We Couldn't Get Along Without Ya

12

I crawled back in my bed beside Soda, who wasn't sleeping anymore.

"Where'd you go? I was waiting for ya to come back." He told me, his voice raspy with sleep.

"I got some water then had a talk with Steve." I answered.

"Oh. Wanna play football with the gang?"

I laughed a little. "It's a bit early for football games, don't ya think?"

"Not right now, goofball." He laughed with me. "Later today, whatcha think?"

"Sure, I guess."

"And how about soccer and baseball, too? Maybe some volleyball and badminton?"

"Sure, and then we can play lacrosse and basketball and water polo, too!" I joked, both of us beginning to laugh hysterically, too tired to realize the conversation wasn't all that funny.

It wasn't long before Pony walked in, rubbing his eyes. "What are you two laughing at? It's 4:15 in the morning!"

"We're participating in the Olympics this afternoon, wanna join?" Soda laughed, making me laugh harder.

"Summer or winter?" He asked, making Soda and I laugh even harder, Pony joining us and sitting on the other side of me, beginning to laugh with us.

"What is going on?" Darry asked, joining the rest of us.

"Just discussing the Olympics." Pony said, Darry becoming even more confused.

"Huh?" He asked, laying down on top of us all.

"I think Darry can compete at the most prestige event of all: crushing three siblings at once." Soda laughed, pushing him off of us all.

"Well y'all win a gold medal at waking everyone up." Darry chuckled.

"Gold medal for being the best sister, right here." Pony said, pointing to me.

"Silver medal for best little brother." I teased.

"Silver!? Who gets gold?" He asked.

"Two-Bit."

"He's older than you!"

"He acts like he's younger then you!"

We all laughed, piled on top of each other, in hysterics. This was the first time in a long time we were all happy and laughing together without a care in the world. So what if it was 4 in the morning? Who cares if we woke the whole house up? We were happy so it didn't matter.

We soon fell asleep, all of us together.

Hours later, I woke up and saw that nobody else was in bed anymore. I stretched out in bed and took a deep breath. Last night was fun, laughing with my brothers and making jokes, but it doesn't change things. I was happy for awhile and yeah, it was great. But it didn't change anything. It didn't take the scars off my arms, it didn't change the fact that I purposely walked alone in places I knew I'd get jumped, and it didn't change the fact that I was depressed.

Then, for no plausible reason, I had the urge to cut again. A part of me knew Darry would check my arms later today, but the irrational side of me won. I pulled the utility blade out from under my mattress and quickly drew it repeatedly over my arm.