Life Ever After (Sequel to OPW Logan Lerman FanFiction)

Bus Buddy and Mr.Floater

Hello? Is it me you're lookin' for! I can see it in your eyes, I can see it in your smile. Lionel Richie really just sums up a person who's been lost for a while but suddenly returned. In my absence, I have been doing important things like watching Frozen, getting some fucking awesom piercings (on my ear, I'm not really a badass) and baking cookies. I know it's been a while, but school has been kicking my butt lately, and it requires a majority of my attention.

Trust me, if I could just spend the rest of my life writing about yummy actors, I would. Love you all, and sorry for the wait!

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Finn Caprera and I had met way back in elementary school. He was my bus buddy, the only boy on the whole Big Cheese (my dads name for the school bus) that didn't have cooties.

He was a year older than me, but I still saw him regularly in the halls and sometimes at recess. Unlike my immature brother and his friends, Finn was never afraid to talk to me or acknowledge my presence. We had grown apart after we split up to different high schools after middle school, but I never forgot about the boy who punched Malcomb Sauer in the face when he squeezed a ketchup pouch on my head.

Finn had sort of been my first crush.

And so when an older version of him walked through the front door of my house on this fateful night, I nearly had an aneurism. A full out heart attack that left me gaping in a really sexy manner with my mouth wide open and my eyes all bugged out. Totally Nikki.

"Devon, man, I said I was sorry about your fish." Finn ran a nervous hand through his hair, looking really guilty. About a $3.25 fish. He didn't even notice me.

A little voice in the back of my head was freaking out, saying how awesome it was that I had my old bus buddy back, while another part of me was kind of bummed. Dev was being majorly rude, and I felt the need to make up for that.

"Finn? Is that you?" I bit my lip, looking up at him questioningly.

"Um, hi. I don't think I kno- hey wait! Nikki?" Finn seemed to recognize me, too, and that made me happy. As much as we all like to pretend that we bare no resemblance to the awkward, gangly pre-teens that sulked through school hallways, it's undeniable that even through age we still resemble the little toddlers in the pictures framed along the walls of our homes. The spaghetti spattered, chubby legged five year old me sitting in a booster seat completely passed out on the table still had the crazy curls, the eye shape, and the knack for getting into somewhat bizarre situations, despite the fact that the photograph had been taken many years ago.

And I could still see my bus buddy in the green eyes and cropped light brown hair of the boy in front of me. Well, man. No, not man. Barely twenty years old doesn't count as being a man. That counts as being a guy.

One day, my big brother might actually achieve guy status, as opposed to his shitfaceobnoxiousthing title he had been sporting for many years.

It's like Pokémon. The male evolution chart goes as such:

Adorable baby -> Worm throwing nuisance -> Cootie breeding ground -> Cute thing that I might consider kissing -> Boy -> Guy (only after 18+ years of age) -> Man ( status only achieved after male has managed to create a fire, build something useful, kill more than 100 bugs, and looked genuinely happy after receiving power tools as gifts).

"Yeah, it's me. Good to see you, dude." I leaned over the island to casually one-arm hug him, before realizing that a majority of my friends are male. It's probably just because I really don't like dealing with females that act bratty and all... girlish, but also because guys are so much more simple.

Dev sent a scathing glare at poor Finn, who had returned his attention to Pudgy the fish, who was, unfortunately, still stuck in a frozen water bottle.

"Devon, I thought you said your roommate was a total weirdo. You didn't say it was Finn Caprera, my bus buddy!" I poked Dev in the side, but he didn't squirm away like he usually does when I poke him. In fact, Dev looked very angry, something in his jaw ticking and steam practically rolling from his ears. He stood very rigid, his shoulders firm and his hands in loose fists.

"Nikki I never saw you after Marriott Middle. You kind of just dropped off the face of the Earth." Finn was pointedly ignoring Dev's rude (and somewhat threatening) posture, while I shot my brother confused looks.

"That's me, floating around out in space. Just got back yesterday from Mars." I chuckled at my own joke, but Finn wasn't paying attention to me anymore, rather, looking at Dev with a nervous expression. So my joke kind of drifted through the kitchen, my mom still fussing over Pudgy while Devon glared stupidly at my bus buddy, who seemed a little perturbed by the angry attention.

"Listen, Devon, I'll buy you a new one, man. I really didn't mean to. When you asked me if I could put your water in the fridge, oust assumed it was the one next to the couch." The fact that he was apologizing over a two dollar fish and a situation that sounded like my idiotic brothers fault, was just plain sad.

How do you tell someone you knew a while ago but don't know as well now that they're being ridiculous if not a little stupid?

"Devon, if it makes you feel any better we'll throw your fish a goddamned funeral." I finally grumbled, and Dev broke away from his glaring to look at me with watery eyes.

"I don't want a funeral. I want a fish."

Because he was behaving like a six year old, I decided to stoop to his level. I filled up a cup (it was chosen at random from our cup drawer, and ended up being a crappy plastic Christmas cup one of us kids probably got from the dollar store as a present for our parents) with water and then disappeared into the pantry, reappearing a moment later with the cup and a proud smile on my face.

I handed the cup to Dev, being careful so the water wouldn't slosh up over the edges, and waited patiently for his reaction.

In all honesty, I really didn't expect what happened next.

My twenty year old brother glanced down at the cup, and a huge shit-eating grin stretched across his face a moment later. Then, then the tears started. Big, fat, ugly tears started pouring down my immature brothers face as he stared at the little goldfish cracker floating on the surface of the tap water in the plastic Christmas cup.

"If we throw a funeral, I want Mr.Floater to be present as well." Devon finally choked out, turning on is heel and carrying his soggy pet out of the kitchen.

I had totally been anticipating a scream fest from Devon, all about how I was so insensitive and how I was such a brat for bringing him a lame excuse for a replacement pet. But no, the moron actually liked my idea. I stood there, open mouthed, for a solid two minutes before mom put the Pudgy water bottle in the microwave so we could later flush him down the toilet at his funeral.

"Robin," I said in a scratchy voice, coughing once or twice to clear it "begin construction on props for a fish funeral. I leave this task in your capable hands."

And then I took my computer boyfriend up to my room so I could decide on an acceptable outfit for flushing the deceased, leaving mom in the kitchen with a very confused roommate and my pregnant best friend, who was mumbling about construction paper coffins.