Eddie

Don't even say it.

"Of course I'm not defending it, I just want to explain it to her," Fabian protested as we got ready for school.

I dug around for my tie as I contemplated my response. Nina hadn't left her room since Wednesday evening, but Fabian was hopeful she would come out for school this morning. "And all I'm saying is you shouldn't try to explain it, just apologize."

"How can I do either if she won't let me talk to her?" he demanded.

"Text her."

I saw him wince as I straightened up. "She blocked my number."

"Ouch."

Fabian scowled at me. "You're not sounding very sympathetic."

I faced the mirror as I finished getting dressed. "I'm sympathetic dude, I am. I know you weren't in your right mind or whatever when you and Joy—" he cleared his throat loudly and I changed tack "—did what you did. But I still think you should've told her after the fact." I kept my other reason to myself. I could physically feel Nina's pain whenever she let herself spiral too far, like a fist was reaching into my chest and squeezing my heart. I could not however, feel Fabian's pain, and so I was at least a little bit biased.

We headed out to the table where most of the others were already seated. Courtesy of Patricia and Mara, the others were all doing a stunning job of minding their own business, and so Fabian only got one or two questioning looks as he sat down. I on the other hand grabbed a muffin, and headed upstairs to the girls' floor.

I knocked on the door to Nina and Amber's room. "Knocker, knocker ladies, can I come in?"

A few seconds later it swung open to reveal Amber. "Thank God I was just about to text you," she said before I could even open my mouth.

I sighed. "Is she seriously not going to come to school today?" Wednesday night Nina had cried so hard she'd started throwing up, getting her a Trudy-approved pass to take Thursday and Friday off. Since then she'd stayed in her room all weekend, only speaking to Amber and me, and I only got a pass because I'd found out about what happened less than half an hour before she had.

Amber tossed her hair back in frustration. "I wouldn't know because she hasn't said anything."

"What are you talking about?"

She opened the door further and waved me inside. "See for yourself."

I warily entered the room, and immediately looked to where Nina was sitting in bed up against the headboard. She was clearly a wreck, her eyes red and glassy and her hair full of tangles. "Did she sleep at all last night?"

Amber eyed her roommate the way one might eye a bomb whose timer she couldn't see. "Cried herself to sleep, again. But she was awake before I was."

I took a seat on the bed. Nina was staring grimly at the wall, her fingers running over her locket again and again. "Nina. You can't spend the rest of your life in bed."

"Sure I can," she said mulishly.

Since I hadn't expected her to answer at all, I counted this as progress. "Physically, yes, but you really shouldn't. For example, have you eaten anything other than cold pizza this weekend?"

"I like pizza."

"Yes but it's probably better warm."

Her gaze flickered over to me and then Amber. "I can't do it, I can't see him."

I placed my hands firmly on her shoulders. "Nina look at me." She hesitated, and I leaned over to catch her gaze. "Look at me. You are going to make it through this, okay? I know what you are capable of, and this is not going to be the thing that ruins you."

She let out a laugh full of broken glass. "It already has."

"No." Amber sat down on the other side of the bed. "It broke you. But it hasn't broken you so badly that you can't still piece yourself back together." Amber held out her hands hopefully and I held my breath.

Nina didn't move for eight seconds, before she seemed to deflate like a balloon and placed her hands in Amber's. "That's it," she said encouragingly. Amber stood up and pulled Nina with her. I frowned. "Did you change pajamas?" She'd been wearing the same ones all weekend last I checked.

Nina scowled. "I showered last night."

Amber walked her over to the vanity and picked up a hairbrush and bottle of detangler the way I imagined King Arthur had once wielded a shield and Excalibur. "This is going to take a bit of time," she warned.

I shrugged. "It's only Eric's class first period, we can skip." I laid back down on the bed and pulled up Twitter, scrolling through for the next half an hour until Amber made a noise of finality. I swung myself up into a sitting position. "You done?"

Amber nodded. "Any thoughts?" She turned the chair so Nina was facing me and I took it in. Her hair had been brushed and the upper right half put in some sort of braid to keep it out of her face. Amber had also apparently worked some sort of magic with concealer because Nina no longer looked like she'd spent the night sobbing either.

I gave a definitive thumbs up. "She looks positively normal."

"Excellent." Nina remained in the chair, her fingers once more running over her locket as Amber grabbed both of their bags. Then we both wrapped an arm through one of Nina's and marched her into the hall and down the stairs.

Trudy was cleaning in the living room and looked up in surprise when she heard us. "Shouldn't you three be in school already?"

