Static

25 - I'm not scared

It is three in the morning and you are afraid of the dark. Why do you do this to yourself? Go to bed, Carmen. I ignore my own advice and go into the kitchen. I pick up the fruit and cringe, I want chocolate. I pull open the fridge and look through it "Jeez Cara!"

The lights snap on and then off again and I look at Mr. Stark "Oh my gosh, you scared me."

"I scared you?" He laughs "You have got to stop sneaking around here, you're going to give me a heart attack," I break the chocolate in half and hold it out to him. He shrugs and takes it "Fine. I accept your apology."

I jump onto the counter and smile "I am on Paris time," He glances at his watch and shrugged. Stark opened the fridge and picks out the milk bottle and shakes it "Does food addiction run in your family?"

"My mother's addiction will give her diabetes, my addiction will give me thicker bones."

"That's not how it works," He looks at his watch again "Don't you have school tomorrow?"

"The one I got suspended from, or the one online?"

He shrugged "Either."

"I am not welcomed in a real school, apparently I am a menace. Because I defended myself."

"I think it was pouring the cheese fountain over that girl in your class."

That is a bad reason to kick me out of school "I didn't physically pour it over her, so they can't prove I did it," I look at my phone as it lights up then smile. Peter is very good at sending me memes.

"You should spend more time with your friends," I cringe "You can't spend every day hiding in your room."

I roll my eyes, I am so overhearing that I should go outside and stop shopping online, but it makes me happier than people do. "You sound like my mother, and my uncle, and every adult ever in my life."

"Because you watch YouTube all day, you need friends."

"I have friends," I say. Then pause. I think I have friends. Peter, Michelle, maybe Ned, Sage and...that's it. And I'm happy with that "I'll make plans with them tomorrow."

He smiles at me "If anything happens to you, your mom is going to kill me."

What does he think I do in my spare time? It's just a ferry, and I didn't even break it, someone else did "She would not kill you, she would torture you until you," I raise up my fingers like air quotes " 'Rip the skin off of your face'. Or something colorful like that."

Stark shakes his head and huffs "I think you need to go to bed."

I get off of the counter and stretch "I'm not tired."

"Did you have another nightmare?" I kind of froze and then look away from him. I always have bad dreams. My brain is a mashed up mess full of trauma "Why does he follow you around?"

"Because he hates me," I whisper bluntly "He's a bad person, it's just what they do," I take in a deep breath "I'll ask someone tomorrow."

"Not Sage." 

What is so bad about him? "Are you joking me? Remember that time I died because I was with a boy?"

"Remember that time you skipped school, missed 5 of your classes, tore a ship in half, broke your wrist, and got into a fight with a girl because of a boy?"

That doesn't count. That was a different boy. I shrug "But, did I die?"

"I almost killed you."

Wow. The only other person who has tried to kill me is in jail. As long as my mother is alive, I don't think I'll die. I finish the chocolate and toss the rubbish into the bin "You should be nice to Peter. There's a kid at school who makes fun of him sometimes. And I'm pretty he doesn't have a lot of friends."