Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf

“Ugh…” I groaned as I forced my eyelids open the next morning, the light coming through the window searing through my brain like a sharp steak knife.

Why in the world had I let Puck talk me into drinking? It was a stupid, stupid idea. In more ways than one.

As I brushed my teeth, I worked on smiling and looking normal, just so that Aileen wouldn’t be able to tell that I was in pain. Because if she could, then she’d ask what was up, and that was definitely not something that I wanted her to know.

When I finally made my way downstairs, Aileen was sitting at the kitchen table, one hand knotted in the front of her hair, a phone pressed tightly against her ear. “I know,” she sighed, looking like she was about to rip her red tresses right out of her skull. “I know, I know. Yeah. …But that doesn’t make any sense, Anthony! No, it doesn’t, and you know it doesn’t… Well, make them understand, okay? It’s a Saturday, I don’t want to be dealing with this. Do your job, if you’d please.” Then, pulling the phone away from ear, she snapped her finger down on the END button before smashing the palms of her hands into her eyes.

“Um…” I trailed off as I tiptoed behind her, “Good morning.” Why I was tiptoeing, I wasn’t sure, considering she obviously knew I was there if I was talking. But I was hung over and tired, so anything made pretty okay sense to me at the time.

“‘Morning,” she grumbled. Looking up suddenly at me, she had a slightly wild look in her eyes, which made me stop unrolling the plastic bag hidden inside the box of Lucky Charms. “Don’t you just hate people sometimes? It’s like, what the hell is he thinking, you know?”

“I get that,” I laughed, resuming my process of getting my breakfast ready. “So what, exactly, are you referring to?”

She explained the mishap at work where a vendor wasn’t understanding what, exactly, they wanted delivered to the office, since they didn’t speak very good English. “And it’s just so damn frustrating because I really just want the new desks to come in without a hitch, and even that won’t happen the way I want.”

“Alright,” I settled down in the seat next to her and took a deep breath. “Just breathe. You’ll be fine.”

She did as I directed, but her face still had a kind of crazy look to it. Oh, well. At least I tried.

Closing my eyes for a second, I tried to block out some of the intense light that was pooling in from everywhere. God, why was it so bright? It was like He wanted to torture poor people who were trying to get over the effects of alcohol.

“I know,” Aileen agreed, getting to her feet. “How awful is that sun?” Without another word, she got to her feet and shut all the blinds, shutting the house into darkness. Not that I was complaining.

“Did someone get drunk last night?” I questioned with a smirk. “What happened to drinking responsibly?”

“I could say the same to you,” she chuckled.

“I didn’t drink.” Knee-jerk reaction. Whoops. “I just have a migraine from all the stress from school.”

There was an awkward silence between us, and I figured that she knew right off the bat that I was lying. Badly, at that.

But apparently, Puck really had corrupted me because Aileen nodded. “Yeah, of course. My little sister’s too pure to drink.” Even though I didn’t know if she was being sarcastic, since she didn’t press the subject anymore, I figured that she wasn’t.

Okay…so there was one family member who thought of me as pure. It was kind of a weird feeling, since I was still expecting Mom to call me a whore every ten seconds.

“Any plans today?” Aileen asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

“I might hang out with Sam or something. I dunno. I’ll have to call him up and see. Or…no, I’m going to call Kurt! He and I haven’t hung out in forever.”

Aileen turned around and stared at me with a raised eyebrow. “Damn, Ellie. How many guy friends do you have? And do you even have any girl friends?”

I coughed. “Um, well, I hang out with Kurt and Sam, sometimes Puck. And…Mercedes, too, but we aren’t really close. So…not really.”

She let out a sigh. “Whatever. None of my business. But you can invite anyone over that you want.”

“Well,” I continued, still thinking about the friend subject, “Kurt’s gay, so…he’s a guy, but he kind of acts like a girl.”

Aileen laughed. “Okay…and you’re telling me this why?”

“Because you asked, I guess.” Grinning, I put my bowl in the sink before running up to my room and picking up my cell phone, immediately calling Kurt.

“Hello?” he answered in his formal tone. Staring at the wall, I could almost see him brushing his perfectly conditioned bangs out of his face.

“Hey!”

“Ellie.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah.” How else was I supposed to answer that? “So I was wondering if you wanted to hang out today, since we haven’t hung out in-”

“I figured you’d never ask,” he interrupted. “We need to go to the mall, anyway. Your wardrobe’s getting outdated again.”

“This fashion stuff is hard work,” I whined. Especially with a head that felt like I was getting stabbed repeatedly. But, putting a hand to my forehead and closing my eyes for a second, I realized that I could just pop a couple aspirin and be fine. I had to be fine. “But that sounds good.”

“Great. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”

“Sure.” There was a click, signaling that he’d hung up on me, before I even finished the word. Mumbling to myself about how hasty he was, I got ready and was downstairs within twenty minutes.

Once there were a couple of aspirin in my system, I got hopeful that maybe my headache would go away. But then I remembered the sensitivity to light, and started looking everywhere for my sunglasses that I hadn’t even seen since the beginning of August. Just when I needed them most…

“Aha!” I whispered when I finally found them under my bed, covered in dust. All it took was a good swipe across my jeans to make them look new again, and when I placed them on my face, they looked pretty stylish, even. Hopefully, anyway.

* * *

Apparently, Kurt didn’t feel the same way. “What are you wearing?”

“Are you making fun of my sunglasses?” I whined, not finding the strength to take them off to please him.

“No, they’re fabulous. I’m just saying, it’s a dead giveaway that you’re hung over.”

“I’m not hung over,” I defied, putting on my seatbelt.

“Ellie.” Ugh. That accusing tone, the ‘you can’t lie to me’ voice. I hated that.

“Alright, so I might be a tad hung over. Like, a little.”

Kurt just sighed before pulling out of the driveway. “Did Aileen call you out on it?”

“Kinda. But she let it slide.”

“Were you drinking with Puck?”

“How do you know every damn thing?” I laughed a little, resting the back of my head against the seat. “What even gave you that indication?”

“It was either with Puck or Sam, and I’m pretty sure that Sam wouldn’t go over your house with alcohol alone on a Friday night. He doesn’t really seem like the type.”

“I guess.” Damn his powers of observation.

“But it doesn’t matter because we’re going shopping! And that means it’s indoors, so that’ll make it easier for you.”

Sighing dramatically, I leaned over a little bit and started fiddling with the radio, wondering, as I always did, whether I’d made a mistake by calling up Kurt to hang out with.

Of course, I never did, since I loved Kurt, but I always had to wonder.