I grinned. "We should be yes, and are on our way to rectify that mistake immediately. Cheers!"

I pulled the door shut behind us before she could say anything else, and we booked it as fast as we could go with Nina dragging her feet. I checked my watch as we neared the school, and saw we'd managed to miss most of first period before Nina stopped dead in her tracks. "Guys, what if he tries to talk to me?" She sounded terrified at the very prospect.

I continued walking forward, gently pulling her along. "Amber and I will be with you every step of the way, and even if he does let's just cross that bridge when we get to it alright?"

"I think I'm going to throw up again," Nina muttered, but kept walking. We were almost to the math room for second period when the bell rang, and students started to fill the hall. Nina immediately withdrew her arms from ours. "I changed my mind, I can't do it," she declared, and promptly ducked into the girls' bathroom. Amber immediately followed, but I took a moment to see if anyone was looking before joining them. Nina was pacing in front of the sink, muttering to herself in what sounded like Spanish.

"Neens, come on, you can do this." Amber coaxed.

She nodded, looking distracted. "Yes, I can, I just can't do this part, where we're sitting waiting for class to start because then he might try and come up to me, and so I'm just going to hang out in here for a couple of minutes until the bell rings. It'll be fine. It'll be so fine. You guys can go I'll meet you in there."

Amber placed her hands on her hips. "As if I'd leave you alone in this condition," she snorted derisively.

I leaned against the wall next to the paper towel dispenser. "What's one more tardy when I collect them like candies anyway?"

"Who the hell collects candies?" Nina snapped. If she gripped her locket any tighter she might start drawing blood.

I raised my hands. "It's just a saying."

"No it's not." She continued to pace, periodically switching between languages as she muttered to herself.

A few chatting sixth years entered, but halted awkwardly when they saw us. Amber waved them off. "Sorry ladies, this one's occupied." They shared a glance but slowly backed out, and after a couple more minutes the bell rang. Nina froze.

"Nina?"

"Hmm."

I took a cautious step towards her. "That's the bell."

"Yes."

"That means we have to go to class now."

"Uh huh."

"So," I moved around behind Nina and gently started steering her towards the door Amber held open. Thankfully she didn't resist, at least not until we reached the classroom where she paused again. "Just look at the ground or something," I suggested, and swung the door open before she could run away again.

Mrs. Wilson, an older woman who insisted her bright red hair was naturally colored, looked up at us. "Glad you three were able to join us. Have a seat."

Amber dragged Nina over to sit with Natalie Hollister and Penelope Sterling, and I slid into a seat in the back next to Patricia. Joy sat on the other side of her. Mrs. Wilson continued her lecture on the symbolism in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Patricia carefully moved her chair closer to mine. "How's Nina?" she muttered.

"How do you think?" I muttered back. Patricia grimaced before eyeing Joy, who was taking very determined notes. I saw Fabian two rows in front of us in the corner of my eye and looked up at him. He had a pen out but instead of using it to take notes, he was simply twirling it in his fingers as he stole furtive glances at Nina every few seconds, who was at least attempting to look like she was paying attention.

I started packing up my stuff a few minutes before class ended so that as soon as the bell rang I was able to get to Nina's side before anyone else. She and Amber ducked out the door and I blocked Fabian as he made to follow after her. "But can I just," he tried to ask, but I cut him off.

"No, you can't." Despite myself I couldn't help but feeling sorry for Fabian. Even if I hadn't listened to him tossing and turning I would've been able to tell just by looking at him how little he'd slept last night. The dark circles under his eyes resembled bruises and his shirt was on the wrong buttons. The only person who looked worse than him was Nina, and she at least had Amber's makeup skills on her side. I could see him tracking her over my shoulder, and I sighed. "Look, she's having a rough time right now okay? I just think you should wait until she's a little more…" I struggled to find a word for it. "Stable." I clapped him on the shoulder and followed the tugging sensation in my chest back to the girls' bathroom where Nina was pacing once more. "So we're just going to do this between every class now?"

