Don't own James or anyone of that sort.
"Are you nervous?" he asks, quite stupidly might I add, watching the road. "Hmm, what gave it away, the fact that I've lost feeling in my bottom lip from biting it so much or the fact that my hands haven't stopped shaking since we left the motel an hour ago" I almost yell crossing my arms and blowing my bangs out of my face. I looked over at him, "what are you so happy about?" I asked, he has no right to be "I'm just happy I found you. I missed that" "that what?" I snap, he laughs, what's his aim? "That. When you get all persnickety and yell, I don't know why but I guess you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." He looks at me through the corner of his eye, I turn to the road "That doesn't make any sense, why would you like it when I yell at you, you creep"
He smiles in silence. Quite a long silence, it's nice outside, but hot. And of course Jimmy's air conditioner broke a mile back so we have the windows down. "UGH!" I yell, making Jimmy swerve "WHAT what! Why the UGHing!" he yells pretty startled. "I'm just mad I let you talk me into this." I look out the window to the red sand. Lots and lots of red sand, and plateaus, and freedom, while I'm stuck in this stupid car with this stupid "you're just nervous, chill out. If you want I can let you chill at my house first let you get comfortable, show you around" NO! "NO! What if someone sees me! I don't want people to see me." He laughs, why would he laugh at my pain? "Fine, you can just chill at my house, take a shower maybe change into some of my mom's old stuff, I'll fill you in on the deets of things" the deets? I look at him, "how much longer till we get there?" I ask. He looks at his watch "VOX?" he says, hmm, he still has vox. "23 minutes 45 seconds" a robotic voice says. Shit shit shit "Shit shit shit shit shit" "Chill Cyn," Screw him I'm ducking. I undo my seat belt and crawl underneath the dashboard "Cindy what are you doing?" he asks laughing "hiding. What does it look like?" I reply scowling. He looks down at me for a second "Are you comfortable?" he mocks "Of course I'm comfortable now stop acknowledging my presence." I say leaning my head against the... the... thingy. You know. The thingy.
Bump.
Bump.
Turn.
Bump Turn. "Curb check" he laughs.
Bump Ow.
Turn.
Turn Ow.
Bump Bump Turn Ow.
Turn Bump Ow. "God this is taking forever where are we?" I ask poking my head out from the... thingy.
He stops the car "Here." He smiles putting it into park and undoing his seat belt. "Are you coming?" he asks, pfft are you coming? "Not yet, check to see if the coast is clea-" "JIMMYYYY!" An older woman yelps, I hear a door close and what sounds like high heels on grass. "Hey mom," he says in his much deeper voice, rather unexcited seeing as though he hasn't seen her in 3 years. I can't hear much but it sounds like hugging is happening "Muah muah" she over emphasizes what I assume is kissing his face. "Mom, stop, come, on haha" he laughs. "So hunny, any... luck?" she pauses "I guess not hmm, I'm sorry" she says quickly "Actually mom, don't scream but I did have luck" he walks closer to the car I shut my eyes really tight "you mean" he opens the door and there's silence. I open one of my eyes and then both, she's staring at me in what I assume is disbelief. "Hi." I wave. He turns to his mom "Now mom she's laying low for today because she's really nervous so please could you try not to" "O CINDY!" She screams scattering the birds in the tree behind her. She runs to the car and grabs my arms pulling me "STOP HER STOP HER AH MY COVER IS BLOWN!" I scream being forced out of the car, Jimmy runs in between us "Mom you can do this inside for now I need you to run to the coat closet and get one of my jackets, sheen lives around here and If he found out the whole town would know" he says putting me back in the car. His mother nods and runs back into the house.
