Italics- thoughts/ flashbacks/ dreams

Bold- author talking

Underline- narrator talking, known as the main character

Normal- normal story

2374 words

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Once mom comes home with Yaya I'ma tell them. I'm so fuckin scared.

"You scared? I'm scared."

He flips my ponytail over my face, "nope."

I put it back. "How?" I need to know. This is driving me mad. I have no idea how anyone is gonna react and if I gotta move to the Amazon rainforest to hide.

A hide away house would be so cool. I need a mental one from my thoughts too.

"If it has to be done it has to be done. No point in stressing over something simple."

"How is this simple? You confuse me."

My head and heart and stomach and every other organ hurts. It's like going to a new school for the first time.

"We did the worst parts. This is easy, what are you actually scared of?"

"What if they don't like you? What if they get mad at me? What if someone passes out? What if someone dies? What if they disown me? What if they call the police on you?"

He puts his hand under my thigh and pulls me closer, "you overthink too much. Half of what you said is guff. Don't worry."

"I can'ttttt. This is so crazy." I think I'm crying, I don't even know. This is sorta terrifying. I don't even know how we're gonna do this. "How is this gonna work?"

"Face time."

"Okayyyy?"

"Or you could tell them and then I officially meet them tomorrow."

"The second one."

"See? Simple."

He's delusional.

I hear the door open. Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.

I don't even know what to say. Improv at its finest.

"You're going to make yourself pass out if you don't relax."

I look up at him, "I'm too nervous to relax." Wow I'm so squeaky.

He shakes his head, "go talk to the people you grew up with."

I get up and listen to my mom, dad, and grandma talk in the kitchen, right past this corner.

I look back at him, "come with me." He gets up and I grab his hand.

My insides are so tight and I feel like I'm in trouble even though I'm not.

Not yet anyways.

I walk over to the kitchen table with my manz, My manz, and look at mom and yaya and dad. "I gotta tell y'all something."

"What is it?" Yaya asks.

I will say the most generic shit ever. "Sooo I've been talking to a guy and was wondering if y'all wanna meet him tomorrow...?"

Everyone is shocked and stops existing for a second. I wait to get cursed out for a bit too long.

"What? Who?" Mom asks.

"A guy I met at a coffee shop."

That would have been cuter than the middle of the night.

I don't go to coffee shops though.

"I thought you hated coffee?" Yaya says.

"I do but I wanted a sandwich. And there was a guy there and he was nice and we started talking."

My coffee shop man plays with my hair like a cat scratching something. The spit ends are going to get worse.

"Since when?"

"Uh December." It was the last week I think but it still counts.

Dad looks at me suspiciously. I mirror him and he changes his expression.

I'm surprised I'm not disowned yet.

"What's his name?"

I look at death for help cuz I don't know if he wants me to say his name or not. He doesn't even like it when I say his name.

He shrugs, "Waylen."

"Waylen."

Mom looks excited and yaya is surprised and dad is confused like he's trying to figure it out.

"Is there anything serious?" Mom asks.

"Yeah, that's why I want to introduce him to y'all." Duh.

"My baby won't be lonely anymore!"

That's what I be thinking.

Ok I don't wanna talk anymore.

ꨄ❦ꨄ❦ꨄ➪

It's now later, like 6. I'm so excited and nervous and I feel like I'm breaking the rules. But I'm excited to see what happens. I'm also fangirling over the story I'm reading and can't sit still.

I'll end up giving myself a hernia.

I plan on taking a shower within the next hour. I got within the next hour to figure it out

I turn to my manz, "how is the shower thing going to work?"

"I told you."

"You didn't tell me enough. I need a step by step plan."

"Ok so imagine a bathroom with us in it. And then we take off some clothes. Then we get in the shower and I wash your back. The rest will naturally flow."

Which bathroom though? Yaya's is taller so hers.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want-"

I put my hand over his mouth. "Shush, sir."

It would be so mean of me if I backed down. We made a deal and I agreed.

