Magicians Secret // Big Mouth

5. Open That Door

This is crazy. This is impossible. 

"I can't believe this." the glasses boy gapes and steps further away from me like I'm the monster. We've been repeating that very line for about ten minutes, bouncing it off one another with a different tone like pronunciation tennis. I pretend the monster isn't there because that makes me feel more sane.

The bell rings and all three of us jump, until I realise that I have an excuse to leave.

"Well I've gotta go now, bye!" I shout rapidly and run out of the door, leaving it wide open.

In the back of class I sit, drowning out the noise as I start to fall asleep. Then, suddenly:

"Nina!" Jay hisses next to me, jolting me awake. I get up instantly, making too loud of a noise and drawing the attention from class to me. I try to compose myself, gesture to the teacher and calmly say:

"Go on,"

Then I look down at my open notebook, and gasp in dismay at the pen drawing of the monster. My fears are subsided as Jessie walks into class late, her hair a mess and her eyes puffy and red. She sits in the desk in front of me and I flip a page in my notebook. I write a message on the paper, scrunch it up and pass it to her. She writes one back and as I unfold it away from the prying eyes of Jay and Andrew and cringe so much that my body feels like it's folded in on its self and retreated like a turtle. The paper reads:

Hey, what's up? how'd ur date go last night??

it was traumatising. i show up there in that cute outfit you gave me with the hair and makeup and everything thinking it was a date but guess what he thought? he opens the door and sits me on the couch with a juice box like i'm a baby, says he'll be upstairs and that's it. nina!!! he thought he was babysitting me!! i literally was so dumb i went up there and told him we should go to dinner!! i am mortified!!!!!

I hold my mouth to shock at first, but when she turns around I can't help but snort. She gasps at me as I cover my mouth with my fist and shake uncontrollably trying not to laugh.

"Not funny!" she hisses and I only struggle further.

"It's kind of funny." I say and start to snicker.

"What is?" Andrew asks desperately, leaning forward, but the second I turn to him, he falls onto the floor. I turn back to Jessie who looks at me, her lips quivering and her eyes on the verge of tears once again.

"Jessie," I begin, leaning toward her, hushing my voice, "I haven't known you long, but I can already tell you are a badass bitch, who doesn't need some dumbass guy to make her feel good."

Jessie smiles.

Jessie

I smile at Nina and she smiles back then looks back down at her notepad, when Connie appears over my shoulder, drooling.

"Well, we might be gay." she slurs and I roll my eyes. I find it quite satisfying to roll my eyes at Connie.

"Why can't I just have a healthy female friendship?" I ask her frustratedly. She shrugs and raises one brow at me.

"I don't know, you tell me." she says expectedly, and I groan, then realise I've groaned angrily aloud and Nina looks up from her book suddenly. Connie is gone, and I'm in a classroom full of peering eyes. 

Nina

I spend the rest of class falling in and out of sleep, and each time, waking up with the same drawing on my notepad. I rest my head in my hands and look lazily to my left, but am jolted awake at the sight of the same terrifying, oddly shaped monster crouching over Andrew, who is sitting next to me. The entire class is gone, and Andrew holds out his hand to make sure I don't fall off of my desk.

"I'm fine." I reassure him, but then move my eyes to the monster, "And yet.."

"I'm feeling very self conscious right now." the monster states, his claws on his heart as what I imagine are supposed to be lips purse.

I suddenly remember the night before, and how I'd seen blood in my underwear for the first time and fainted on the bathroom floor, then after extensive research discovered that I was finally going through puberty, and not dying. It took a few panic attacks to calm me down. However now, I begin to rethink on that whole concept that I'm not dying.

"What is that?" I whisper to Andrew, pointing a shaky finger at it.

"Ugh, lady, I have a name." it replies, his voice just as husky as I'd replayed it in my mind. He sounds worse than my uncle who smokes a carton of cigarettes a day.

"This is Maury. My hormone monster." Andrew introduces him like this is normal and I scrunch up my face, staring at the thing with what I hope is a menacing glare.

"What the fuck is a hormone monster?" I grimace, wincing as I shake my head in disbelief. The thing crosses its arms.

"What the fuck are you?" it replies defensively, and I turn to pout at him. Suddenly, Andrew is the secondary character in this exchange, and it does not please me.

"Uh- a human girl." I say.

"Oh really? 'Cause you look more like a zombie to me." he leans forward to essentaute his argument, so much that Andrew tries to pull him back. I scoff.

"You really wanna go into looks, pal? You really want to open that door?" I rebuttal, staring deviously into his beady little pupils, him mirroring me until his entire expression softens with some kind of realisation.

"Oh no." he sighs, and whispers something to Andrew in a voice that I have to assume is practically impossible to understand. Nevertheless, Andrew clearly heard him by his horribly melodramatic reaction. I make a mental note to cast him in my play.

"That can't be right." Andrew murmurs. 

"What?" I sigh.

"I think--" the monster begins, "I think I am your hormone monster."