Only the Moon Watching

Chapter 36: A Challenger to Love

Shiv screams. A short, sharp burst that wakes me instantly, in time to see her clamp a pillow over her face.

"Oh god!" she says, "I had a dream it exploded!"

She tumbles out of bed and peers out the door, checking that she didn't wake anyone else with her yell.

"Come here, Jos, let me show you how to do this. You'll be my back up."
Groggily, I roll out of bed and join her on her knees under our table. She pulls out the Pruno.

"No, Shiv, I had way to much of that stuff. I think I–" Well, I know I – "sent a drunk message to Steak tonight and –"

"We're not drinking it, this is my backup bag. The next batch! You have to wake up in the middle of the night to burp it, remember? I told you! Otherwise it'll explode all over our shit and we'll definitely be caught with it. You'd be in Ad-Seg so long Steak would be expired by the time you got out. Help me with this–"

I untie the knot for her, and Shiv holds the bag to her chest like a baby, gently patting it. "Oh, thank God, no explosions!"

"Did you hear what I said about St–?"

"Save it. You drunk kited him? It happens. What'd you do, draw him a nude?" She snorts, and almost slops Pruno onto herself. "Here, we can put this back."

Safely hidden in its brown-paper bag cocoon again, Shiv gets to her feet and holds out a hand to help me stand.

"Get into bed, I'll tuck you in. Whatever embarrassing thing you sent, it'll seem better in the morning."

It doesn't. I wake up embarrassed.

I fill my empty Pruno cup with all the carrot-peach mush I've saved up and carry it in my pocket to breakfast.

Slightly hungover, more-than-slightly regretting the note I sent up the bowl to Steak last night, I hatch a plan to meet him and apologize for pouring my heart out while drunk. I don't remember what I said, exactly, but I woke up with a headache and a knot of embarrassment in my stomach. I'll just fake-puke, spill the carrot mush, and then when he comes to clean it up I can apologize for whatever other mush I said last night...

"Fuck," says Shiv, holding her milk carton to her forehead like a cold compress. "My shit was strong. I might be off Pruno for a while, girls."

But when Tangler passes her an orange under the table, I see Shiv stuff it into her bra.

"How's the relationship heating up?" Vapor asks.

I don't tell her about my plan to fake puke on the basket ball courts this afternoon, but I do admit we've been writing to each other since the kiss.

"My first kiss with Chet was a disaster," shares Tangler. "He damn near knocked a bigger gap in my teeth! We clanked canines so hard I saw stars – and not in a good way! Second kiss was even worse and I thought, 'Why am I wasting time on this goober?' But there was something about him, even when it was bad it was good. I just had a feeling in my gut that we were meant to be something. And then by the fourth time we kissed I really had a feeling in my gut because I think that's the time I got pregnant... Once we knew we were having a baby something clicked. I think it usually clicks first and then you have the baby but we just realized, we were already comfortable together when things weren't perfect. We had all the same goals, wanted to tattoo together, raise our little stinker to be an artist... We just fit."

"You were like spoon strings, entwined in a toilet bowl," says Shiv, with her eyes half-closed. "Locked together... unable to pull away...swirling in an endless–"
Tangler steals the orange off Needler's plate and chucks it at Shiv.

"Hey!" she says, ducking, and wincing as the cold milk carton leaves her forehead. "Quit it, I feel like shit."

"Incoming!" Needler moans, and though Shiv ducks under the table, as if to avoid another orange to the face, all the other girls' heads snap towards the door.

Garda Girdle storms into the room followed by a smirking, orange-haired, green eyed girl.

"It's Kristina fucking Kelly!" Vapor groans.