"Are you gonna participate at all? Or are you planning on making me do all the work?" Charlie snaps at me.
I can't blame her. I've been lying on my stomach and flipping through teen magazines while she does all the trying on of the clothes and such.
It's Momma's fault, not mine. She's the one who told me to do it. But I have to admit that it's helping. A lot. I mean, it doesn't keep my thing down, but it does keep it from being seen; which means I haven't had to lock myself in the bathroom, not even once, since Charlie first stripped in front of me.
"I am helping. I'm trying to get ideas from these." I say, gesturing toward the current magazine I'm looking through for emphasis.
"That's not"-
Whatever her retaliation was going to be gets cut off when Momma opens my door. "Knock, knock." She says.
"You're supposed to knock before you open the door." Me and Charlie say at the same time. Then we look at each other and laugh. That was a good one.
Momma rolls her eyes. Apparently it wasn't as funny to her as it was to us. "Bed time." She claims.
Both of our faces drop, but only Charlie's brave enough to state the obvious.
"It's a sleepover. There's no such thing as a bedtime."
"Tomorrow's still a school day." Momma glares at Charlie and walks further into my room before picking up Charlie's sleeping bag and laying it out on the floor. "Bedtime." She says again, just in case Charlie didn't catch on.
"But we didn't finish picking out our outfit." I whine, sounding totally like Mom. I hate it when I do that. Momma always teases me about it.
Not this time though.
"Guess you're just gonna have to wake up early," Momma shrugs.
"Okay." Charlie agrees while pulling out her phone and PJs.
What? No more arguments?
"Okay?" Momma narrows her eyes suspiciously. Apparently Charlie's lack of argument was just as fishy to her as it was to me.
"Yeah, I'm setting my alarm for one o'clock." She answers.
"A.M.?"
"It's technically early in the morning," Charlie shrugs.
I face palm. It's already eleven something, so basically her alarm will go off in less than two hours from now.
Charlie has a death wish.
And Momma looks just about ready to grant said wish as she grabs a hold of Charlie's wrist. "Alright, let's go. I'm putting you in a separate room." She mutters.
"No!" Charlie protests and before Momma can pull her away, she snatches her arm out of Momma's grasp. "What about four?" She pleads.
Momma thinks it over for a second before agreeing. "Four. Now bed."
Then she comes over to me and offers to tuck me in. Okay, that's embarrassing. I haven't been tucked in since I was like ten, but I understand Momma's asking if I need her to block me so I can get under my blankets without Charlie seeing my thing.
"No. I'm good." I shake my head. My thing's tucked in. Has been for about an hour now, thank God!
"Night Momma." I call as she's leaving.
"Night baby."
"Night Momz."
Momma turns around and narrows her eyes at Charlie before responding with a simple, "You."
Instead of being offended, Charlie laughs. And I can't help but to laugh too, but I do so quietly as Momma's still within hearing distance and I don't have a death wish.
Once she's gone, gone, I settle down and close my eyes. "Night Charlie." I mumble with a wide yawn. I won't ever admit it out loud, but I'm glad Momma made us go to bed. I'm just now realizing how tired I am.
I feel my bed dip beside me and the words "night Vega" are whispered into my ear. My eyes spring open. I'm no longer sleepy. Charlie's in bed with me. In bed with me!
No good can come of this!
I turn over and push at her. "You can't sleep with me." I hiss
"Why not?" She frowns as she catches my hands in hers to keep me from pushing her again.
That's not good either. Who knows how my thing will respond to handholding with Charlie… even if it is accidental.
"What do you mean, why not?" I try snatching my hands out of her grasp, but she's so dang strong.
"I mean, what I said. Why not? What's the big deal? Girls sleep in bed with their friends all the time. It's totally okay."
No, no, no. It's not totally o-flippin'-kay!
I push at her some more and I can see Charlie snap. Like, I see it happen, and it kind of scares me. Now, I've seen her angry before, but she's never been mad at me. Never.
Her eyes widen. Her nose flares. And she inhales sharply before rolling over on top of me so fast I barely have time to blink. And not only is she on top of me, but she's got my wrists pinned down right beside my ears.
"I'm trying to be your friend but you keep pushing me away, Vega. Why?" She glares down at me.
Oh God, don't let her say pushing again. Not while she's on top of me.
