The GEEKs

8. crowded mornings and lonesome nights

"Look inside the fridge." Kat lazily instructs Steve from the couch where she's sitting squished between Mark and Eva.

"Why would a knife be..." Steve trails off having just found a knife he's been looking for exactly where Kat said it might be, and I would laugh at his expression if I wasn't afraid of making my headache worse.

In fact, I'm so hungover and tired that I can't even be bothered to listen to the TV or half the things my friends are saying, or moving my eyes really, so I just stare off into the kitchenette's general direction while Steve is making himself a sandwich.

"Lizzy?"

"Huh?" I look at Eva when she elbows me gently.

"Just checking if you're still alive."

"Yeah, yeah. A better question though would be whether Gwen's still alive."

Eva lets out a chuckle that makes her voice sound like she's been drinking and smoking for the past 50 years, and we both glance at Gwen's bedroom door. I've been told she came home with Mike in the middle of the night and no one saw anyone leaving since so they both must still be in there. I can't wait for him to leave finally so that Gwen could tell me everything!

"Thanks for the cheese." Steve returns to the couch and slumps down next to me waving his sandwich in front of my face as he does. I'm not even sure when him and Mark came over, if they even left last night at all, but when I crawled out of my room at about 10 am, the two of them and Kat were already having breakfast in front of the TV.

"Sure, no problem." I smile at Steve, clumsily pushing myself off the couch, using what energy I have left in me.

"Where are you going?"

"To get myself a glass of water. You want me to grab something for you?"

"No, no, sit down." Steve pushes me back down with his hand on my shoulder and leans forward to grab a half full glass. "Here, drink mine. I didn't get my spit in it, don't worry. Well, not too much, anyway."

"Oh, okay, thanks."

"No problem. We're even now." He chuckles at his own joke as I take a sip of water that feels like god's elixir this morning.

I feel like Steve's the least likely to make you feel uncomfortable with his inappropriate replicas out of the band, and I really appreciate that. Although I have heard him make some really crude jokes, but I feel like he mostly reserves those for people like Mark and Kat. I guess sometimes people think I'm too fragile to handle their sarcasm, but that's fine with me. I don't really care what they think, as long as I can have a normal, civilised conversation with someone without a bunch of gross jokes and comments.

"Is it good?" I eye the food in his hand after quenching my thirst. I usually don't even like thinking about food when I'm hungover, but this sandwich does look good.

"What? Cheese?"

"Yeah. And the sandwich."

"Uh-huh, very... Um, you want some?"

"I wouldn't mind a bite." I flash Steve a grin and he narrows his eyes a little as if deciding if I deserve his sandwich.

"I'll give you half. But you owe me now."

"You'll give me half of a sandwich that you made solely with our food, but I owe you?"

"Well, when you put it like that..." He trails off chuckling and carefully tears the sandwich in half.

"Hey!" Kat's voice slices the air and then she slaps Mark's hand as he smiles sheepishly. "That's my favorite sweater, you asshole." She examines the front of her black sweater with a big cactus on the front and I notice a good spoonful of mushy cereal sticking to it, while the rest of it is in a bowl that Mark's holding.