1,002 Paper Cranes

Chapter 2

       “MOM, DA- oh, wait –ANGELICA I’M HOME!” I shouted as I walked through the door with bass and amp in hand.

I finally get home around 9:00; after Allison had to leave, I stayed for a while with the guys and “did homework,” which really meant that we thought about doing homework and figured we could before first period. This is why my grades suffered at times.

                “Helloooo?” I ask the apparently empty house, “Is anyone home?” Silence. “Apparently not,” I mutter.

                On the way to my room, I notice that someone is in the shower.

                “Yo, I’m home,” I call through the door.

                A small scream issued from the other side, “Maddie, you scared me! Okay, well…I’d love to talk but I’m pretty naked and this is slightly awkward…” She replied in a rather stuffy way that is the cause of the water coming out of the shower head.

                I laughed and put my equipment back in my bedroom. It smelled oddly nice and flowery, and whilst trying to find the source of the scent, I noticed a hot pink paper crane on my desk. Angelica had been in my room. This isn’t really a big problem; Angelica and I are secretly best friends, but none the less, it’s my bedroom.

                Slightly annoyed about her going in when I wasn’t there, I stalk off to the kitchen to find something to fill my belly. I throw the cabinets that usually contain food at random: potato chips, bread, cereal…no.

                It wasn’t until I found hot pockets in the freezer and was nuking one of them that Angelica came out of the shower. She was still pretty wet and wearing fuzzy blue pajamas that matched her newly painted nails perfectly.

                “Hey, Maddie,” She said calmly, entering the kitchen.

                I jumped a little bit at the sound of her voice. We Ramones had a problem with this. “Hey there, what’s up?”

                “Oh, nothing,” She said in a way that didn’t really match up with her words. “How was band practice?”

                “Just delightful, thank you for asking,” I said. “Now really, what’s up? Did that girl do something? Bethany or Bianca or Brittany or whatever?”

                “Brigette,” She said with a small smile. “She didn’t do anything. It’s just…we need to talk.”

                I paused, “Oky, what’s on your mind?” I took a bit out of my smoldering hot pocket.

                “Well-I-remember that party at Ricky Allen’s a couple weeks ago? You were too sick to go?”

                “Yeah, I heard it was awesome…”

                She ignored my comment, “Well I went with D-Derek-“

                Oh, so that’s what this is about. I told myself quietly. Derek Elwood was Angelica’s ex-boyfriend as of three days ago. Apparently to him, it’s OK to end a two-month relationship because he didn’t have enough time to do anything with her because of his work schedule. The boy worked about three days a week in four hour shifts. I kicked him in the balls.

                “-and he went to hang out with some of his friends,” she continued, her voice shaky and broken, “I went looking for someone to talk to and-and I ran into Antonio.”