Taken By Sleep

1

As the credits scroll upward across the TV, Tyler starts laughing at all the random jobs people had for the movie. "Second-assistant dog trainer! The dog was in three seconds of the movie!"

"I don't even see the dog's name anywhere," I agree.

"I bet there's a third-assistant-pencil-sharpener for the chauffeur of the second-assistant producer."

"You look for him and I'll wash all this gross stuff off my hands," I say, referring to my butter-and-salt-stained hands. Popcorn really coats your hands in itself. I force myself out of the couch and head to the kitchen. I turn on the sink, pulling my sleeves up with two fingers. I wash my hands with soap and water before turning the water off and drying them with a towel. I walk back into Tyler's living room to find him staring intently at the screen. I push the back of his head, and then walk around the couch to grab the remote. I pause it.

"Wait!" he yells.

"What?"

"There might be an end-credit scene."

I roll my eyes before hitting fast-forward.

"No, we have to wait for all the credits."

I roll my eyes again. He does this every time. "The music isn't even that good."

"Music is always good."

"Ehhhh." I don't agree, but I press play and sit back down next to him, the empty bowl of popcorn between us.

"You know it's good if you can dance to it." He stands up and starts dancing horribly. I shield my eyes dramatically, laughing in the process.

"Tyler, please stop. You're going to make me go blind."

"You're already blind." He grabs my wrist, pulling my hand away. I wince slightly, but he doesn't notice. He just pulls me up and tries to get me to dance too. I stand like a rock, but he pulls me off balance so that I almost fall. Thankfully, he catches me in time. I shove him away, laughing. I tug my sleeves down, telling myself I should have remembered after I washed my hands. Oh well.

I sit back down. About thirty seconds later, Tyler joins me, exhausted from dancing. I groan and complain for another minute before Tyler grabs the remote and hits fast-forward just to shut me up. There's no end-credit scene, so Tyler shuts the TV off. Then he grabs the trash we made to throw away. I take the bowl that held the popcorn and put it in the sink in the kitchen.

"I saw them, you know." Tyler says, walking up to me.

"What?" I ask, genuinely confused for a second.

"Your wrists." He lowers his voice, but I still glance at the doorway nervously. "Zack is in his room."

Zack, Tyler's brother, is the only other one here. Still, I don't feel safe talking above a whisper. "So?"

"So, nothing. You don't need to hide them from me, though."

"It's practice. For other people." He knows I cut sometimes. He's kept my secret like a good friend.

He shrugs. "Okay." He pauses. "But it's pretty recent, right?"

"Yeah." I look away from him.

"When?"

"Two nights ago."

"You didn't feel like calling me? Or texting me? Or anyone?"

"No. I was fine."

"This isn't fine," he grabs my arm a little forcefully and shows me the thin line across my wrist.

"It's just one," I say uselessly.