{Arms Unfolding}~ Q. Quagmire

Ch.11~

Pearla—

              I despise how much I love you, but I'd never despise you. I told you that you made me forget that I hated myself. Oh right, now I remember.

                                          —Ira

       There are only a few things that people could find unbelievable. May that be for someone's religious, moral, or personal reasons. This however was none of those things, I believe that Rider didn't mean to throw me down a flight of stairs, push me off of my bed, pull my hair when I would walk fast enough, or tell me that my friends were lame-o nerds. He was just playing, he plays rough, is all. Just like my friends from back home, and they were kind of okay.

This was my mindset for the entirety of our friendship, and it's been going on a few weeks; almost a month. I guess it doesn't feel long, but that's because sometimes he'll get me up at the crack of dawn to do things he likes. The days merge together. I suppose I was fine with it. I spent my days jumping around with the Quag-laires an my nights with Rider.

I thought it was a good system, until: "lunch, lunch, lunch. Where ironically, the kids did anything but. How come we even sit here if we don't eat?" Quigley asked as we sat down once again in our usual spot.

        I shrugged and tapped my foot against the ground. We conversed for awhile, the topic being the party from before. This is when allays decided to ask, "who was that boy you left with?" I stopped my foot tapping and looked at the bits of food I'd scattered about my tray.

         "Oh, just a friend I had been seeing. He's really cool-" yeah. "Super nice-" well..., "a great friend." Um, okay.

         "What's his name?" Isadora asked from her seat in front of Klaus. "Rider, Rider Aibe Stims." I answered. Duncan gave his brother a strange look that I caught onto, I squinted my eyes at the action, yet something, or someone, behind Duncan's head. Sunny caught whatever I was looking at and brought everyone's attention to it. "Loverboy- o'clock." She said pointing in Rider's approaching direction. He took long strides to get to me. We he entered the atmosphere of the table, he found his way to my side.

       "Hey, weirdo girl." He greeted me with one of his playful nicknames. He pushed me over so that he could sit and I was pushed into Klaus' side. Quig took note of that right away. Strike one.

        "Desa?" Klaus said warning-ly. Like 'he's already off to a bad start'. Everyone looked at Rider as if they were jumping him collectively.

         "He's cool guys, trust me." I placed my hand over top of Klaus' to calm my friend. I looked at Rider to see that he was looking at the bundled mess of Klaus' and my own hand. He took my shoulder and forcefully pushed me towards him. I now leaned against Rider, my head on his shoulder.

Possessive or Protection?

     "Have anything to do tonight? We could go to the place and well..." I stopped his words and Violet's raised eyebrows with a "I have so much homework to do."

        "Oh don't be such a pansy, nerd." He pushes me a bit roughly, but that must be from how bigger he was compared to me.  I did decide to retaliate with a strong, "Don't be such a jerk about it." I gritted my teeth.

         "Dude!" Quigley bursted through is chest, all of our eyes on him and how he reacted. Though, Rider acted just as strong as Quigley with his chest rising and falling quickly and his veins beginning to pop out. "She doesn't want to go with you, leave it!" Quigley snarled.

        Rider grabbed a bit of my hair from the nape of my neck where no one could see and tugged it teasingly, "she wants to go." He did it again bout a bit harder, causing me to wince, "right, Ira?"

        The pain on my head didn't let me catch the name change, though I did hear the strain in his voice that caused me to say, "I guess so."

       "Oh my god." Violet sighed. Issy, placed her face in her hands. Klaus shook his head in anger and Duncan watched sadly towards his brother who was clenching his fists tightly on the table and glaring at Rider.

       "Sick, later, freak." He said getting up and dismissing himself.

       "We despise him." Sunny said simply after the situation.

         It wasn't until that night when Violet, Isadora, and Sunny had decide to have a sleepover in my room. They'd arranged for the boys to cover their places when room checks took place. I broke the silence that was evident when they thought of the event from today, "I guess he's only kinda cool when we're together. I mean, the way he acted today kinda-"

"Scared you?" Issy asked.

         "No, he'd never, I think."

        But did I know? "There was just so many of you he was meeting at the same time I guess it just-" I didn't finish my sentence because my mind was racing so Violet spoke instead. "He shouldn't have called you those names."

        "I know, but when he held my hand and had my against his shoulder I just-ugh- it made me feel...I dunno, nostalgic?" I tried to put my thoughts and feelings into words. Not easy which is why I was so fond over Pearla, she made understanding feelings easy.

       "Hormones." Sunny started before saying, "Nostalgic about what?" I shrugged and huffed before answering my girls.

        "I grew up in a house of nothing but people who told me what to do. I've fought so hard for everything in my life. I guess that I was just not what people wanted my whole life because of it." I sighed at my own sad tale.

       "What does that mean?" Sunny sure is full of questions today.

      "My moms said that I needed to be more ladylike, but my dads said that I should show that I'm not oblivious to men entirely. And then they both said that I was too smart and boys don't like that, I was pretty and that's what I was good at. You're supposed to stick to what you're good at." I summed up the moral values that were installed in me since forever.

        "You said 'moms' and 'dads' plurally." Isadora started so Violet finished, "you have more than one set of parents?"

       "My mom and dad got divorced when I was really young, something about a mishap with some business and continuous arguing. My mom got remarried and my dad got remarried, the dumb thing about it is that we all lived in the same house so I was raised by both set of parents. My moms were great friends and my dad got along well, it's all fucked if you asked me." I summed up my living situation.

      "Huh, a few orphans are friends with a girl with two sets of parents?" Violet asked with a giddy smile.

"Who'd-a thunk?" Issy laughed.

       When the laughter died down we all looked at each other, making me propose, "if someone paints my nails can I braids their hair?"

"Deal." Violet spoke.

And for the night we were fortunate.

Finished: Sunday, March 24, 2019. 11:27 pm.

Published: Tuesday, June 11, 2019. 6:39 pm.

Sorry I've been gone. I got a boyfriend and life got crazy.