Twinfestation

"uhh.....muhhh, gah." My hand did little to block the sun from my eyes. Wherever I moved it was there. Moving my body completely was not an option, it ached too much to do so. My back was arched over a giant lump in my bed, legs curled up against the wall, over-sized shirt rode up to my neck, and something imprinting into my back. It was a wonder I even fell asleep.

"Ugh....god." I pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes until I saw colors that weren't blinding. "Mornings." Planting my hands on the comforter and one oddly flesh-like surface, I pushed myself up and looked to see the lump I was on top of.

Ash was sleeping soundlessly, vertically taking up almost my entire bed, a giant red spot across his stomach and hand from where I was laying. He didn't stir or even groan as I tried to yank the excess fabric of my pants from under him. When I started to shove him over, he finally woke.

"Hey," his low voice crackled as he flexed his hand and yawned "Morning."

Finally freeing my pants from beneath him, I grabbed a branch to help myself up and walked to the mirror to examine the hand imprint on my back.

Yes, there is a tree in my room. It started out as a little tree, only a few fee tall when we first moved in. With the amount of light that always poured in through my double windows and the few times I remembered to water it had been enough to let it grow into a strong, sturdy tree. Sure, it got a little tiresome picking up leaves sometimes, but I loved my tree. I named it a few times, but kept forgetting what it was so now I just call him(her?) Photosynthesis, Syn for short. It's monster of a pot s now about the size of my bed.

Shut up, I love my tree.

"You know, I think it'll be more comfortable for the both of us if you just slept in the guest room."

"Sure." Ash shrugged as he sat up. "But would it be more fun?"

"Fun? What are you talking about? Did you do something weird?" I asked, beginning to inspect myself. "Did you drug me? I've been waiting for that. Salem told me you were sketchy. If I'm not still a virgin I'm filing for molestation."

"Calm down." He laughed, holding his hands up. "I'm clean, you're clean, and I'm not sure it's molestation if we're both underage. But you eat in your sleep, it's cute. You make little chomping and moaning sounds."

Throwing a discarded pillow at him, I stripped my nightshirt in exchange for a long sleeved, slightly smaller, plain gray one. "You're the reason why I kept waking up hungry!? As punishment, go make me food."

"Sorry, I can't even make eggs." He stood and stretched his arms behind his head, puffing his chest out.

No matter how much he stretched himself out, all you saw was muscle, no rib, no spine. His toes probably had muscles in them. Lifting my shirt, I examined the rib underneath. Being a gymnast, I did have some muscle but since I quit last year it has been slowly dwindling. If I flexed, I knew there would be some abs or biceps but nothing that would stand out when I was relaxing.

Looking at my reflection and the shirt hanging off of me, I thought that maybe Ash and Say were right. Maybe I have lost a little too much weight to be healthy. I poked at my ribs then flexed and poked at my abs to compare. My ribs were definitely harder but I think that's due to the fact that bones are just hard and I drink a lot of milk.

They lied to me, milk did not make me grow big or tall. All it did was make me sick when I went out to play. Not to mention the weird tasting burps I got afterwords when I mixed milk with apple juice. Milk isn't good with anything except for fruit and cereal, I learned that the hard way. And granola, every thing is good with granola and nuts, it's all crunchy and what not. Delicious.

Point: Milk lies.

Standing behind me, I wasn't even big enough to cover the sides of Ash in our reflection. "Flexing in the mirror. Huh, I didn't think you were that vain but okay. I guess I could learn to love that, too."

"Shut up." I mumbled as I walk behind him to swap my flowy pants for a pair of jeans. Looking at the clock, I ran to my closet to grab a jean jacket and quickly pulled on some funky long socks and boots. It was already eleven, I'd never get there on time. Mr. Daylen was going to yell so bad he'll go mute. Which may not be the worst thing that could happen, if you think about it.

"You're wearing that?" Ash asked when I sat to pull my boots off and onto the right feet.

"Yeah. Why, is there something on me?"

"No...It's just so plain."

