Washroom Color

i'm the type of person to take it personally .

All the guys were already in the van by the time I got outside. It was a dark blue mini-van, with John in the driver's seat and Pat shotgun. John noticed that I shot him a look as I slammed the sliding door shut.

“It's my mom's what the fuck am I gonna do, okay?” He said, defending the car. “What took you so damn long?”

“She's a woman, John, lower your expectations,” Kennedy joked from the seat next to me, and I took the time to punch him hard in the arm while my brother and John both chuckled.

“Very funny,” I said, managing to not to answer the question. The truth was, I'd spent a good five minutes trying to successfully cover the deep bags beneath my eyes in case anyone got close enough to see them. “So where we goin'?” I was already beginning to feel comfortable around these guys – they'd taken me under their wing despite what Seth may have told them.

And then it struck me. Did Seth tell them? Is that why they weren't ignoring me or treating me badly? Did they feel sorry for me, because they knew I was sick?

“9th and Fowler. To get Jess and Dean.” Garrett answers from where he was sitting in the back of the van. “You get that John?”

“I got it the first time, thanks so much,” John said with a bit of sarcasm, and soon enough we were just stopping at a corner and the door slide open as a boy and a girl clambered into the car and found seats in the back with Garrett.

“Afternoon boys,” The guy said. He was Dean, I guess, and he'd ended up sitting on the floor because there was no actual seat for him to take. “Who's the pretty lady?”

I felt myself blush a little, and Seth coughed loudly and deliberately just as I'm about to open my mouth to speak and introduce myself, but fuck, Garrett beat me to it. “Seth's cute sister -”

“Watch it!” Seth cried before Garrett could say anything else. I felt my face get even warmer, and that was possible, and I glared at him, because I assumed he was being sarcastic, just as my brother continued with. “Leave that shit for when I'm not around man, that's my sister. ”

Garrett was smirking at me and the other boys in the car chuckled loudly, and then the girl – Jess – piped up with a loud throat clearing. “Lovely, I'm Jess. Bowen.” she added, and as she was sitting in the seat directly behind mine she reached her hand way up so I could turn and shake it. “Everyone in this car besides me and you are childish, don't worry, I'll show you the ropes.”

Another fifteen minutes of jabbering, and a sing along of “Bad Romance” screamed at the top of all the boys' lungs, John was recklessly swerving into a parking lot in front of a small pizza parlor. I was the first one out of the car, coming close to kissing the ground in thanks for arriving safely. Every boy piled from the car, with Jess in tow, and when Kennedy passed by me, he bumped my shoulder playfully, “Don't look so mortified, it was just a car ride.”

I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my cardigan, and followed them all inside, deciding to take a seat between my brother and Dan, across from Garrett, which immediately my me want to vomit from nerves. Classy, I know. I ordered one huge slice while the rest of the party had at least two or three, and Garrett eyed my crust from the other side.

“You're not going to eat that, are you.” he said, more like a statement than a question.

I pushed it towards him, and felt my nerves ease a little bit. Everyone else were occupied in their own conversation: John was talking to Dean, a childhood friend, I discovered, from the opposite end of the table; Seth was chatting Jess up, and Kennedy and Dean were trying to get in on the conversation as well but Seth kept shushing them away. “The crust is the best part of the pizza, I can't believe you're one of those damn wasters.” Garrett's voice reaches my ears and I look away from observing the rest of the table awkwardly. I lean forward slightly, and rest my elbows on the table casually.

“I never was taught good manners I guess.” I said, and he smiled a very small smile and looked down at his plate. I took the moment when he wasn't paying attention to me to quickly look him over properly. He wasn't drop dead gorgeous. He was just average, dressed in nothing fancy: just a black left4dead teeshirt with a gray vest over it, and a black hat fedora like hat. Just average.

“Comprendo?”

I look up and shock because he caught me staring at his teeshirt. What he'd said in spanish didn't make anysense, but I ignored that small detail and raised my eyebrows. “Left4dead fan?” I asked though it was pretty obvious, thanks to the shirt.

“I'm your man,” He said, banging a fist into his own chest.

“Don't knock out your lungs buddy,” Dan calls from across the table having noticed the action, before going right back into whatever he was saying.

Garrett ignored him. “Into video games? Did Seth teach you everything you know? What a good boy he is.”

I rolled my eyes and found a small laugh escaped my mouth. “Something like that.” Seth and I had been playing video games together since he got his first gameboy color when we were like, eight. We'd trade off, taking turns when ever one of us lost a life, and finally when I started getting further in the Speedy Gonzales game than he did, he eventually got bitter and started hitting me in the head. From gameboys, to xbox, my brother gave his xbox to me when I was finally released from the hospital when we were fifteen and all I was able to do was lie in bed, lean over to throw up every now and then, and smash the buttons while he knew exactly what he was doing, whooping my ass every time. The fact was, I was never really any good at video games, but being able to try still made me feel accomplished.

“What's your best game.” Seriously, so much like a boy, to want to talk about games, and suddenly find that the most interesting thing on the planet. “Don't tell me Modern Warfare. We wouldn't be able to be friends.” He says it in all seriousness, but I knew he was kidding.

“Umm, that's a tough one. I think it's a cross between Stylin' Barbie and My Little Pony Adventures.” I didn't even know if they made those games.

“Oh, well that's a relief.” he said, “Left4dead. And Bioshock, okay, really.”

“I've never played either of those.”

He gasped, melodramatically. “We're fixing that soon, don't worry, I have your back.”

“Lucky me, thanks so much!” It's then as I'm done speaking, that I noticed the bill had already come and Dan had already paid and now it was time to jumble back into the car. I took my same place, and soon enough I was back at him and checking the messaged on my cell that I'd accidentally forgotten.

Anna came prancing into my room, her thin pale legs almost flailing around. “Who were you with?” She asked.

“Seth and his friends,” I replied, already preoccupied with the texts I had missed. Lunch date with two high school friends. Some catching up time was just what I needed.

“Oh, you mean the Maine??” Anna piped excitedly.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Just a bunch of guys, and a girl.” And Anna made a face as though she was disappointed as she left the room. They were, after all, just a bunch of guys. They were all normal. John was normal, Kennedy was normal, Garrett was normal in the best kind of way – hell even my brother was average enough. But I knew from right then that this wasn't the last I'd be seeing of them.