Little Childish Games

"So... We do we do now?" Taylor asked before he bit into a Granny Smith apple, one of the few healthy things in our fridge.

"We could play a game," I suggested as I bit into a Cheeto Puff. Health food's overrated crap. "I have tons that my best friend and I made up."

Taylor shrugged. "None of them have to do with excessive touching or kissing or anything right?"

"No. Never."

"Alright. Where are they? I'll go get one."

Yeah right! My room was girly and pink since I didn't believe in redecorating until that very second. There were clothes, clean and dirty, littering my floor and papers all over my desk with beautiful 58s marked in cute red glitter pen. There were also shoes everywhere and probably a mutant PB&J that my mom had made two days ago. Plus, I'm pretty sure I left my Mickey Mouse robe on the ground along with some questionable underwear right in front of the door. Despite this, I said, "Upstairs, third door down. The one where the tree branch is practically at the window sill. It's on my desk."

Taylor smiled and walked up the stairs. Each of his heavy footsteps pounded like my heart. What would he think when he went in and smelled the unbearable stench of my years of dirty laundry? Saw all of the fifties and lower I'd received on tests? All the cartoon based clothes I had lying around? That awful maid's costume I'd worn for Halloween last year with the annoying chain necklace that Kevin used to keep up with me? Our neighborhood was a superstitious nightmare but they still let us enjoy candy in odd costumes.

It was a little while before Taylor came down. I had practically died of boredom when Taylor returned with my favorite game, "Whatcha Hiding?" which was basically like Truth or Dare without the dare part. Taylor sat the tailor made box of cardboard and scribbles on the table and opened the box. There were still the sixty-seven cards Chloe and I had drafted in pink pen with our "cool" cursive writing and her dad had laminated so we would stop ripping them. It brought back sweet memories and a mildewy smell that almost brought tears to my eyes. Taylor pulled out the cards and the whiteboard and then set the box on the table along with the paper clip.

"How do we play?" Taylor asked as he wrote our names on the scoreboard.

"You put the cards upside down. So the side with Whatcha Hiding? on it. Then, the first one picks a card, shows it to the other person, and the person has to answer. Every time you pass, the other person gets a point. The one that answers the most questions wins."

"What types of questions are there?" Taylor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You'll see," I said seductively. Taylor smiled creepily and I giggled. "Dude we are ten when we made this game! Don't be so weird!"

Taylor smiled at me and I felt my heart kick my sternum. This was going to be a long, embarrassing game. I shuffled the cards poorly and set them on the dining room table. Taylor turned on the lights. "Newbies first."

Taylor picked up the first card. "Worst first date."

I blushed. It was kinda bad. "I had to date my best friend's little cousin, Karson, because he was alone during prom."

"What happened?"

"So, we get to the school and the decor is awesome but the theme was France at une Distance and I hadn't been informed. So, I'm standing there in a blue silk dress that I can barely walk in. It's really pretty though. So then, his friends were calling me cougar the whole night since the guy's two years younger than me. And they talked about sex the entire night. Then, to top that all off, when he walked me home, he touched my butt and tried to kiss me. I was sick that whole week and it's all my friend's fault."

Taylor was laughing so hard he was red. "Oh my God, that's bad. You get two points for the two questions."

I picked a card up and smiled slyly at him. "Worst advice you've ever been told and used."

Taylor began to laugh again. "Okay, My great-grandpa told me these awful stories about the war and said the best way to avoid to being killed is to hide in the bathroom. He forgot to mention that he was in the latrines for most of the war. So, I'd gotten in trouble for fighting this kid on the base because he was annoying. My mom had said she was going to kill me when she got home. So, I instinctively locked myself in the bathroom. It took two hours of coaxing for me to come out and they still beat my ass."

I laughed and marked Taylor's point. "Who would replace your sibling with and why?" Taylor read.

"I'd replace Violet with Tess because she is so much nicer and she isn't a total bitch about everything I do. I mean in the beginning, Violet was awesome but..." Our front door opened and Junie, Amber, and Violet walked in. The smell of weed and rum wafted into the kitchen. Amber was laughing like a banshee and Junie was stumbling like the crazy drunk she was. Violet came into the kitchen saw Taylor and glared at me. "What?"

"I'm wet and tripping all over the place and you can't even help me?" Violet shouted, dramatically gripping the refrigerator door handle like she'd fall without it.

"It's not my fault you're a crazy, skinny, drunk bitch!" I yelled loud enough that anyone in Monroe could hear it through the wide open door.

Taylor looked awkwardly at me and Violet. Violet raised her hand to smack me but then lowered it and went into the spoon drawer. She threw out a bunch of spoons until the pulled two little packages. She offered me one. I took it in my thumb and forefinger. I stared at it and, twenty seconds later, dropped it. "EWW!!! WHAT THE HELL DO I NEED A CONDOM FOR???"

"Because I want to be an aunt as much as you do," Violet said. She slid the Trojan Double Ecstasy over to Taylor. "Don't knock up my baby sister or I'll kick your ass."

Violet stumbled back over to her friends and they all held each other as they trudged through soggy grass in their foot-high stilettos and their short dresses. Their high-pitched laughter echoed though the house. I shut the door and pulled out a card for Taylor. "Who's your best friend in this town outside of your family and why?"

Taylor turned red. "Does Tehra count?"

"No."

"Then I pass..." Taylor said. I gave myself two points as he picked a new card for me. "Who in this town do you admire most and why?"

"I admire Rayven most because she has the craziest aunt in the world yet somehow she can smile and be herself. Plus, she's the only one who will cuss someone out and not give a damn and I respect that."

"Cursing is most disgusting when it comes from the lips of a woman," Taylor quoted as he gave me my points. "You are too pretty to curse."

