Give Me Envy, Give Me Malice, Give Me Your Attention

"Hey, this is actually pretty good."

"Yeah, it is."

Everyone was starving, digging into the lasagna that Yume had made, with slight help from me, Sam, and Kayla. Yume smiled and bowed, taking in the compliments as they came.

"I didn't know you could cook, Yume," Brent commented, stuffing his mouth full of lasagna. Yume glared at him.

"How dare you underestimate my cooking skills!" She whacked him with the spatula in her hand.

"Hey! What did I do?" Brent shot back, trying to escape Yume's wrath, while everyone else laughed.

"Well, that was great. I'm going to sleep now," Joseph announced, putting his dishes in the sink. Danny and Tyler followed suit, retreating down to the basement.

"I bet you forty bucks they mess with your drum set," Brendon smiled at Spencer, who raised an eyebrow.

"You're on," Spencer replied, while Ryan shook his head behind him. I chuckled to myself. Everyone knew he was losing forty bucks. Yume hit Spencer on the head with her spatula.

"Hey! What the hell did I do?"

"Stop making stupid bets. I keep telling you that they will get you nowhere." Everyone watched as Yume chastised Spencer, who stared at her in boredom.

"Well, I say we check to see who won," Brendon walked over to the basement door slowly, as if creating suspense. Upon opening it, loud banging and screams wafted up to greet the open door.

"Who the hell is playing my guitar down there?" Brendon yelled, stomping down the stairs.

"No one was playing y-" Ryan started, but was interrupted by Brendon's joining of Danny's band.

"I think we've lost him," Brent faked despair.

"Well, anyway..." Sam started, looking at Spencer. "You owe Brendon forty bucks."

Spencer grumbled as he pulled out his wallet and handed it over to Sam, who pocketed it happily. Yume cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"We should be heading to sleep now," she said, picking up the leftover dishes. "Run along now!" She shooed us all out of the kitchen with her spatula.

"Why is she acting like an overactive mother?" Kayla randomly blurted. Everyone shrugged. Sam, Kayla and I walked to our respective bedrooms to go to sleep, while Ryan, Spencer, Brent and the newly surfaced Brendon waged war against each other in another video game. Sam clicked her tongue as we walked down the hall.

"Brendy-poo... He's Mormon, you know," she clucked, giggling to herself. Kayla and I were left in a fog.

"What are you talking about?" Kayla asked.

"I don't know," Sam answered, skipping into the guest room, leaving Kayla and I even more confused. Kayla scowled at me and followed Sam. I stared in to the guest room as Sam and Kayla began pulling on the covers. Bad memories came flooding back as I stared in. Sam looked up at me quizzically. I'm sure she knew what was wrong, but made no indication. After a few seconds, I quickly walked away without another word and collapsed onto my aunt and uncle's bed. As I stared up at the ceiling, I tried to drive away the feelings of hopelessness I had. It didn't work.

"Everything's going wrong... Why does she hate me? She doesn't even know me."

"It's because she views you as the enemy," Brendon's voice came from the door. I quickly sat up to look at him, surprised.

"Sorry. I came to say good night to Sam and overheard you," he explained.

"Oh, that's fine, but..." I thought about it. "Why would Kayla think of me as an enemy?"

"Because she thinks you're going to get in between the friendship she and Sam have. Believe me. I got the same treatment when Sam and I started going out. She'll forget about it after awhile."

I smiled at Brendon, "Really?"

"Yeah. Take it from someone who's been there."

"Thanks."

"No problem. Always happy to share the wisdom of the Cheetos."

He walked off as I started cracking up yet again.

***

"Breakfast everyone!"

Sam woke to the voices of Spencer and Adrienne's parents.

"What?" she asked groggily, rubbing her eyes at the bright sunlight that invaded the room.

Across the room, in the other bed, Kayla sat, staring off into space. Sam looked at her sleepily.

"What did they say?"

"Something about breakfast," Kayla answered, still staring into space.

"Yay! FOOD!" Sam jumped out of bed, and began pulling on her socks. Kayla stared at her, tilting her head as if perplexed.

"What are you thinking about?" Sam asked, already knowing that Kayla was deep in thought.

"Polar bears and left-handedness," Kayla answered. Sam smiled, remembering that Kayla had random thoughts when she woke up.

"Are you going to get breakfast?"

"In a while..." Kayla whispered, pensively. Sam got up and ran across the hall to Spencer's room, where Yume was fast asleep. She bgan shaking her violently.

"Yume! Get up. Come on, there's breakfast waiting for us in the dining room!"

Yume mumbled incoherently and turned over. Sam frowned.

"Come on! Let's go!" she yelled, jumping around. Yume mumbled again, causing Sam to open the curtains.

"Okay, I'm up!" Yume exclaimed, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Okay, I'll be back. I'm going to go wake up everyone else," Sam skipped off to Spencer's parents room, chuckling to herself as she reached the door. Instead of waking up Adrienne as she'd intended to do, she smiled widely, something she found herself doing a lot lately.

"I'm going to need my camera for this."