Amber shot me a warning look but Nina didn't even seem to hear me. We did, in fact, end up going back to the bathroom to hide from potential Fabian interactions between classes. During lunchtime I went out to grab us sandwiches which Nina refused to touch except to shred into pieces. Finally the bell rang signaling the start of seventh period music class. Since Mr. Murphy always started a little bit late we got there right before he started talking. Amber pushed Nina into the last empty chair and we sat on the arm rests as a sort of barrier. The teacher clapped his hands. "Alright, let me just start by saying I know all of your minds are already on winter break next week, and what little part of your intelligence that remains accessible is occupied with your English, history, and science joint paper. So we're going to be taking this class easy before starting our final project tomorrow. Sound good?" There was some vague noises of assent, and he leapt up onto the stage with a grin. Mr. Murphy held his hands out like a priest and closed his eyes, breathing for a few moments before grinning beatifically. "Affairs." I felt Nina still beside me. "Most artists have had them, and they always end in at least one heart getting broken. I'm going to be splitting you up into pairs, and I want you to try and channel that pain into passion. You'll be picking a song together, it can be about cheating on someone or being cheated on, and then you are to turn it into a duet. You can spread out to practice if you wish, find an empty classroom or go outside, just as long as you're back here in twenty minutes. Now for the pairs, let's see."

He went around assigning people, and I breathed a sigh of relief when he put me with Nina. Hopefully we could make a joke out of it. "And Mr. Rutter and Ms. Mercer. You may begin." I was unsure I'd heard that last pair correctly. Maybe it was some kind of cruel joke. Maybe some vengeful god had crept down and sent him an email to say that Fabian and Joy were quite possibly the worst people to put together for this particular project. Fabian looked as though he were about to be ill but Joy somehow – somehow – looked almost hopeful.

I leaned down to whisper to Nina, "Let's go find somewhere else to practice." She didn't agree or disagree, she just sat there and so I grabbed her by the arm and tugged her over to the hallway.

Amber, who was paired with Mara, stopped me with a worried look. "You've got this?" she checked.

I nodded, a plan already forming. "I got this." I steered Nina back over to her locker, a couple of other groups following us out. I twirled in her combination and shoved both our bags in there as Nina seemed to awaken from whatever stupor she was in.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"My job," I replied, pulling out her wallet. "Now I have an idea, but it is going to require absolute trust and no questions."

Nina eyed me warily. "I don't like where this is going."

I rifled through her wallet, until finding what I was looking for. I pulled out the fake ID I'd gotten made for her over the summer with a grin, before throwing the wallet back in her locker and shutting the door. "You do trust me don't you?"

She folded her arms. "Albeit reluctantly."

"Good enough. Okay, so Sweetie is coming up behind you, probably to see if you're feeling better after you bailed on him for the translation thing. I'm going to need you to pick his pocket."

Her eyes bugged out of her head. "Excuse me?"

I raised a finger. "No questions, remember? He keeps the wallet in his right inside coat pocket."

"Ah, there you are Ms. Martin."

Nina spun around, nervous energy radiating off of her. "Mr. Sweet. Hello."

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better, Victor says you fell quite sick last week?"

Nina's head bobbed up and down like a puppet on a string. "Yes, so very, very sick."

I plastered on a disarming grin. "We actually have to go rehearse for a class project outside. See ya dad." The word burned in my mouth, but on our way past Nina bumped into him and apologized profusely, and it was worth it. I swung an arm around her shoulders. "Did you get it?"

"You know when I told you I could do this I didn't intend on you taking advantage of it."

"Well then you really shouldn't have told me. Good job by the way."

I winced as her elbow connected with my stomach. "Do you know what he did about the translation thing?"

I smirked. "I introduced him to the wonders of the google translate app. Bought me a couple of brownie points."

She glared at me. "You could've mentioned that beforehand!"

"Be honest, had you even remembered it before just now?"

Nina looked miffed. "That's not the point."

"No, the point is Sweetie doesn't like to pay with credit cards and so he always carries at least five hundred bucks cash on him at all times."

"Eddie!" she hissed.

"Relax," I assured her. "He'll never know it was us."

Nina suddenly realized where I was leading her. "Why are we taking the bus into town."

"What happened to no questions?" I said breezily. "Besides, are you really saying you'd rather watch they-who-must-not-be-named sing a duet about adultery?"

Nina pursed her lips but didn't answer. When the bus pulled up a few minutes later, and students with this period free hopped on we joined them. The downtown was a couple miles out, and so the bus ran until six o'clock ferrying students back and forth. Nina pressed her forehead against the window and drew a sad face on the glass. "So." I kept my voice upbeat. "What is something you've always wanted to do but never had the guts or the money?"

"Punch Joy in the face."

"You did that already."

"No, I slapped her. I want to punch her in the face and break her nose, and then she gets a nose job but the doctor does a really bad job and she has to walk around looking like a duck for the rest of her life."

I blinked. "That's very specific." Nina drew another sad face on the window and I nudged her shoulder. "Come on, I mean it. Something you've always wanted to do."

To her credit Nina considered the question before straightening up. "There's a tattoo I've wanted to get for a while now."