She soon comes back and they cover me with the coat until we reach the door, Ms Neutron pulls me into a huge bear hug, and even though I'm not much of the hugging type, I hug back, with an equal amount of force too. What? I haven't hugged anyone in 4 years, as you can imagine that's really sad seeing all the bad days I've had. I needed a hug. It was nice; she was warm and smelled like sugar. I could have stayed there for a while but when I opened my eyes Nerdface was ogling me so I pushed her off. "Poor dear where on earth did you go?" she asks rushing to the kitchen dragging me behind her. "Well, I'm not really sure I think Oklahoma, I found a hostel near here that let me stay for a couple of months, then I walked for like a year eating up my food supply then I reached O'Donnell and bought myself a new food supply before I remembered I had a buddy who lived there so I stayed with the buddy from O'Donnell for about a year and a half, he gave me a ride as far as Aspermont which took a month or two, I gave him the rest of my money for gas and ended up almost starving so I stopped at like Indiahoma and that's when Jimmy found me and tried convincing me to come home." I briefly look at Jimmy. "Oh you poor dear you must be starving" She ran to the oven and put on oven mitts "Oh no mom it's cool, I bought her breakfast this morning" Jimmy pipes up as her mom takes out a pie. "Are you sure?" she asks putting the pie on the counter. "Yeah, it's cool Mrs. Neutron. I'd really like a shower, and maybe some better smelling clothes though." I smile getting up from the table. Jimmy gets up quickly soon after I do "You can use mine it's up in my room, I'll show you" he says walking towards the stairs "she's staying here?" Mrs. Neutron asks slowly following "Yeah mom is that cool with you?" He asks halfway up the stairs. Oh great, it might not be. Woohoo. "It's completely fine I'll go get my old clothes from the attic." She yells up the stairs as we round the corner.
"Alright, here is my room, hopefully no one touched it since I've been gone" he says opening up a door into a room with three dark blue walls and a cool gray one where a king sized bed with gray sheets and dark blue blankets and pillows sits in the middle. He has posters of the periodic table and Einstein, Madam Curie. Pft. I look around for the extra bed, but I don't see it anywhere "Jimmy where's the b" "Bed? It's hidden," He runs over to the wall opposite the door and flips a red switch. Suddenly an opening in the wall at the very end spits out a metal box spring, then the mattress, then white sheets, a teal and purple striped blanket and a pillow with an "I love Ultralord" pillowcase, and soon I had a, nerdy, but fully made twin bed. "I see why you keep it hidden," I laugh walking around the room looking at the walls and pictures. There were lots of small pictures of his mom, his dad, a couple of ducks, Carl, Sheen and Libby. There was one of me though. "Yeah he never changed his love for Ultralord, he made me put those on there, I can change them if you want" he asks. I oddly decline. I don't know why, maybe I kind of sort of miss Sheen and his weird obsession. "The bathroom is in here" Jimmy pipes up pointing into a small bathroom "So when ever my mom comes up here with some clothes you can just head in there. It's operated by vox so, just tell her what you want and she'll make it happen. It shouldn't take more than 2 minutes." He walks over to me "Thanks Jim." I smile, he smiles back "It's the least I could do." He stops a couple inches away. "Well I'm going to go-" I couldn't help myself, I hugged him, even though I hate for what he did and that he brought me here I've wanted to hug him since I saw him (and recognized him that is). So we hugged and I smiled and I don't know what he did but he definitely started beating his heart faster.
I let go a few seconds later "don't think that because I hugged you I suddenly love you, ok? You're stupid and ugly and also I hate you, remember that. I just think that you deserve a hug because I... just... think you do geese what is this Dr Phil? I don't know" I sneer at him he just laughs because he's arrogant and stupid. I hate him. " I'm going to go cloak the Rust Bucket so sheen doesn't figure out I'm home and come bother me, you start taking that shower ok?" he smiles putting his hand on my shoulder, which I soon shrugged off because I felt like it "Don't tell me what to do." He laughs "fine, I wont." He says as he leaves closing the door behind him. I walk into his bathroom, which, weirdly doesn't have any towels, or even a shower, much less soap or shampoo. It kind of just looks like a tiled room with a toilet in the corner. The tiles are cool though, I liked the colors, reds and blues and stone and greens and yellows, about every color but orange, no wait there's one. I stood in the room for a second just looking around, turning, searching for some sort of clue as to what makes this a bathroom besides tiles and toilet.
