Its more than a year that I posted up a chapter but I've been busy with school, work, and stuff at home that I don't have time to type up the story. Aside all that, I notice none reads these things or "demanding" another chapter so I find I can take my time in fixing little things here and there that I never notice. On another note, I lost my inspiration to continue this story, Heaven of Love, and Special due to so many problems I keep encountering along the road. It wasn't until the fall of this years semester that one of my teachers and T.A's loved my crazy imagination and didn't want me to keep it bottled up inside and take time in writing (as you can tell, they cared a lot about me). So I had decided, what ever happens this semester, I would at least read a book, write my stories, and relax, take a breather and resume my daily life.
Well here is chapter 5 of Lucky and I hope whoever is reading this like's it, again I got to lazy to separate the wordings -_-.

Breakdown
It was a hard to believe that I fell asleep in Chemistry class and still managed to be only 5 minutes in to the lecture asleep, it felt more like I was out for more than an hour!
I woke up with a jolt and had scared the people around me and the teacher as well. I was feeling a bit nauseas and above my usual temperature that I needed to be excuse. I tried a million times to raise my hand but my perfect attendance and grades kept me from doing so. I was falling asleep on the cool desk when out of nowhere, I saw the Andrew that attacked me in my head.
I was really paranoid, I was beginning to wonder what my mind had conjured up and if I would be able to fall asleep tonight.

Class was finally over and I walked out dizzy, I knew I should have called my mom or someone but I could tough it out, I didn’t want to fall asleep and have to see myself or whatever happened a few hours ago.
As I barely made it home, I could tell that Michael was out and about with his friends, which was a good thing since I wasn’t feeling well to put up a fight. I dropped my backpack on the floor and semi-crawled up the stairs and in to my room to change into something more sweat probable.
The moment I walked in to my room and took one glance at myself in my mirror, I saw that I looked like a mess. White chalky skin with red cheeks, dark bags below my eyes, chapped lips and lastly, messy hair. I looked like something straight out of a horror movie or like my aunt Clara.
“Oh god, how am I going to go to school tomorrow?”
I quickly went to my dresser and pulled out sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt that I wouldn’t mind sweating in, I quickly changed from my clothing and before I could put on my sweat pants, I felt my whole body shake. Yup, I was defiantly sick, how did I manage to walk home?
It was going to be hard to concentrate on my homework and on the chores that were all over the house. I couldn’t tell what time it was or what on earth I did last but I was in bed a sleep.
“Sweetie you’re sick, are you planning on going to school?”
Mom, what time was it?
“Mom?”
“Oh you’re sick, I’ll call in sick so that I can stay here and take care of you. Don’t you worry about it, mommy’s here to take good care of you.”
I got up slowly on my elbows and looked at my clock, it was 3:30am. What time had my mom gotten back from work?
“It’s ok mom, you don’t have to call in sick just so you can babysit me; I’ll be fine, it’ll go away in later on and I’ll be fine to go to school.” My voice was nothing more but a muffled that I could feel a cool kiss on my hot forehead.
I was lost in unconsciousness, floating in an abyss that I didn’t even know where I was or where I had seen it. I continue to travel about it until I saw something in the dense fog; I walked towards it with no hesitation what so ever until its eyes met mines that I hesitated.
My cat was in my dream.
Panic ran through my veins and I began to search the fog for the Andrew I had previously encountered. It was strange though, my cat just meowed at me and walked up to me that it didn’t scare me at all, the complete opposite happened. Envy rubbed himself on my legs meowing for some love from me. I couldn’t resist anymore, I knelt down and began petting him, remembering how he would randomly come up to me asking me to show him ‘the love’.
“You know, I’m sick from whatever happened earlier in here.” I said signaling him at my dream like world. He just kept his eyes closed, enjoying my affection.
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked him after a long pause. He looked up and starred as if to say ‘Ask away’.
“Why did you or Andrew attack me and in reality it was me, did I forget something in my mind or am I trying really hard to not remember something?”
He didn’t help, he just rolled on the floor with his legs up and stayed like that, I laughed and he kept on moving. I stayed with him for just a little longer until I felt something tugging at me, a sign saying I was about to wake up. I said bye to Envy and told him I would be back as soon as my fever was gone and my Andrew/Envy/ me was gone for a little while.
With a groan I woke up and I felt worse than when my mom came in. I got up and walked up to my window to move my curtain, there was no sun. I wasn’t even sure what time it was, it looked like it could have been six in the morning or six in the afternoon.
I walked downstairs and found a note from my mom to Michael…
Michael dear, don’t bother your sister at all. She has a fever so don’t wake her up, I’ll try to be back home to make her something good to eat so that she can feel better, why don’t you go out with your friends and hang with them or visit your old teachers from high school?
