Leah's eyes slowly open. When she regains some conciousness, she feels a painful ache in her back. She was sitting against the headboard, an open book on her lap. She looks at the time. Nine o'clock. She hadn't realized she'd fallen asleep. She cracks her neck, knuckles, and back. Better, she thinks. Much better. Hm...should I get pizza? Or Chinese? Then she remembers the stomach ache she got from Chinese food last week. Pizza. After glancing at the clock again, an important thought hits her.
Chris is in the living room.
Oh my God, I fell asleep, and a criminal's in my house. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She throws her covers to the side and gets out of her bed. After a minute, she tells herself to stay as calm as possible. You're not paranoid, and you're not a babysitter. Slow down. She takes a deep breath and opens her bedroom door. The first thing she checks is the couch.
Chris is not there like she'd hoped.
She leaves her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She looks around the living room, including the window. Still nothing.
Just then, a scraping sound comes from the kitchen.
She hurries to the kitchen, gripping the wall dividing it from her bedroom in case the sound is something unpleasant. She carefully peeks in.
The scraping sound must have been the chair against the floor; Chris is sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes. He eats it like he's never tasted it before. Leah finds it...kind of adorable. But she doesn't make a noise. He looks at the blue cardboard cereal box.
He must find it interesting, Leah thinks.
Chris take his thumb and presses the tip of the jagged nail into the tiger's eyes. He drags it around the face, make an uncomfortable carving sound. The face falls to the table.
Never mind, then, she corrects herself. She decides to make a noise to make her presence known. She coughs a couple of times, then steps away from behind the wall.
Chris' head snaps up at the sound. He grips his spoon tighter as if he can harm someone with it.
"I guess you can keep that box."
He wipes the surprise off his face and returns to the same poker face I've gotten since he got here. "Who said I was even planning on giving it back?" he says.
"Well, I guess I should've assumed that first since you ripped out Tony the Tiger's face." She walks to the refrigerator for some water.
"Not my fault they decided to put a stupid-ass tiger there."
"It's meant to appeal to children so they could eat it, too."
"Do I look like a fucking child?"
"No, but you're acting like one."
"Oh, I forgot. You're my new mom now. You adopted me a few hours ago."
Leah's ready to explode on him, but she tells herself how bad an idea that is. She takes a deep breath and tries again. "Please stop saying I adopted you. You're twenty-five years old. I'm not allowed to adopt you. And I'm not trying to be a mother. Please. I hated my mother. I already told you, I'm in it for the money, not for the 'fun', as they so gladly put it in the office. I would help you run away. If you didn't have that damn chip in your arm, I wouldn't care less about what you did."
"You know what? I'd rather we hold the emotion and get to business. I need clothes."
Oh snap, I forgot about that, she thinks. Are there any places open at this time? I could try the mall, but they don't really have men's clothing there...
