Poisonous

Saturday, June 12th, 2004

The cigarette smoke was getting in her eyes but she didn't care, even the inch long ash that was at the end of the cigarette, hanging loosely in her mouth didn't seem to catch her attention. “Earth to Sophia…,” her best friend, Chris Rabb said. Originally her brother’s best friend, that changed when he brought Chris home one night when they were eleven. He waved a hand in front of her face when she didn’t respond. “Sophie.”

“Mm?” she made a sound, her own version of asking ‘What?’

“You alive?”

“Mm-hmm,” she replied, moving her character on the screen. Shots rung out through the television, machine gun and handgun both alike.

“She’s in her war game mode, she won’t be coming out for a while,” just only one of her few older brothers, Jason, said with a gruff chuckle. He stood behind his sister with his arms crossed, normal baseball cap and stubble on and watched her. “Shouldn’t you know this by now? I mean… how long have you known her?” he continued with a laugh.

Pressing buttons quickly, Sophie managed to kill a few enemies with her rapid fire gun. “Fuck!” she screamed when she died, making her cigarette fall out of her mouth and burn her bare leg. “Shit!” she yelled again, only louder and higher, jumping up to try to cease the burning. Sophie sighed, picking the butt up, putting it out in the ash tray and ground the ashes into the carpet and the old, musty blue couch that she got at a garage sale a couple months ago for twenty bucks. She brushed off her yellow bermuda shorts and grabbed the remote once she sat down and pressed continue. “Can you get me something to drink?” she asked either one of the guys that watched her as she started over at the continue point.

“You can do it,” Chris said to Jason as he plopped in the couch next to her, lighting his own cigarette.

“I don’t feel like it,” Jason replied as well, lying on her bed with his bare, sock clad feet propped up.

“You two are assholes,” she mumbled, concentrating once more.

“You know,” Chris started, “normal girls don’t play war games all night long.”

“I’m not a normal girl,” she said mundanely, with a plain tone. Truth be told, she wasn't and she hadn't hated that she wasn't either. Sophie grew up with a hoard of boys without a mother, only her father to take care of her. She didn't know how to be feminine or what it meant to be a girl and without knowing the other side, she was blissfully unaware.

“Of course you’re not,” Jason added. “if you were, you wouldn’t be Sophie.”

“Damnit!” she yelled, throwing the controller to the ground, nearly breaking it for the millionth time. She had died once again, the third time in a row and now she was pissed and agitated. “Fuckity fuck fuck! You guys are fucking distracting me! What the fucking shit hell do you want from me anyway?”

“Ladies and gentlemen, Hurricane Sophie,” Chris joked. She knew he was joking, but her anger didn’t care. “Saying her favorite word: fuck.”

“Shut the fuck up faggot,” she said, getting up to take a trip to the small refrigerator. She grabbed herself a beer and popped the top off. Taking a sip, Sophie walked back into the living room section of her studio apartment, the couch and TV that took up the half of her room that the bed didn’t, the small refrigerator was at the end of the bed: easy access for lazy nights. She was extremely lucky not to have a roommate, she thought to herself at least once a night.

“Why are we not doing anything on a Friday night?” Chris asked, obviously leading into something.

"Because it’s only four in the afternoon,” Sophie began “You guys came over two hours ago, waking me up after I slept through both of my alarms. Then I scratched my ass and started playing video games.” She took another sip of her drink. Continuing to her story, she added, “I haven’t showered since Wednesday nor have I shaved since Tuesday. I’m a stinky, hairy, twenty four year old could've been college senior and I’m still tired as hell. I’m making you two assholes wait until I feel like doing something other than what I’ve been doing since I woke up just to torture you. Now shut up or leave,” she explained casually, looking at him. There wasn't a drop of hostility in her voice, and actually a small smirk played its way to her lips. Jason laughed loudly near her and she couldn’t help but to crack a larger smile. Chris smiled and leaned back, containing his own laugh.

