"Really, Adam." Meredith groaned, Lazuli turned over and covered her head with the pillow, it was simply far too early to be awake.
"You passed out in your daughter's bed." Lazuli didn't have to see to know her mother's hand was fisted on her hip, the other holding a cup of coffee as her perfectly curled blonde hair bounced around her face with every punctuating head nod.
"She cost me money." Adam grumbled nursing a hangover.
"I told you already." Meredith snapped "Lapis said that model is water proof, have you even tried it?"
"Water proof doesn't save it from the floor, does it, Meredith?" Adam snapped slamming his mug into the table.
"Wow." Lapis said amused "she actually got him up in time for work."
"Can't they at least pretend they care about not letting us hear?" Lazuli groaned.
"Why would they do that?" Lapis asked "that'd make them halfway decent parents and they've got a reputation to uphold." Lapis sat up "come on, Lazuli, be reasonable."
"I'm a teenage girl." Lazuli said swinging her legs out from under the covers "reasonable, isn't exactly what we're known for."
"What, are you saying? Girls are an entirely separate species now?" Lapis hopped out of bed and went to his closet, clothes were hung neatly, if he measured them he was sure the hangers would measure exactly an inch apart. Mom picks the most inane things to fuss over he thought as he yanked on a pair of straight legged jeans over some boxers going on their third day of use.
"We mind as well be, teenage girls think on a whole different wave length than any other living thing on this planet." Lazuli closed herself in her closet and pulled on a pair of black leggings and a loose fitting t-shirt style dress. She breezed out of the closet and flopped back onto her bed "Well, that was exhausting." She sighed, her body ached "man, I wish I would just heal already, this is so killing my buzz."
"I know what you mean." Lapis grumbled from his closet just before he lost his balance and fell into the wall, dragging at least ten other items with him. Lazuli looked at his closet "you okay?" she asked. Lapis whimpered as he cradled his broken arm to his chest. "Yeah." He grunted "just fine." Glaring at his arm he wished that his stupid arm would just heal already, that or stop feeling pain. "A pain free life." He laughed at himself "what a thing to wish for." Lapis pulled on a new shirt identical to his other long sleeved shirt and went to lay back down.
"There, that's enough for one day."
"Agreed." Lazuli nodded.
The door creaked open not ten minutes later and their mother's head peaked in "Lapis, Lazuli. It's time to get up." Their mother strode in in her usual skirt suit attire and threw their curtain open. Lazuli hissed at the sunlight and covered her eyes. Lapis groaned and buried his head into the mattress.
"We got dressed." Lapis' voice was muffled by the bed.
"Come down and eat some breakfast, then you can rest." Their mother said as she began picking up the mess in Lapis' closet. "I have a meeting today so I'll be gone most of the afternoon."
"Doing some express parenting before you go?" Lapis mocked thinking of last night she didn't even try he glared into his mattress.
"Please, Lapis, not today, not after last night." Meredith sighed hanging the clothes back up meticulously placing them.
Lapis flipped over and sat up to look at her. "You mean the part where dad threw a fit or the part where he came and passed out on Lazuli's bed?" Lapis narrowed his eyes at his mother, he could feel the bruises on his face, the stitches over his eye as he speared her with his accusatory gaze.
"Lapis, not today." She snapped stomping out of the room. Lazuli didn't move, she just stared at the ceiling and pretended nothing was going on. Their mother slammed the door when she left, Lapis glared after her.
"How long do you think it'd take her to find out we were gone?" Lapis drummed his fingers against his thigh. Lazuli didn't say a word. Lapis glanced over at her. "You okay."
"I just…" Lazuli sighed "I just don't care anymore." She climbed to her feet, nothing sounded better to Lazuli at that moment than to lie in bed all day and rest her aching body.
"It's for the best." Lapis stood finally succumbing to the grumbling in his stomach "just hop on off the disappointment train, Lazuli, we've only got each other." Lapis clasped her shoulder as he passed her "they're just far too blind to see what they're missing out on." Lapis smirked. Lazuli looked at Lapis' hand on her shoulder, a smile crawled over her lips and she met his eyes with a similar expression "they're going to see it one day." Lazuli strutted out of the room, her strides long and strong, only Lapis would be able to see the slight hitch as she switched legs. She's hurting he looked at her bedside table, her prescription was completely full she won't even take one he shook his head so stubborn.
