The Incredible League of Goth Pizza Haters (RH)

Part 49

---Sylvia---

I got out of my car in time to see the front door swing open and Dani running over to give me a hug. She hugged me tight and then pulled away and greeted me lovingly with:

"What happened to your face?"

"Love you, too."

"Yeah, yeah. But what happened to your face?"

"Life. Where's mom?"

"Inside."

"Where's Nick."

"Also inside."

"Interesting." I walked inside and greeted my mom in the kitchen. She hugged me too tightly then began quizzing me on my facial bruises. I froze. I had several stories thoroughly memorized and ready to be applied to the conversation. But there's this thing about my mom where it's just really hard to lie to her. I looked at her then at Dani then back at her. She looked at me then Dani then back at me then around again to Dani and told her to leave the room. Dani was obviously offended and looked back and forth between our mom and me several times as she left the room and slammed her door shut. 

I told my mom about Ian. 

Afterwards she hugged me for a solid three minutes and begged me to come home. I admitted to her that I missed her but refused to come back. She told me things between Nick and his girlfriend had all gone downhill. That they'd broken up. I spent the afternoon with Dani and my mom, eating dinner in front of the tv. Dani was slightly pissed that neither of us would tell her what happened. Nick didn't come out until later. 

He walked into the kitchen to get food but spotted me in the living room and paused. His hair was messy and he obviously hadn't had a showered or shaved in a few days. He sighed and walked outside.

"We have ice cream in the freezer if you want any." my mom said from the couch. I got two bowls of ice cream and slipped out into the front yard. Nick was sitting in the driveway looking into the darkening sky. The wind blew, dusting snow across our mostly clear driveway and sticking to his unbrushed hair. I sat beside him, shivering, and silently offered him a bowl. He took it and stirred the contents with the spoon. After a long silence, he spoke. 

"She left me." he said.

"...Yeah."

"You were right."

"...I guess." I said and he sighed deeply. I saw the tears in his eyes then and he sniffed and blinked them away. "I'm sorry." 

"Me too."I reached out and rubbed his shoulder and he leaned over, extending one arm and we had an awkward two-armed hug that lasted a painfully long amount of time. Afterwards, he pulled away and stirred up his ice cream again. He sniffed and blinked a few times. 

"You okay?"

"It's fucking freezing out and you get ice cream? Really?" we both laughed a bit, our breath erupting in clouds soaring skyward. It wasn't all that funny, but we needed something to react to. Something that would fill the silence and give us an excuse to release some of the smoke that was clinging to our throats. 

"Well, I'm sorry I didn't thoroughly think this through." I said. He was smiling faintly. 

"I don't think either of us really thought anything through." he said. I nodded. 

"I'm gonna ask again, and if you don't answer I'll drop it, but I need to ask: Are you okay?"

"Not at the moment... You?"

"Not at the moment. But I will be. Shitty experiences usually bounce off me."

"Yeah, me too. We'll both be okay, but speaking of shitty experiences, what the hell happened to your face?"

"Oh my god. I'm not even a person anymore. Everyone just greets me with 'what the hell happened to your face?' It must have bruised to form the words 'ask me about my jacked up face'."

"Sorry, jeez."

"It's fine. I mean, it is kind of the first thing you would see, I guess."

"Yeah, and when guys have bruises you can just immediately assume that he got into a fight or something. With girls, you see bruises and think "oh shit, someone has an abusive boyfriend'."

"Really?"

"Yeah. That's what I think, anyway. But then again, I'm a guy. And guys are horrible people."

"Not all of them."

"A lot. I liked it better when you were a lesbian."

"I was never a lesbian, I'm bisexual. I like both."

"Well you should convert to lesbianism."

"I don't think lesbians have their own religion." 

"Well they should. I would follow that religion."

"Well you're a satanist." I said and he spooned ice cream into his mouth.

"All hail Satan and his scary-ass lesbian army."