-Love you dear!
So then he won’t be here all day?
I walked to the kitchen and saw the time, four thirty in the afternoon! I saw that the house was a mess so I quickly (more like a snail on a walker trying to race another snail on a walker) went up to my room to grab my toiletries and walked to the bathroom.
I couldn’t quite say that I was cleaning like I always do but, at least I was attempting to cleaning, and I attempted to cook me something but every time I walked to the kitchen, an hour and some minutes had passed. After cleaning the living room, I headed to the kitchen to finally cook me something, anything! I cut and peel a potato and a carrot, and took out a chicken leg from the freezer. I was so tired that I had no idea what I was doing that I left the chicken, carrot and potato cooking all together in a pot. I left to the living room and laid on the floor, my head pulsing every time I took a breath. I probably fell back to sleep because by the time the door bell rang, I woke up startled by the noise. Tired, I got up feeling the whole room become unclear and walked to the door.
“Hello?” I said as I opened the door.
Their standing before me was none other than Andrew, with a blazing smile painted across his face; it soon disappeared as soon as he saw how awful I looked.
My eyes seemed to have popped right out of my sockets because the moment he tried to come in I slammed the door in his face.
“Sam? What’s wrong with you?” He said from the other side of the door, “Come on this isn’t funny so open the door.”
“Not until I know it’s really you, I already had a bad encounter with you yesterday and I don’t want you to slam my body again on the floor, I know you are me so please, I said the name you wanted to know so please, don’t hurt me again.” I wasn’t taking any chances, I was most likely dreaming so I expected this to be me in the body of Andrew/Envy.
“What are you talking about Sam? I didn’t slam you yesterday; I wasn’t even at school. What are you talking about?”
After a brief moment of silence he asked, “What did they tell you? Whose name are you talking about?”
Right then I knew that I was awake and not asleep when he said what I was told. I didn’t want the relationship between Andrew and Luis be destroyed over something unnecessary so I slowly opened the door.
“Andrew?” I asked afraid to see in his eyes Envy.
He slowly pushed the door opened and came in looking mad. I was screwed, now I was literally going to die, sickly but I was sure I was going to die that very moment.
“Sam, I want to know now what you know. I know someone told you, both Rick and Steve said that Luis had gone to go talk to you but you never showed up to wait for them right after class was over. They said that you just left and that Luis was very quiet after school, even Lain was worried. Is this about Monday?” His stern look was so intimidating that every time he got mad I flinched.
“Why do you keep doing that? I’m not going to hurt you, why do you keep-is something burning?” he said as he looked around the house.
I gasped and the fire alarm went on. I ran to the kitchen with Andrew behind me and I saw the pot with my “Chicken soup” on fire. I let out an oath and went into the cabinets to get out the fire extinguisher and put it out but with my weak arms and hands, I couldn’t even push the handle down. Andrew came from behind me and pushed the handle down and aimed at the fire, he gently pushed me out of the way and turned off the stove. I don’t know if I was tired of the energy I had exerted or if I was about to pass out by the mere scene but Andrew saw it as I was about to collapse.
“Wow, don’t go doing that.” He said as he came running towards me.
He put his hand on my forehead and asked me something I couldn’t quite understand but I answered it.
He walked in to the living room and laid me on the couches I could hear his footsteps walk to the door and the cool breeze that felt so good at that moment but made me cold was gone. I couldn’t hear him anymore, I assumed that he had gone somewhere but I didn’t want to know, my brain was dead, I couldn’t grasp what had just happened and what was going on. I heard footsteps approach me and I opened my eyes that seem to demand to be close instead of open.
“Open your mouth.” He said as he held the thermometer close to my mouth.
“My breath smells, not even brushing my teeth does it kill the bad odor.”
“I don’t care, you look hideous anyways and I’m starring at you.”
“Gee, I don’t know if to laugh or if to glare at you but-”
He cut me midway of my sentence and shoved the thermometer in my mouth. He scolded me and told me not to move or open my mouth. That was easy; I was practically on auto pilot as I talked to him.
He dialed a few numbers and got up to go talk in the kitchen. I couldn’t even hear anything, I was dead, dead like something straight out of a zombie chick flick except, Andrew wasn’t my boyfriend and I wasn’t bitten or chased by any zombies so I wasn’t turning into one. I was thinking too much, my brain was getting fried.
I heard a knock at the door and before I knew it Andrew had called Lauren and Steph to come over. I could hear them murmur and I felt the urge to tell them to speak louder. I felt them watching over me and I had clearly heard Steph DEMAND what he had done to me, she hadn’t forgotten what she had told me and Lauren.
