Made of Plastic, It's Not Fantastic!

TRISTAN:

Once everyone was done partying at the party I couldn't even enjoy because of my psychotic imagination, I joined Bobbi in my room to figure out what the hell was going on.

I found it funny that she was sitting the same way I do, with my feet propped up on my desk and the chair tilted on only one leg. She was toying with an empty box of cigarettes, wearing one of my t-shirts as a dress.

"Did you have fun at your party?" She wondered, reading the tiny print on the box.

I grunted. "Somehow it isn't all that fun when you have to take responsibility for a bunch of people drunk off their asses."

She flipped the box over and read the other side. "Where's Molly?"

"She and my mom went to visit my cousins for --"

She nearly gave me a heart attack when she jumped out of the chair. "Tristan!"

I blinked. "What?"

She shoved the box in my face. "These can kill you! It says so right on the box, see?"

"Yes, I know." I took the box from her and tossed it in the trash bin beside my bed. "But we need to talk about other things now."

"But this is concerning your health! How could you endanger yourself this way?"

"Don't worry about me. We need to figure out what's going on with you."

"But--"

I pressed my finger to my lips. She received the message.

I could tell she wanted to yell at me some more, but she bit her tongue and rolled her eyes instead. "Humans are so stupid."

I ignored it. "Bobbi, what is the last thing you remember before you woke up in the backyard?"

"Molly was pretending we were camping in the wilderness and we were about to go Bigfoot hunting before her mom called her in for dinner."

I assumed she was being honest. "So why were you --"

"Molly tends to forget me a lot." She added quietly.

"And that's all you remember?"

She looked down at her nails and picked at the edges. "Well, I remember looking up at the stars and wondering if they would look the same if I was..." Her eyes were shy when they met mine. They were still so blue.

"Maybe it was the fertilizer."

She blinked, and the shyness disappeared. Now they were teasing me again. "The what?"

I shrugged. "We put this stuff in the grass that helps it grow. Maybe grass isn't the only --"

"Are you kidding me? I'd believe the wishing-on-a-star thing before I'd believe magical grass did this to me!"

"So you think magical stars did it, then?"

"I don't know what did it, Tristan! I don't know anymore than you, okay? Stop asking so many questions." Her face was red. Really red.

I waited a second for her to cool down. "I'm sorry."

Bobbi raked her hair out of her face and sighed. She sat on the corner of my bed. "We can ask Molly. She might know something."

"I don't think we should tell Molly about this. She might tell Mom and that will --"

"But Molly will realize I'm gone...actually, she probably won't. But I'm sure she won't recognize me. You can just say I'm your friend?"

"She'll recognize you, especially since I did. But even if she doesn't, it --"

"Tristan, she's five. She'll believe anything."

I threw my hands in the air. "Will you please let me finish a sentence?"

Bobbi looked insulted, staring down into her lap.

I cleared my throat and sat beside her on the bed. "Sorry, I forgot." I waited to see her blue eyes. "No more questions."

And there was the smile I was waiting for.

~oOo~

BOBBI:

My eyes were getting stingy and tingly, a sensation I never experienced before. I asked Tristan if it was a human thing.

He made my heart flutter with his half smile. "You're probably tired."

"No!" I couldn't sleep at a time like this! I wanted to see the whole world. How did I know I would still be human in the morning? "Sleeping is not..." My voice faded and a sort of silent lion roar pried my mouth open. "What was that?!"

Tristan looked at me the same way every time I asked a question about humanity; like I was a baby taking her very first steps in his direction. "A yawn. It means you're definitely tired. I guess you can sleep in Molly's room for tonight."

I became frozen with fear. "No, I can't let them see me like this! I'll never hear the end of it!"

"Well where else are you going to sleep?" He noticed my subtle glance at his bed. "Uh, Bobbi..."

"I'll sleep on the outside of the covers." I said. "You won't even remember I'm there." Although Teresa would probably argue it is difficult for a teenage boy to forget a girl in his bed.

Tristan thought about it for another moment. "Fine. I'll sleep on the outside." He left the room to get some extra blankets.

I didn't argue with that.