Monsters & Fairytales by Rebecca Suzanne

had been sitting there in silence for a while. Both of us were fidgeting and trying to think of something to break the awkward silence, but no words came out. I was biting my bottom lip nearly raw. It was really getting to me, the way he was making me feel. I watched him twirl his fingers, but both of us made sure to avoid eye contact. It was as if we were a couple that had just broken up when neither of us had really wanted to.              
    I let out a breath of annoyance and he sighed even louder. This was ridiculous. It was getting insanely late and there was so much stuff I needed to be doing. He was apparently going to be here all night and all day; I could use him to get the heavy stuff done. When I re-pinned my bangs out of my eyes, I noticed the clock. Instantly I jumped up. It was nearly 11:00, how was that even possible?              
    I rushed out towards the living room not even thinking to say anything to Sebastian. Either way, he should be able to catch a hint and thus follow me. When I stepped into the living room I stopped abruptly. I found myself instantly wishing Sebastian would get a different hint and stay on the futon. He, of course, bumped right into me instead. He let out a grunt and brushed his clothes down. I didn’t want to acknowledge him in any way. I was completely embarrassed. I forgot that I had destroyed this place earlier.              
    Sebastian stepped beside me and fixed his bow tie. I knew he was taking in the view. I didn’t want to see his expression, but I looked at him anyway. He was sort of sucking his lips in and forcing a smile. The despair on my face went unnoticed to him.
    “Nice place you have here.” He said through his clenched teeth and fake smile.
    Through all the sarcasm, he actually sounded a bit unsure. I imagined he hadn’t gone inside many humans' houses to be able tell what the norm was, but I was certain he had some idea of what proper etiquette meant. Sadly the scene before him was most certainly nowhere near proper. The layers of feathers over broken glass and broken furniture scattered all about the room was something out of a horror movie. All that was missing was the blood splatters everywhere and wait, why am I thinking of this?
    “I, well, I had a bit of a problem earlier. It’s nothing...no big deal.”
    I shook my head. I needed all thoughts out. Aside from the images of a murder scene, I didn’t want to think of what was going through his head. I was terrified of how he must be judging me. However, right now, my focus needed to be on cleaning and packing as efficiently as possible.              
    There didn’t seem be to an easy way to clean everything. There were probably quite a few pieces of broken glass under the feathers and I didn’t feel like getting hurt in front of Sebastian. Where was Spike? I looked around for him. He was sitting behind me. I needed to get the feathers up first to expose the glass. Maybe a vacuum would work? There were so many feathers. Yes, they’d probably clog the vacuum or blow glass everywhere. The best bet was going to be doing it by hand.              
    Sebastian was still standing there in complete silence. I hoped he wasn’t trying to understand what happened. I didn’t want to talk about it. Cleaning; I needed to focus on cleaning. I wiped my hands and pushed my glasses up on my nose. Then I rushed up to the back of the couch and started collecting feathers. My bangs fell loose and started tickling my nose. I looked at my feather filled hands and instead of setting the pile back down, or using my forearm, I tried to shake the hair away. It tickled some more and I sneezed. The feathers went everywhere. Sebastian tried to cover his laughter, but failed.
    “ Drats .” I mumbled, ignoring him.
    I got some more bobby pins from the bathroom then walked back out. Sebastian and Spike hadn’t moved. I didn’t acknowledge either of them and went