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Staying Up - The NBHD
I woke up to a milky-skied morning that perfectly reflected how my head and body felt; heavy and unmovable.
I heard the Devil's morning sighs and the sound of rustling bed covers. For some reason, I only wanted to leave my bed when I was sure Eren was awake. It was the same back home in Marley; I'd never leave bed in the mornings unless I heard my parents shuffling around.
My head throbbed, so the first thing I did after getting out of bed was swipe the aspirin from the top of the mini-fridge.
Eren had his arm draped over his eyes. He didn't seem to be interested in me one bit, which irritated me.
I complained around to catch a sliver of his attention, "Fucking hell," I groaned, "I don't know if I can go to Jean's tonight. I feel fucked."
"You drank too much last night." He said judgingly.
"God, Eren, don't start with me this early in the morning." I groaned. He didn't like my tone, even if he didn't explicitly say that; his eyes said enough.
I mumbled something about being 'cursed to share a room with a Devil', but he took my joke to heart.
"Then why don't you go back to Sasha's dorm, you fucking crybaby." He snapped.
I laughed before I erupted at him. We started arguing at ninety miles per hour, and I don't remember a single thing we said, all I remember is the mix of foul feelings that his words conjured. After it tapered off into a strange silence, I slinked off to the bathroom and mumbled something stupid and bitter at Eren under my breath.
He snapped from his bed, "Fucking bite me."
I kicked the door shut in retaliation, then regretted it, because it was a sound much too loud for my full head to handle. I held onto the relieving idea that next semester I could live somewhere else.
I turned the tap on and lamely rested my palms on the edges of the porcelain sink, then stared vacantly down the drain. Strangely, watching the water form eddies and then begin to pool at the bottom because of the slight blockage in the drain holes was soothing to my senses.
I was feeling better, but then I caught my heavy frown in the mirror; my features were creased depressingly in a way that made me greatly resemble my mother, and the creases of her face when she had just been rung through an argument. I fixed my face, but I couldn't shake off the lurking thoughts that I had about looking more like an old, haggard woman. And, on top of that, it bothered me that the argument I just had with Eren was reminiscent to the ones I heard back in Marley from my parents, when they'd go at it in the kitchen for hours.
For hours, I thought in relief; at least I know we couldn't possibly argue for hours. At some point, it would taper off, or lead into a spell of sexual forgetfulness.
I smiled finally, or at least my face showed some semblance of it, when I thought of the memories I'd made at the arcade last night. The way that Armin blushed up to his ears was imprinted on my mind like a photograph.
*
When I emerged from the bathroom, I noticed that Eren was close to his phone. It had no casing, and was adorned with a few cracks. I don't know why I noticed that only then. My blood felt poisoned when he didn't acknowledge my presence.
I wanted to seem like I had more important matters to tend to as well, so I took to Zeke's homework. He had given us prompts for writing, and I chose the one that allowed me to express my recent feelings.