Lazuli tried to ignore the way Lapis favored his left side, his less injured side, as he ate his coco crunch. He looks weird using his left hand Lazuli thought as she stirred her oatmeal and strawberries.
"How bad?" Lazuli asked sounding indifferent as she ate a spoonful of her breakfast.
"Hmm…" Lapis looked up from his food with a blank expression.
"How bad?" Lazuli repeated examining her spoon.
"My arm or everything?" Lapis narrowed his eyes distastefully at his cast, Lazuli had taken the liberty of signing her name on it.
"Depends, does it all mold into one big bruise or are there varying levels of pain?" Lazuli took another bite, she didn't want him to think she was too concerned.
"Pretty much a giant bruise." Lapis said with a nod slurping down his cereal.
"This beat last time?" Lazuli asked thinking of the time they had stolen a car and that truck hit them, it was amazing they were still alive.
"No way, nothing can beat that one." Lapis laughed "I swear, my arm was all the way turned around." Lapis tried his non-broken one, the one that was injured last time. "Dislocated shoulder and broken in three places," Lapis leaned back with a satisfied smile "and you with no memory, epic." Lapis snickered. Lazuli couldn't help but smile, she hadn't really had amnesia for a month, she just liked that her dad was being nice to her for the time since she was a child and her mom hadn't gone to work the whole time. Even Lapis didn't know that she was faking for so long.
"So I'm gonna hit the mall with Cookie, you coming?" Lazuli asked "she's coming around noon."
"You ask like you don't care if I go or not." Lapis teased "we both know you're lost without me."
"Is that why you follow me around all the time?" Lazuli taunted.
"Semantics." Lapis said dismissively. "I need some new shoes anyway." Lazuli glanced over at his shoes in the corner, they had been shredded from the accident, scratched and torn and virtually unwearable.
"I think those are still okay to wear." Lazuli joked.
"You can barely even tell they nearly died." Lapis joined in on the stupid joke.
"They're ready for a marathon." Lazuli snickered. Lazuli's phone rang interrupting they're stupidity.
"Hey cookie." Lazuli snorted.
"Hey, cheer's finished early, we're coming over to get you now." Cookie said all chipper.
"Cool, who's all going?" Lazuli lifted her aching body up from the table and plopped down onto the couch.
"Mandarin and Castella." Cookie giggled at something Lazuli couldn't see.
"Castella wants to know if your brother is coming." Cookie giggled again.
"Of course he is, we're joined at the hip, or didn't you know?" Lazuli snickered, she knew what face Lapis was making right now. As Cookie giggled and teased Castella about Lapis, Lazuli wasn't so sure she was up for the mall anymore, she just wanted to sit in a hot bath for the entire day maybe the night too.
"We're ten minutes away, be ready." Cookie hung up before Lazuli could change her mind. Lazuli sighed and buried her face into the back of the couch.
"Just cancel." Lapis fell back onto the armchair immediately regretting the decision when the motion jarred his entire body. Clenching his teeth, he held his breath until the pain ebbed away into a more bearable dull ache.
"I can't, I already gave Cookie my word." Lazuli cradled her aching ribs, she wasn't so sure she was durable enough to handle a day out with Cookie. Lazuli loved her best friend and all but Cookie was a bull in a china shop.
"You and giving your word." Lapis rolled his eyes at her, ironic how a shoplifter was so keen on keeping her 'word' and always being honest, at least to her friends because Lapis had witnessed firsthand her lie through her teeth to their parents, to police officers and even swearing to tell the truth on a bible to a judge. Not exactly an honest Abby.
"At least I have a code." Lazuli shot back.
"Hey, I've got a code." Lapis argued, "It's don't get caught in a lie."
"Inspiring." Lazuli play mocked forcing herself to sit up, she heard Cookie's car long before the door flew open to Cookie, Castella and Mandarin."
"Lazuli!" They each squeaked as they wrapped their arms around their injured comrade.
"Ouch." Lazuli hissed trying not to yell at them.