I rolled my eyes playfully. "Who would consider the worst friend to have and why?"

"That guy, Kevin, because he seems like a jerk. Especially to you." I marked down his two points and readied myself for the next card. "Who would you kiss under the bleachers and why?"

"Skip!" I said. I drew another card, caught Taylor staring at me, and blushed. "Who was your first love and what happened?"

"Perrie Montague. She was beautiful and smart and cute but I had to move to Madrid. Plus, she kissed my best friend on my last day. When she saw me, she giggled and said 'I thought you were in Spain...'"

I marked the two points and Taylor pulled a card. "Have you had your first kiss and with who? I thought this was your best friend. Wouldn't she know?"

"I wouldn't tell her so she made a new card and she was beating me by a point and it was the last card so I had to tell her."

"So... Who was it?"

"I'm not telling you. Plus, I'm winning so skipping doesn't matter."

Taylor shrugged. "If you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine. And it's embarrassing."

Embarrassing equals funny. Always. "That annoying guy, Kevin, was my first kiss. We were at a high school party and he was smoking. I wasn't because I didn't want to and he was like, 'come on, let's do it babe. It will be fun.' But I said no so he said he would 'breath it in my mouth' and I still said no so he kissed me and I didn't like it so I left."

"Mine is worse. So, I'm in Perth..."

"Where's that?"

"Australia. It's really pretty. I'll take you one day. Anyways, I'm in Perth and my parents are checking out a hotel. There's this cute girl sitting on the bench. I was bored so I tried to talk to her. She said she only talked to people that she kissed. So, I shrugged. She said for to close my eyes and prepare to be kissed. Somehow, I went from kissing a girl to kissing a rat. The thing squealed and clawed my face... I had scratches on my face on the first day of school. I still don't think I've ever gotten along with Liza after that."

"So we've both had awful kisses before?"

"I guess so..."

It was a perfect kiss moment until... "Is it supposed to do that?" I asked him.

"Is what... WHAT!?!" Taylor had a boner. It was very hard not to laugh... so I laughed. "I... I... I think my mom's calling me. I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!!!" Taylor sprinted out of the front door and I began to cry from laughing so hard.

----------------------------------------------------------An hour later------------------------------------------------------------

I was sitting on my tire swing, waiting for Mom to come home. I had been talking to Chloe when Mom called to ruin it by saying she had some good news. If she had a new casserole dish to experiment on us with, I was running away and never coming back. Violet had come home again shortly after Taylor had ran away. She had somehow sobered up in the last ten minutes I'd seen her, redid her make up, and changed into one of the "appropriate" things Junie had in her closet. She was "watching me" from her window, with her eyes occasionally drifting from the street to me.

It was still very wet, which was where I had chosen to stay outside purpose. No matter what I said or did, Violet wouldn't run over to get me even with her shoes in those ugly yellow rain boots. So, she could only watch me and glare while I lazily propelled myself in pathetic two-foot intervals. The humid air had once again taken control of my hair molecules and turned my perfect ponytail into a droopy mess of brown vines that hung limply from my head. Think Medusa with all of her snakes dead, shriveled, and brown. I had gotten mud on my pants and was starting to wonder if hiding was really necessary to hide from Violet. It wasn't like she was super strong. Strong for an anorexic bitch but that's still not very strong. I sighed, slumped against the ropes of my rope swing, and watched the cars go by.

Mom's station wagon pulled into the driveway in about five minutes, which felt more like a year and a half. She got out wearing more embarrassing attire. She was wearing these awful yellow-splotched overalls with red sandals and a blue shirt underneath. Her hair was pinned back with a purple headband and she carried her puke green purse with pride. My mother was the only woman who could look like she was in the firing range of a sick rainbow and still hold her head held high. I watched her walk towards the house, followed by Matt who was much more interested in making a print in every puddle there was than making it inside.

"Matty! Come on! You too, Samantha! I have big news!" Mom was carrying a brown sack of groceries. This could not be good. I unwillingly followed my brother inside.

Violet had somehow managed to teleport from her room to in front of the big box television we had in the living room. Rachel Ray was on. Fuck. Now Mom would remember that we had to eat dinner. Since she couldn't run now, Violet also came in the kitchen. Mom set the groceries on the table and turned to face the three of us. "Guess who called?"

"Poison Control to tell you you should never cook ever ever again?" Violet guessed hopefully.

Mom glared at her. "No. Your father!"

My heart sank to the basement we didn't have. My dad was as deadbeat as you could get. He was the only man I knew that was pissed to pay child support on children he didn't even like... oh and Matt. He swore we needed to get to know our "siblings" aka Jenny's pets that came from her vaginal region. I hated my dad, my step-mom, my "siblings", and those little twerps that were unfortunate enough to get looks from both my dad and Jenny. I could feel my heart create an earthquake.

"What did he say?" Violet asked. "Did he ask for a DNA test finally so we can get a new dad that wants us?"

"No. He wants to see you. You guys leave tomorrow so get packing."

Mom turned away to put the food in a blender. Violet and I stood dumbfounded while my younger brother danced around like a crazy person. He was lucky. Daddy only wants boys. Meanwhile, Violet and I began to blabber tons of random excuses and "that's so not fair!"s at my mother but she just silenced us with a hand. "You are going. Tomorrow. So get your shit in a suitcase because I don't give a shit what you say. If that man won't pay me the money he owes for denying you two, he will at least have the courtesy to see you one week out of every month for every year until you are eighteen. Be sure to tell him and Jenny that they can go to Hell and I will see you two at dinner. Go. Now."

I guess there was no point in arguing. I held my reddening cheek, threw a bunch of shit in my stupid pink suitcase that I've had since Daddy Dearest bought it when I was seven, and called Chloe and ranted for a few hours. Life sucks.