“Steph ease off, he barely got here and he helped Sammy, what would have happened if he wouldn’t have come here in the first place? Tell me? The house would be burned down to the ground and Sam would be toasted and fried up in here with her body not even recognizable.”
“It’s ok Lauren, I get the idea of what she is talking about and don’t worry Stephanie, I didn’t harm her, I came to bring her the homework from all her classes and see what had happened between Luis and her.”
“Hey?” I said breaking the tension that was building right in front of me, “I feel so tired, thirsty and hungry.” I got up and sat up on the couch, my eyes feeling all droopy and lips chapped.
I looked up and saw that Steph was the first one to launch at me with a big bear hug knocking me back to the couch. I gasped and she got off of me.
“I’m so sorry Sammy but I had to come as soon as Lauren told me that he was here with you alone.”
Lauren nudged her with her elbow signaling her to ease off Andrew; Andrew seemed indifferent to her comments as if he had heard them a million times. I attempted to get up only to fall back down; I let out an oath and re-attempted to get right back up.
“Don’t worry Sam, were here to help in whatever way we can.” Lauren said with reassurance.
I laid back down and heard the footsteps of Andrew walk towards the kitchen and back to us, as Lauren rubbed my arm; Andrew came back with a glass of water and handed it to Lauren to give it to me. I had to admit it was pretty good water considering that I drank the whole water in the cup. My lips felt un-chapped compared to how they felt this morning. I needed to clean up but with Andrew, Lauren and Steph here; it was going to look like they would tie me up on my bed and leave me there until the whole house was cleaned.
It was dark outside when Lauren opened the curtains of the living room; the noise it made was loud enough that it had woke me up fully. I got up and slid my way to the floor where I sat there (slouched would be better but still, I was sitting).
“Hey?” Lauren came over and sat right next to me, “Andrew’s mom will be coming over pretty soon, it sucks cause I don’t know how to cook or Steph does either so Andrew and Steph went to the grocery store to buy some things so that Andrew’s mom can cook you something. You want to talk about what happened yesterday after school. Steve and Rick came over yesterday to my place asking me if I knew something but I had barely just found out about what you and Luis spoke.”
I stayed quiet, I didn’t want to bother her with my problems but the look on her face said a completely different thing. I sighed and slouched on the couch.
“Luis told me about Andrew, the whole thing. Stephanie was right, he has hurt others, I don’t know if he’ll ever tell me what happened in his past but I hate this. I wish I never found out about it, I mean an explanation would have been nice but I guess I should be careful in what I wish for. It explains why Andrew misses at least a day from school but…” I couldn’t finish my sentence; it was hard to speak about him in a vague way.
Lauren rubbed my hand and smiled at me before responding.
“You know, I always had this awkward feeling about him but I feel at ease when he is with us. Josh says that they share the same English class and that they work together too. He says he’s a really good guy so, if it helps, I’m not afraid of him. Steph has her ways of judging others, she use to hate me before. I remember that she said that she saw me get in to a fight back in elementary school and ever since then she said I was a tramp. I really don’t remember the reason for the fight, I think I was defending a friend and then boom, I was fighting.”
The huge smile that was on her face would have made me hugged her really tight but I was too sick to even do that.
“If it serves as any consolation, I don’t have a problem with him because I know that he can never hurt you. You’re his precious treasure in his eyes.”
I glowered at her and she laughed.
“Ok maybe not a precious treasure but you’re important to him.” She said and smiled again.
“Thanks Lauren.”
“You’re welcome, I should be heading home, my mom and dad know I’m over here but I didn’t tell them I was taking care of you cause you were sick. Wonder where Steph and Andrew are?”
“Why don’t you go home then, I’m still sick but not dying and I’m pretty sure that Andrew’s mom will be over by the time you’re around the block.”
I didn’t convince her so much, her expression was that of ‘Should I take the offer or stay?’ It made me feel bad at a certain point.
“Has Michael called the house by any chance?” I asked, attempting to get her to think on something else rather than my previous offer.
“No, he hasn’t. Why? Are you expecting him or something?”
“No, my mom left him a note but I guess he expects me to handle myself. Oh well, I didn’t expect him to cater to my every need but at least a message on the phone would be nice.”
She laughed and then we heard a knock on the door. She got up and looked out the window before going to the door and then sighed in relief, it must have been Steph and Andrew who were at the door because Lauren quickly went to the door.
“I was wondering what took so long, are there any more bags?” She asked as she moved out of Steph and Andrew’s way.
“No this is all of them.” Steph said as she walked in with three brown bags filled with groceries.
