Downpour

"You know what else we should do?" I told Baylin as I ate one of the peppers she was chopping. She swatted at my hand.

“If you keep eating the food now, there's not going to be enough for everyone else." I whined and hopped off the counter.

"I don't even know why you're chopping everything up now; no one is going to be here for another six hours." I walked over to the couch and turned on the television, "I think we should watch movies before everyone gets here. We can start cooking...Well, you can start cooking and we can get ready two hours before everyone gets here. Wouldn't that be fun? Just us two? We could even do it tomorrow too!"

Baylin walked into the living room with the knife still in here hand. "Actually that's not a bad idea. Let me put these peppers in a container in the fridge while you pick a movie."

I walked over to the shelf of movies that we had. Nothing appealed to me. "Do you want to watch a Horror, Action, Disney, or Romance movie?" I shouted towards the kitchen.
Baylin came up from behind me, wiping her hands on her yoga pants. Despite the hot weather, the house was extremely cool. I hated picking out movies. If I have to pick out a movie, then someone has to pick out a category.

"How about we watch this movie?" Baylin grabbed a romance movie.

"I'm not really in the mood for that, to be honest." She put the movie back. We stared at the shelf of movies and went through them for a good ten minutes.

"I really don't know what to watch," I said as I moved my fingers around my jaw like an intelligent detective would do.

After a good amount of pros and cons of movies, we decided to watch a Disney movie. Not a newer one, but one of the classics. You can't go wrong with one of those. I grabbed the movie and Baylin sat on the couch, propping her feet on the coffee table. To be honest, I wasn't a fan of feet. They kind of grossed me out. However, I could deal with Baylin's feet, they weren't nasty or smelly.

I placed the movie into the DVD player and sat on the couch next to Baylin. "I want popcorn. Did we get any when we went to the store?" Baylin nodded her head and pointed towards the kitchen. "Where is it?" I asked as I got up from the couch.
"In the pantry." Her eyes were already glued to the television and the movie hadn't even started yet.

The popcorn was exactly where she said it was, behind Spaghetti O's, Campells, and Kraft. I tapped my fingers on the counter and played with my phone as I waited for the microwave to beep. I flipped through my contacts, finding Patrick's number.

Do I dare text him? Then again, I was never one to chicken out on a dare. But what would I say? 'It was nice having sex with you. I don't really remember it all, but would you like to refresh my memory?' I never had a booty call before. I shook my head at the thought. 'Hey you :]' seemed subtle enough. I tapped my fingers on the counter. Two minutes went by and I was already growing impatient.

The sound of the microwave made me jump. I grabbed the popcorn, opened it up into a bowl, and walked into the living room. "Hurry your ass up, it's starting!" Baylin shouting when I was only a foot behind her. I climbed over the couch and my best friend and I watched our movie.

~*~

"If you ever kept something that big from me, I'd be so pissed off at you." Baylin said as she shoved a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

"What? That I had magic lamp?" I answered as I, too, shoved a handful into my mouth. She nodded her head and took the movie out of the DVD player. "Well, I don't have a secret that I haven't told you."

Baylin stood up and replied, " Yeah, you pretty much know everything about me." However, she avoided my gaze.

"Are you okay?" I asked her as she put the movie away.

"You know what we should watch?" She said as she dug into the box of VHS tapes next to the shelf of DVDs. "We should watch our home movies!" Baylin said as she grabbed one of them from the box. I smiled and nodded my head once again. This is one of the reasons she was my best friend, we still watched our home movies together. The movies consisted of bad hair, out of date fashion, awful singing, and embarrassing moments.

She pushed the VHS into the player and clicked play. It was fuzzy at first, but cleared up right away. It was a video of Tayden, Baylin, and myself, of course. We had our arms linked and our faces painted. It was the day we got back from the carnival. We were about three and Tayden was six. Tayden had us on each arm.

"And where did you all get back from?" I think it was Baylin's mother's voice. In sync, we told her 'the carnival'. "And who are these beautiful girls on your arms, Tayden?"

Tayden looked down at me and Bay and smiled. "They're my best friends, Mrs. Peters!" Tayden's face was painted like a tiger, Bay's a cat, and mine as well. I looked over at Baylin and laughed, she was tearing up.

"What are you crying for?" I asked as I hugged my non-genital touched pillow. She sniffled and hugged HER pillow.

"It's just... We were so innocent back then, you know? And now that's all changed." I laughed even harder and hugged my best friend. Tayden on the television kissed both of us on the cheek.

"I thought girls had cooties?" Said Baylin's mom.

"I cured them!" Tayden yelled as he let go of our arms.

"And how did you do that?" She asked him.

"With my magic kisses. Now they'll never have cooties ever again, Mrs. Peters!" I laughed, innocent we were.

