*Some time later*

"Adam, I'm hungry," I complained, lying on the sofa with my legs draped over the side.

"Okay…" he replied, flipping through a book.

"Adam, I'm hungry," I repeated after a few seconds, rolling over onto my stomach.

"Yes."

"What's for dinner?" I prompted, slowly crawling off the couch.

"Nothing," he stated. "And you're going to hurt yourself."

"Why?" I whined.

"Because you're being an idiot who's going to fall off the sofa onto your face!" Adam yelled.

"Not that! I know that. Why no dinner?"

"Because there isn't any food!" he growled, trying to go back to reading his book.

"But I'm hungry!"

"Yeah?" he asked, looking at me to see if I nod (I did, obviously). "Well, so am I."

"Then why aren't you cooking?" I questioned, prompting my head on the armrest of his chair.

"Because there isn't any food!" he repeated slowly.

"Well, then go shopping, silly," I snorted a laughed, punching him gently on the arm.

"You know what? We're-"

"Wait," I interrupted and he slammed his book down.

"What!?"

"I love you~"

"Shut up," he snapped. "I'm going to regret this, but we're going out to eat."

"Yosh!" I jumped onto my feet, clapping happily. "Let's go to Pudding Palace, Adam!"

"Yeah," Alex agreed, rushing into the room. "Pudding Palace, Adam!"

Adam shot a glare over to me. "This was your plan all along, wasn't it?" he asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I hummed, smiling innocently.

Adam sighed. "We're not going to Pudding Palace."

"What?" I snapped. "Why not~?"

"One, Pudding is not a healthy dinner."

"So what?" I interrupted.

"I thought you wanted to lose weight-"

"Well, I do, but obviously my love of pudding is just too intense for my desires to lose weight," I replied. "I want to go to Pudding Palace!"

"You have to practice restraint," he told me.

"Yeah, well, you have to practice respect!" I shouted.

"Excuse me?"

"Do I stutter? I said 'you have to practice respect.'"

"ExCUSE me?"

"Yes, excuse you," I turned around, taking Alex's arm in mine. "C'mon, Alex, we're going to the PUDDING PALACE!"

"Yes!" she shouted, throwing a fist in the air. "I love that place! Whoever started that enterprise was a genius!"

"I agree! And, for future reference, Joshua Nettlehead opened the first Pudding Palace!"

"Yeah! That's so cool to know!"

"Oh, yes, indeed!"

"Oh…no." Adam said in more subdued tones than Alex and I.

"Adam, why are you harshing my mellow?" I demanded, poking him on the shoulder.

"Dylan, it's an all-you-can-eat pudding place-"

"Yes," I replied. "That's why we're so excited! BE EXCITED WITH US!"

"Well, you know how you get around pudding. You're going to eat a lot of it. You'll gain weight, and then you'll get mad at me for bringing you there in the first place."

"No, I won't," I replied, shooing away the comment. "The only thing that I'll gain from this trip is happiness. Now get your coat on."

"Okay, well, don't come crying to me when-"

"I won't," I said firmly. "Get. Your. Coat. On."

"Fine," Adam shrugged, walking over to the rack and grabbing his leather jacket. "Let me get my shoes on."

"Whatever," I replied sassily, going off to find my headphones.

As we were heading out the door, Adam said something about forgetting something. I couldn't hear him very well because my Studio Beats were happily spewing music in my ears. They suddenly stopped working though, emitting a crackling-staticy noise. I ripped them off my head angrily. "Stupid piece of junk…" I growled, shaking them violently.

"Wait, it's not just your Beats," Alex replied, stopping me from snapping them in half. "My phone isn't working either."

"Neither is my pedometer."

"Going somewhere?" an annoyingly familiar voice hissed. The three of us spun around in unison, all seeing our unwanted guest at the same time.

"Glad you could come," Adam greeted, sounding anything but glad.

"Alright," I pouted, sending accusing daggers at Alex with my eyes. "Who invited the brat?"

"Who're you calling a brat, brat?" Klarion demanded, getting in my face. I glared at him, but when he didn't move, I mentally shrugged and licked his noise. He recoiled, wiping his face dramatically. "Ew! Ew! Mortal germs! Oh, gross! Ugh! Ew!" I vaguely noticed his cat come down the stairs while I laughed. Teekl meowed. Klarion stopped his fit and turned to his cat. "Not now, Teekl! Can't you see I'm doing something?" the feline rolled her eyes and sauntered away, tail swishing behind her. "Now, what were we arguing about again?"

"Uh, you were asking Dylan who she was calling a brat," Alex answered. "Aaand then she licked your face."

"Oh, that's right! Who are you calling a brat?"

"You," I replied, rolling my eyes. "Obviously."