His tongue touches my hand. I jerk back my hand in surprise. "The hell? You crazy?"

He laughs some and puts his forehead on my shoulder. "Yes."

"You weirdo."

"Your weirdo."

That makes my heart happy.

"Am I your weirdo?" I gotta know.

Equality is important.

"Of course."

Aw that makes me even happier.

ꨄ❦ꨄ❦ꨄ➪

We're in the bathroom. It's time. I'm nervous but so excited and so nervous but mainly excited.

And a bit nervous. Oh my god.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yea. I'm actually excited."

He puts his forehead on mine, "you are shaking, love."

"Oh. But I'm excited too."

He smiles, kisses my forehead and takes the rubber band out my hair. My brush appears in his hand and walks behind me to brush out my hair.

He is so sweet.

"Why do you brush your hair before you take a shower?"

I look up at him with panic, "how do you know that? Do you watch me?"

"No, I hear the strands of your hair screaming for help every time you brush it."

Damn his hearing is amazing. "It's ok. Thanks."

"Mhm."

Oh my god oh my god oh my god. Actually I'm too dramatic. This isn't a big deal.

But it is. But it isn't.

I randomly remember a scene in the story I was reading earlier. There was so much drama and exes and other shit and it gave me so many questions about my manz.

This is more important, I got all night to take a shower. I look at him in the mirror as he messes with my hair. It's been brushed and straightened for a while.

"When was the last time you loved someone? Like a relationship?" I ask with seriousness but not rudely because I don't want to be rude.

"40 years."

That's so long ago. "What was it like?"

"It was fun. She was a fun person."

"What's it like losing someone like that and moving on?"

He pauses for a quick moment, "haunting and hard."

I look up at him. "Do you miss her?"

"A lot."

"Then why do you never talk about her?"

"Because I had my time to talk with her. I had my time to give my move to her. She isn't my focus, you are. I get the opportunity to give you all my love and attention."

My heart can't take this. I'ma melt into nothing.

Actually I would melt into whatever a person would melt into.

Ew.

Besides that, I'm so happy right now so let's get this over with. I walk over to the shower and turn on the water and stare at it.

I'm not gonna get in cold water, that's psychopath behavior. I turn around, he's already looking at me. Weirdo.

"Do you take cold showers?"

He shrugs, "sometimes."

Oh ma gawd he's a psychopath.

Aren't we all though?

Another extremely important question comes to mind. "How am I gonna wash my ass if your in the shower with me?"

He grins, "I could do it for you."

The air gets hot. Oh the water is too hot, definitely that. I make it a tad bit cooler since the water is so sensitive.

More sensitive than me.

"No sir. But seriously, how?"

"I'll leave then you do whatever you have to do just not your hair."

"Oo ok."

I look at the water which isn't steaming anymore but cold. The air is too cold. I only tap the knob to the warmer side so it will get warmer and not hot.

I don't even like taking showers alone, I don't like being naked or alone. Maybe it'll be better cuz he's here. He makes me feel safe, would it be better?

The water is finally perfect. I didn't even ask him what temperature he wanted. You're rude.

I turn around to see him sadly staring at himself in the mirror. I walk the half a step over and mock his pose before staring at me and him in the mirror, back and forth.

Maybe he sees the basement demon. I saw it in this mirror too.

I look up at him, but he doesn't move. "What are you looking at?"

"A mistake."

I look back at the mirror. What is he talking about? I don't see anything out of place in the mirror, besides us. We look goofy together right now. He can't be talking about himself because he is literally perfect.

Maybe he's looking at me and I can't tell cuz of the angle or height difference or something. I am a mistake though. Mom's birth control failed and she had me. It failed on her for Aaleyah too.

"I don't see any mistakes in the mirror except for you not smiling." I wrap my arms around his waist and hide my face against the side of his chest.

I don't want to think that he thinks that of himself. He always looks at himself with hatred everytime a mirror is close by or he completely avoids it and stares at me or the floor. There's only one mirror in his house, as far as I know, and it's in the bathroom.

