THE SPAWNS

Chapter VIII—Cole

Rainbows Flying Out of Our Asses

© DarknessAndLight

Finally waking up in my bed was a particularly enjoyable feeling.

            I could bitch and moan all I wanted about my parents, this was home and it felt good to be back.

            On the other hand, being woken up by a hysterical Asian girl jumping up and down on me wasn’t a particularly enjoyable feeling—wait er, when you say it like that… that didn’t… wait huh, in another context, technically, for some, meaning not me, as in, not myself, this would be considered as enjoyable and for fudge cake I wasn’t supposed to be coherent when I didn’t get my twelve hours of sleep!

             “What do you waaaaant,” I whined for my friend’s benefit, grabbing my pillow, hiding my face underneath it, while Maika shook my shoulders, trying to wake me up.

             “You know what I want,” she crooned.

             I groaned in exasperation. “What time is it?”

             “Seven-ish,” she answered still overly joyful.

             “Oh my BUDDHA! Seven in the fugging morning? Get lost woman,” I all but yelled and rolled on my stomach, making her fall on the ground, off of me, and covered myself with my cover and pillows.

             We had gone to sleep at four in the fugging morning. That wasn’t even three hours of sleep. Was that girl out of her fugging mind?

             “You promised,” she reminded me, jumping back on me, sitting on my butt. “I have to leave for brunch at eleven. This is the only time we have.”

             “Come back in one hour,” I mumbled against my mattress.

             “I’ll give you 20 minutes,” she settled, got off of me, and slapped my butt before leaving.

             Ugh. I should sell that woman on the black market.

             Why had I agreed to this? Oh yes, because I’m a fugging idiot. I shouldn’t have agreed to this. Unlike my unobservant best friend I wasn’t an alien life form that could sustain without sleep. I needed sleep. A lot of it. And the worse thing was I had been having such a nice dream.

             Maybe I could just fall asleep again, forget about Maika and her stupid demands and early wake up calls. But the thing was, I knew my friend, and if I wasn’t up and ready in twenty minutes I would regret ever considering not going.

             I could get out of bed, duct tape her to the railing, and crawl back under the covers… If I only opened one eye to do it, I knew I’d fall right back asleep. But then she’d scream like a bitch and I wouldn’t be able to sleep either way.

             My life sucks.

             What would Buddha do? He would rub his tummy.

            I groaned against my mattress again and pushed myself out of my bed in one quick movement.

            I quickly made sure I was seemingly decently covered—boxer on, check—and made my way downstairs, dragging my feet.

            Fluffy, for some unexplained reason was nowhere to be seen. I called him as I walked to the kitchen by my cat had just disappeared for some reason. Maybe all the visitors had freaked him out. Fat-Miss-Puss was sitting on the couch like the beach whale she was though. I repressed the need of gagging when I looked at the couch. Never again. Ew.

            My parents were already in the kitchen. Dad was baking eggs and bacon while Mum was sitting at the counter, drinking her fruit smoothie and reading the journal. This was standard procedure as far as morning routine went at the Torres. Mum had early shifts at the hospital—she was a nurse—and Dad had to go open up the art gallery he owned with Jayden and Beth’s parents.

            “You’re up early,” Mum pointed out, not looking up from her journal.

            “That damn Asian chick woke me up. I don’t care if she’s double jointed—it does nothing for me,” I mumbled and all but threw myself on the coffee pot.

            “Coleridge Paul Mick Torres!”

            “Coleridge Mick Paul Torres,” my father corrected almost absentmindedly.

            Aw fug, I’m in trouble. I gave my Mum my most dazzling smile. “Yes mother.”

            “Is there a particular reason why you felt the need of dangling that around this morning,” she asked in a snipped tone and I scratched my head, confused.

            It got clearer though when I looked down at myself less quickly then I had a few minutes ago. Oops.

            Next time, make sure everything is in.

            “We have visitors over, try to not scandalize anyone.”

            And by that she meant, Lilibeth is over, try not showing her your junk. It was a commonly shared habit for people around to feel protective of Beth, even if they were morally questionable at best like my Mum. 

            “Let’s change subject,” I offered and grabbed Fruit Loops from the top of the fridge and made myself a huge bowl.

            “Like what you’ve been up to last night,” my mother inquired, while I slowly chewed my cereals, my arms flat on the counter on each side of the bowl.