As Steph walked in with the three bags I expected Andrew with three bags as well but when he walked in I saw five in his arms that I was beginning to wonder if my fridge was really empty. Lauren came to Andrew’s aid and took two bags off of him and the three of them walked to the kitchen.
I got up to close the door and a nice chill breeze ran through my neighborhood. It felt so good on my skin, refreshing and comfortable yet making my teeth clatter of the coldness. I knew it was bad for me to be out here but I liked it, I had finally stopped sweating like a sinner in church and this was the closes thing to the freezer. I closed my eyes and rubbed my arms to keep me from shivering a lot and another small breeze of chill air blew again, this one making every hair in my body stand on all ends.
As I stood there, I could hear Andrew, Lauren, and Steph run up to me and tell me that what I was doing was not good and make me drink some expire medicine; well at least Lauren and Andrew would try to stop Steph from doing that before she killed me. I stayed for a few more minutes standing in the door way hearing crickets in the roses and a few dogs howl in the distance. It wasn’t until then that the breeze stopped and everything was still, like someone had turned off the wind and left it off. I opened my eyes and saw that Andrew was blocking the wind.
Well that explained it.
I sighed and turned to walk back inside when Andrew stretched his arm out, blocking the door way. Well that was strange and odd of him, did he want me sick or not?
“We need to talk” he said after a moment of silence.
I nodded my head and turned to walk in to the house but, his arm was still stretched out. Did he want to talk right now?
“You want to talk right now?” I asked him with droopy eyes.
“Not right now, but we will talk.”
“Ok.”
I tried to walk in again but he continue to block the entry way. I didn’t know what he was expecting, I mean, I can’t say I was afraid of him because I wasn’t but I can’t say that I wasn’t all joyful and happy of what Luis said. I sighed at my indecisiveness and placed my hand on top of his, my hand was twice as warm as his that I could guess that he could feel how hot I was. He dropped his hand and my hand fell right beside me. I wished I hadn’t questioned anything or heard what Luis had told me, I wished that I would have told him that I was busy and doing a bunch of things that I didn’t have time to know about Andrew’s skeletons. But I had to question every statement made.
“We will talk, I promise. Once Lauren and Steph leave and your mom gets here, we’ll talk.”
I walked in and headed to the kitchen to tell both Lauren and Steph that I was going to be taking a shower to feel better. The sweat was starting to get irritating and I was feeling really uncomfortable just walking around in my sweaty pants and shirt.
“Lauren? Steph? I’m hitting the shower, I won’t take long.” I said and heard them say sure.
I walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs when I felt someone starring at me. I stopped and turned slightly to see Andrew watching me. I was beginning to feel creped out.
“I’m going to take a quick shower, I don’t want your mom to see me in the condition you saw me earlier today.” I said, joking at what he had said about me earlier.
“Right, just don’t lock the door in case we feel you might have fallen in the shower.” He said but it wasn’t a joke as much as it had sounded.
“Don’t worry, beside’s if I fall, you guys would hear a huge crash along with a bunch of other things falling, that’s how you would know that I fell. But if you hear a crash and that’s it; it’s probably the soap bar that fell from my hand.” I said and smiled at the thought of all of them running up stairs and busting the door down asking me if I’m ok.
He smiled and walked in to the kitchen.

I walked in to my room, grabbed something else to wear, my toiletries and walked in to the shower. As I let the water heat up just a little, I wondered if Lauren and Steph had left for home. I knew that Lauren needed to go home now so Andrew wouldn’t hold her against her will here but, Steph was a different story. I knew for a fact that Stephanie was not going to leave me by myself with Andrew, she knew too much off him and anything he did, any false move, she would have his head. I shivered as I hunched over outside the shower, my towel was covering a portion of my body while the rest was out in the open. I got up, stretched my hand to test how warm or cold the water was, placed my towel over by the rail and got in.
The water felt nice on my skin. As I let the water run down my back, I let out a sigh of relief; I should have done this the moment I woke up, it opened my pores. I stayed under the shower for about two to three minutes until I decided to grab the shampoo bottle and begin to wash the oiliness off my hair. I don’t know how many relief sighs I let out but when it came to washing the sweatiness off my body, I counted at least five of them before I lost track.
I closed the shower water, grabbed my towel from the rail and dried my body before changing.
I came out of the bathroom and I could smell a faint aroma coming from down the stairs. I walked in to my room tossed my towel on my bed, grabbed my bathroom and slippers and checked my phone for any missing calls or text. About ten text where sent to me all by Steph. One of her messages read ‘please answer me’ with exclamation marks on every word. I texted her back reassuring her that I was fine and that I was out of the shower. She didn’t text back but I knew that I would get examine by her tomorrow at school. I quickly remembered why Andrew had dropped by and went back down stairs to collect today’s homework.