"Ohmygosh." Cookie exclaimed jumping back "I'm so sorry, Lazuli." Cookie took more care as she sat next to her friend "how are you feeling?" she asked, concern coloring her tone.
"Bruised." Lazuli winced as the other girls sat around her.
"We'll go slow today, and we'll only go for a little bit, then we can go out to eat or we can watch a movie, yeah?" Cookie had these big dough eyes you just couldn't say no to. Lazuli smiled and nodded "yeah."
"Yay!" Cookie jerked Lazuli to her feet without thinking. Mandarin and Castella scooped Lazuli into their arms, cheerleader style, and carried her out to the car.
"Come on, Lapis." Cookie grabbed Lapis' good arm and dragged him out of the house. Lapis grit his teeth against the ache encompassing his entire body.
"Lazuli gets the front seat." Cookie called as Mandarin and Castella loaded Lazuli into the car. "Lapis, you sit here." Cookie strategically pushed Lapis into the seat beside Castella and slammed the door before he could argue. Castella cast coy eyes toward him every so often. Lapis wasn't entirely sure if he was or wasn't into Castella, the girl was gorgeous, no doubt, but he didn't really know a whole lot about her other than that.
"What's your favorite food?" Lapis asked suddenly, it was fifteen minutes to the mall and Cookie was jabbering away to Mandarin and Lazuli. Castella considered the question seriously then flashed Lapis a huge smile "Chile cheese fries." She said.
"How about we go share a foam box of chili fries at the food court while the others shop?" Lapis smiled at Castella. Castella concealed her excitement and nodded "yeah, sure." She sat back and crossed her legs, yep she had those cheerleader legs.
"Cool." Lapis sat back, she wasn't looking at him anymore. Honestly he kind of missed it already.
"It wasn't as bad as the truck incident." Lazuli insisted as Cookie wheeled her around in a wheelchair. Cookie got it part because she was concerned for Lazuli and part because people were always nicer to a girl in a wheelchair.
"Are you sure." Mandarin asked eyeing the bumps and bruises decorating Lazuli's body."
"Yeah." Lazuli couldn't help but laugh, they had no idea how bad the truck incident really was. Her leg had taken forever to heal.
"Ooh, go in here." Mandarin ran into the priciest store Lazuli had ever seen. It looked like Paris threw up in the place. It was pink and black lace and of course the sales lady had a French accent on top of that.
"How can I help you?" The lady squeaked in her accent.
"I need a necklace to go with my prom dress, it's a sweet heart floor length dress." Mandarin held up her phone to the lady "this is it here."
"ah, beautiful." The lady purred sensing an easy sale. Lazuli wheeled herself over to the dresses, speaking of prom she should really get around to buying her dress, or finding a dress to buy at least.
"A nice shade of purple would suit you." Cookie faked a French accent imitating the sales lady who was already off with Mandarin.
"Purple is kind of my color isn't it?" Lazuli fingered a deep purple single strap dress with a rhinestone belt in the shape of a chrysanthemum.
"Most definitely." Cookie leaned against the rack and smiled down at Lazuli "did your mom totally try to kill you?" Lazuli suddenly didn't feel like shopping anymore.
"I'm kind of sore." Lazuli started to wheel herself out but Cookie grabbed the handles and stopped her.
"There's a sauna here." Cookie teetered in front of her, there was nothing Lazuli loved more than a good spa day.
"Come on, Lazuli, you need a nice long soak in their Jacuzzi." Cookie didn't wait for Lazuli to answer, she already knew what Lazuli would say.
Yes, yes, yes. This was exactly what Lazuli needed for her aching body. Lazuli sighed sinking down low enough that everything was covered except her face.
"There's that smile." Cookie giggled. Mandarin had stayed behind to find the perfect necklace but they were sure Mandarin would meet them soon.
"This feels so good." Lazuli sighed letting the water take all her weight.
"Yeah it does." Cookie sighed and relaxed back into the water in the same manner that Lazuli had.
"Hey, who's that?" Cookie suddenly caught sight of a man, she could just make out his form, there were no distinguishing features to report but Lazuli felt it. Something about him was off. Lazuli watched the figure exit. There was no reason to think so, no reason to believe he wasn't just a worked or a guy that walked into the wrong room. No, not a single reason but still Lazuli was sure he was watching her.