"Plain? I'm going to a publishing company to spend my day doing the word of half-dead, drained, demanding, moody, walking zombies." I pulled the strings tight to secure the boot on and tied it with bunny ears. "I don't think anyone with notice what I'm wearing, much less care."

"But what about the people outside of it? I mean, you go out for lunch, right?" Ash started going through my closet without permission. "No one's going to want to talk to a plain kid dressed like it's already winter. Here put this on."

"Ash, I don't have time for this!" I threw the sleeveless denim vest to the side and unlaced my boot, pulling it tighter. "I haven't even finished that last manuscript."

Though I said it to avoid going into the whole no-one-will-talk-to-me-anyway/you're-a-cute-high-school-senior-get-some-confidence conversation again, I really did need to do that last manuscript. Not having my work done is always hell for me and me only. Mr. Daylen, being my guide or whatever, was fifty times harder on me than anyone else was with their protegees.

"Don't worry about it." Going through the box on my dresser that held necklaces, bracelets, and things like that, he gave a careless shrug. "Salem got Yu to translate it last night. By the way, why is eating outside so bad? I eat outside all the time, you don't see anyone breaking up with me."

"First, you'd need someone to brake up with."

"Shut up, Ihtoo." Like a fucking ninja, he was behind me with the thin, cold, metal chain of a necklace wrapped around my neck. "I will sever it all, limb by limb."

"Technically," I said as I reached back and touched behind his ear. "My head isn't a limb."

Making a snorting sound, Ash immediately let go of the necklace an audibly slapped himself in the face. "Don't do that when I'm not drinking! Don't do that when I'm drinking either." He added as a afterthought.

"Don't choke me with my own jewelry!" Going against my previous rejection, I switched to the denim vest and pulled the necklace on correctly. It did look better and was probably what I would have ended up wearing anyway if I wasn't in a hurry. "Happy?"

"Very. Now take off your pants."

"Salem!" I ignored him as I ran down the hall. "Salem, are you here!?"

Running out of his room, he bolted towards me, ready to pounce "High-five!" Jumping, he hit my hand so hard I swear I heard a bone crack.

"Gah! Salem, my hands are small and breakable, remember!" Looking down at my already throbbing red hand, I cursed the day we decided to give high-fives as morning greetings. My hands were about standard size, maybe a little smaller, but Salem's were like fucking serving dishes. It was just unfair.

"Man up!"

"Sorry, I'm as man as I'm ever gonna get." I yawned "But I'm not man enough to own a awesome Jeep Cherokee that could drive me to PaperPens?" Batting my eyelids, I fought to open them each time.

"No." Seeing how shocked by his seriousness I was, he smiled at me without amusement. "I told you you weren't going to work today."

"Grah!" Frustrated, I turned to Ash and looked up at him. "Can you?"

"If you say yes I'll yank that labret out of your face and use it to pierce your dick."

"Sorry babe." Ash backed up with his hands in the air. "My friend got his cock pierced. Did not sound pleasant."

"Are you kidding me!? You're going to listen to him!? You hate him!"

"That I do." Smiling, he walked up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. "But if you don't leave then I can have you."

Before Salem had a chance to pull me away, I struggled out of his grasp and ran down the hall to the guest room. If I know my friends at all, then I know they would not have gone home last night and would stay until our fridge was empty.

"Conner. Conner, wake up." Finding Conner in the bed across from Yu and Haru -who's size together equaled almost one full Conner- I shook him frantically. When he finally woke, he smiled widely at me then looked over to the other bed.

"Hey, Silver. I thought you were Yu for a moment." His hands were warm when he pushed me off and stretched his naked torso. Why the hell are all my friends so masculine? Maybe this is why I have no self-esteem.

"Hurry up," Throwing his shirt at him, I went through his bag in search of keys "You're driving me to work."

Once I found his keys, I used him as a barricade and pushed through the wall of people yelling to us outside of the door. I was almost caught when Conner threw me over his shoulder like a old bag and ran down the stairs. Sometimes, being the small one isn't always a bad thing.