A Chapter Completed

A Different Kind of Feeling

Bright light irritated my eyes, causing me to open them. Obviously I instantly regretted that decision, as I was blinded for the next few moments.
Blinking rapidly, I tried to gain my bearing after realising that I was not, in fact, in my room.

I was on a couch, in a sitting room. Specifically, Jason and Stacey's sitting room.

Gasping at that realisation, I quickly sat up, and in doing so, noticed 3 bodies sprawled haphazardly amongst a mixture of pillows and blankets on a bunch of mattresses on the floor.

"Jason, Drake and Stacey," I guessed.

I smirked as I realised that a certain long haired brunette and a blue haired idiot were cuddling.

In that moment, I realised how normal I felt in that moment, if I even knew what normal felt like anymore.

Lying back on the sofa, I exhaled. Not two seconds later, I shot up once more in panic.

"Shit! School."

Great. Mom's going to kill me.

Nah she won't. See, she would need to care to...

"Urgh. My head hurts," a groan startled me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, hey, you're up," Jason began.

He was sitting on the mattress, with a lopsided grin and really messy hair.

"Umm...yeah. Uh, I just got up. And..uh, sorry if I woke you."

I looked away, feeling uncomfortable.

I could hear him move as he responded, "No biggie. I'm cool. Apart from the massive headache. Hangover I suppose."

"Umm...listen. I think I'm just going to leave."

"Really? You could stay, you know. It'll be fun."

"No my da...parents must be worried."

He smiled and shook his head, and said, "Don't worry Zee. After you crashed last night, your dad happened to call. Stace answered and told him what was up. He actually sounded kinda happy to hear that you were staying over."

"Really?" I questioned.

"Yeah. Well, he didn't know that Drake and I were here. He probably liked that you were hanging out with a friend."

I stayed silent, pondering over what he said. Before I could come to any decent conclusion, Jason broke the silence once more.

"Hey, so you'll stay, right? I'm just going to get us breakfast. And definitely some painkillers. Urgh, I hate alcohol. Not really, I'm just kidding. But seriously, hangovers are the worst. I mean come on. You would think they would have found a way around hangovers, what will all the new tech. But no! They just wanna use those billions of dollars making stupid shit like bombs and missiles. Like we get it, America. You have ego problems.  You always want to have the biggest stick in the garden, like some immature child. But it wouldn't kill you to solve the one problems teens everywhere face: hangovers. Like, seriously dude..."

Halfway through his monologue, I found myself smiling slightly, and for the next few minutes, I sat in stunned silence at what had just occured.
I smiled alot, I did. I mean, most of them were fake, but I had a few real ones thrown in the mix.
However, I couldn't remember the last time I had smiled so effortlessly; the last time I just found myself smiling.

Jason walked back in, and beckoned me to follow him, after saying that food was ready.

We walked down the halls and into the kitchen – along the same path that Stacey had dragged me through last night after welcoming me in and realising that I had had no dinner.

The kitchen was pristine, unlike last night when it was filled with pizza boxes, KFC tubs, and a bunch of take-away bags. Seriously, how much can two teenage boys eat without exploding?

Jason and I had a much quieter breakfast, with an occasional dorky comment from him, that somehow prevented me from slipping back in to the dark deaps of my mind.
At one point, he tossed a piece of bacon at me, flicking my cheek. I glared at him. He smirked at me. And God knows what came over me that I stuck my tongue out at him. Then, quick as lightening, he took my picture, chuckling to himself as I asked him to delete it.

"No ways Zee. It's gold," he had said.

"Umm, I'm pretty sure its worthless. So, it's not gold," I retorted.

To which he grew silent  smiled and said, " It show the real you Zoe. It shows someone who is happy. So, for me, its gold."

I stayed silent after that, stunned and disbelieving. A couple of minutes later, when we were done eating, we headed to the sitting room, AKA, where the love birds were still sleeping.

"Wanna do something fun?" Jadon asked, smirking as he did.

"We both know I don't have a choice, do I?"

He simply shook his head, grinning.

Half an hour later, we stepped back from our masterpiece. Thank God those two were heavy sleepers or this thing would have gone south real quick.

I studied their faces, giggling at the sight. I had managed to put on some very loud makeup on Drake's face, with a lot of orange colour. Suffice to say, the fact that his hair clashed the colour on his face was the least of his problems.
Stacey on the other hand, was the victim of Jason's rather terrible face art. She had a beard drawn on her face, complete with a moustache, all done with permanent black marker.

"Ready?" Jason asked.

I nodded, pressing the record button on my phone.

"One, two, three. Wake up lovebirds!" he yelled, going as close to them without ruining the shot.

Both of them shot up, wide eyed and confused. The confusion was heightened, and slowly turned to borderline fear as they saw each other.

Jason and I were in fits, laughing at the scene in front of us, as the pair of them screamed bloody murder.

Slowly, realisation dawned on their faces as they pieced together what had happened. They looked at each other, then slowly turned their gaze on us.

In that moment, Jason and I both knew we were screwed. As Drake and Stacey advanced, muttering curses, Jason grabbed my hand, dragged me out of the room, and quickly shut the door.

Gesturing me to keep quiet, he stood on one side of the doors, and I on the other. I smirked, understanding his plan.

A few seconds later, the door burst open.

"Urgh, where did they go?" Stacey asked.
"I'm going to kill that twin of yours."
"Don't worry, I'll join..."

At that moment, both Jason and I jumped out of our hiding place, yelling a very loud "Boo!".

They both jumped so high, it should be a world record. As they ranted at us, however, I didn't fail to notice how Stacey's hand remained wrapped around Drake's.

For the second time that day, I found myself smiling involuntarily. And I liked it. I liked finding myself smiling. I liked being able to smile without having to really concentrate on the few scraps of happiness in my life. I liked that I didn't have to try so hard. I liked it. And I wanted it to last.