Thirteen>>>The Little Stripper
I’m sitting next to Zac in my bed. The only light in the room is the flickering of the tv. I grab Zac’s hand and squeeze it, jumping. Zac’s used to watching scary movies with me though and doesn’t seem to notice. The credits roll.
“That movie keeps you jumping right up till the last second!” I exclaim, letting go of him and hurrying over to the light and flicking it on.
“Yeah it was pretty freaky…” He clicks rewind on the remote. He’s pretty anal about things. I guarantee the second it’s done rewinding he’ll put it back in the case and put it on the kitchen counter to be returned. I would just leave it in my VCR till the next time I needed to use the VCR and end up with a 10 dollar late fee. I sit back on the bed and think about the movie. We just watched the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What makes it even scarier is I have a lot of family in Texas and we go there a lot. Not so much is the movie scary, but it’s more creepy. The people are very possessed.
“I can’t believe the chainsaw guy killed the police men too in real life…”
Zac frowns at me. “Tay, you know this movie isn’t real right?”
“It said based on a true story!” I swear it did!
“That’s a myth. It said inspired by a true story. And it’s only inspired by some guy up north who used to use people’s skin for clothes. That’s the only true part.”
He gets up and gets the movie out of the VCR, putting it in the case.
“How do you know so much about the movie huh?”
“I just do,” He mutters and falls back on the bed next to me.
“How come you’re in such a crappy mood? I’m the one who’s supposed to be sulky. That’s my role,” I ask him.
Zac shrugs. “Off day is all.”
I know how that is. Every day is an off day for me. Except for today that is. This morning Harper and I had breakfast together and she’s coming over…any minute in fact to hang out. We both have no lives so we decided to grieve about it together. But today was good. This afternoon I finished a song I’d been working on and-
Zac gets up from the bed and walks over to my closet. He opens the door and starts looking through.
“What are you looking for?”
“Clothes I want to steal and take to school with me.” Hey, at least he’s an honest theif.
“Get out of there and get your own clothes.”
He takes out a bright pink shiny blazer of mine and holds it up to me.
“What? Don’t act surprised. You know I have that…” I mutter, not in the mood to be made fun of about it.
He smirks and holds it up to himself. “Yeah I know. But it cracks me up every time I take it out. You really should be shot for this blazer Tay.”
Harper stands in the doorway. “I agree.”
I look at her and smile. Maybe Zac will leave my room now and stop stealing my clothes. “When did you get here?” I ask her.
“Just a second ago.”
Zac puts the blazer back and closes my doors. “I’ll leave you two alone…if you know what I mean…”
I roll my eyes and watch him start to walk out, saying after him, “Yeah, turn the lights off again on your way out. I like sex in the dark best.”
He ignores me request and rolls his eyes back, “How uncreative of you Taylor….”
Harper pretends not to laugh and looks around my room. I can tell she feels awkward. I pat the bed. “You can sit. I’m not going to think you’re hitting on me.”
She sits down and I watch her focus on the little statues on my windowsill.
“Nice troll,” She sneers, nodding at the little naked, green haired troll.
Yeah. That’s kind of embarrassing. But to be honest, I kind of am fond of the little stripper. He’s been there for years. “It was a joke gift from a friend of mine.”
“I thought you didn’t have friends.” She jokes- I hope.
“Haha,” I say, trying not to grin. Oh I can’t help it. I’ve been quick to smile since I was 2 weeks old my mother has told me.
She looks at my bookcase and nods, “Nice collection. You’re a reader huh?”
I nod. “Yeah, a bit of a book nerd I suppose.”
“Have you ever read A Confederacy of Dunces?” She asks.
“Huh? A Confed…what’s it called?” I may be a reader, but my vocabulary doesn’t reflect it.
“A Confederacy of Dunces. The author committed suicide before the book was ever published but his mom published it for him.”
“Wow, I can only imagine what kind of story it is.”
“You’ll have to read it some time.”
“Yeah, I’ll keep it in mind next time I hit Borders.” Awkward silence. “So…whatcha wanna do?”
She shrugs. “I dunno. Give me a tour of your house.”
I raise an eyebrow. That’s the best idea you can come up with? “Alright.” I get up from the bed and look around my room. “This is my room. Lame and boring. That’s my tv. That’s my stereo…that’s my keyboard. That’s my favorite acoustic guitar.” I shrug as if to say there’s not much to show.
“That’s your troll.”
“That’s my troll. My very naked troll.” I smirk and walk out into the hallway, waiting for her to catch up. I stop and point to the bathroom, the first doorway on the left.
“This is where I use the shitter.”
“Oh very nice.” She grins and looks the bathroom up and down.
“Yeah we’re pretty intimate, Melvin and I”
“Melvin is your toilet? You named your toilet?”
“Yeah, that’s my Melvy.”
She smiles and shakes her head. I walk us down to the next room. Jessie’s door is open and her radio is on but she’s not in there.
“This is my little sisters room. She’s 16 and just recently got her own room. Now my 13 year old sister and my 6 year old sister share a room.”
“You have a very large family.” She informs me. No really?
I walk us to the next room. I’m so glad she suggested this activity. There’s nothing I love more than having to show people around my house. It’s pretty big and to be honest, it’s pretty embarrassing how big it is. My mom is in the laundry room and smiles at us when we come over.
“Hey Hunnie. Hi…Harper right?”
“Yep you’re right. How are you?” She responds.
“Not too bad.” Before I can even anticipate it, she places a pile of laundry in my hands, complete with my torn and faded boxers on the top of the pile. “Take this and put it away in your drawers.”
Harper smacks me lightly. “You’re mother still does your laundry?! Oh c’mon. You’re lazy.”
“I used to have him do his own,” Mom explains, “But I started doing it again for him the 5th time he took his clothes out of the wash and realized he forgot to put detergent in with them.”
And the situation only gets more degrading…