"Seriously?" I laughed. "But you're such a non-tattoo person."

She shrugged. "And what does a tattoo person look like?"

"Generally they're seen entirely in leather on the back of a motorcycle."

"Well the only other thing I've always wanted to try is smoking a cigarette, but since my uncle died from lung cancer that's a no-go."

"Fair enough." I pulled out Eric's wallet and started counting bills as the bus hummed towards its destination. Six hundred and sixty. I stuffed the money and our fake IDs back in and grinned. This would be fun.

The bus pulled up to the stop and we hopped off with the rest of the passengers. Nina followed me past cheap boutiques and a couple of restaurants, until we reached my destination.

"Ink in my veins?" she read the name and her eyes widened. "Eddie – "

"Did you or did you not say you've always wanted a tattoo?"

"Well yes, but – "

"And that you've known which one you wanted for about a year now?"

"But I can't just – "

"You can't just anything with that attitude, now let's go." I shoved her into the shop, the bell above the door jingling. It was a clean-looking place which was a good sign, and the receptionist waved us past the empty waiting room.

"Welcome in, can I help you?" With biceps the size of my head and tattoos covering everywhere below the neck, the guy would've been intimidating were it not for the genuine smile on his face.

"My friend Nina here would like to get a tattoo; do you take walk-ins?"

He nodded. "Sure. There'd normally be a bit of a wait but you got lucky, we're pretty open on Mondays. I'll need to see some ID first."

I fished out the wallet and handed over Nina's ID. It said she was Nina Gomez and that she was nineteen. He looked it over for a moment before handing it back. "Great, now did you have a design printed out?"

Nina cleared her throat. "Um, no, this was sort of spur of the moment, but I do know the design I want."

"Okay, I'll call up our artist and you can walk him through it."

Nina nodded and walked over to sink into a chair. I sat down next to her. "Are you excited?"

"I'm honestly not sure whether to thank you or strangle you."

I grinned. "No need to thank me."

"You do realize that only leaves the strangulation option."

"Yes but you love me too much."

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't push it."

A shorter man, only his elbows to his wrists covered in tattoos, walked up. "Nina Gomez?"

I saw her briefly swallow. "Hi."

"You're the one getting the tattoo?" When she nodded he waved at us. "Come on back."

We followed him into an even more sterile room, the floor, walls, ceiling, and cabinets all completely white, except for the black cushioned chair in the middle.

I pulled out my phone while Nina walked the artist, whose name was Sal, through the design she wanted. I had some texts and missed calls from Patricia. The first few asked where we were and, the last couple said she and Mara had covered for us and told Mr. Murphy Nina had thrown up again and I'd taken her back to the house. I closed the messages without answering and started googling why glue didn't stick to the inside of a bottle. Sometimes plausible deniability was a beautiful thing, and even though Patricia would never sell us out I didn't want this to fall back on her.

"Eddie." I looked up to see Nina waggling her fingers at me. She was sitting backwards on the chair and had pulled her hair into a bun on top of her head and taken her shirt partially off so that her upper back was exposed. "You have to come hold my hand."

I dragged my chair over and laced our fingers together. "It probably won't even hurt that bad."

"Actually for some people the pain can be quite excruciating," Sal interjected.

I glared at the back of his head. "You need to work on your bedside manner. And you," I turned back to Nina, "will be fine." I craned my neck to try and get a look at her back. "Can I see?"

She shook her head. "Not until it's done, I don't want you to judge me."

I raised my eyebrows. "Maybe you should be getting a different tattoo then."

"No I'm not ashamed of it or anything, just the timing of it. You'll understand when you see, okay?"

Sal finished prepping and moved over to his position. "You ready?"

Nina squeezed my hand. "Ready." Her voice was a bit more high-pitched than normal.

Sal started working, and her grip tightened, her mouth pulling back in a wince. I squeezed back. "What does it feel like?"

"Like a very tiny circular saw is cutting into my skin." I could see her gritting her teeth as she spoke.

"Now how would you know that unless you had in depth experience with miniature power tools?" I asked, trying to distract her.

She pried her eyes open. "You're the one who asked what it felt like, you don't get to challenge me now just because you don't like my description."

The whole process took just under two hours, and Nina was sweating a bit by the time they were done. Sal taped a sort of band-aid over the fresh artwork, and Nina gingerly fixed her shirt before we followed him back up to the reception desk for instructions on how to take care of it. I'd been expecting something complex, like 'bathe the skin in the blood of a virgin for the next forty-eight hours', but all she had to do was wash with warm water and soap twice a day for two weeks and not pick at the scabbing. We paid the hundred and twenty pounds with Sweetie's money, and when we left the shop the sun had begun to sink in the sky.

