Damn, I Hate You

I looked at his peaceful face as he slept next to me. It was full of worry at first, but soon enough it looked normal and beautiful. It's so weird how I can see him at school around the kids he's been friends with since fourth grade and he's an insane jester, and yet here he is now, crying on my shoulder and forcing himself to sleep.

I stroked his hair gently and I could see the calmness in his face as I did it. It was like he was a baby and I was his mommy, but that wasn't making me love him any less. In fact, it made me love him more. The idea that I could be the one person in his life to make him happy was weird for me, and yet I liked the sudden feel that I was important and necessary in the world. But then whenever he wasn't thinking too much and actually had a good day, he would make me laugh so naturally. He is perhaps the one person in the world who can do that to me. I love him.

I shifted under his warm arm and he instinctively held me closer in his sleep. Wow, he's so protective, but I guess that's expected from someone like him. I looked down at the arm that served as my pillow and instantly regretted it. Like I said, he was my baby, and to see all those scars and bruises was painful. I wonder how he made it through all those years without killing anyone. I don't think I ever could've endured his life.

His nose started twitching and he woke up the instant before a huge sneeze. Thank god he did! I really didn't want his snot on my face to ruin the moment!

"Sorry." He laughed when he saw the shock on my face.

"Haha, that's cool. You still tired?" I asked as he started lying back down.

"Nah. I don't sleep much. It's too... I dunno. It's boring to sleep when I could be out causing trouble." he smiled devilishly.

"Oh come on. You're so much more well behaved than you say."

"You've never seen me with a dozen eggs, my friend." he said.

Suddenly I thought back a couple years, having to help my dad clean toilet paper off the lawn as the cat licked at rotten egg on the driveway. "You did that?!" I asked, stunned.

He looked confused for a moment. "OH!" he said, suddenly remembering. "Haha. That was, like, eighth grade. Remember, that was the year you ratted me out for playing with a lighter under my desk because I was burning a needle." he reminded me. "And if you recall, I thought we had a mutual hatred for each other until recently." he smiled.

"That's true." I forgave him. It was two years ago, anyways. "What were you doing, anyways?"

"You know how Jason got that ear piercing?" he asked. I sat in silence, waiting. "It was going to be while the teacher wasn't looking, but we did it in a passing period in the bathroom instead. Came out pretty good, but it's kinda good I got suspended for a day, because if we had done it in the class, we would've gotten in trouble for the way he screamed!" he laughed reminiscing.

"You aren't into piercings?" I asked, noticing most of his friends had some but he didn't.

"I'm smart enough to know that if I wanted more holes in my body, I could piss off my dad." he smiled. "But anyways, I'm more of the tattoo type of person." he informed me.

"Oh really? Those hurt more." she informed me.

"But they look a little less... I dunno. I wouldn't wanna have a chain or anything hanging from my body in a fight, ya know? Like when chicks fight and don't have enough time to pull out their earrings so their ears get ripped up. Not my style." he laughed. I knew he was talking about a fight from lunch the other day. Maybe he is violent, but not excessively so.

"So about those waffels we were going to have earilier..." he reminded me.

"Oh yeah!" I jumped up and ran to the freezer. I turned around to watch him get up and slip instantly onto his back.

"Shit!" he yelled as he fell onto the tile. I fell to the floor laughing my ass off as I heard him laughing from across the room. "Socks are my number one enemy!" he cursed as he started standing up. "Oh, by the way, that was totally on purpose. To, uh, make you smile more." he joked.

"Sure, uh huh." I laughed at him. "You are the worlds biggest dork, you know that?"

"And you're the world's biggest... uh, poopy face!"

"Oh come on, you're better at shit talking than that!" I yelled at him.

"But I actualy don't wanna hurt your feelings, this time." he said. I remember all those days coming home and thinking I"d never stand a chance with him because he would tell me off or call me the worst names- not even bad names, just things like "you're an arrogant, inconsiderate, close-minded, fuck-tard!"- and how it would want to cry with hopelessness. Wow. We've come so far.

"Well aren't you the gentleman." I joked.

"Indeed I am, m'lady." he bowed low and knelt down by my hand. He grabbed it and kissed it.

"Away with thee, peasant." I said with mock rudeness.

"Psh, fuck that. I'm the king, baby." He said and stood up so quickly I almost fell back. Then he swooped me up in his hands and brought me over to the couch. He threw me down as gently as he could while still playing and then jumped on me and started tickling me insanely.

"Stop, stop! I'm going to wet my pants!!!" I gasped between laughs.

"Hope you got some extra undies, then." He said and continued. Then he bent down and kissed me.

"I love you." He said, as he got up.

"I know." I said back.

"Oh what? No 'I love you too'? That's rude." he pretended to pout next to me.

"Nope. I love waffles." and I jumped up to go to the kitchen.

"I LOVE THEM MORE!" he said, jumping over the couch and sliding across the kitchen floor and over to the freezer, where he opened the door and grabbed the box of waffles. He's such a dork.