The Way This Feels

Chapter 23: Snake

My jeans and one of Micah's T-Shirts, a handful of tap water through my hair, Micah's stick of Old Spice Deodorant, and then I'm in the mouth of the hallway watching Echo and Micah stand in the kitchen barely looking at one another. Micah's face is bright red. 

"Tell me again why you thought you could show up here when I said not to come?" Micah asks furiously. 

Echo looks annoyed. "I don't know! You normally just say yes to things, I thought you were being sarcastic." 

Micah scoffs.

Echo huffs, "Will doesn't seem to have an issue with coming along." He sounds smug, like the fact I said yes wasn't with the most amount of rage I've ever experienced, like that somehow voids all of Micah's feelings about the situation. I've never seen red when looking at Echo before. I guess there's a first for everything. 

"Of course Will didn't." Micah hisses under his breath. 

I clear my throat, and both boys jump. I glare. Idiots. I approach Echo. He looks apprehensive again, so, feeling the need to keep spooking him, I seize his car keys and throw them at his chest. He just barely catches them, wide eyed. 

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I snap. 

In seemingly the next instant, I'm sitting very defiantly in Echo's stupid car. This time, Micah made the decision to sit between us, so I get to look out the window. I think he's afraid. Afraid that I'll either kill Echo or fall madly in love with him again. Between the two, I'd take the former in a heartbeat. Micah looks down at me, and I stare back up at him. I think we're hoping we will communicate telepathically. When none of us says anything, Echo chatters continueously and I'm pleased to hear a level of discomfort in his voice. 

"Look," he says, "I'm sorry I just barged in... I didn't...." But he sighs, like he honestly can't think of anything, like this situation is just so hard for him, which only makes me angrier. I stare at him, making sure he's aware that I won't rest until he's finished with his pitiful apology.

"I didn't expect to see... you guys." Echo finishes.

"Well I do live there." Micah says sarcastically. "And Will hangs out with me. Who'd you expect to see in my house?" But I can't help but notice how small he seems. As if Echo spotting us like that has reduced him down, exposed him. This upsets me the most.

"It's fine." I hiss angrily in a voice that conveys the exact opposite. "Let's just get out of here." 

The reptile show would be cool if it weren't for Echo. He yammers nonstop while neither of us say a word. Maybe he isn't aware he's speaking at two brick walls.

"And this is a Green Tree Python, they're gorgeous. See that?" He's looking at me. I blink. "But they're really expensive, and I've heard they can be testy." He nods at me sagely. "That's why I'm leaning on a ball python. But I think if I got one I'd want a cool morph of one, y'know? Like a white one! Or one of those piebald ones, those are pretty cool." He leads us to a different booth and points out a small white snake with brown leopard-like patches all over it. In sharpie on it's plastic container is the words "piebald. $350."

I'd forgotten. I'd forgotten what it was like to be Echo's best friend, I'd romanticized it beyond recognition when he left, I'd suffered, I'd cried, I'd smoked endless cigarettes, and for what? This... this feeling, it's familiar. But it's not at all pleasant. Echo is completely unaware of everyone's feelings except his own. He wanted to see snakes, so we're here. He wanted to walk straight into Micah's house without knocking, so he did. Now he's toting around two unhappy people, and that fact goes right over his head. He's happy, so why isn't everyone?