Wary of her new design, I wrapped my arm around her waist instead of her shoulders. "Are you ready for part two?"

Nina looked at me in surprise. "It's after five, aren't we heading back to school?"

"Nope." I popped the p. "I have something a little more exciting planned, and we still have over five hundred bucks to spend."

She laughed and I felt my heart soar at the sound. "You're a terrible influence."

"Only because you need more terrible influences in your life. You're surrounded by fellow do-gooders."

"I beg to differ, but Jerome and Alfie are not do-gooders in any sense of the word," she snorted.

As we argued, I felt myself smile. Getting her out of school had been the right decision, I hadn't seen her this weightless in almost a week. Sometimes it was hard to tell where our friendship ended and our Chosen One/Osirian connection began, like right now for instance. Was I so committed to digging her out of this pit she'd landed in because I hated seeing her that way, or because my very being rebelled against her being in pain? It probably didn't help that ever since this had started I'd been able to feel her pain, physically feel it. Like someone had stripped away my skin to expose my nerves, and then set them on fire. And since what I was feeling was probably only a fraction of what Nina was feeling, I was honestly impressed she was still standing.

Nina dug in her heels. "This is a bar."

"Since we're in the UK I believe the term is pub."

I could see her beginning to panic. "Eddie."

"You promised to trust me and not ask questions, and that hasn't ended yet," I reminded her. "You're going to go inside and you're going to enjoy it."

I'd done some internet research while Nina had helped Sal with the tattoo design, and found one that looked good from the online reviews. It was a bar that did live music on weekends, but aside from that it wasn't anything special or seedy. We were hit with a blast of warm air as we entered, and I could almost see into Nina's head where she was doubtless comparing it to the warning fires of hell. "Just relax," I muttered.

We found an empty table and sat down, looking at some menus. The place wasn't packed, but it wasn't entirely empty either. Eventually a waiter came over and I ordered a giant pretzel to share, and some drinks. Nina kept her mouth firmly shut while he checked our fakes, only seeming to exhale when the waiter left. After a few moments of silence, Nina blew out a breath. "I know I'm not supposed to ask questions."

"That is correct."

"But why are we here?"

"I would've thought that was obvious."

"I'm hoping I'm missing something."

I stretched my arms above my head, feeling my shoulders pop. "We're here to get you drunk."

Nina inhaled sharply. "That is a horrible idea."

"Actually I think it's a fantastic idea. When taken in not too large doses, alcohol acts as a stimulant. Meaning if I get you just the right amount of drunk, you'll be buzzed enough to feel good."

"Horrible. Idea."

"It'll be great."

"Like, the worst idea you've ever had."

"Oh look here comes the waiter."

"I'm going to kill you."

A pretzel half the size of the table was set down, followed by two glasses. "Will that be all?"

I placed a twenty on the table. "For now, but could you please make sure the drinks stay filled?"

He smiled and pocketed the money. "My pleasure."

I turned back to Nina as he walked away to see her looking mutinous. I leaned over the pretzel. "You've tried staying in bed all day, and it hasn't made you feel any better. You went to school and spent half your time hiding in the bathroom. One night of drinking will not make you an alcoholic, and I'll even make you a deal."

She drummed her fingers on the table. "I'm listening."

"If you don't have fun tonight, when we get back to school I will burn that very expensive fake ID I got for you, that way you won't even be able to drink until next year when it's legally legal. Sound good?"

Nina sighed. "Fine." She picked up her drink and gave it a wary sniff, immediately recoiling. "It smells disgusting."

"That's because the point isn't for it to taste good, the point is to get drunk. Now chug." To demonstrate, I took a large gulp of my own. It tasted a bit like nail polish, and warmed my chest going down.

Nina took a sip and made a face, before taking another. Then before I knew what was happening, she plugged her nose and downed half the glass in one go. When she set it down, she stuck her tongue out. "It tastes worse than it smells," she grimaced.

I stared at the almost emptied drink. "Perhaps I should've warned you how very alcoholic this drink is."

Nina seemed unconcerned. "I'm going all in. Oh, wow." She sat up straight, placing a hand below her neck. "I can feel it."

I raised my glass with a laugh. "Yeah that's the point."

The bar was now considerably more crowded, and it was almost entirely thanks to me and Nina as the volunteer piano and guitar player started on the next song, using instruments that were typically reserved for the weekend performances.