            Dad knew exactly what I had been up to, he was giving the look. Of course he was in no position to say anything. This was one of the sweet things about my Dad. How could he ground me about doing graffiti when he was the one that had showed me how to do them first? Only person that ever grounded me, and Jay for our extra curricular activity was my grandfather.

            Getting a lecture from your grandfather is never fun. But getting a lecture from your grandfather at the same time as your father is fugging hilarious!

            I could clearly recall the scene; me, Jay, my father and Jay’s father all sitting in on the couch in my grandfather’s study while he looked at us with a death glare over his glasses. Of course since our fathers’ had been fighting against sudden bursts of laugher all through it I didn’t exactly register the lecture.

            It was completely ridiculous for my parents to be in any way judgmental of what I did. Obviously they weren’t better than me. For fudge cakes, how many times had I walked on them playing hide the pickle in the jar? Oh yes right, fifty four times. Most of the time, I had to be the one playing the role of the adult.

            “Oh you know, the usual. We played checkers and then Jayden finally came out of the closet so I was able to confess my undying love for him. We skipped into the sunset, with rainbows flying out of our asses until we reached our unicorns and rode away into a more gay-friendly realm.”

            “I really shouldn’t have taken LSD during my pregnancy,” my mother trailed.

            I rolled my eyes and kept eating.

            “Your cousin is coming to visit,” Dad informed me.

            I raised my eyebrows. “Which one?”

            “Dakota.”

            I frowned. “Is that the one that went to juvie? For grand theft auto?”

            Mum slapped my head with her newspaper, like I was some kind of bad dog. Stupid dogs. “Not for grand theft auto, for destruction of property.”

            I snorted. “With a stolen car.”

            “It doesn’t matter, what matters is she’s coming over tomorrow and she will be staying over for a few weeks.”

            My mouth popped open. Good thing it was empty. “Tomorrow? A few weeks? And you care to inform me about this now?”

            “She’s family,” Mum shrugged like it was answer enough.

            I pointed at her with my spoon. “And every family has a perv uncle but the fact that he is family doesn’t give him a free pass at playing grab ass with the nieces.”

            “She’s a felon not a sex-offender.”

            “We’re getting a guard cat!”

            “Changing subject,” Dad interrupted my Mum and I before we could argue more.

            “Whatever.” I continued eating grimly.

            “So, care to tell us what Maika did to get you out of bed. It short of a miracle after all,” Mum tried.

            I rolled my eyes. “The usual,” I pointed out, mouth full, milk spilling out of it. I was totally doing it on purpose.

            “When are you and Maika finally going to go out,” Dad pitched in.

            That I hadn’t been ready for either, so I choked on my mouthful a bit. “I’m not going to go out with my best Asian double jointed friend.”

            “Please Cole. You have to like her. How can you explain why you’ve never had any girlfriends? Unless you really are in love with Jayden and you two got some kind of bromance, boyxboy thing going on. Not that we’d have anything about it, we’re all for free love.”

            I dropped my spoon. “And I am officially dead,” I announced flatly and let myself slip on the ground from my stool. “Please Buddha, come save me,” I mumbled.

            “Coleridge, be serious,” Mum chastised me.

            I picked myself up from the floor and looked at my parents. “You two enjoy your breakfast, I have a girl’s ass to kick, an ass which I am not attracted sexually to, but neither am I to boys’ asses, just so we’re clear.”

            I grabbed my bowl and my spoon and left the kitchen without listening to their answer. I seriously didn’t care.

            My parents were too busy making out with each other to take notice of who I really loved. It wasn’t a complaint though, it was rather a good thing, in general, when they weren’t making the assumptions that I was in love with one of my best friends. Or both of them.

            Freaks.

            I finished my cereals in my room, put my white uniform on, with my black belt and then walked to the other part of this building that belonged to me aside from my room.

            My father had a huge room, outside of our actual apartment but on our floor and in the building where he worked on his art projects. And I also had such a room but mine, unlike his, had a full corner covered with blue mattresses.

            Maika was already there, dressed as I was, only her belt was white—even though I had made the arrangements for her to pass the test to get her belts she never cared about it, she said she didn’t need them to know her value.

            “So, what do you want me to teach you today,” I asked her, walking up to her. She was crouching in front of my computer, obviously finding it.

