Orange Juice

Chapter Three

Sash banged on the rusty, graffiti-covered garage door four times in a row. He and Lizzy waited outside barely a few seconds before the metal door squeaked as it was lifted. Once it was fully raised, Dante welcomed them with a cheeky smile.

"Look who got caught stealing...again." Dante teased.

"Oh, zip your face, D, you talk like you're the slickest thief out there." Lizzy argued as she walked over to the rusty orange couch, careful as to not trip over the cluttered mess of objects on the floor before plopping down lazily while kicking her worn-out orange sneakers off.

"Girl, at least I don't try to be." Dante retorted as he walked away into the kitchen.

"Yeah Liz, aanjad you suck at this." Alya commented, plopping down on the couch beside Lizzy and offering her a glass bottle of coke. "You have to leave that biz to the pros. Me, for example."

"You literally once set the alarm off at a shopping mall." Lizzy retorted, taking a sip from the cold, refreshing beverage in her hand, "Besides, it was pretty fun, so that's alright."

"Very funny to have to pay for bail, right, Lizzy?" Sash angrily scolded while pulling a band T-shirt over his head, "Because all the money we struggle to fucking save around here, we blow it on you being irresponsible. You happy with yourself?"

"I didn't mean to get caught!" Lizzy quipped defensively.

"But you did. So stop doing this shit or I'll literally stop bailing your ass out." He fumed, his raspy voice echoing in the room as his finger pointed accusingly, "And stop being so reckless with getting random people involved, you're lucky that girl was chill or else we could've been on a search for your scattered organs."

A look of intimidation suddenly washed over Lizzy. She felt a sense of guilt creep up inside of her, the heaviness lingering with the truth that they were indeed very tight on money. And although it was the reason she always attempted to steal, she still took the blame for getting caught. For failing.

Beside Lizzy, Alya's thick dark brows furrowed in confusion as she listened to their exchange, "Wait, what girl?"

"Yeah. Did she forget to mention that she hid from the cops in a stranger's van? And got her arrested? I had to bail her as well, you know." Sash remarked as he made his way to the drawers in the back of the garage.

Dante's brown eyes widened, a mix of shock and subtle amusement on his face "You did huh?!"

"Lizzy, that's crazy. Even too much crazy for us, why did you do that?" Alya inquired as she straightened up on the couch.

"I panicked!" Lizzy retorted, throwing her hands up.

"And what's that whole deal with the apple juice?" Sash asked as he put on a pair of sweat pants.

"Orange juice." Lizzy corrected, taking another sip from the coke bottle in her hand.

"Whatever it is." He replied, annoyance laced in his tone.

"She was trying to buy an orange juice, but the cashier was being like a total dickhead, so I kinda talked my way through to him and convinced him to sell it to her." Lizzy explained with a grin, feeling a sense of pride as she recalled the events.

"Why was he being a dickhead?" Alya questioned, now quite curious.

Lizzy took a drawl from the coke bottle, swallowing it before speaking again, "'Cause she was like, not American or something. And also a hippie."

"Hm. Was she cute?" Dante asked.

"Very cute. She's like, tall, and she has dimples and hazel eyes. And her style is just too pretty, like sun earrings, flowy shirt, long patterned skirt, ugh. She's really cool." Lizzy rambled, twirling a lock of her hair between her fingers.

"Bonding in jail, how adorable." Dante commented with a teasing grin by the sink. Lizzy flashed him the middle finger, which he returned immediately, chuckling.

"Ya ayre, do you ever shut the fuck up I'm trying to catch a snooze." Hassan tiredly groaned from where he lay, his long dark hair messily covering his face.

"There are more interesting conversations going on, Hassan, your snooze can wait." Dante said, doing a horrible imitation of Hassan's Lebanese accent while saying snooze.

"Dante, I'll fuck you up." Hassan grumbled into the pillow.

Dante chuckled, "Don't threaten me with a good time!"

Lizzy rolled her eyes at them. She took one last drawl from the coke in her hand before standing up from the couch to throw the empty bottle.

~

There it went again. That same old unfamiliar stranger staring right back at her. She stared at the glass, waiting for one movement to indicate the person opposing her would shift or move in a manner different from hers.

Her memory recognized the reflection; that nose, those eyes, lips, eyebrows, everything logically made sense. That was her, she was looking at herself in the mirror.

But the sense did not match up. Like staring at lifeless skin, discarded without a soul or whatever it is that made flesh alive. Like having just woken up, and the entirety of the past, the past it took years to write, was nothing but a mere dream.

The more she stared at the mirror, the less human she felt. As though trapped within a body that did not belong to her, but in the literal rather than the poetic sense.

Her body tingled and her brain floated, drifting away from all sense given as a default to humans. To be comfortable in her own skin proved almost impossible when many a time she drifted outside of her own skin.

There was no use. Challenging it would not make it go away. The longer she stared deeply in the mirror, the less real she felt. The less real everything felt. And even though by the concept it sounded appealing to live beyond the borders of reality, the experience proved to be nothing but a reoccurring, mind-boggling nightmare every time.

Sunny finally shut her eyes. The unbearably loud sound of detaching silence seemed to slowly quiet down. She inhaled a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds before slowly letting it out. She looked away, turning the mirror down to face the mattress.

Laying down on the couch with her eyes still shut, she realized how tired she had actually been. She scooted over to the luminous sunflower-shaped lamp, clicking it off as she grabbed a cushion off of the floor, placing it under her head before pulling a floral patterned blanket over her body. After barely a few minutes, she had drifted away to sleep.