An Abundance of White Blood Cells // [WATTYS 2017]

TWO

Above is Rose

I woke to the theme song of Friends, yes it's an older T.V. show, but it's awesome! I opened my eyes to find Lena and Rose dancing around and mouthing along to the words of the song. I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair, trying to tame the beast that is my bedhead. "Good morning sunshine, the earth says hello!" Rose grinned as she and Lena jumped onto my bed.

"Your hair looks amazing." Lena said sarcastically.

"Oh shut up." I laughed.

I clambered out of my bed and put a pair of long socks on and a pair of sweats. You'd think my dad would keep the house a little more on the warm side, considering my mom and I were always cold, But nooooo. It's like Elsa started her period and decided to make my house her icy fortress in her fury. I'm probably exaggerating, but that's what it feels like.

I padded downstairs to the bathroom to try and see if my hair could be tamed. I almost died from laughter(yes the cancer girl just said that) when I saw my hair. It was sticking up in places and had snarls all over. I grabbed my brush and set off to work. My hair definitely looked worse than it actually was. I brushed it to its normal straight boringness within five minutes. Just as I was about to head upstairs Mom stopped me.

"I'm gonna run to the store to get some pancake mix, do you guys wanna come?" She asked, pointing upstairs.

I yawned. "Sure, we'll be down in a second."

I went upstairs and told them that we were going to the store and to get dressed. To them, getting dressed was the whole shebang. Makeup. Hair. Clothes(obviously). It took me five minutes to get ready, All I did was swap my sweats for jeans and put a pair of my old beat up sneakers on. Rose and Lena took fifteen minutes for their hair and makeup and five minutes to get dressed. Once they felt they looked presentable, we went downstairs.

Mom gave me a look that asked 'What took so long?' I just pointed at my friends. "Alright girls, let's get going!" Mom said as we walked into the garage. We all ducked into the slug bug while the garage door opened. "I wanna look in the book section when we get there." I said as I buckled in.

"Is that all you do when we're at school?" Lena asked.

"I do online school...and sleep." I replied. Unlike my friends, I wasn't glued to my phone, my phone was a flip phone.

Finally we pulled out of the driveway and drove to Walmart. Mom asked Lena and Rose how school was going. They filled her in about the Sweat Hearts dance that happened a few days ago and all of the juicy details. Sometimes I felt bad that Mom would never be able to take my dress shopping for a school dance.

We pulled into the parking lot of Walmart four songs later and parked near the front. As we entered Mom told us to go find any topping we want on our pancakes and she'll find the pancake mix. "Where shall we go first?" Lena asked, eyeing the candy isle.

"The books?" I offered. "To get it out of the way, then we can get our toppings and anything else you guys want."

Lena and Rose agreed. We padded to the book section. I scanned the small supply of books and sufficed for Michael Vey. We made our way to the fruit section and got strawberries and mangos, and lastly we went to the candy isle. Rose wanted chocolate chip in her pancakes. "Sloane? Do you guys have Nutella back at the house?" Lena asked.

Rose answered for me. "Is that even a question? If it's chocolate, S has it. If she could have it her way, her house would be made of chocolate.

"That is both impractical and unhealthy." I pointed out. "And, Rose, we already have chocolate chips at the house."

"You just proved my point." Rose grinned as she set the chocolate ships back.

I rolled my eyes and looked for Airheads Xtreme candy(which I fondly called gay bacon). God damn they were sugary deliciousness! Of course it was on the top shelf. Even on my tip toes I couldn't reach it. I tried jumping to get it. I even tried using my book to flip it off the shelf. I hated being short. I was trying jumping again when I saw a hand reach up and grab the gay bacon. I turned to thank the person. My eyes met a pair of beautiful green eyes. It was the pizza delivery guy. My eyes just widened. I was like a deer in the head lights. I never expected to see this guy again. But here he stood.

He shared a similar look on his face. He was the first to snap out of it. He smiled awkwardly and held the candy out for me to take. It took me a second to snap out of the horror going on in my head. I was freaking out so bad on the inside. "Uh...thanks." I said as I took the candy.

He rubbed the back of his neck, his smile grew a little bigger. "Can I ask about last night?"

I felt myself blush. "Uh, yeah. Sorry about that. My friends and I, were playing truth or dare and one of them dared me to make out with the pizza guy...and you were the pizza guy." I paused for a moment. "I'm Sloane Danvers by the way."

"Nate Young." He replied, glancing at my jersey. "You like the Penguins?"

"Mmmhmm, hockey's the only sport that I can watch, and know what's going on." I grinned.

"Me too," Nate chuckled. "Uh...could I...um...get your number?" He had a hesitant smile on his face.

A huge smile formed on my face. "Oh...um...yeah, sure." I nodded.

He pulled out his phone and tapped it a few times and handed it to me. I punched in my number and hand it back to him. He looked fondly at the ten digits. "I guess I'll call you sometime." Nate grinned.

I bit my lip, trying to hide my excitement. "Okay."

Nate turned and went to a different isle. I walked back to my friends who immediately started bombarding me with questions. I regaled them with what had just happened. They seemed enthralled with Nate. Lena commented on his stature. Rose raved over his looks. We eventually caught up with Mom. We went to a self check out and paid. On the way home I let what had just happened sink in. I mean, I've had guys like me in the past, I even dated a guy seriously a few years ago, but this kinda felt...different.