NINE

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"Are you sure?" I asked. "It's kind of dumb."

"Nothing you do is dumb Aaron." She replied.

"Actually--" I began.

She giggled. "Don't answer that, but continue."

I nodded. "Ok... well... it's about this little boy. His mom isn't around, and his dad is always too busy for him it seems, so he's lonely. One night he gets scared that there is a monster under his bed, so he hurries and gets up to turn the light on so he can check right?"

She nodded to let me know she was listening.

"So he crawls under it and looks, finding nothing. He's relieved and relaxes. He goes to get back into bed, but the floor falls from under his feet and into this magical dream world, where all of these creatures are. At first he is scared, but then he goes on these cool and crazy adventures with them, and they become his friends. After this his life starts to get a little better because he's not lonely anymore. Well then there is a twist in it where he wakes up one day, and he's in the hospital. The whole time he thought his life was sad, he was actually just in a coma from being in a car accident, so he was dreaming. Both his parents are happy to see him, and he goes back to school and all of his friends are there, and everything is good. It was all just a terrible dream."

She grinned at me. "I like that. I'd like to read it sometime."

"Yeah. Maybe."

She chuckled. "Yup. I'm never going to get to."

I grinned sheepishly and shrugged.

She laughed.

Silence fell on us for a moment.

I studied my hands, before I looked back at Vic, finding she was staring at me.

"Are you the little boy in your story Aaron?" She asked.

I knew she'd figure it out.

I sighed. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

She looked at me soberly. "Your eyes are quite expressive my darling."

We stared at each other for a minute, and a feeling washed into me that we must kiss.

She blinked her beautiful eyes at me a couple times before she scooted closer to me.

My heart sped up in my chest.

Here it is, my first kiss.

But it wasn't actually.

She just hugged me again, which pleased me just as much as a kiss from her would have, so it was cool. She pulled away, again, too soon.

I turned the conversation from me to her.

"So, you told me that you were a drama kid."

She nodded. "I am, and I'm pretty good at it I think. I'm able to manage a part in usually every production we have here, but I enjoy mimicry a lot too."

I nodded. "Like doing voices right?"

She nodded. "And I'm pretty good at that also."

"You are?"

"Yup." She replied.

"Hit me with something." I said.

"Mmm like what?" She asked.

"Anything."

She laughed. "Uh... ok um..."

She thought a second and cleared her throat.

"You die if you try. A word to the wise from your friend Pennywise." She said in an extremely good impression of Tim Curry's Pennywise.

I clapped my hands. I was actually, really impressed.

"Can you do Bill Skarsgård's version?"

She uttered a crazy maniacal laugh, and added to it, "We all float down here. Yes we do!"

I laughed. "That is amazing."

"Thanks." She said.

"What about acting, do something."

She smiled. "Give me a direction."

"Be dramatic."

She nodded and stood up.

She turned away from me and stood for a few seconds before she whipped around, tears running down her face.

"How dare you!" She cried out.

She got down on the floor and crawled to me on her hands and knees. She clutched the collar of my hoodie and shook me.

"I'd throw myself off of a bridge for you, and how do you repay me Dmitri?! Going out every night, sleeping with whoever will lay on their back for you!" She said desperately and let tears rain down.

"What about the kids?!" Vic raised her voice.

She shook with sobs, staring into my eyes as she cried.

Her voice was lower. "What about me?"

She let go of my collar and collapsed against me, her hands clutching my shoulders. She sobbed and shook against me.

I knew that it was an act, but she had me worried a little.

I put my hands on her sides and comfortingly rubbed my thumbs around.

"And scene." She said as she sat up and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

I was blown away. She'd had me going that she was actually upset.

She smiled at me. "Good?"

I nodded. "Yeah. You had me worried."

She patted my shoulder. "I'm sorry."

I smiled. "How do you cry at will like that?"

She smiled. "I have a lot of internal pain."

"Why?" I asked.

She shook her head. "You don't want to hear my sob story."

She crawled off of my lap, and I immediately missed her closeness.

She gave me a sleepy grin. "I'm gonna go to bed. The couch is yours. Make yourself comfy, ok? And if you need anything, come get me. I don't even care if you want to come crawl in bed with me because you are cold or something. Ok?"

I nodded.

"I had a nice night with you Aaron." She said as she stood up.

"I had a nice night with you." I replied. 

She smiled. "God natt. Kysar."

I had no idea what that meant or even what language it was, but something about it felt right, and made my heart warm.

She left and went to bed.

I crawled up on her couch, and shut her lamps off before I crawled under the cheetah print comforter we'd been sharing. I pulled it up to my chin and caught a whiff of her scent, which made me smile.

I fell asleep thinking about her.

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