Sophie sure was not your normal girl. Normal girls wouldn’t say something like that. Normal girls wouldn’t walk up to a perfect stranger and hold up an Elmo doll that she seemed to make talk, saying “Elmo loves you… mmmhmm.. Now give Elmo a kiss… muahh!” and then run away frantically looking for the next stranger. She would, and has, done that at stoplights. Once she dressed up a talking Elmo doll in black and at a stoplight, just rolled down the window and stuck him out, making him talk to the drivers next to her. Needless to say, when the light turned green, they sped off like a bat out of hell. Most likely because they think she is a fresh escapee from the local psych ward and might find out where they live and rape them… or have Elmo do the raping.

She just wasn’t average in the personality department. The only thing that was normal about her was her outward appearance, minus the hair and clothing choice… and the few… choice piercings… and the tattoo on her bottom that read ’Your Name’. Nothing is normal about her. To Sophie herself, yes, she was just as normal as anyone could get, but to the culture at large she wasn't. She usually dyed her hair a shade of pastel blue or black on any given day and kept studs in her nose and lip. She was five foot six and one hundred sixty eight pounds. A lot of it was muscle from softball in high school, but a good chunk of it was body fat. She was healthy and she wasn’t a stick. She had some meat to her bones and she liked it that way. The best part was that she was strong for being a girl. Contrary to her twenty eight year old brother, she could beat him in an arm wrestling match. That boy had no strength.

She grew up a tough girl and she contributed that to her three older brothers and one younger sister. In that sibling group is Shawn, who’s the oldest at thirty three, then Jason at twenty eight, and Brent at twenty seven. Sophie was the next one born, then there’s the youngest little sister Vanessa, who she also calls Nessie, but mostly calls her Ness. She’s only sixteen years old.

“Yup, that just about covers it,” Jason said. “You forgot to mention you haven’t brushed your hair in a couple days either.”

“No, I brushed it yesterday,” she said matter-of-factly, shaking her black short hair with a smile.

“Okay, how about this,” Jason started.

“What?” she asked, pushing her hair from her face.

“How about you go get a shower, and while you do that we’ll pick you up something to eat.”

“How did food get involved in this?” Chris asked, flicking ashes into an empty pop can. She made a mental note to clean, even though she knew it wouldn't get done. The simple act wasn’t necessarily important to her.

Jason laughed to himself and strolled over to the refrigerator, opening it. “Yeah…,” she said, “So I haven’t stocked it in a while.” There was nothing but a couple bottles of beer and probably a dead fly in there. A cold, dead, half frozen fly, she thought to herself, making herself crack a smile.

“Okay, you get a shower; we’ll be back later with…?”

“Uh… the old standby? McDonalds? Twenty piece chicken nuggets with a coke and ranch dressing pretty pretty please?” she begged. Jason smiled and nodded. “Large Coke, large fries,” she added for clarity.

“You got it. Then we’ll get on our way to Bam‘s.”

“Bam?” she asked, hearing a name she was all too familiar with, but very unhappy about hearing as well.

“Yeah…?”

“Why we going over there to that asshole’s?” she asked with a slight bark to her words. She didn't like him. She really didn't. Sophie and Bam had a feud that started in childhood and Sophie wasn't one to let go of grudges. He knew and has always known that she didn't like him and he still likes to treat her as if she was just one of the guys, physical abuse and all. Bam also purposefully ignored the fact that she disliked him. He finds it funny and he always finds some way to pull a joke on her. In her bubbling anger, she keeps calm around him, just waiting for her moment to take him down.

“Uh… yeah…,” Chris said. She studied his expression as she sipped on her beer, trying to psych him out but doing nothing of the sort. Her psyching out abilities were out of commission with this guy, but she still tried.

Sophie sighed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. He comes near me, I’m letting loose, just to you know.” she grabbed a towel, a washcloth, and her toiletries. “Ladies, I’m off to go get clean. Fetch me my Mickey D’s!” she told them with a smile. Chris and Jason jumped up and went out her door. She hooked a left to her bathroom while they hooked a right.