Nina laughed before beginning to sing.

"I have never seen the general so despondent,

I have taken over writing all his correspondence,

Congress writes 'George attack the British forces',

I shoot back, 'we have resorted to eating our horses.'

I couldn't entirely remember how it had begun, but at some point Nina and I had started singing the first number from the Hamilton musical. Turns out it was also a hit in the UK, because we now had background singers, a King George, an Angelica, and some musicians. Nina and I alternated between Aaron Burr, Hamilton, and whatever roles were left as needed.

"Washington cannot be left alone to his devices,

Indecisive from crisis to crisis.

The best thing he can do for the revolution

Is go back to plantin tobacco in Mount Vernon."

Eventually we got to Yorktown with a Washington, an Eliza, a Hercules Mulligan, and a violinist, and when we reached the end of Non-Stop everyone burst into cheers. I was giddy from the alcohol and the atmosphere, and the fact that I wasn't being dragged down by Nina's negative emotions for the first time in days didn't hurt either. People started chanting, "Act two, act two, act two."

Nina took another drink and tossed her tie off with where she'd already dropped her blazer earlier and motioned for quiet. "Seventeen. Se-se-seventeen. Se-se-seventeen. Seventeen eighty-nine." Onlookers whooped as she kept going.

"How does the bastard, orphan, immigrant,

Decorated war vet,

Unite the colonies through more debt?

Fight the other founding fathers till he hast to forfeit,

Have it all, lose it all, you ready for more yet?

Treasury secretary Washington's the president,

Every American experiment,

Sets a precedent.

Not so fast, someone came along to resist him,

Pissed him off until we had a two-party system!

You haven't met him yet you haven't had the chance,

Cause he's been kicking ass as the ambassador to France.

But someone's gotta keep the American promise,

You simply must meet Thomas, Thomas!"

Everyone joined back in, and the second half was a bit of a blur, although it got interesting when we reached The Reynolds Pamphlet, and Nina hopped up on a table to sing.

"Who lives who dies who tells your story?

Will they tell your story?

Who lives who dies who tells your story?"

The last note faded out and the (now so full we were definitely violating the fire code) room exploded. Some of the drunker patrons started crying, and the ones who'd helped us out pulled me and Nina into a group hug. When we separated, Nina declared that she wanted ice cream and so we paid the bill, pulled our uniform pieces back on and headed out, giving numerous high fives on our way. I realized my phone was ringing as soon as it stopped, and sloppily pulled it out of my pocket. I had missed calls from Mara, Fabian, and Patricia, along with dozens of texts asking where I was. Nina latched onto my other arm, giggling into my ear as I pressed redial on the most recent missed call.

"Eddie where the hell are you?"

I laughed. "Patricia! How are you? How are people?"

"How am I? It's less than an hour until lights out, you and Nina haven't been answering your phones since you ditched last period, and I've had to switch stories three times by now to explain where you are!"

I laughed again. "You have a great voice, have I ever told you that? Like, I love your voice, I could listen to it all day long."

There was a pause on the other end. "Are you high?"

Nina hit me on the head. "Ow!"

She pointed at my phone. "Did you say that was Patricia?"

"Yeah, she says hi."

"I do not say hi, I say where the hell are you and get back here this instant."

Nina grabbed my phone and skipped out of my reach. "Patricia, Eddie has to break up with you now."

I tripped but caught myself. "No I don't!" I complained.

I reached to get the phone back but Nina held it out of my reach. "It's just for tonight," she said pushing me back. "Cause I am miserable and heartbroken. You can't tell right now because I am suppressing it, but I am. And so for you to be an effective friend, you must also be miserable and heartbroken." She pressed the phone back to her ear. "Sorry Patricia, but you and Eddie are broken up now. It's just for tonight, and we're not even going to have sex or anything even though I'm mad at you for not telling me my boyfriend had sex with Joy, because we're not horrible people, okay bye."

She hung up and I grabbed for the phone. "Give it back!" I demanded.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No, you're just going to call her and get back together!"

"She's my girlfriend!"

"Not tonight!" Nina stuck the phone into her bra and folded her arms. "Now if you try to take it it's sexual harassment. Or something. So ha. Now come on, we have to go get ice cream."

I leaned over to rest my head on her shoulder. "I don't like being single."

"I know, it sucks right?"

We meandered down random streets until eventually coming upon an ice cream truck, which we bought two soft-serve cones from. I was still moping. "She has such pretty hair. And she smells so nice."

Nina hummed, wiping chocolate off her nose. "What does she smell like?"

