He's Here Now...

He's Like A Star

Joey was waiting for me by the staircase.

"I told you I would meet you up there." I said to him.

"I know, I just wanted to set some ground rules." He told me, grabbing my arm so I wouldn't continue up the stairs. "Number one, no saying anything about my past. Nothing."

"Not even that you used to be a super huge Pokemon fan?" I teased. He let go of my arm then slapped it with the back of his hand. "Ow!"

"No saying that! Number two, no liking my friend."

"Why would you need to tell me that?" I asked him.

"Just trust me. He's a cutie."  He said and led me up the stairs. The carpet was causing static to charge and run up my body. I could feel the hairs on my legs trying to stand up through my nylons. We reached the closed door on the 3de floor. Joey turned to look at me, and then turned the handle.

Joeys room looked rearranged. Of course. I was gone for years. He got new curtains and a new bed. His bookshelf, oh the bookshelf. It was full to the rim with Steven King novels because that was all we would do. I would come into his room, and we would read Steven King books. The mystery and horror. We ate it up like lions devouring the carcass of a grown antelope. Difficult prey.

But something was moving around in front of the novels. I noticed the body crouched down looking through the books on the bottom shelf of the bookcase.

The hair on his head was long and curly. It hung down from his scalp like waves of the ocean. When he heard the door open, he jumped but continued doing what he was doing. His hand furrowed with putting the book back then he turned to face me.

His beauty radiated across the room. His blue eyes pierced mine with such intensity. I almost gasped.

He got up and dusted off his pants legs. Blue washed denim ripped jeans? Polo? Oh he knew how to dress. His arms looked super muscular. Jeez what did he do? Boxing? Football? Jump rope? My train of thought was interrupted when he extended his arm out to me.

"Hi I'm Troy, nice to meet you." He said, a smirk emerging from his lips. I met his hand with mine.

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Lily."

"Lily? Oh I've always wanted to know someone named Lily. There's this ancient book, I can't quite remember the name of it now, but it talks about the taboos of naming your kids after certain things. Lily, believe it or not comes from the Latin word-" Joey cut him off.

" Bro, your rambling again. Enough with all those annoying ass  facts you think are relevant enough to spew out at random ass times." Joey said to him as he walked over to his dresser.

"I was just educating her on the origin of her name." Troy said, turning from me to grab another book off the bookcase. Joey rolled his eyes.

I walked to the bed and threw myself onto it. It smelled like Joey and the faint smell of someone else. Troy probably. The pillowcase was laced with hair, both small pieces from Joeys head and the long curly thread like ones from his friend.

"Joey I remember this. Sitting on this bed and talking about your old teachers and reading books together but not together. Well not this bed. This one is huge. But the other one. When I would get scared of the dark and you would let me crawl under the covers with you. Its crazy how it seems that we haven't drifted apart all this time. That you still see me as your crazy little cousin Lily that never grew up. That your still the same crazy Joey and yet, everything has changed."

"Deep." Troy said, looking at me from the floor.

"Eh, you get used to it." Joey replied. "Lily you good?"

"Yea just pondering the reality of me being here."

"No I mean like because your itching super bad."

Oh, I didn't even notice. Probably all the Joey dirt on this bed.

"Am I?" I said.

" Yea you want a pair of sweats?"

"But I look so cute. Plus I'm supposed to look nice. I'm the visitor here."

"But your still family." Joey said as he threw a pair of his grey sweatpants at me.

I got up and walked out of the room. The hallway felt cold and alone. The faint sounds of roaring laughter and a movie we're coming from the first floor. I turned away from the stairs and walked into the bathroom.

The light was already on. I closed the door behind me and threw the pants on the sink. Oh was this familiar. The mirror was dirty and had streaks and fingerprints around the edges. And then there was all the makeup on the counter of the sink. So much makeup. I looked up at my reflection in the mirror.

My eyeliner had smudged a bit where the wings were. My lipstick was no longer on my lips. But boy did I contour the shit out of my cheekbones. Then there was the blue patch of hair sitting on top of my head. I brought it from the back and swung it over the side of my face. Oh I looked so different. Like I was trying too hard before but now I'm me.

I took the pants from the sink and placed them on top of the toilet seat. Then I washed my face and dried it with the towel behind me. Now I'm me. Now I'm Lily.

Glad to take them off, I removed the nylons from my legs along with the skirt and put the sweatpants on.

I went to leave but there was a black beanie hanging behind the door. In big white letters it read "BOSS". No one in the house besides Joey would wear something like that. I yanked it off the hook and placed it on my head. I took a quick glance in the mirror before exiting just to make sure I didn't look like a moron.

I left the bathroom and walked back into the room. My nylons and skirt hung over my shoulder.

"Hey I found this hat behind the bathroom door Joey, I'm gonna wear it." I said throwing the clothes onto the floor. Then I looked up to see Troy gawking at me. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open.

"Woah." He said. Joeys eyes narrowed to slits when he looked at Troy.

"Woah what?" I asked, expecting a flattering answer.

"You look way better when you don't try so hard." Troy said. His eyes were fixed on my hair and he didn't look like he was thinking. When he finally realized what he said, he corrected " No I didn't mean it like that. You look pretty all the time," he looked back a Joey, " I mean not pretty. Well you are pretty, but like, your, its so... I'm gonna go use the bathroom"

And with that he got up and raced past me into the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

" That got weird really fast." I said out loud, meaning only to relay it in my head.

"My Gosh Lily why can't you go be pretty somewhere else? Your makin' Troy act all weird. He's never like this, he's always been a square."

"But now he's like a star. Or always was, and you never saw it."

"STOP IT! I DONT NEED YOUR DEEP THINKING IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW LILY!" Joey yelled with amusement.

"Alright fine, I'll just go then. Take a look around."

"That sounds like the right thing to do."

I turned around and left the room, wondering where to stick my head into.