My Paper Heart

Darcie had hitched a ride home from Nick. Sasha was still asleep when they had gone. Nick had offered to take him home too, but I didn't know how he acted when he had a hangover, so I told Nick I'd let him sleep until he woke up, then I'd take him home.

He slept comfortably on my couch, his face pushed into the squishy armrest, wrapped up in a pink and white Barbie comforter I had stolen from Sarah Jane's room. His camos were all twisted around his legs, and his upper lip was yanked up revealing his teeth. He didn't snore, and he didn't drool. He just looked dumb.

I was so fascinated by his sleeping habits that at one point I sat on my bed, with my coffee and Tylenol, and watched him snooze.

As he quietly shifted around, a snide, mommy-ish voice sounded from my doorway, "Who's the freak with my blanket?" I looked up and saw Sarah Jane glaring at me. I smirked, and cocked my head to the side.

"Hi crackhead," I said, telling her nothing about Sasha. "You're home before six? That's amazing!"

"Weird slut," she snapped, and walked away. Like that even offended me anymore. After watching the girl storm off into her room, I thought about her for a second. She did look like a crackhead -- she was stick thin, and her once beautiful hair was now just a mass of dark brown string, dull and lackluster.

"What the hell?" My head rolled around to see Sasha forcing himself upright. His polo was twisted around his torso, and his hair was messy. He squinted his eyes and peered around the room. With his liner rubbed, or sweated, off I now noticed the skin around his eyes was pink. It was an odd thing to notice, but I did nonetheless.

"Oh, sorry," I said, taking a gulp of my coffee, and setting the cup on my nightstand. "That was my sister. She's always bitchy." He nodded and licked his lips.

"What time is it?" he asked, almost talking out of his nose. He had to keep his eyes squinted.

"About two o'clock. Why?" I asked. He shrugged his shoulders and laid back down.

"Just wondering. How much did we drink last night? My head's freaking splitting."

"Uhm, just shy of an entire vodka bottle and two wine coolers," I answered, kicking the bottle at my feet. Once more he nodded. I smirked.

"I already planned ahead on your headache," I said. I grabbed his wrist and put the two white pills in his palm. I dropped his hand.

"Mmm, thanks," he said, smacking his lips. "Mind if I borrow that?" he asked, motioning to my coffee.

"Nope." I handed it to him. He took a long sip out of it, and tossed back his pills. Another sip, and he handed back the ceramic mug. I couldn't help but notice that his ring finger was covering the face of a cow on the mug.

He sat up and swung his legs off the couch. Suddenly I felt like a stalker, just watching him from the bed. That triggered me to stand up and go to the closet, where I dug out some clothes for myself. I picked up a plain white t-shirt, and a pair of whitewashed jeans.

When I returned to my room, that is when I turned around, Sasha was situated on my bed, hunkered down in my covers, watching cartoons on the TV. He was still half-lidded, barely awake.

I rolled my yes. "Wake up," I ordered. He stuck his tongue out at me.

"Shut up, it takes me a while to get going, especially if I'm hung over," he moaned, pulling the covers up to his eyes, and glaring at me. I laughed at him.

"Ha, ha."

I went into my bathroom and changed. I didn’t dare look at the mirror -- I looked like crap in the mornings, and it wasn't fun. So, instead, I just washed my face off really quickly, and put my hair in a ponytail high on my head. My bangs still fell in my face, so I brushed them to the side.

Once more I walked into my room. Sasha was standing up, scratching his stomach, and licking his lips.

"I'm hungry," he announced, as if his hunger was my prime concern. I raised a brow at him.

"I care why?" I asked nonchalantly. His eyes came up and grazed over me.

"Damn, you look different without makeup," he also announced, as if I didn't know that my freckles were a hundred times more visible and the bags under my eyes weren't the color of harsh bruises. I wrinkled my nose at him.

"And so do you," I fired back. He put an apologetic look on his face and raked his hands through his hair. I frowned, and sighed. I slipped my feet into a pair of flip-flops.

"Wanna get something to eat?" I asked. He perked up.

"Yeah, sure, what?"

"Dunno. Sonic good with you?" He looked like he was gonna squeal. Wait, he did.

"Ayee! I love Sonic!" I nodded slowly, grabbing my car keys.

"Uhm, okay then, let's go?" I said. He nodded, and started out the door. I scooped up my wallet and jammed it into my back pocket, and two pairs of sunglasses. He was going to regret going outside without them.

I put on my huge, gaudy sunglasses, and passed through the kitchen. Sarah Jane was eating cereal and Sheridan was inspecting his newest wound from his friends. Dad had left pretty early.

"Hey retards, this is Sasha. Be nice to him," I said, motioning to Sasha, who stood back awkwardly, with a flourish of my hand.

"Hunter was hotter," Sarah Jane mumbled.

"What was that?" I asked, looking at her from behind my purple-ish black sunglasses.