"What am I supposed to even do-" "DNA ANALYSIS PLEASE"
A robotic voice comes from a speaker in the top corner of the room. One of the tiles extends to reveal a scanner thing, but what does she want me to scan? "PLEASE DEPOSIT A STRAND OF HAIR ON THE SCANNER AND WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTION" The voice says again. I pick one of my hairs and put it on the scanner. The tile pulls back into the wall with my hair and the door closes behind me. "CYNTHIA A. VORTEX, CLASS D HAIR TYPE, CLASS C-56 SKIN TYPE, ALLERGIC TO POLYQUARTERNIUM-10 AND BLUE DYE NUMBER 4" 'I am?' "HAIR DAMAGE AT LEVEL 26 WITH 4,568,940,384 SPLIT ENDS AND 39,472,938,408,947,493 CLOGGED FOLLICLES." Jesus H. Christ I don't think I have that many follicles "ADJUSTING" She said and then with a whir of noises and beeps a small piece of paper printed out of the wall "DATA ANALYSIS COMPLETED. PLEASE TAKE GOGGLES" What – a pair of goggles with the nosepiece rose up from the floor. Oh. I took the goggles and put them on "PLEASE PUT GOGGLE STRAP UNDER HAIR" Vox said. Oh. Ok. I guess that makes sense. I pull the goggles down and fish my hair out from under them and pull them back up, waiting for her to say something. "ONE MOMENT" She said quickly. Elevator music came on from the speaker, but that was cut short. "PLEASE REMOVE ANY VALUABLES OR ELECTRONICS AND DEPOSIT THEM IN BIN, KEEP YOUR MOUTH CLOSED DURING SHOWER AND HAVE A NICE DAY" She says as a bin appears. I pawned off everything I owned valuable. So I stood there.
Wait was I supposed to take my- Suddenly water comes pouring out of every tile at like a bazillion miles an hour. Robotic hands with scrub-brushes come and start hopelessly scrubbing my clothes and other places all over my body, one of the tiles pours shampoo on my head and padded hands start scrubbing viciously for what felt like hours but I knew was only seconds. The scrubbing stopped and the robot arms retreated then after I was completely rinsed so did the water. I stood there for a second, soaking wet, confused, and ready to kill Neutron for not telling me about this, but I was interrupted by wind speeds of over 90 mph blowing at me from all directions, frizzing my hair no doubt and nearly knocking me on my hindquarters. I struggled ferociously to reach the door because I couldn't wait to strangle Jimmy; but as soon as I was able to turn around and realize there was no door it stopped, "THANK YOU FOR TAKING A SHOWER" VOX said as a brush fell from the ceiling "RESUME TO EXIT DON'T FORGET YOUR BRUSH" she voiced almost mockingly as the brush hit me on the head. A door of tiles receded into the rest of the wall and exposed Jimmy smirking at my agony.
"I should have mentioned the brush thing shouldn't I" he laughs entering the tiled room I roll my eyes "how about the water, dryer, my hair, the clothes-removal deal? Yeah. How about mentioning the whole experience." I grimace taking off the stupid goggles and throwing them at him. He catches them and smiles "you should know better than to not expect the unexpected when rooming at Chez Neutron" he steps closer tossing the goggles up where a robot arm extends from a tile and retrieves them. I roll my eyes "so I forgot a few things, kill me" I turn quickly, catching a whiff of my hair, 'that's odd', I grab a chunk and bring it back to my nose sniffing. "is that... raspberry?" I ask, he nods "mmhmm, and apple, with honeysuckle, and hint, but only a hint, of peppermint. My own recipe." It smells so good, it's so fruity and sweet, and fresh. "Can I, maybe get a couple bottles, you know, when I start my life back up and move out?" I put my hair down and wait for a response but he takes a few seconds. "of course Cindy. Anything for a friend." He smiles. "now," we start walking out of the bathroom "my mom couldn't find her old box of clothes because dad cleaned out the attic, so for now you are going to have to wear my old stuff, sorry but you are just hanging around here. My mom is going to ask one of her Sewing-Sisters friends to lend her her daughter's old stuff. She says it should fit." He hands me a stack of clothes from his bed. "Get changed, so you and I can talk about tomorrow." He says leaving the room. I look down at the clothes, nauseated. Wear neutrons clothes? I sniff the stack. Well nothing smells, bad. I sniff them again. They smell, familiar. Oh well I guess I'll wear them. It's only one day... right?