Recovery | Hood

fifteen

"Achoo!"

"Bless you," I told her, scanning the pages of the book I was reading to her, a small smirk playing on my lips,"I told ya your were going to get sick."

"Fuck you." Lennon spat in a scratchy voice, her nose pink and stuffed.

"Maybe you should listen to me sometimes," I suggested, turning the page once I realized the chapter was over.

"Maybe you should stop being an ass," she sniffled.

"Hey! I'm here, aren't I? Keeping you company. I could be doing other shit right now," I reasoned from my spot on the floor, while she laid in her bed.

"Like what? You don't have any other friends." She stated,her face squished against her pillow.

"Do to! I have Michael and Luke, and I think even Eugene likes me." I nodded, closing the book in my hands and looking up at her.

"Eugene? The landlord?"

"Yeah...he said I'm around here too much for someone who doesn't live here, but I know he secretly likes me." I nodded, thinking of the old man.

"Don't forget about Dan from recovery," Lennon smiled.

I bursted out laughing from the last time we were at recovery. They had made us line up for drug tests, and Lennon obviously wasn't clean, so she had paid this girl named Carla who was at recovery for overeating to give her a urine sample. Whenever they got the results back, Dan had told Lennon that she was clean but recommended she'd go see a doctor for diabetes because of all the sugar in her pee.

"It's not that funny!" Lennon shrieked, knowing exactly what I was going off about,"Now go make yourself useful and warm me up so soup."

"As you wish, your majesty," I stand up and give her a curtesy,"Chicken Noodles or Tomato?"

"Tomato is fucking disgusting." She answered.

"Chicken noodles it is?"

"I want the soup with star-shaped pasta." she whined.

"Chicken and stars for the five-year-old, coming right up." I nodded, heading into the kitchen. I grabbed the can and popped it open, tossing it into a bowl and heating it up in microwave. I took it back into her room with a glass of milk.

I set it down beside her bed, where she sat up and took it, cooling it off before taking a bite.

"You know what I've always wanted?" She asked me randomly, slurping up a noodle.

"What is it?"

"A trampoline," she answered,"My grandma's neighbors had one that I used to play on. But we couldn't afford one growing up, and even if we could we live in an apartment and don't have a backyard to put it in."

"We have a backyard but never had a trampoline." I told her, bringing my feet closer to me, opening my crossed legs more,"We used to have a play-set, but gave it away."

Lennon's eyes were locked to mine for a long moment, as if she were in deep thought. I waited patiently for her to use her words, for her lips to create some sort of sentence.