"Don't you want to be my friend too?" she questions further.
"No!" I squirm. And it's true. I've tried to be her friend. I really, really have; but I'm realizing that it's just not gonna work. I can't be normal around her. I can't be her friend.
"Why not?" She glares some more.
I tremble a bit. It's such a fierce gaze. But jeez and Steve, she can't make me be her friend!
"Why not, Vega?" She grinds out through clenched teeth.
"I like you." I admit.
Oops! I had no intention of doing that. Like none whatsoever, but now that I have, maybe it'll be a good thing. Maybe she'll get spooked and get off of me.
"I like you too, stupid." Charlie hisses back at me.
Ugh! She's not getting it.
"I don't just want to be your friend." I elaborate.
"Okay, so?"
Oh crud, she's still not getting it!
"I'm gay!" I blurt out. Crap, I really gotta stop saying that.
"So am I, so what's the problem?"
What? Charlie's…Does that mean…no, it can't. I'm just so confused…
But my thing isn't. I can feel it coming. The stretching. And I'm in too much of a panic to concentrate on how much I hate beets.
"Get off of me!" I hiss, squirming wildly.
It's not enough to buck Charlie off. She must've been a professional bull rider before I met her.
"No, not until you tell me why we can't be friends." she persists.
Ugh, Fine!
"I'm gay and I like you!"
"Girlfriends then." She fires back immediately.
And just like that, I lose control. My thing sits straight up and pokes the hell out of Charlie.
Shit!
Her eyes go wide and she looks down.
Oh God, I'm so dead. I'm so, so freak-in' dead.
"You have one too?" she whispers, letting go of my wrists.
I sit up. "Charlie, I'm sorry. I can…"
Wait…what? Did I just hear….Did she just say, "you have one too?" What the hell is she talking about? She can't seriously be implying…no. no way. There's no effing way.
Charlie laughs and climbs out of my lap. "No wonder you kept going to the bathroom! Did it just start?"
"Whuh?" It's the only thing I can get my mouth to say. I think my brain short circuited.
She continues to talk as if I had answered her question; as if I'm not staring at her with my mouth hanging open. "Mine started last year when I first met you. I'm just now able to keep it down." She chuckles a little more. "I guess I shouldn't have dressed in front of you, or grabbed your ta-tas, or made you do that one song on the Michael- Hey!" Her eyes go bright with excitement. "I know who we can be for picture day tomorrow! Michael and Naomi." She finishes.
"Whuh?" I blink at her, still unable to say anything intelligible. Still unable to process what I'm hearing.
"Come on! It's perfect! It'll be like our own little inside joke. The first time I made you stretch during our sleepover!" she winks.
My eyes go even wider. How can she be so…so…okay about this! This…this…isn't normal.
"Oh, but I get to be Michael. You have to dress like Naomi."
That snaps me out of my stupor. I want to be Michael. I'm always Michael when I play. Not just because he's the star… okay, it's totally because he's the star. "No I'm Michael. I look more like him 'cause I've got the dark hair." I reason.
She smiles, more than likely she's relieved because I'm finally using actual words and stuff.
"Yeah, well I've got the bigger thing." She glances down at my front and my thing shrinks down into its hiding place. I guess it doesn't like to be compared to other things.
It occurs to me that I should still be embarrassed, but I don't know, my competitive side is coming out.
"Prove it." I challenge, crossing my arms over my chest. Hey, if we're determining who gets to be Michael by whoever has the biggest thing, then it's only fair I get to see my competition, right?
"No way!" Charlie rolls her eyes.
"Then how do I know if yours is really bigger." I frown.
"Guess you're just gonna have to trust me."
There's no way I'm going to just trust her word for it!
"Lemme see!" I command, attacking her.
"Stop! Vega!" She laughs at me when I manage to pin her down just the way she had me pinned down earlier.
"Shh!" I hiss and cover her mouth with my hand. I have no idea why, but this makes her laugh even harder. So hard that tears are starting to leak out of the corners of her eyes.
This is good for me. While she's laughing, she's not putting up very much of a struggle. I grab a hold of the drawstrings on her pajama bottoms and pull.
Suddenly, my light is flicked on. And the sudden brightness practically burns my eyes.