As I walked downstairs I could hear a woman’s voice and Andrew’s in the kitchen, along with hissing and sizzling in the background. I walked in seeing Andrew chopping some vegetables while his mom was by the stove frying who knew what.
“May I be of some assistance?” I asked through the all the noise.
Andrew and his mom both turned and I smiled at them. I felt much better and alive compared to earlier on; I could do a bunch of things now…well, just a few.
Andrew’s mom put a lid on the frying pan and wiped her hands on her apron before coming over to me. She glided over, avoiding all the sharp edges of the center counter top aisle. It was breathtaking just the mere fact that she was hear cooking. I couldn’t remember when was the last time I smelled food coming from the kitchen when I wasn’t in it.
She gave me a big hug and then felt my forehead to see how my temperature was like.
“Andrew? How high was her temperature before?” She asked as she examined my face.
“101.2 degrees.”
She gasped and her hazel eyes seemed to have popped out that I literally thought that her eyes were going to come out.
She ran over to her bag that was on one of the counter tops and took out this bottle. She began to search for what I thought was a spoon and I told her that it was on the left drawer of where Andrew was. She said thank you and grabbed a spoon.
“This medicine helps my Andy all the time when he is sick and I know that it will also help you too but first, you’re not allergic to any medicine, are you?”
I shook my head and saw her pour this black, sticky liquid on to the spoon. My stomach turned and then I felt like throwing up. I saw Andrew turn slightly to see me, a mischievous grin across his face as he saw me mouth ‘help me’. As she walked over to me I tried to smiled and look like I was ok.
It wasn’t helping.
“Mrs. Vang I really am fine, I feel healthier than I did yesterday.” I said and tried to smile as she walked up to me.
“You’ve been sick since yesterday?!” She exclaimed and ran up to me.
Andrew let out a laughed and stopped cutting the vegetables.
Mrs. Vang told me to say ‘Ah’ but I tried desperately to tell her otherwise. While my mouth was wide open, she ceased the opportunity to stick the black, sticky liquid in my mouth. I closed it and it tasted awful, something my Uncle Jovan would cook on Thanksgiving day, a dish he called ‘spinach a la French’ or in my terms ‘death by mystery dish’. As I passed the liquid down, I couldn’t help the urge of making funny faces that Andrew dropped the knife and laughed at my puckered face. I ran to the sink and groaned at the way my stomach was fighting the liquid inside me.
“What is this stuff?” I asked when my stomach had stopped its war.
“You don’t want to know; I learned the hard way and was forever cursed to know the truth.” Andrew said in a whisper to me.
My eyes popped out and the angel like person I saw in Mrs. Vang turned into an evil creature. Well she wasn’t but the deed she did made her fall from the pedestal I had her on.
I walked to the living and laid down on the couch while I resume to groaning. The battle between my stomach and the black liquid was turning in to an ‘I can protect her better than you can’ kind of thing. I heard footsteps approach me and I lifted my head up from the pillows on the couch. It was Andrew who was crouched over watching me groan.
“I think the medicine made me feel worse than before.” I said and let my head drop on the pillows again.
Andrew chuckled and rubbed my back.
“If you keep doing that I swear I’ll fall asleep.” I said as I got op to sit on the couch.
He sat next to me and I could tell that he could hear my stomach fight with the liquid.
“Don’t say anything about my stomach it’s in a battle with the liquid right now.”
“I won’t.” He said as he stifled a chuckle.
We sat there in silence before his arm came over my shoulders and he pulled me close to him. I knew what was coming, the conversation he said we would have. Bracing myself, I tried to think of at least ten different kinds of questions he would ask me and think of ten different answers I could give him.
“What did Luis tell you yesterday?” He asked.
I looked up and saw that he was starring dead center out the window. I could feel my heart sink a few floors down and prepared a decent answer without beating around the bush.
“He just said that he knew stuff about you. That was all.” I stared back at him but he wouldn’t see me.
“Like?”
“Stuff about how you and Lain are good friends; how he came later in to the picture. That kind of stuff.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah.”
“Are sure?”
“Yes, I promise you that it is.”
He looked down at me and for that moment my eyes were glued to his eyes. He didn’t buy what I was saying.
“Sam, tell me what you know.”
“I…I…Can’t.” My sight dropped down to my hands that were sweaty already by how much stress it took in just answering a question, or it could be the fever.
“You can’t tell me then? Is it because if I say anything to Luis; he will tell Lain that you are trying to go out with me causing Lain to feel really depress and since Luis likes her he would do anything to make her feel well. So Luis would get you out of the picture to get Lain to be happy but the other guys would find out and that would cause tension between all of us to the point the group breaks apart and you will be left to blame yourself. Is that it, did I get everything?”
