Bruises in Miniature Form

I tried ignoring him, I honestly did.
I even tried covering my ears with pillows, nothing helped.
That boy has got this talent to be relentless and he uses it well.
Rick had phoned earlier with my mom and told me that they were getting caught up with things, but would return home late adding that Max was staying the night and I could order us some pizza near the end of our conversation.
This boy is making me want to choke on my own spit.

"So Newton, how the hell did you get that name?"
"My mother is obsessed with Wayne Newton, my middle name is Teresa, just call me that" I huffed, looking up over my shoulder to see him leaning against the doorframe eating French toast, my French toast.
"Teresa?... nah, I'll just call you Newt"
I frowned, "Whatever. Where did you get the French toast?"
He grinned childishly, jumping over the coach to sit beside me, "I took some bread, put it in the frying pan, mixed some eggs and cooked it. Want me to teach you how?"
"I'm not an idiot" I scowled.
"Could've fooled me" He muttered quietly under his breath, snatching the remote from my hand and flipping on some fake wrestling show.
"Your kidding me right? Grown men in tights? They aren't even hitting each other... they just... fall down and pretend to weep"

Max raised an eyebrow while watching the TV, not even sparing me a look.
Well he was being a little more civil then before…
Erase that thought...

"Clean that up will ya?" He spoke through a mouth full of food.
I stared down at the French toast he had just slopped down on the couch, the same couch mom fell in love with and told Rick if she couldn’t bring it, she would murder someone in her sleep...
"Are you kidding! That’s going to stain!" I shouted quickly jumping to my feet as he gave me a 'so-what' look.
"Wait? You’re freaking out over... French toast… on the couch?"
I glared, "You made the damn mess clean it up!"
He grinned letting out a laugh, "Oh please, you make it way too easy"

I held the urgent need to bring my hand across his face by biting down on my bottom lip; if I stayed calm then he couldn’t gain the satisfaction he desired.
He rolled his eyes slowly when I wouldn’t move and got up off his seat to walk into the kitchen.
Maybe he isn’t such a jerk?
With a firm nod I decided to give him another chance and skipped into the kitchen to take the dish towel from his hands.

“Alright I’m sorry, you’re probably not used to having me around here and I’m not used to you. So I’ll clean the mess up. Friends?”
He raised an eyebrow before bursting into fits of laughter with both hands clutching his sides, “Right, you clean the mess up Newt”

I tried giving him a polite smile and led the way back into the living room to clean up his mess.
If Rick said he was around here a lot then I should get used to him, even if this kid had managed to push all of my buttons in a very short time limit.
He can’t be all that bad… can he?

- -

My mother was cooking pancakes while Rick sat flicking pieces of egg at me from across the table, making me laugh and squealed while trying to get away from the chunks.
Rick sat with a big grin when I managed to spoon a little bit of yolk and aim it at his head.

“Tea cup!” My mother scolded as soon as she turned around and saw my actions.
“Tea cup? Cute nick-name” Max laughed waltzing into my kitchen in only a pair of boxers and messy black hair.
“Oh I thought so too!” My mother giggled and passed a glass of apple juice to him, my glass of apple juice.
“Uh mom?”
“Yes hunny?” She smiled sweet and I just decided to shake my head and forget about it, after all it would be Max drinking my apple juiced spit… ew that sounded gross.
“So why Tea cup?” Max questioned politely as he took a seat at the table beside Rick who was still dissecting his eggs.
“Oh it was the cutest thing! When she was a little girl she would always sit-“
“Mom, let’s keep that story to ourselves okay”
My mom pouted and Max matched her, “Aw come on Newt, it’s all in good fun. I wouldn’t tell anyone”
“Max is a good kid, keeps secrets well” Rick smiled and picked up the newspaper to search through the sport section.
I shrugged and got myself another glass from the cabinets, “Hey mom when do you have that appointment with the florists?”
“Oh! Right, sometime at five”