"Coming from Little Miss-"

"Little Miss what?" I interrupted. He stopped to think for a minute.

"Little Miss Annoying…person…"

"That was…" I had to think. "Possibly the worst come-back I've ever heard."

"Like you could do better," he retorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, I can!"

"No, you can't!"

"Yuh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Will you two shut up?" Adam shouted, rubbing his temples. "I thought you two were annoying separated, but now I realize that I didn't even grasp the concept of 'annoying' until you two were in the same room!"

"He started it," I announced, pointing at Klarion the same time he said, "She started it," and pointed at me.

"Did not!" we shouted in unison.

"You know what," I growled. "Why am I arguing with Little Boy Blue while there's pudding to be consumed?"

"I was just wondering the same thing," Alex sighed, taking my arm and dragging me out the door and to the car.

*A half an hour later, at the Pudding Palace*

"I've never seen anyone eat that much pudding in five minutes in all of my life," Klarion stated, sounding both disgusted as well as intrigued.

I paused, my spoon halfway to my mouth. "What? I like pudding," I snapped. "You got a problem with that?"

"Um…" Klarion said. "I don't think so."

"Good," I replied as I continued eating. "You gonna eat that?"

"No," he slid his full bowl over to me.

After the chocolate pudding ran out, there was really no reason to stay. So the four of us paid for what we ate, left a tip and made our way back to the car. Well, actually it was only us mortals who paid and left the tip, Klarion got out of it by throwing a tantrum, and we thought it best not to beat him up in public.

Five minutes into our drive home, I decided Adam was too happy and it was about time I bugged him some more. "Adam, where are we going?"

"I don't know," he replied, not playing into my hands.

"Can we go bowling on the moon?"

"Only in your dreams."

"I wish I dreamed boring stuff like that," I grinned. "Oh, Adam, last night I had a dream where we all lived in a village made of cake, and my house was vanilla, but then a dragon attacked! So I had to save our cake town! So I mounted my flying machine and lit those really long matches for cannons. Now that I think of it, I don't understand why we were attacking the dragon with fire since dragons breathe fire, but then I dropped the match and-"

"Dylan!" Adam snapped. "You're getting on my nerves."

"I dropped the match and accidently lit myself on fire," I finished quietly. "Which reminds me! Adam, I have to visit Cam tomorrow."

"Since when are you getting back into the habit of visiting him?" Adam asked after making sure he wouldn't crash the car.

"Well, he's my boyfriend; I should at least see him once a month. Besides, I only stopped because I was busy.

"Are you sure?" Adam asked skeptically.

"Yes," I nodded my head for emphasis. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, we have to deal with Klarion-"

"So what, no one cares about him-"

"I'm right here," he said indignantly.

"Yes, we all know," I didn't even bother looking at him as I pushed him away.

"And," Adam said. "You haven't seen him in two months. He's probably changed and all."

"Yeah, well, I want to see him," I replied. "If things don't work out, then things don't work out. Life sucks and then you die, Adam."

Klarion stiffened beside me. "Something's wrong," he said.

"What, did you realize your hair-do has been out of style since last Halloween?"

The pale boy glared at me before saying, "Teekl. Something's wrong with Teekl. I can't hear her in my head…but I suppose it's probably nothing."

"Nothing or something," I retorted, inspecting my nails.

His glare intensified. "Why must you always contradict me?"

"Hey, don't yell at me," I defended. "I'm just throwing all the options out there-"

"How about I throw you out there," he pointed out the window.

"Yeah, good luck getting her out that window," Adam laughed. My eyes got wide. Alex looked at Adam with a what-the-f**k-were-you-thinking look. "What?"

"You just called me heavy and fat," I said quite calmly, though on the inside I was burning everything and wanting to rip his head off.

"No, I didn't," he said.

"Why does it matter that he called you fat?" Klarion asked. "You're obviously not, so…"

"My personal body issues have nothing to do with you," I snapped, turning my head to look out the window. "Jerkface…"

When we got home, I grabbed a handful of candy from the table and stormed upstairs, locking my bedroom door behind me. Alex knocked on my door, but I didn't really want to talk to her, I had to think.

Cam had been in jail for a year now. When he first got there, he called me every week on Tuesday. And I visited him every Friday. But he stopped calling, and eventually I stopped visiting. I knew things between us wouldn't work out. But I like to think of how it was before he started hanging out with the bad crowd. I didn't want to give that up.

The shrill screaming of my ringtone rang out into the quiet of my room. I plopped down on my bed, grabbing my phone. The caller ID was familiar though I hadn't seen it in a while.

Thanks for tuning in! did you see they have a New 52 Klarion comic now? Awesome-sauce!

Anywhos, loves and hugs. See you—figuratively—next time,

Vee