"There's another one."

"Yes there is," I put my hand on the side of his face and made him look at me, "it's you not being in the shower with me right now. Now come on, bills aren't cheap."

I intensely stare at him till he smiles. He says he could never take me seriously because I'm too small and cute.

He's crazy.

I love him so much though. We can be crazy together.

I grab his hand and pull him away from the mirror. Maybe it's just the mirror. "Come on sir, we have no time to waste and the water is perfect and I'm sick of procrastinating because that isn't going to help anything."

He finally smiles at me so I return it. Those damn wild butterflies come back. It's been a while.

He grabs the edge of my shirt and I let him pull it over my head. I do the same for him.

Heh. Muscles.

I poke his chest. "I need some of your muscles. You can't hoard them all," I look up at him and wrap my arms around him again and he does the same to me," sharing is caring."

He kisses my nose, "I have so much to share with you my love."

His words keep killing me. He won't be able to do anything with me if I'm dead. Or could he? Could we do things together in the afterlife?

My thoughts get interrupted when my pants and socks 'mysteriously' disappear. I yelp. "The floor is freezingggg."

He grins and picks me up, I wrap my legs around his waist because that would be awkward if I didn't.

"Take your pants off, you weren't born in a barn." I then think about it, "were you?"

"No."

His pants disappear and he walks next to the edge of the tub and sets me down on the mat thingy.

I look at the evil cold floor tiles, "you're evil." The tiles don't respond. RuDe. I turn back to my manz. "I'm cold."

He looks amused. "Come on then." He gets in the tub and holds his hand out to me.

He wants me to die. Ain't no way someone is just this nice. It's scientifically impossible.

I put my hand in his and got in the tub too. Wow, it looks small now.

I wOnDeR wHy,

I watch the water go down the drain because I'm weird and don't know what to do next.

"How do you feel?"

"Excited."

I turn around to see him and oh my gawd. He looks so fucking hot with wet hair and it's long too.

I look like a naked mole rat during and after showers. This isn't fair.

My shampoo appears in his hands. "Turn around my dear."

I do exactly that and he puts it in my hair and massages my scalp. I'm in heaven. No wonder he loves it when I do it to him so damn much.

Once he stops I turn around and take the bottle from him and he looks at me like a curious puppy.

"Your turn. I wanna wash your hair too."

He sits on the edge of the tub. Ha, I'm taller.

I put the shampoo in his hair too,

This is cute. I feel cute too. We gotta wash each other's hair more often.

He kisses my stomach the second I stop paying attention and the butterflies in my stomach are wildin.

ꨄ❦ꨄ❦ꨄ➪

We're still in the basement. He's sitting criss crossed on the chair I usually do and I'm sitting between his legs. He has his arms wrapped around me and his nose in my hair.

Yaya kept asking me questions about him, not knowing he's right here. This is so fun. I feel like a double agent or something.

I look up at my manz which requires a lot of back work and almost kills me. "Everyone is excited to meet you."

Except Aaleyah. She's probably just jealous.

He kisses my nose. "I can tell."

I smile at him before sitting back to normal. I be getting so dizzy all the time lately.

It's weird.

I'm so nervous for tomorrow.

ꨄ❦ꨄ❦ꨄ➪

*Irina walks on stage* "Hi y'all! So the story isn't actually going to end soon, I lied. We're a little over halfway through."

*She looks around the room filled with empty chairs* "I don't know why I even bother. No one is here. No one has been here for months. For seven months I've been hopeful. This was going to be the story but I guess not. Why do I fucking torcher my emotions like this anyways?"

*She collapses and lets go of the guitar. She was going to play a song she finally learned for people but now the only sound that fills the auditorium is the ringing of a guitar and the sobs of a mother who is losing hope of becoming an author and making something of herself, making a meaning of her life.*

"They will come baby, don't worry." *Death says as he appears next to her. He picks her and the guitar up and they leave.*