My heartbeat stopped and then resumed its beating. He hit the nail on the WALL.
“How did you-” I said in a faint whisper.
“How did I know? Luis guilty face said it all; he saw me today and started to avoid me and when I asked for you, Rick and Steve said that they hadn’t seen you at all and then Lain just disappear. It wasn’t until I began to interrogate Luis and he said that he had told you about my ‘problem’ but he said you took it lightly though. It turns out you didn’t. So I’m asking you what did he tell you?”
“Well you already know what he said so why do you need me to tell when you already know?”
“Because I need to know from you.”
That was awkward, he already knew what Luis had told him and Luis said that I had taking it pretty lightly, I could work with that but, Andrew was catching up to me and I wasn’t helping myself here at all. I couldn’t tell him about my cat, not yet at least and I know that I wasn’t going to get the whole story on Steph’s boyfriend side of the story. For all I knew it could be a lie or just over exaggerated, Andrew could not have done what her boyfriend said he did, he would have been expelled for sure.
I sighed and slunk all the way on the couch, Andrew’s arm at the back of my head by now.
“Fine but, only in one condition. You answer one question I have and you ask me one question you have for me. How about that?”
“Not gonna happen, it won’t work.”
“WHAT?! Yes it can, and besides you’re asking me what Luis told me and I have one question for you, it’s fair we both get to ask each other one question every week.”
He thought about for a second or two before answering.
“Ok, so then you have to answer two questions now while you ask one.”
I twisted around so hard that it startled him and it ended up giving me a cramp on my back.
“Wait a minute, back up; what do you mean that you get to ask me two questions and I ask only one? We agreed one question per week, where did you get two?” I asked, rubbing my back.
“Simple, you hadn’t answered my first question and since I asked you before you gave me the proposition, I get you to answer me two questions while you answer one.”
He snickered at the face I made, I wanted to hit him so hard but with my weak arms, he would say ‘Is that the best you got?’
“Are you going to drop your offer?” he said as I thought of a way to just make it a question for each one.
“No,” I said, giving up my chances, “Ask your TWO questions.” I said emphasizing the two.
“I will so, answer me my first question.”
“Luis texted me, said he knew why you always skipped a day of school. I didn’t want to believe him but the day before yesterday, Steph was scared, like she had seen a ghost or something cause she was pale. She told Lauren and me that her boyfriend had known you way back then, I don’t remember how long back then but you and him shared a class together. She said that her boyfriend told her about you and that you beat up a bunch of people, I got mad at her for believing that but, if two people who don’t talk to one another say the exact same thing, are they in to scare me?” I didn’t look up and continue to stare at whatever my eyes caught sight of first.
“So, the day of the costumes, Stephanie told you about her boyfriend Dexter Ralls right? And he knows me from back then and he recognized me at school and Stephanie is scared that whatever her boyfriend said will happen to you? Is that what you’re kinda getting at?”
“Yeah basically.”
“Ok then,” he said and I could feel his gaze fall on me, “so I’m guessing you had a nightmare on whatever Luis told you and that’s why you slam the door on me. What happened?”
“Ugh, let’s just say my imagination played games with me and...” I stopped and got up; I didn’t want him to ask me about my past.
“And what?”
“Sorry, that would have to wait for another time. That’s question number three and you were allowed only two questions.”
“You didn’t finish answering the second one; it still counts as the second.”
“Ok, it wasn’t a pretty sight in my head.” I dropped the subject pretty fast and sniffed. The aroma of the food was making my stomach grumble.
“You’re hungry aren’t you?” he asked as I rubbed my tummy.
“Yup, didn’t eat anything yesterday except a granola bar in the morning and I don’t know what else.”
He got up and walked in to the kitchen, I followed slowly, trying not to make his mom hurry up in finishing cooking if she wasn’t done. Andrew spoke to his mom in their native language as I crept up from behind. I could tell his mom was looking for the plates because she opened every cabinet door in the kitchen. As I walked up to tell Mrs. Vang that the plates were up on the left of the stove, Andrew turned around to get me and bumped in to me. As my face hit his chest, I took a step back but tripped over my sweats and went sailing down mid-air.
In a blink of an eye, Andrew had grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him. The sudden impact from mid-air to his chest again made my brain bounce back and forth.
Thinking he would let go, I mumbled a thank you and tried to move out of his arms. Instead, he held me tight. It took me off guard to the point of asking myself if there was something wrong with me. I let him hold me for who knew how long that every time I inhaled, I would be inhaling his scent. Strange yet familiar to me, I closed my eyes and let the smell take me to whatever seemed familiar in my mind and strange to me. I felt awkward and began to wonder what time it was and if Andrew’s mom was wondering where I was.