I tried to muster up a memory of it. "Like, like girl. And perfectness."

"That's romantic."

"But now we're broken up and I am going to die alone."

"I am also going to die alone. How about if we're both still alone at forty we marry each other."

I licked a drip that was running down my cone. "That's a fantastic idea, we'd be great as a married couple."

"Yeah, we'd indoctrinate our kids with feminist view points, and live here for the superior health care."

We fist bumped. "This is such a solid plan."

"Solid like a rock," Nina agreed, before looking around. "Hey where are we?"

"Umm," I also looked around before laughing. "I have no idea. Call a taxi or something, taxis are supposed to be big here."

The cab showed up in less than ten minutes, which Nina was convinced had to be a new record. She spent a great deal of the drive attempting to convince the driver of this, despite the fact that he slid the divider shut and the conversation was entirely one-sided. "Alright, we're here."

I looked out the window to see the school campus. "Oh my gosh, that was so fast."

Nina collapsed into peals of laughter. "It was the fastest. Oh my gosh, it's probably another world record!" I tried to read the total but the numbers all blurred together, so I just dropped the rest of Darth Vader's money on the dashboard and we crawled out, the driver saying to come again when he saw the cash.

We started walking back over to Anubis, stumbling a bit in the dark, and Nina suddenly grabbed my arm in excitement. "We should sing another song!"

"Songs are great," I agreed. "Which one?"

Nina frowned in concentration. "I don't know, I don't know any songs."

"Sure you do, what about, um," I trailed off. "I don't know any songs either!"

We both burst into laughter and then she shrieked and hit me on the shoulder. "Wait, wait, wait, I know the one song from the thing with the girls!"

She started humming, before jumping up and down a few times. "Okay so I only know the one part but it's a really good part, it's like, so senator, so janitor, so long for a while! From the thing!"

"Oh my gosh Annie! Yeah, that's such a good song." I laughed. "The orphanage lady is so mean, she's like Ebenezer Scrooge but without learning some moral lesson at the end."

"Come on Eddie, sing with me!

So senator, so janitor,

So long for a while

Because you're never fully dressed,

Though you may wear your best!

You're never fully dressed,

Without a smile!"

Since neither of us knew the other lyrics, we just sang those ones over and over again. We were just starting back at the beginning when we reached the house, and I threw open the door.

"So long for a WHILE,

Because, you're never FULLY DRESSED!"

I sang into an imaginary microphone, "Take it away Nina!"

Laughing she continued,

"Though you may wear your BEST!"

We came together, yelling the last lines.

"You're never fully DRESSED,

Without a SMILE!

SMILE!

SMILE BABY SMILE!"

Nina jumped up and down, clapping her hands. "Such a good song," she said again. "Let's go look in the fridge."

"I love looking in the fridge," I agreed. We somehow made our way into the kitchen, and Nina promptly climbed up onto the dining room table and began a sort of tap dance thing. I could also hear her humming Aaron Burr, Sir.

"Hi guys."

I looked over to see the rest of our house was sitting in their pajamas in the living room, Victor standing above them all, looking absolutely thunderstruck. We had apparently walked in on a lecture. Nina kept humming and tapping, but I gave a cheery wave. "Hey!"

Jerome, who looked torn between glee and disbelief, spoke up again. "Why is Nina dancing on the kitchen table?"

"I have no idea," I said.

Nina did a weird looking spin thing. "You know I am a terrible tap dancer. Most people have no idea if they are a good or bad tap dancer, but I know for a fact I'm a terrible tap dancer, because when I first moved in with my grandma I was depressed and like a little suicidal, and so she made me take a physical activity and signed me up for tap classes and I sucked at it." She laughed, continuing her imaginary dance. "But I liked the noise the shoes made, you know? Like tap, tap, tap. Pardon me, are you Aaron tap, sir? That depends, who's tapping? Oh well tap, sir, I'm tap-exander tap-ilton I'm at your service, tap." Nina drifted back into humming, making occasional tap sounds.

I shut the fridge as I looked at her. "You know your life has really sucked."

Nina turned to me with wide eyes. "I know!"

"Like just think about all the dead family members!"

She started ticking off fingers. "There's the parents, the uncle, the other uncle, my dad's parents, and my mom's dad. There's family trees, and then mine is just like a family branch." For some reason she seemed to find this thought absurdly funny and started giggling again before gasping. "Oh my gosh! Jerome!" She promptly leapt off the table and ran over to the couch. Curious, I followed her over to Jerome, who looked like he was having the time of his life.