            “Tai Khao Phra Sumaru,” she said and I frowned a bit, and looked at what she pointed on the screen.

            I repeated the name of the technique in correct Thai for her. “And why do you want to learn that. Why do you always want to learn Muay Thai, and not Luk Mai Muay Thai but Mae Mai Muay Thai? And there’s no point in putting the judo outfit if you only want to do Muay Thai.”

            “I want to get in cage fights in Thailand,” she grinned brightly.

            I sighed, running my hand through my hair. “I’m not encouraging this.”

            “But it is your duty to teach me how to properly defend myself, sensei,” she interjected.

            “Fine, whatever,” I groaned, “by the way that move isn’t allowed in other countries than Thailand.”

            “What part of Thailand cage fights don’t you get,” she said in a duh voice, rolling her eyes at me.

            I waved her off and rolled my neck, trying to shake away my sleepiness.

            “What’s wrong,” Maika asked, frowning while looking at me, stretching her leg.

            I sighed. “It’s going to take you a lot of time to get that move right, without killing me.”

            She made a tsking sound. “Not that, something’s bothering you.”

            I breathe in and out slowly. “Nothing.”

            “Spill.”

            “Drop it, Tiger.”

            She raised her eyebrow. “Don’t make me Tiger Wood your mother.”

            I ran my hand over my face rapidly, like I was trying to wash it o something, wash away the day so far, wash away everything that pledged my fugging mind. “My parents are waiting for us to pick a date for the wedding.”

            “Aw Coco-lee-shoo,” my friend crooned, automatically grinning, “Try to look a little more enthusiastic, you’re hurting my feelings.”

            I shrugged. “Sorry.”

            “So, what’s so horrible about the prospect of having all,” she motioned up and down to her body “of this for yourself?”

            I smiled at her. “As much as I love you Mai, I would never date you… it would feel like dating my mom… minus the whole Beatle thing.” I shuddered at the thought. Gross.

            “What’s wrong with that? It’s a common thing for men to marry their mother,” she grinned mischievously.

            “That,” I pointed her, “Maika Radnor Parker, is an expression, one I do not wish to pertain.”

            “Ugh! I hate it when you get like that,” she exclaimed.

            I frowned confused. “Like what?”

            “Like a closed off bitch.”

            “Why, thank you.”

            “Come on, share with me you moron,” Mai exclaimed.

            I made a face. “I feel all warm and fuzzy.”

            “You should, now talk,” she barked.

            I sighed. Might as well talk about it with her. “I don’t know… it just sucks that my parents seem to know so little about me. That’s all,” I shrugged.

            “And you’d like to be the kid in the relation for once.”

            I scratched my head. “I guess.”

            “Of course you do,” Mai rolled her eyes at me “that’s why you act like such a moron when we’re all together. For once you can actually act like the kid.”

            And now she was getting into shrink mode, not something I fancied to be honest.

            I interrupted her. “Okay, I think we talked enough.”

            She grinned. “We’re just starting.”

            “No.”

            “Yes.”

            “No!”

            “OH YES!”

            Before she could even register what I was doing, I ran up to her, taking her by surprise and leaped, one leg on her thigh the other going to her shoulder, doing the beginning of Tai Khao Phra Sumaru, but of course she wasn’t prepare what so ever so she fell to the ground and I managed to roll away in order to not crush her or kill her “Holy shit, I thought you were going to kill me,” she laughed hysterically, her back against the blue mattress.

            “Don’t mess with your sensei again, young Padawan,” I warned her.

            “I won’t Obi-Wan-Cole-Nobi.”

            For the next hour or so Maika and I basically fought, or at least I tried to show her how to do the moves she wanted without killing herself. She held herself pretty well, as she usually did, even though she would probably have a lot of bruises later.

            “I’m going to get a call from your fathers after your brunch,” I told her after closing the door of the “dojo” behind me.

            “And they’ll sick our dog on you,” she squealed in delight.

            “Another reason why I’d never date you,” I pointed out, rolling my eyes.

            Surprisingly, Jay was in the hall too.

            “You’re not still sleeping,” I asked him. I had figured the idiot would be catching up on his sleep in my old bedroom that had been remodelled into a guest room.

            Maika just smiled at him and he smiled back, in a hurry to get her things back in the apartment.