~*~

I was setting up the table as Baylin finshed cooking. The only thing that I could make were noodles, soup, and toast. I've sent off a few smoke detectors here, set a few things on fire, nothing major though. Hell, I wouldn't even call me an expert toast maker, I've burnt a few slices of that too. I'm sure the bacon and eggs that I made for everyone was a bit too crispy. I had to continuously soak the pan that I made eggs in, there were so many burnt pieces stuck to the bottom.

I walked away from the table and fell under a dizzy spell. I gripped the counter as firmly as I could and knocked down one of the glasses, which shattered as it hit the hard wood floor. Baylin quickly rushed towards me and I waved her off.

"Rai, are you okay?" I stood up slowly and held the counter.

"What?" I asked, for what she had said came out a bit fuzzy and it was difficult to hear.

"I said, are you okay? Here, sit down." She pulled out a stool from the counter.

"I'm fine, probably just dizzy from lack of food. I'm very hungry, starved, actually."

Baylin seemed unconvinced. "Also, I got up and moved too fast. I'm okay, really." I smiled and sat down a little longer. She went to open her mouth and that's when the doorbell rang. I rubbed my temples and asked her to get it. As she opened the door, I heard her mumble a nervous 'Hi'.

"Who is it?" I asked as she walked back into the kitchen to grab things to put on the table. Tayden walked slowly into the kitchen and waved.
"Tayden, will you help me set up the table? Rain's a bit dizzy, but be careful of the glass. Rain knocked it over as she fell.

Tayden's eyes got wide. "I didn't fall! I simply bumped into the counter because I was so dizzy and happened to knock over a glass in the process." Tayden seemed unconvinced as well. Why didn’t anyone believe me? He grabbed a broom and dust pan and swept up the glass.

"Sorry, I'm a bit early," he tossed the glass into the trash, "but I had nothing else better to do.”

As I sat on the stool for a little longer, I watched as Tayden hesitantly walked into the dining room to ask Baylin what she wanted him to do. He followed her back into the kitchen and she gave him some forks, spoons, and knives to take into the dining room while she grabbed the cups.

I didn't get a chance to finish setting up the table. Which I felt bad about. Even if it was something that little. I feel a little helpless since I can't get up without getting dizzy just to set up a stupid, expensive table.

I heard them whispering, but couldn't make out everything that they were saying; something about a party. I really didn't want to have another party. It's too soon and it took forever to clean everything up. Someone even peed in the plant that we had on the end table next to the couch. Who does that? When there are clearly three bathrooms in a three bedroom house. The only room that didn't have a bathroom was the guest bedroom. My bedroom and Baylin's had one. I heard the clink and clang of the silverware and set my head down.

While Baylin was still in the dining room, I’m sure to make things look pretty, Tayden walked towards me and whispered, "Are you really okay? Don't lie to me, Rai. You know I can always tell if you're lying anyways." His voice had concern in it. I gave him my best smile and look up at him.

"I'm better than ever." And as I said that, I'm pretty sure he actually believed me. I'm getting better at this.

~*~

The dinner was a bit awkward. We had my dad telling us the things that we needed to do to the house and we had Baylin's mother asking her and Tayden why they weren't together yet. Our families actually went to high school together. Whoever said most high school sweet hearts don't last were sadly mistaken. They all went to the same school and knew each other like the back of their hands and they always pressed how Tayden and Baylin had to get together sometime.

Their faces flushed and I gagged and stabbed one of the peppers on my plate with the fork, making a loud "clink". They knew I always got irritated about that stuff.

Dad's belly hit the table before the rest of him. It was just a little hump, nothing too bad. Mom sat next to him with her hand in his. I only wish I could grow old with someone, but I don't think I'll ever get that chance. Right now, I'm just going to be a burden and single. I can live off one night stands and some lovin' here and some lovin' there.

Baylin's parents, talk about straight from a movie. They were perfect. Perfect teeth, hair, for God's sake, even their noses. I see where Baylin gets her looks from.

I didn't really contribute to much of the conversation, I didn't have anything to say. My hearing kept fading away then back again, my head was throbbing, and I just wanted to sleep.

~*~

After a couple hours have passed filled with nonsense, laughter, and food, Dad looked at his watch. "We better be leaving, I have work in the morning." Baylin's mom looked at her watch and agreed.

Baylin and I escorted our parents to the door and gave them each a hug, while Tayden gave the men a handshake. He decided to stick around for a while longer. "If it's not too much trouble, I think I might lie down. Will you help Baylin clean? Please, please?" I gave him my best Puppy Dog face and pouted my lip extra. Tayden waved me off and I went to my room, popped a pill, and lied in bed.

It happened to be one of those nights where I was exhausted, but my mind raced. My body wanted me to sleep, but my head refused to let that happen. It was a constant war between my mind and my body. I wanted to listen to my body so bad. Tossing and turning and trying to find a comfortable position seemed to be the only thing I could do. If it works in movies, I'll try it now--I counted sheep.

I got to 102, then I was out like a light.