Just A Drag No One Wants To Inhale

"What Are We?"

***

Once all of my sadness bottles had emptied, Jorden cuddled me closer to him and with my head on his chest, I could feel his chest rise and fall. It made my own breaths even. My happiness bottles filled.

"Frankie?" He asked softly, moving a piece of hair that fell in my face. He tucked it behind my ear.

I opened my eyes, but I didn't want to move or speak. "Hmm?"

"We're not gonna cry any more, are we?"

I frowned and decided that maybe it wasn't a bad idea for me to look up at Jorden's face. "We?"  I repeated.

I caught glimpse of Jorden's red eyes, like they would usually be if we had gotten high, but this was different. He turned away from me and looked out the window, but I stayed staring up at him. "We should go and wash our face or something before we go back downstairs."

I took in a deep breath and decided to let Jorden change the subject if he didn't want to talk about it. I sat up straight and stretched my arms and felt my spine crack. I nodded at Jorden and we both got up slowly to leave the room and I led the way to the bathroom.

The cold water cooled down my hot face and I moved aside to let Jorden do the same.

I stared at myself in the mirror in vain.

Who and what have I become?  I asked myself.

Jorden stopped my thoughts. "Ready?" He asked as he pat his face with a small towel before throwing it onto the sink again. I looked at his reflection in the mirror and smiled. I held out my hand for him to take, but he took it warily, only touching the tips of my fingers.

I led him down the stairs and turned to go into the living room for us to wait for my father and grandparents, only, they were the ones waiting for us.

When Jorden took his hand away from mine, that was the moment I needed to hold his hand the most. Grandad and Mimi both got up and gave me a big hug and multiple slobbery kisses.

Mimi didn't seem to know what was wrong, but Grandad did. He gave me that look that meant that he knew.

"Oh, Frankie I think you grew a little!" Said Mimi excitedly after she gave me a great bear hug and a slobbery kiss that surely left lipstick all over my cheek.

I smiled at her as I wiped off my cheek, looking down at my fingers and finding that Mimi did indeed left a bright red smudge on my left cheek.

"Key word is little, Frankie." Jorden whispered to me.

I playfully punched his shoulder. "Shut up, Jorden!"

I saw my Grandad's eyes light up with... something. "This is Jorden?" He asked, gesturing towards him. I smiled and nodded, he went onto shake Jorden's hand. "It's nice to finally meet you, Jorden. Frank's told me all about you."

Jorden's ears turned pink and he looked back at me embarrassedly. "All about me?"

"Mm-hmm..." He nodded slowly.

My father got up from the couch and made his way towards us. He towered over me, but I still stood up as tall as I could and smiled up at him. One of my plastic smiles. "Hey Dad, what you been up to these past few days?"

"We'll discuss that later..." He looked over at Jorden and didn't even bother to introduce himself. "Will this Jorden  be joining us for dinner?" He spat, not really acknowledging Jorden's presence or the fact that the could answer for himself.