Sodium ━ Land Of Stories

14 | a healthy dose of poor communication

⁂—A HEALTHY DOSE OF POOR COMMUNICATION.
(request for @Blerbeee !)

"OH MY GOD, oh my God, oh my God!"

"Alex, please stop—"

"This is incredible. Everything I've ever wanted. Fantastic. Exquisite. Extraordinary."

"Stop using big words and let me finish—"

"Oh, this is going to be so great! You're going to be all 'hey' and she's going to be all 'what's up' and then boom you're like 'wanna go ou—"

"Stop. Talking."

Alex Bailey promptly shut her mouth. She stared at her brother on the other side of the mirror, who was pacing furiously. "You look like you're about to puke."

Conner shot her a dirty look. "Gee, thanks!" He snapped, throwing his hands in the air. "God, why did I even call you?" He said dramatically, half to himself and half to the mirror in his house.

Alex raised her eyebrows. "Because I have experience with these things?"

"No, I think I did it because you're the only girl I know," He shot back. "And I'm not talking to Mom about this."

"Conner, I hate to break it to you, but that's sad."

Conner looked up from the floor with a burst of inspiration. He started to pace with enthusiasm. "Wait, can you get Mother Goose on the line? Oh yeah, that'd totally work! They're related and she doesn't have that annoying pitchy voice you do—"

"Mother Goose is in Camelot, Conner," She reminded. Her face morphed into a scowl. "With my boyfriend."

Conner made a gagging sound. "Ugh, gross. You're so gross. Now I think I actually am going to puke, thanks a lot."

"Oh, shut up and get on with it!" Alex scolded.

Conner rolled his eyes at her, but continued nevertheless. "So, you know that movie Star Wars?"

Alex's eyes rolled so far back into her head it was a miracle she could still see. "Yes, I am vaguely familiar with pop culture sensation Star Wars," She gritted dryly.

"Okay cool, just wanted to make sure you're still in the loop. Anyways, you know that other really old movie The Silence of the Lambs?" He asked, without missing a beat.

Alex was this close to losing her mind. "If you called me to say you were asking Bree out just so you could ask me a bunch of dumb movie questions, I'll kill you in your sleep."

"Wow, ouch," Conner's eyes widened. "But no, that's my actual point. It's this really gruesome horror movie about this dude who eats people—"

"What?"

Conner glared. "Alex, stop interrupting me." After taking a breath, he continued. "So this dude eats people and it's really scary, and me and Bree watched it illegally in class once—"

"You what?"

"—and I'm going to be honest I straight-up peed a bit, but Bree really likes it so—"

"She what?"

"She likes it, Alex. Don't you listen?" Conner scoffed. He fished around in the pocket of his sweater for a moment.

Conner had called Alex about an hour before school started, stressing that it was something very important. Alex had never seen her brother more nervous or elated in his life, and she knew he was definitely going to talk about Bree.