“You didn’t answer the second question.” He whispered softly.
It was soothing and it felt like he was putting me to sleep.
“Speak please. I want to hear you speak.” I said in a hush tone.
“What?” He asked me and I smiled.
“I will tell you about me when I feel you are ready to know of my past.” I said I knew he would argue but I wasn’t going to go back on my word. We barely knew each other and to dump everything now on him was too soon.
“Is this about the second question?”
I nodded in a daze; his scent was over powering that I felt like staying this way for who knew how long.
He sighed and held me tighter.
“You scent is strange to me but familiar to my mind, memories, childhood. It’s like stepping back in to a place I haven’t been in a long time. I like it, I really like it.”
This was a surprise to him as it was to me, when he pushed me to have a better look at me, my mind was unclouded and his scent was no longer overpowering me. I blinked the sleepiness out of my eyes and starred straight into his chest, I was afraid to look into his eyes, afraid that I might see yellow eyes stare at me and cry out a name he was unfamiliar with.
His hand cupped my chin and lifted my gaze towards his and there it was, for a split second his eyes were Envy’s and I could feel the tears pile behind my eyes. How long had it been that I hadn’t cry? Did I wish for him to see me cry? No, did I want him to ask me what was wrong? No.
I stared back and saw his eyes and no longer Envy’s but his. My hands moved up to his face; how I wanted to hold his face in my hands, protect him, like I couldn’t protect my precious individual.
“What’s wrong with? I’m afraid but I keep running to you, is that a bad thing or is it a good thing? In my dream, you hurt me. You tried to kill me but…I know that that was not you. My imagination was good at producing something based on others memories. I’m insane, crazy even but…” I stopped, the one thing I had said I would not do was doing at that very moment.
He stayed silent I guess he couldn’t say anything. My script like life has changed, I don’t even know my own character anymore, again I didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, all I knew was that after the accident, everything begun to be gray and dual, I knew what was coming, every time I knew what to expect and with Andrew in the picture, it began to get colorful, pretty and dangerous. I smiled at my own thoughts and heard my stomach rumble lightly this time, I guess it allowed both Andrew and I to enjoy the small moment.
He moved a strand of hair from my face and dropped his hand from my chin. I took a step back and thought he would try to say something before I tried to go and eat but nothing.
I walked past him and in to the kitchen where I saw his mom serving a liquid form in to a bowl and in another plate, rice, steam vegetables with chicken, and some thin noodles.
She noticed me standing there and gave me a gentle smile. I smiled back at her and went to help her put the plates on the table.
“How are you feeling?” She asked me as I saw her serving another bowl of the liquid.
“Better, the mysterious liquid did the trick but it was awful. I’m just happy that my fever is going down, that’s all.” I said and grinned back.
“That’s good, now are you hungry?”
“Yes, very hungry. Do you want me to get Andrew or will I be eating by myself?”
She gasped at my last statement.
“You’re not eating by yourself, Andy will accompany you and I will be here as well.”
I laughed, it would be the first time the table would be use to eat instead of placing things in it or everyone eating at their own time.
“Would you like me to call Andrew?” I asked as I went up to the cupboard to get three cups for each one of us.
“You don’t have to, I’m here.” His voice resonated from behind his mother and me.
He helped his mother with the two plates she was carrying and set them on the table. I took out three spoons and three forks for us and walked over to the table.
“You’re not going to eat Mrs. Vang?” I asked as I saw that there was two bowls of soup and plates.
“Oh no sweetheart, Andy’s father would be eating by himself and I don’t want that.” She said but told me and Andrew to eat, that I needed it more than anyone in the house at the moment.
I stared into my food for a while and thought of how mom, dad, Michael, and I would sit at this very table and enjoy ourselves. We would talk about random things and laugh the whole night away, I remember perfectly well that Michael had gotten up from the table and started belly dancing so hilarious that I had fallen to the floor with a hard bang leaving my dad to gasp and my mother to hurry over to my side but, I was laughing and rolling on the floor at the sight at seeing my brother attempt to dance. I could feel Andrew and his mom stare at me and I smiled, those were good times that would never come, Michael had become a dog of the military, his humanity was gone, his heart was dead, any one that would dare cross his pass and asked for mercy would not receive any. He was dead, just like my mom and dad were.
“Sweetheart, is something wrong?” Mrs. Vang asked me.
I looked up and saw that she was hurt I had not touch the food.
“Oh I’m sorry; I guess I’m not use to eating at the table.”
They were surprise, how long had it been since I sat at the table?
