“Hey, you gotta get up.”
I open my eyes to Archie, toothbrush in hand and phone slipping out of the pocket of his threadbare sweatpants. There’s toothpaste on his polo.
“Bleeeughhhh,” I croak.
“Slept through your alarm again,”
“Yeah...doesn’t ever seem to work.”
“Just turn the volume up,” he shouts from down the hall, his voice muffled through the toothbrush.
I hop off my bed and stagger to my dresser.
“Alexa, what‘s the weather gonna be like?”
It’s a marvel she heard me.
“It is currently forty-two degrees. The high will be forty-eight, with a slight breeze in the morning and thunderstorms in the afternoon.”
Great. Guess I’ll be walking home in the rain.
Archie has baseball practice until five, so he can’t pick me up from school. Sometimes I try to stay late so he can on his way home, that way I don’t have to be alone with Paul.
I toss my leggings and tank top to the floor carelessly, catching my reflection as I pull on my panties. My stomach rolls and my thighs are touching again.
Dammit.
The dress I was going to wear is all crinkled, and I huff.
Dammit!
I rifle through my closet for another, pulling out a navy cashmere dress and tights.
Archie comes in just as I’m zipping up my boots.
“Leaving in ten minutes, Ry.”
“Yep.”
I unplug my phone and toss it in my backpack with my iPad and some pencils, and run down the hallway to the bathroom, dropping it on the ground outside the door.
My teeth are brushed as quickly as possible, and my gums bleed a little.
Jesus, we’re not trying to scrub the enamel off.
My hair is brushed, a thin layer of foundation on my face and a touch of mascara.
God knows you need it.
My crooked nose earns a grimace.
“Ryyyan!” Archie calls.
“Yeah, coming!”
I grab my bag and toss in a tube of chapstick and my hairbrush, stumbling over my toes down the stairs. Archie’s in the kitchen drinking milk from the carton (??) like a savage, and not in a good way. I raise an eyebrow and he just grins.
“You gotta eat something before we leave, Ry.”
“Yeah, nothing with milk.”
He grins smugly.
I survey what’s in the fridge, and the waffles in the freezer call to me…
No.
I remember my stomach protruding, the rolls in my skin and my thighs…
God, my thighs.
But wafflesssss
I close my eyes and imagine the waffle in my hand, envisioning spiders crawling out from their egg sacs the minute I’d take a bite and crawling down my throat, nesting in my stomach and strangling me with their webs-
“Whoa, are you okay?”
“Mm.”
Someone pries my hand from the refrigerator handle, where my knuckles are white and my left is quaking.
SpidersIcan’tbreathe
Greengreengreen
Archie wraps his hand around mine and closes the door. It makes a sucking noise as the door hits the frame and jolts me back.
“I-sorry. Just thinking.”
“You good?”
I panic a little.
“Yeah. We gotta go.”
“Wait-“
I grab my bag and run out the front door to the passenger door of Archie’s shifty ‘84 Cavalier, groaning when the handle won’t budge.
I lean awkwardly against the car and cross my arms, hearing the front door open and shut. Keys jangling, footsteps. Next, a crunching sound as something soft collides with the hairspray just above the nape of my neck.
“W-“
I turn around and see a banana on the roof of the car, must’ve bounced off my head.
“Archie what the fuck?”
He ducks his head and climbs into the driver’s seat.
“You forgot breakfast.”
No, I wish I could forget what my breakfast could have been.
Eyes rolling, I grab the banana and slide into the car.
He pulls away from the curb and we hit the road. Which isn’t nearly as exciting as it sounds, because this is San Francisco, where dealerships get calls whenever people drive out of state because “well, it’s never gone over fifteen miles an hour, are you sure it won’t, like, explode?”.
Archie clears his throat and spins volume dial on the radio.
“You finish your homework?”
“Yeah,” I lie.
“Liar.”
“Yep.”
Archie’s music fills up the empty airwaves around our heads, and we pull up to the school.
“Thanks. Seeya.”
“Bye sis. Have fun.”
“Pshh.”
Fun.
I make it halfway up the stairs before he calls out after me.
“Oh, and eat your banana!”
I stop as Tessa snickers from the guardrail to my left, and keep going.
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