"I thought I told you two to go to…"
I blink a few times before setting my sights on my doorway…where my momma is standing. And she does not look happy.
Shit.
"Vega, what'd I tell you about raping our guests." She says in a voice so calm and dispassionate that it sends shivers up my spine. But that's the only movement I make. That involuntary one, because I'm frozen.
She's gonna kill me.
Momma walks into the room and still I don't move. Charlie doesn't even move. That's how scary she looks.
"Get off." Momma says to me and I look down. I'm still on top of Charlie, I still have a hand over her mouth, and she still has tears in her eyes from laughing so hard.
This looks soo bad.
I uncover Charlie's mouth immediately and roll off of her. "Momma I wasn't gonna"-
"Shut up."
"I was just trying to"-
"Not another word, Vega Zofia Cielo West."
Oh God, my whole name? There's no way to get out of this alive. And it really is all my fault. I mean, what was I thinking? It's not like Charlie was peaking! What was I gonna do, make her thing come out? And how was I gonna do that? By molesting her? I am like a rapist!
"Are you okay, Charlie?" Momma asks. Her voice is soft and full of concern. It sounds so weird being directed at Charlie.
Charlie looks from me to Momma. "I bet it's you who's got the thing, right Momz?" she grins cheekily.
"Charlie!" I gasp.
Momma's face goes from concerned to confused in a nanosecond. "Vega…" She turns her attention on to me and I know she wants me to explain what on earth is going on.
"Um, she's got one too. A um, A thing…like us." I start off. "She said hers was bigger than mine and I wanted to see, that's all. I wasn't gonna…we weren't doing anything." I promise.
"Don't tell my business!" Charlie playfully glares at me. "Especially to Momz. Now Little Charlie will never come out again, probably too scared Momz will chop her off. "Aren't you?" she asks the front of her pants.
"Don't do stuff like that!" I groan.
"This can't be fucking happening to me." Momma pinches the bridge of her nose, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "What are the fucking chances? What… are the fucking… chances?"
"It's fate!" Charlie grins.
Momma eyes pop open. "You two are sleeping in separate bedrooms."
Charlie's eyes widen and she grabs a hold of me around the middle. Tightly. "No!" She yells.
"Yes!" Momma yells back as she grabs on to Charlie and starts to pull.
She ends up pulling both of us off of the bed, which hurt a whole lot. I hit my head; lose a few million brain cells, but do you think Momma stops. No. She doesn't. She just keeps pulling on Charlie, and Charlie keep pulling on me, and I get the privilege of collecting the most painful rug burns I've ever had in my life!
"Momma, Charlie, ow!" I protest.
"Stop Momz, you're hurting Vega!"
"There's no way you're sleeping with my baby!" Momma growls, tugging even harder.
"Ow!" I cry.
"I won't! I'll sleep in my sleeping bag!" Charlie ignores me and addresses my mother.
"No. Let go!" Momma yanks and Charlie doesn't surrender and I get a new burn from it.
"Momma, Ow!" I howl.
"But I can't sleep alone. I'm scared of the dark!" Charlie wails, the last part of that is a bit muffled because she's got her face pressed into my stomach.
"Too bad!"
"Please!"
"Nope." Momma grunts before giving another painful tug.
"Momma, stop, please! Just let her stay!" I can't help but to protest and then I give her the face. The Vega face. The one she can't resist. Mom taught it to me and she made me promise to only use it for emergencies. Like self-preservation type emergencies.
"Fine!" Momma relents, letting Charlie go. "No shenanigans!"
Charlie barely hears her. She all but dives into her sleeping bag. There's no talking back or anything, just a loud sob of relief.
I hop into my bed and get under my blankets. I don't even make a show of checking out my burns.
Momma nods her head in approval before leaving, buts she keeps the door open. And me and Charlie both know what for.
About ten minutes roll by and I'm nearly asleep when Charlie climbs back in bed with me.
Seriously? I really think the girl wants to die.
"Night Vega." She tells me. I nearly push her out but she just turns over away from me. No funny business. She's really going to sleep.
"Charlie?" I shake her shoulder a bit.
"Hm?"
"Are you really afraid of the dark?"
"Nope!" She says in a way that leaves me no doubt that she's grinning from ear to ear.
Un-freakin-believable she is. Just unbelievable.