“You see, we don’t eat as a family, rather we don’t ever use this table at all. Its purpose became more of a table for putting bank statements, my dad’s airline tickets and stuff like that. The last time I sat here was on Michael’s bar b queue but that was only momentarily, we actually ate here as a family when I was ten! That was like seven years ago, long time.”
“So you’ve never had a dinner?” Andrew asked, putting his cup down.
“Technically, I have but it’s more like I cook my food when I get hungry, Michael buy’s his food off the street and my mom eats at restaurant with her co-workers. Only dinner we have a family is Thanksgiving and that’s about it, on Christmas day, no one’s home, we all go our own separate ways to hang out with whoever we want to be with, I usually stay home though. Lauren is visiting her relatives up in New York and Steph is in Miami doing what she does best.” I picked up the bowl and sipped the soup up, leaving the sweet potato and beaten egg for last. It was tasty, like a salsa dance in my mouth.
I finished drinking all the soup and began to eat the beaten egg along with the sweet potato. I guess my expressions must have been amusing to Andrew because he started to laugh when he saw me almost lick the bowl clean.
“What? I was hungry, remember? Anyways this is like the first homemade meal not done by me so I must savor the moment while it last.” I said as I resumed in licking the bowl.
Mrs. Vang took my bowl away and I pouted, she and her son laughed and both their laughter’s filled my house with joy.
I resumed with the next dish and the same effect happened, I began with mixing the rice with my steamed veggies and chicken and began to eat it. I looked like a lion left in a cage to starve; I had finished half the food on my plate and only had the noodles to eat left while Andrew had three fourths of his food on his plate.
When I finished, I laid my head on the table and sighed in relief.
“That was good.”
Both he and his mom laughed at my comment and I could hear Andrew tell something to his mom in their language.
“Hey Andrew, roll me to the living room.” I said as I got out of my chair and laid down on the floor.
“You want me to roll you to the living room? You wanna throw up or something?”
“No but I can’t move, I can’t even roll myself to where you are.”
His mother laughed and began to pick the plates from the table. I quickly got up with my stomach making swishy noises and helped her pick up the rest of the plates left on the table. I walked over to the sink to wash them but Mrs. Vang told me to leave the dishes their and go sit down and get a move on my homework. I was going to argue with her that she had already done enough that the least I could do is wash dishes but she glowered at me that I shut my mouth up before I could even argue with her.
I walked in to the living room sat on the couch as Andrew stared at me.
“Your homework?”
“Can I do that tomorrow? I just want to sit here and get fat off of your mom’s delicious food.”
He rolled his eyes and gave me a blazing smile.
“You and Steve have the same reaction. Steve wanted to be small and figure skate in his plate.”
I giggled and rubbed my tummy, best food ever. If Andrew would have told me that his mom use to be a chef, I wouldn’t have said otherwise.
I don’t know around what time I started to fall asleep yet again but I did, and I could feel that Andrew had allowed me to sleep on his shoulder. Again that strange yet familiar smell of his was all it took for me to dream of an endless memory, one found stashed away in my subconscious and fabricated to fit whatever I wanted. Envy re-appeared in my new memory, both him and I running around the yard laughing and rolling in the grass.
It was blissful, I was happy.
I could hear talking coming from outside my dream -like world. My mother had gotten home and was talking to Mrs. Vang. I panicked; mom wasn’t happy with Andrew and if she saw me sleeping on him, she would surely tell Mrs. Vang her son was only interested in my body.
I apologize to Envy in my dream and tried to wake up but before I could do so, Envy placed a paw on my forehand and meow at me. I looked at him and his big yellow eyes stared back. I could interpret his gaze as an ‘It’s ok, your mom won’t argue with his mom’. I swooped him up into my arms and hugged him tight, his comfort was making me breakdown in an ocean filled with countless emotions, tears began to run down my checks. Feeling his love as his purr came in to my ear, I felt reassured that everything would be fine.
“I love you Envy, don’t you ever forget that.” I whispered to him, my eyes close so that I would see nothing but feel his love.
“I know you do.” He responded in Andrew’s voice.
I didn’t open my eyes because I didn’t feel threaten, so what if it was Andrew who had responded, I didn’t care, as long as he said he loved me in return, that was all I needed. I couldn’t hold back my tears of joy that I held my Envy/Andrew tight, wishing to protect at least this special person. I opened my eyes and saw his kind smile; tears by now didn’t hesitate to flow. He looked up to the sky that I needed to see what he was starring at. The moon hanged peacefully up in the sky, starring at both of us, I smiled brightly.
“I can’t fear what I don’t know.” I said and continue to hold him tight until I felt comfortable to wake up.