I nodded again and politely excused myself, giving a small wave of acceptance when Max told me he would meet up with me later.
Mom had talked to Rick about high school for me but in the end had both decided to get me home schooled, I had no problem with it, after all it could be fun.
I would be missing the experience of high school but my plans to see my father would also be that much easier.
Speaking of my father, he was coming out to visit me for the weekend to help my mother with the wedding plans, good thing dad is a wedding planner.
I couldn’t wait to see him, it had been three whole months since we had visited and my fingers loved to twitch with anticipation.
I climbed the stairs up to my room and began packing up some clothes; Dad had offered me to stay in the hotel with him to give Rick and Mom space.
At first mom and Rick argued that he could stay here but I wanted my free time with the father I hadn’t seen in awhile.
My bedroom door was left open so when a small knock came to the frame I turned around to see Rick with a big grin on his face, leaning on the door frame.

“So you excited about seeing your dad?”
I nodded enthusiastically without considering how that might hurt his feelings, if at all, “Yeah! I haven’t seen him in three months so we were planning to go to the casinos since dad has never been here to Las Vegas, of course it took some bribing so I could go along”
Rick laughed and nodded lightly before coming in to help me pack up my clothing, “You know I’ve never been a dad before, except to Max but he’s not a teenage girl… although sometimes I wonder,” We both laughed at that and then his face grew serious, “So I don’t want to over step any boundaries alright, I want us to get along okay?”
I smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder comfortingly, “Rick you make my mom happy and that means the world to me, you’re a nice guy and I’m going to be proud to have you in our family”
“Thank you Newton, that means a lot” We each shared a childish high five and returned to rolling up shirts and pants, my socks already rammed up into my shoes.

Every time I got to spend some alone time with Rick I saw why my mother loved him, he was a very kind man and quite funny whenever the time called for it.
I respected him as an adult figure since he was soon to become my step father, though I wasn’t sure yet if I would ever be able to call him ‘Dad’.
I would have to talk to my own father first and see how he felt about the idea.
With Rick I was sure I could get away with a lot, and this only gave me more advantages at home since mother was the only real hard ass parent I had, and even then she wasn’t too good at that.
Thankfully though our life styles never really called for any of my parents to act harsh, as I kept my grades up, hardly ever got in trouble and knew how to watch my tongue.
By the time my clothes had been packed with everything else I might need, (which included my own shampoo, tooth brush, hair brush and make up) Rick and I had gone through all possible conversations in a total random effect.
The only conversation we hadn’t really gotten onto was Maxwell Green, the black haired boy in the kitchen with my mother eating at all my pancakes and apple juice.
I figured he was a nice kid at heart and just a little intimidated with my mother and I moving in and practically taking over Rick’s time which had been, as I heard, normally quite focused on him.
Maybe he was scared I would take Rick away from him completely and felt too attached to him. His parents after all were always gone.

“So what do you think of living in Las Vegas?” Rick spoke up after retrieving my cell phone which had fallen under my bed.
“Well so far it’s alright, definitely a lot different than I had expected at first but all around… good”
He nodded and gave a small smile, “It does take some getting used to”
I took my phone from his hand and flipped it open to search through my contacts, “Dad used to travel a lot, most times Mom would stay home for her work and when I got lucky I could go with Dad”
“What did your dad work as before? Or was he always a wedding planner?”
I smiled at the fond memories and shook my head, “He used to be an architect but after he met Daryl he found he just wasn’t happy doing what he did so he took up wedding planning”
“Well I can’t wait to meet him”
“Neither can I, you two will get along really well”

Rick agreed with me and left to drive my mother to the store while I went and got myself a shower.
It only took me ten minutes but when I got out I noticed my towel missing, where the hell had it gone?
Poking my head out into the hallway I heard the TV on pretty loud in the living room, Max must be watching it, my brain concluded.
My choices were laid out in front of me; I could run straight into my room without a towel, call Max and ask him for one or… wait until seven when Rick and mom would be back.
Waiting didn’t seem the best option, and I wasn’t too sure if Max would even get me a towel…
But running down the hallway to my room?
The little voice in the back of my head argued that Max was downstairs watching the television and wouldn’t see me but the little nagging feeling was warning me that he could be upstairs.

“Fuck” I hissed and leaned against the closed bathroom door while looking back and forth for maybe anything, even a dish towel would help.