are"
"Nope."
She quiets down before jokingly pouting at me, "Y/N"
I gulp down the rest of my drink before saying to the window, "I think my feelings hurt"
Billie sighs, smiling, before mumbling, "Oh, I was just playing"
"Literally, like, stuck in traffic, going to see a shit choir so I can be nice to my sick mom", I exclaim in annoyance.
"Okay!", she tries soothing me, suddenly losing the teasing act.
"I'm a good person, a nice lady", I complain.
"I take it back, I'm sorry", Billie's voice sounds assuring but I ignore it.
"Nah."
"Y/N..."
"Fuck ya", I complain, maintaining my eyes glued to the car window.
"Whoa, come on", I hear her gasp at me.
"No, thanks", I sing out.
"I'm sorry!"
"Not interested. No, thank you"
"Y/N", Billie insists.
I shake my head, still looking out. I then hear Billie sigh before shuffling on her seat. I bite on my straw, my eyebrows furrowed, when I suddenly feel Billie's hand grabbing me softly by the shirt, pulling me towards her.
As I turn my head in confusion, I feel her lips on mine. I let out a surprised gasp before quickly responding to the kiss, smiling against her lips.
We quickly pull apart from each other, and I immediately turn my head back to the window, avoiding eye contact at all cost, blushing and smiling lightly to myself.
"You're fine", I hear her say softly, "You're a good person"
She looks back ahead at the street, biting on her burger, as I struggle before finally managing to yelp, "Okay"
A couple minutes go by, and we're still stuck in traffic, halfway there, and I start feeling the undeniable need to urinate; I shouldn't have bought the big sized lemonade.
I feel Billie look at the side of my face as she questions me, "Yo, dude, you okay?"
I don't judge her; I have been bouncing my entire body for the last 20 minutes straight, an uneasy feeling stamped all over my face.
"Yep", I yelp, looking straight forward, at the street, as I hear Billie sigh.
"I didn't mean to make things weird", she mumbles, looking back to the cars ahead.
"Yep. Fine. Not weird."
"You seem very uncomfortable, so I'm sorry", she tells me, "I was just playing, Y/N"
"Yeah, no. I can't tell you how fine I was with the kiss", my legs are shaking, and I'm starting to panic, "I just..."
"What?"
"I just really need to pee, okay?"
"Oh", she furrows her eyebrows at me, in pitty, "That's a bad thing for you"
"Yeah, I've been strong but there is... I am...", I stammer, shaking my head rapidly, "Seconds, seconds away"
"We're moving so slowly", Billie comments, looking back and forward, "Yo, wanna go outside?"
"No, I can't", I yelp, "I can't go when there's people watching"
I hear her sigh loudly before asking, "What do you wanna do?"
"I just don't know"
Billie looks down at the cup in my car's cup holder and then back up at my face, "The cup? Might have to go in the cup?"
I look at her before looking down at the cup and dreading my existence. This will have to do, I can't hold it for that much longer.
"Oh, god", I complain.
Billie wheezes at me, pity plastered all over her face, "That's our only option here"
"Yeah, I am... I am realising this", I mumble, "I'm gonna have to squat, fuck"
I grab the cup and quickly finish off the rest of what was left of my lemonade. I shake it up a bit, remove my seat belt and start getting in position as I hear Billie laugh.
She keeps watching me, a cheeky smile on her face as I pull my pants down.
"You can't look!"
"Okay!"
"Or I won't be able to go!"
"I don't wanna watch you piss"
"Alright!"
As I position the cup start sweating; this is definitely one of my top 5 most uncomfortable experiences.
The piss starts to come out and I hear Billie laughing at me, looking out at the window, covering her mouth with her hands.
"You can't laugh, okay? I need to focus!", I complain, keeping my eyes on the cup and my mind on maintaining my position.
"Oh, god"
"What?", Billie turns to me.
"It's just", I mumble, "It's getting full"
Suddenly I see Billie's eyes on my cup, as she comments, "Why do they always put so much ice in it?"
"Don't look!"
"I'm sorry!", she laughs, turning her head away, before immediately looking back at the cup, "Y/N, it's-"
"Don't look!"
"Okay!", she exclaims, laughing loudly, "Y/N, it's getting full, you need to force and stop it"
"I'm trying!"
"Stop it, use your muscles!"
"I don't own those!", I complain at her, "They're not as strong as the pressure, okay? Just give me your fucking cup!"
"Nah, bro, there's still drink in it!", she exclaims, wheezing at me.
At this point I don't even care anymore wether she looks at it or not, because I do foresee a disaster approaching.
"Oh, god, that smells", I hear Billie say, before grabbing a water bottle from the back seat and waving it in front of my face, "Here, here, dude, use this, come on"
She hands me over the plastic bottle but I don't grab it, I just sigh and lean further onto my seat, trying to accept what had just happened.
"It's over", I mumble, silently, "It's... it's gone"
"You pissed yourself", Billie states, looking down at the cup and back up my face, frowning.
"Yeah.", I say, looking back at the street, feeling like shit, "Yes, I have pissed myself."
"Hey! There she is", Harry greets Hannah, who enters the room looking down, almost shaking.
She had her hair neatly combed and a perfectly ironed black suit on.
"You look great", Lauren smiles at Hannah, approaching the other two from behind Harry.
Hannah shakes her head before eyeing the two blankly, "No, just don't"
"Oh, okay", Harry frowns, dropping the smile.
"Don't", Hannah mumbles once again.
"How are you feeling?", Lauren asks, lowly.
"I feel ill. Just freaked out and accidentally ate a whole pack of party mix"
Lauren holds her laughter as Harry chuckles lightly before adding in, "Well, you look great"
Hannah just shakes her head once again, looking back down at the floor and walking away silently.
