A Place on My Pillow

Walking into their house, Alex and Polly were met by a cross Cady and Millie. The pair were sat at the kitchen table, eyes trained of the arrivals.

“You, Missy, are in trouble,” Cady said, tapping the table with a pencil. In front of her was a sheet of sheet music, covered in little black quarter and half notes. Polly could tell that she was trying not to giggle inappropriately at the situation.

“Why?”

“You broke poor Darren’s heart!” Millie cut in just as Cady went to explain.

“What? By not showing up? That’s a little ridiculous,” Polly replied, walking past the table to the fridge. She slid the leftovers from dinner with Alex on the bottom shelf and grabbed the last bottle of Alex’s soda. She promised, to herself, that she’d buy Alex some more. That never happened. It always went like this: she’d drink his soda, promise to buy some to replace the ones she’d drank, she’d never actually do it and then Alex would end up buying his own, and repeat.

“You stood him up!” Millie informed Polly. Polly shrugged.

“He’s a big boy, Mill. He can take care of himself. He can mend his own broken heart. And he can get over the fact that I stood him up,” Polly replied, shutting the fridge door and turned back to Millie, who was staring at the young girl.

“You are something else,” Millie informed Polly, as if Polly didn’t know already.

“What? He’s just a guy, and not even one I know that all that well.”

Alex and Cady headed away from the conversation, leaving Millie and I in the kitchen by ourselves. Cady slipped into her bedroom, leaving the door open to eavesdrop while Alex went into the bathroom and shut the door, the shower kicking on seconds later. He wasn’t interested in hearing about Darren, it seemed. He had a justified reason however, Polly later came to find out.

“You have to work with him,” Millie reminded Polly, scolding her like a child, one who had been caught one too many times messing with things she shouldn’t have been.

“It’ll be fine,” Polly assured her boss. Millie shook her head, her pink hair shaking with the motion.

“If it’s not, you’re fixing it.”

“Fine. I got it.”

“And by fix it, I mean, you’re going to call Darren and apologize, then you’re going to ask him out on a make-up date.”

“What? No! I don’t want to date him!”

“You have no choice,” Millie said matter-of-factly. After that, she shrugged, stood up and left the house, leaving Polly to think, and be confused. Instead, she opted for sitting in front of the television, with Otto and rotting her mind with dull reality shows that held no intelligent stimulation or morals at all. She opted for not having to think about Darren, or the impending date that she would not be able to avoid a second time.