Love Among the Pizza Boxes

There’s someone at my door.
There’s someone at my door?
That’s weird. No one ever comes to my apartment for anything.
I fall off the couch and slouch my way over to the front door.
I had spent nearly the last twenty-four hours laying on my couch, snoring or watching infomercials. I’m almost sold on the Topsy Turvy tomato plant thing.
Wrapped in my fuzzy dark orange blanket, I answer the door.
“Hi, Riku.” Pink lipgloss smiles at me.
Kairi?
“Kairi?” I blink the sleep out of my eyes and squint at her. “Uh – what’re you doing here?”
Kairi invites herself in and pushes past me to study my messy apartment. She spins around slowly to get a better look. “Well, I figured we haven’t talked in a while.”
“Sure we have; we talked just yesterday.”
“No, Riku.” Kairi looks at me in the eye finally and takes one step towards me. “I mean, really talked. Not just small talk.”
Dear god. What does she mean?
“Uh, okay?” I sit down on the couch. I abandoned the blanket a little bit ago. “Umm… Sit down, I guess?” I’m speaking only in question, but I don’t really know why.
Kairi sits down right next to me. Puts a hand on my shoulder.
I look at her hand. She’s got red nail polish on.
I read online one time that red is supposedly supposed to catch a man’s attention. It was on the Yahoo homepage.
I don’t like the color red that much. At least, not right now. Not on Kairi. It freaks me out.
“Riku, I miss you.” Kairi begins to massage my shoulder. Like she’s wringing out a mop.
….. ‘Kay. Ouch.
I don’t say anything. I just let her wring out my shoulder.
Ouch.
“Why can’t things go back to the way they used to be?” Kairi’s hand travels down my arm to my bicep.
…. ‘Kay. Weird.
“You know… when we were fourteen. And we would all play together on the island…” She says this so nostalgically. She rests her head on my shoulder. “You, me… and Sora.”
I stare out my window. Oh, look. The Observatory.
I wonder what Shayla’s up to.
She runs her hand along my arm. Her nails rake against my skin.
….. ‘Kay. Ouch.
Her head is still on my shoulder. She looks up at me, eyes big and blue.
I try my hardest not to barf of her.
I study her face with eyes narrowed.
Make-up is caked on her face like a second skin.
It’s to hide the scars.
When she was littler, she would pop the pimples prematurely.
I know this because she did it in front of me and Sora on the island all the time.
Nowadays, it’s just a giant, made-up zit graveyard.
Her eyelashes are clumped together because she used too much… stuff.
Her eyelids are a weird shade of purple. It looks like she’s either got two black eyes or she hasn’t slept in weeks. Or she’s a vampire.
Kairi blinks up at me.
I lift an eyebrow.
She begins to lean forward.
I lean back. I’m up against the arm of the couch.
She continues to lean forward.
I flip off of the couch.
I accidently kick her in the face with one of my abnormally large feet.
Kairi’s head pops into view over the arm of the couch. “Riku, are you okay?”
Her chin’s kinda bleeding. Oops.
I stand up.
“Are you insane?” I yell at her.
She bats her eyelashes at me. “What do you mean, Riku?”
“Out.” I point at the door.
Kairi looks at me as though someone just took away her birthday. She stays put on the couch, leaning forward. She’s wearing a low-cut shirt.
I glare at her, then nod towards the door again. “Go on, then. Out.”
She leaves sullenly and closes the door behind her.
I then nod in satisfaction to myself and lay back down on my couch.
“Was I being mean?” I ask the television.
I wait a second as if my television can talk back to me.
I shake my head. “Nah, I think she’ll live.”
My television agrees.