Mom sees her and smiles at her, but before she could approach her, a ringing tone starts playing from her pocket. She picks it up, seeing my picture popping on her screen, before answering, "Hello, Y/N, where are you? The show is about to start"
She looks around before frowning and speaking up again, "What do you mean accident? Are you okay?"
"No, I'm fine", I assure her, driving back home, now sitting on top of my jacket, as to at least try and preserve my car seat, "I just definitely cannot come"
"Oh, well, that's a shame", I hear mom's voice softly through the speakers, and I try hard to focus on that and only that, instead of the horrendous smell, "If you can't make it you just can't make it, I guess"
Just like that, mom looks up and her eyes meet Stuart, as he approaches her hesitantly.
"I'll see you soon, then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, bye bye, sweetie, bye", mom says into the phone before hanging up, and turning to Stuart expectantly, "Hello"
She is blushing and smiling at him as he speaks up, sounding troubled, "I've got to tell you something"
"Okay"
He pauses, looking down and then back up, his hands deep into the pockets of his jacket, "Hide and seek was fun, wasn't it?"
Mom blushes and tries to hide her smile, "Yep"
"Yeah, we got a bit carried away and it was fun", he comments.
"It was very fun"
"I've got a wife, Rose"
Mom's smile drops quickly as her eyes go up to meet Stuart's, stammering, "Oh, okay, er, that's alright. Uh, I... Well, I guess I was very forward"
Stuart shakes his head before mumbling, "She's a bitch. She's a real bitch. But, um... Yeah, I shouldn't have"
Mom's eyes wander all around the room, she tries to keep them at the choir who is now rehearsing the choreography, but they soon go back to face the floor, "Let's just not mention it again"
"Yeah, okay. I'm gonna give the show a miss cause it's gonna be fucking awful", he mumbles before patting mom on the shoulder and walking away.
Mom stays frozen in her place for a moment, before she finally manages to move. As she finds her seat beside Ginger, an upbeat music starts coming from the piano and the entire choir starts swaying.
"My baby's always dancin' and it wouldn't be a bad thing
But I don't get no lovin' and that's no lie"
The audience starts swaying and singing along, as mom just keeps her head down, her eyes on the floor and her mind in a blank. Ginger mindlessly moves her shoulders along with the rhythm, occasionally bumping into mom.
"We spent the night in Frisco
At every kind of disco
From that night I kissed our love goodbye"
And the choreography starts, the choir, all synchronised, starts pointing up and pointing down, waving their arms around as all the voices tunelessly reach the chorus.
Hannah has her eyes wide, looking forward as if in some kind of trance, as only her mouth and arms move, shaking.
"Don't blame it on the sunshine
Don't blame it on the moonlight
Don't blame it on the good times
Blame it on the boogie"
The choir and the entire audience boogie along, Harry and Lauren watching the show side by side from the back of the room start smiling and boogieing, with true enjoyment, watching as the patients and visitors sway all around.
"What do you want?", Jenny groans as she's met with Normani's face as soon as she opens the front door.
Normani just smiles at her before opening her cupped hands and revealing the recently adopted tiny baby rabbit, "This is Gavin"
Jenny immediately gasps, smiling wildly at the dark grey rabbit, as Normani pets him, speaking up again, "Gavin was the last one left of all his brothers and sisters"
Jenny's eyes never leave Gavin, as she continually awes at him.
"I thought we could call him Gavin because a friend at school went grey when he was 14, and his name was Gavin"
Jenny just smiles widely as Normani hands her Gavin. The rabbit quickly adjusts himself on her arms as she cuddles him, looking back up at Normani.
"I swear, on Gavin's life", Normani speaks up, placing one hand on her chest and raising the other one up, "I'm never seeing him again"
Jenny just looks back down at Gavin, smiling, before gawking, "He's so cute! We're gonna make suck good parents"
Just like that, she moves over to Normani resting her head on her chest, as Normani wraps her arms around Jenny, sighing in relief.
"Oh, Gavin. I'm in love with Gavin"
I open my front door, my pants feeling clammy, as I hear Cora's barks as she comes running towards my feet. I walk towards the kitchen, putting the keys inside the keys box and immediately walk back to the entrance. Billie turns around after closing the door behind her, and I quickly just grab her face and pull her in for a kiss.
She gasps in surprise before quickly pulling away and I start panicking. Maybe I shouldn't have done this, maybe the car was a one time thing, maybe I did something wrong?
I look at her face, frowning, as I see her scrunching up her nose, before chuckling, "Sorry, you're... you're covered in piss"
"Oh, god. Oh, yeah. Fuck", I grumble as I make my way to the bathroom.
"Cora, wanna dance?", Billie picks her up holding her on her arms, as she starts swaying around in the living room while I get into the shower.
"Sunshine
Moonlight
Good times
Boogie
Don't blame it on the sunshine
Don't blame it on the moonlight
Don't blame it on the good times
Blame it on the boogie"
I blankly eye the shower head as the water runs down my body. Billie twirls around the entire house holding Cora closely in her arms.
Mom distractedly watches as the entire room is waving arms around, doing sunset motions in synchrony, her mind empty.
Ginger excitedly moves along on her chair with the rest of the audience. Lauren and Harry sing and boogie from the back as a rhythmic clap echoes around the room.
I close my eyes leaning against the wall as I feel the water fall on my face. I think about Billie and then I think about mom and then I think about Lauren and then I don't know what to think.
The smell of the piss slowly goes away as my mind goes blank.
"Boogie!"
Cheering and applause.