If You Read This...

And Stole My Heart

I woke up at three am to high pitched screaming. Freaking rats. I groaned as I threw my blanket off and trudged over to the cage.

I yawned, "which one of you naked rodents are brutally murdering your sibling?" I opened the cage and grabbed one of them. I think I named this one Grape?

"You are kind of cute," I admitted. I stroked his head.

"Rory better have left you guys with food, or you're going to starve," I peeked in. Food and water, good.

"Nia's coming to see you later," I picked up two more, Bread and Spoon. "She's kind of crazy, especially with small things. No doubt she'll freak out when she see's you. At least you don't have to meet Ivy, she'd throw you guys out the window." I chuckled.

"Will you let me sleep now, please? I can throw you at the window too, you know." I pet each of them one more time, then locked the cage. It was dark, but I could see Bread staring back at me.

"Don't worry, I won't." I climbed back into bed. "Goodnight, naked rodents."

I let Nia play with the naked rodents when she came over the next morning, but I wanted to talk to her about something else. I sat beside her on my bed.

"So, how'd things go with Ki?" I asked, finally.

"Huh?" I caught her off guard.

"I don't know, didn't you guys get into a fight or something?" I eyed her body. How could she possibly think I wouldn't notice her increasing loss of weight.

"Oh, right. It's fine."

"What?"

"We made up, is what I mean," she explained. Yeah, either that or he just made you shut up about it. I nodded.

"I'm sorry about this whole rat thing. I wish I could take them from you," she said, changing the subject.

I shrugged, "don't be sorry. They're not that bad." While she was distracted with the rats, I slid over to my desk and pulled out my notebook.

Dear Mom,

If you read this... Nia's doing that thing again. The one where she pretends everything's okay, but it's painfully obvious that Ki is hurting her. God, I hate him.

When I try to ask if she's okay

All she sends is a smile my way

She insists that she's alright

But I see evidence of their fight

It would be nice if she let me inside

I could give her a place to hide

But instead she's fallen under his trap

Feeling like a broken scrap

Of a high standing tower

But without his power

She is the tower.

I hope you're standing high, Mom. You deserve to be a tower too.

-Much love, Theo.

I closed my notebook and admired it for a second before putting it away. It had a nice, flat black cover and gold spiral.

"I didn't know Peanut Butter was pregnant," she chuckled.

"I figured as much. You know, there's this movie about like evil rats causing the apocalypse or something," I replied.

She laughed, "what?"

"Yeah, like bionic rats or something."

"We should see it."

"Why would we put ourselves through that?"

"It'd be funny!"

"Jesus. I'll see if I can find it." I wiggled my laptop mouse and searched "bionic rat movie."

"Apparently there's more than one movie about evil rodents," I said, surprised.

"We should watch them all for the hell of it." She jokingly suggested.

"There's like seventeen I'm not- oh here it is!" I interrupted myself when I found the one I was looking for. She put the naked rodents back in their cage and joined me by my desk.

"Run and Scream and Hide," she read.

"My god, I am not watching this." I looked at the ratings and pictures of terribly edited, ginormous rats.

"I'm getting Ivy and Rory over, right now!" She stepped outside and called them both.

"Rory's busy, I got his voicemail, Ivy's bringing snacks," she smirked. Rory's not coming. That's upsetting.

"What are we watching?" Ivy asked when she got here.

"Run and Scream and Hide," I rolled my eyes.

"Original title," she snickered. My dad must've gone out, so we all sat on the couch and turned on the movie. It had to have been funny because Nia and Ivy were laughing the whole time. Not comedy funny, though, terrible funny. I didn't really pay any attention to it, I was thinking about Rory the whole time. Why didn't he answer? In the five years I've known him for, he's almost always picked up his phone. I pictured him trembling in the corner of his room, hugging his legs to his chest, his dad standing over him, his hand raised in the air. I wanted to go help him.

Nia left first after the movie.

"I'm not sure what I just witnessed, but It was not worth sharing my candy," Ivy sneered.

"Yeah." I forced a laugh. She gave me a look. She knew something was wrong.

"You need to stop nagging about Ki," she stated bluntly. That's not what was wrong, but we could talk about that to.

"Why?"

"You're not the only super observant friend, okay?" She mocked me.

I crossed my arms, "aren't you supposed to be her best friend? Aren't you supposed to save her from people like him?"

"Don't get defensive. You don't know what you're dealing with, kid. Stay out of it." It used to annoy me when she talked to me like that, but I've gotten used to it by now.

"Do you know something I don't?" I asked.

"Theo, this goes further than her skinny arms, okay? Stay out of it." She stood up.

"I don't- "

"Promise me," she interrupted.

"Fine," I sighed.

"It's for your own good kid, thanks for having me over. We should meet at Desole later." She headed for the door.

"Yeah." I opened it for her.