Breathless

Chapter 6: Friends

I pushed Elise's hand out of the cheddar cheese popcorn bag and grabbed a large handful for myself. She turned towards me and pretended to make her jaw drop in shock. Then, she smacked my hand, causing all of the popcorn in my hand to fall onto the floor.

"Hey!" I said, laughing. "I was going to eat that!"

Elise grabbed the bag and held it tightly to her chest with a sly grin on her face. "My popcorn." With that, she grabbed a handful and stuffed it all into her mouth at once, causing a few kernels to fall out and roll in between the couch cushions.

I put up both of my hands as if to say 'I surrender' and turned back towards the movie. Pitch Perfect was our absolute favorite. It wasn't long before Elise said something and broke the silence.

"What did the dermatologist say today?" Her blue eyes never left the flatscreen tv in front of us. I couldn't tell if it was because she knew what my reaction would be if another doctor ran away or if she just really wanted to see Fat Amy come on.

"He wants us to come back," I mumbled, scratching the scaly patch on my arm.

Elise turned to me with a wide grin on her face. "Finally!" she threw her hands into the air, dropping the popcorn kernels that she had been holding.

"That doesn't mean he can fix it," I said, giving my friend the reality dose we both needed. No one knew how to fix me. Well, maybe except for one little girl. "But something weird happened today. Anna showed up."

She turned to me with a shocked look on her face. Elise was speechless, for once. "Are you serious?" she finally said. "What happened?"

I recalled Anna in her purple dress stroking my back in the bathroom and proceeded to tell Elise the entire story with details. When I was done, I think I had left my friend with more questions than answers.

"She touched you?" Elise asked. I thought it was a weird question to ask after all that I had told her, but I nodded anyways. "You said Anna went right throught you last time."

I furrowed my brow until a wave of realization came. The memory from three years ago resurfaced, and I saw Anna's hand, in my own mind, pass right through me. "How did I forget?" I mumbled without paying much attention to the words coming out of my mouth.

"I guess photographic memories don't work like that." Elise shrugged and turned back towards the T.V., but I think that was just because she didn't want me stressing out about the fact that something was happening with Anna. Her facial expression was tense, and she became silent, for once. That could only mean one thing: something important was on her mind. I contemplated whether or not to ask her about it, but then decided against it since she would tell me sooner or later. Elise hated to keep secrets, which made me wonder how she kept mine.

"What do you think you are?" Elise said with her eyes still glued to the flat screen. I caught the concerned tone of her voice.

Elise's question wasn't a hard one. I knew the answer without even having to think. "Just a freak," I said decisively. "It's not fair. Why me?"

She looked at me and let out a loud huff, making a sandly blonde strand of hair fall in her face. "Don't do this again, Terra," she grumbled. "It gets old."

My mouth dropped open slightly. My scales were a big deal, so I should be allowed to talk about them as much as I want. "What are you talking about?"

Elise sighed and turned her entire body towards me, making the leather on the couch squeak. "You've juse been having a lot  of self-pity these days. I mean, Emily's going through the same thing, and she doesn't complain half as much as you do."