Nina pulled him to his feet and placed her hands on his cheeks. "Jerome. I need you to know that you have such a fantastic bone structure. Where is Mara? Mara!" Nina spun around, before finding her and dragging her back over to Jerome. "Come on Mara, compliment your boyfriend's bone structure with me."

Mara appeared to be in a state of shock. "Okay?"

Nina turned her focus back to Jerome. "Just this jawline. Like, I could cut glass on this jawline. And the cheekbones? Like, I just need you to take a minute and appreciate how gemenetically gifted you are."

Jerome had a sudden coughing fit, as Alfie raised a cautious hand. "Gemenetically?"

Nina waved him off impatiently. "Yeah, you know the thing with the stuff. Gemenetic. Eddie, oh my gosh, did you know that Geminis apparently suck?"

"What's a Gemini?"

"You know, like the cancer thing. Apparently people hate them, like all the people on the internet it's just a conclusion that Geminis suck, and no one seems to know why. Jerome!" She whirled back around to face Jerome, who had recovered but was still red-faced. "So yes, I just wanted to say that you have such amazing bone structure, and so if I were the kind of person to get back at that other person by sleeping with someone else, I would sleep with you purely based on your physical appearance. I mean I probably still wouldn't because your deep-seated need to burn down the world is a bit of a turn off and you act like an ass sixty percent of the time, but physically speaking I would have sex with you. But even if you did have a personality reversal I still wouldn't because you have a girlfriend and unlike some people, I respect that. I just thought I'd tell you for the ego boost."

"Nina, wait!"

She turned to me. "What?"

"What if we're Gemini?"

She gasped and ran over to grasp my arms. "Oh my gosh, what if we are?"

"That would suck."

"It would really suck because then everyone would hate us!"

"ENOUGH."

I fell sideways into the couch but managed to get back up fairly quickly, and Nina jumped about a foot in the air as Victor faced us. "You two have been gone for hours, leaving your friends to tell your excuses, and return only after curfew and reeking of alcohol – "

Nina clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter, and the room once more fell deathly silent. "Eddie, hey Eddie. Pst!"

"What is it?" I whispered.

"I think we're in trouble." She then burst into laughter again, clutching her stomach as she doubled over, and I joined her.

Someone cleared their throat from near the chair in the corner and I realized it was Trudy and started laughing again. "You're really short and so I thought you were part of the furniture," I wheezed.

Nina however looked delighted. "Trudy! Oh my gosh, Trudy." She ran over to give the woman a hug.

"Hello Nina. You know it occurs to me that perhaps we should get all of you into bed, and try to sort this out in the morning."

Nina nodded. "Okay, but first I have to tell you that I love you so much, you're like the closest thing I have to a mother but better because you're alive, and I'm also really sorry for that time we got you fired because Victor killed a cat which he actually did do by the way, but it's okay for you to not believe us anymore because I just really don't want you to get fired again because I just love you so much."

She turned and ran back over to me and I laughed. "Why are you running so much?"

"I don't know!" she laughed. "But no, Trudy's right and we should go to bed but guess what?"

"What?"

"We should have a sleepover!"

I gasped. "Oh my gosh that is an amazing idea!"

"I know it's such a great idea! I'll sleep in my bed and you can sleep in Amber's bed and Amber can sleep with Patricia and Mara and the bitch and it'll be great!" She started tugging me back out to the stairs, calling out as she did so, "Amber you're sleeping in the bitch's room!"

Laughing, we made our way up the stairs, tripping a couple times, and into Nina's room. As soon as the door was closed she wedged a chair underneath the handle for 'security reasons'.

I pulled off my shirt and flopped down into Amber's bed as Nina pulled on her pajamas, humming to herself.

Just as I could feel myself starting to drift off to sleep, I sat bolt upright as panic laced through me.

"Oh my gosh! Nina! I forgot to get back together with Patricia!"

She switched her lamp back on and frowned at me. "No you didn't! You're not allowed to get back together with her until tomorrow, and it's not tomorrow yet."

"But I want to get back together with her now," I whined.

"Sorry, but dems the rules," reasoned Nina, before flipping the light back off.

I punched the pillow into a more preferable shape, sulking. "The rules are stupid," I muttered.

"I heard that!"

AN: So turns out I can only write between the hours of midnight and three in the morning. Hooray. The big, multi-chapter POV starts next chapter. Not sure yet how many parts it will be, but at least two otherwise it would just be a regular chapter. But I promise no one gets shot this time. Oh, and don't worry at all about Patricia and Eddie they're totally fine. Keep reviewing, it helps motivate me to keep writing!