"Nothing, nothing at all."
"That's right, you'd have better have talkin' to your rice krispies," I said, throwing a gang sign. Sheridan looked at me bemusedly.

"Hunter was cooler, and you're too white to be saying that," said the young man who was currently bleeding on our linoleum. My face dropped, and I could hear Sasha suppressing a cackle. I turned around, and slapped the sunglasses into his chest, heading out the door.

I could hear the three cracking up behind me. Then I heard Sasha's foot steps running after me as I neared my truck.

I pulled open the cranky door, and dropped into the driver's seat. While I got myself situated I turned on the AC -- one of the few comforts the truck offered -- and buckled my belt. Sasha did the same, resting his feet on the dashboard and putting the sunglasses on. They were a pair of Hunter's old ones that he had left here. Aviator's with a silver mirror finish. I personally liked them.

"Off to Sonic?" I asked. He nodded. "Then back to your house?"

"Wow, Goldie, I didn't know you were so forward," he chuckled, smirking a little bit. I couldn't help but watch his lip ring move with the smile. I liked it. It was sweet. I rolled my eyes, though he couldn't see it.

"Whatever, but seriously. I need to take you home." His face dropped sadly.

"I don't wanna go back there, can't we just hang out or something? Like go to the movies? The pool? I'll do freaking community service to get out of going home," he whined.

"Is it really that bad at your house?"

"If you call having your seven person family back home, then yes, it's horrible," he grunted, crossing his arms.

"That's gay." He nodded.

"Yeah, I'm crammed in a room with Oli and Noah for the summer while Wayne does his friggan homework in my room and Rae sleeps on the couch." The boy was seething. Okay, Noah had said he was a dork, but he had never said that he was also nasty. He was almost as indignant as me.

And that was a difficult thing to achieve.

"Damn, I'm sorry," I said, putting the truck into drive. He shrugged again, and sighed.

"Don't be sorry for what you didn't do."

***

I parked the car in the Target parking lot that over looked Sonic, and locked the doors. As we walked down the steeply graded lot towards our destination, I jerked Sasha back, my nails digging into his arm. A yellow Jeep whizzed right past us, beeping angrily. I flipped them off, as did Sasha.

"Dick," I grunted under my breath. Sasha nodded.

"Hey, uh, thanks for that," he said, walking ahead. I caught up with him.

"No problem," I said, shaking my head. People drive like such idiots when you get near town. After looking both ways, we started up again.

Upon arriving, Sasha knew what he wanted immediately. "Breakfast burrito, watermelon slushy, and tots," he said excitedly. I nodded slowly, and walked up to the ordering station.

"Hullo?" I said into the speaker.

"Hello! Welcome to Sonic. Name please?" the voice said on the other end. Unlike other systems, this one didn't speak drive-through, thank god. I thought for a second about the name, and smiled.

"Courtney Love," I answered. The people must really be stupid because the person on the other line didn't question me.

"Okay, order please?"

"Uhm, can I have a breakfast burrito, with tots, a large popcorn chicken -- make it the biggest you have -- and a watermelon slushy and a cranberry limeade?"

They questioned me a few times before the order was right, and then told me the total.

I returned to the bench, where Sasha was sitting on the table top. I rested my head on his knees and waited for breakfast.

"Courtney Love?" a short fat boy said, holding our order. "Courtney Love!" he said, getting louder. People started looking around and I couldn't help but smile. I cracked my eye and saw Sasha waving his arms around, and pointing at me. I laughed a little.

The people calmed down and returned to their burgers. The fat pimply boy gave us our food, and I gave him our money. He left the tray.

As Sasha feasted on his burrito, he got an evil look in his eye. "He left the tray," he said, the menacing glint beginning to concern me.

"Uh, yes, what about it?" I asked, popping another piece of chicken into my mouth after taking a sip of my limeade. Too much limeade, not enough cranberry. Ugh.

"I saw we steal it. I'm sure Wayne can use it in some sort of art project. If not, at least as a palate."

"It's sort of hard to take you serious when you have salsa smeared halfway up your face," I laughed softly. He rolled his eyes, smirked, and stuck his chin out towards me. "What? You want me to clean it off?" I asked incredulously. Lazy bum.

"Well, that's good enough. I was hoping you'd lick it off. That'd be hot," he said, smiling hopefully. I frowned, then wiped the side of his face with a napkin.

"Sorry Tex, I got a boyfriend," I remarked, trying to shut him down.

"Since when am I your boyfriend? Hmm?" he asked. I could tell he was joking because he was laughing. Apparently it was funny enough to get a snort out of him. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, you're seriously my boyfriend, woo." I sounded unenthusiastic, that was good. I'd like him to be my boyfriend. But last night Hunter kind of asked me out. So until I was sure all love interests were put on hold.

That included my insufferably dorky Sasha.

We finished our food, and reluctantly left for the truck, along with the red tray that had been left behind.

"Can I drive?" Sasha asked. I shrugged.