            “You know me,” he simply answered.

            That I did. “Want to go running,” I automatically offered him. It was a habit of ours we had kept up with for many years. Before going to college and living together we used to just meet up in the morning and run together. It was one of those moments, like when we did art where we didn’t need to say anything to the other to know exactly what the other was thinking. We could start some kind of synchronized running contest with how much we followed each other’s beat.

            “I already went running.”

            “What?” How long had Maika and I been training?

            “I got up early,” he offered sheepishly.

            I rolled my eyes, knowing my best friend. Of course. “More like you didn’t go to sleep at all.”

            “Yeah more like it,” he laughed.

            Nice to know he seemed to be in a better mood than last night. Maybe all those water balloons filled with colorant had done him some good.

            “What did you do?” The three hours of sleep I had must have been boring for him if he hadn’t slept—moron, really.

            “I looked at your father’s new art project.”

            My eyes bulged. “Oh my Buddha, tell me you didn’t touch it!”

            “Please,” he almost scoffed. “I’m not that stupid. I learned the first time around.”

            “We never know with you, you’re so unobservant,” I reminded him.

            “Unobservant, not stupid.”

            I shrugged. “Seemingly the same thing…”

            “You’re hurting my feelings,” he whined and I punched his shoulder before going back in the apartment.

            My parents had left and Fluffy was still nowhere to be found. I was starting to freak a bit. He was just a young small cat, not like the huge black thing still on the couch, and he could have easily slipped out of the apartment.

            I started to look around. Maika was in the kitchen, stealing my food. All the guest’s rooms were empty. When I climbed on the second floor to the library and my room, there was a little figure, sitting crossed legged in between two rows of books, grey cat on her lap, and a book in her hands. Sun poured through the only window further away behind her, shining against her brown hair in a warm way, and with how the rays reflected on the dust in the air, it looked like she was some kind of apparition.

            I enjoyed the sight quite a lot.

            “I envy you,” Beth whispered, before I could say anything.

            I smiled at her, leaning my shoulder against a shelf of books. “Any reason in particular?”

            “You write in the margins of your books,” she answered, gesturing towards the one she was holding in her hands, her fingers lightly tracing the pages. “You’re pretty rough with them too, folding them. I could never do it, I’m just such a perfectionist with my books. When it’s a new book, I try to open it the least I can not to crease the cover.”

            “I should be more like you and take better care of my books,” I whispered.

            “No, they look more alive,” she smiled timidly.

            How could one person warm up your heart so fast? How could one tiny person with her small voice have such a huge impact on me? Suddenly, all my day so far went up in smoke and it didn’t matter what my parents thought or didn’t know, what my friends did or didn’t do, all that mattered was that girl sitting on the ground with my book and cat in her hands, smiling up at me. It was cliché but I could spend all my life making that girl smile and I would be content.

            “Fluffy seems to like you a lot,” I mentioned. The little grey ball of fur seemed to like the girl patting his head. Can we switch place Fluffy? Pretty please?

            “Yeah… your mother doesn’t exactly like to take care of him and your father is pretty much having a cat fight with him so I take care of him,” she explained and kissed Fluffy on his head.

            Okay, seriously can we switch?

            And what? “You mean that while I’m not here you come to my house to take care of my cat?”

            I think I just fell in love again.

            She peeked at me from under her eyelashes. “Yes,” she answered in a small voice. “I hope you don’t mind, I run in front of your house in the morning, so it’s no big deal to make a quick stop,” she started to ramble but I stopped her before her cheeks turned too red because all the blood in her brain was lead there.

            “Kitten, I don’t mind at all, don’t worry, I’m actually happy someone takes care of him properly, especially if it’s you.” Seriously that girl is going to make my heart stop if she keeps smiling at me that way. “Speaking of running, my usual partner in crime has abandoned. Do you want to come running with me?”

            Beth automatically got up on her feet.

_______________________

A/N:

I hope you enjoyed this. :) 

So, yes the title wasn't in the choice I gave in the last chapter, but the other ones weren't as interesting! lol Anyway, from the messages I got this one was the winner so far! lol

Next chapter in Beth's POV, the options are: 

A) Part of Our Family

B) My Will Power Crumbles

Aside from this, what are you thoughts so far? Still enjoying this story? Anything you'd like to see? lol