A Short Story For Matthew (Part One)

"I'm not afraid of anything."
"You've gotta be... everybody's scared of something."
"I'm not everybody."
Jim sighed resignedly.
Zana smiled victoriously.
He placed a small piece of spotted paper in the palm of her outstretched hand.
She inspected it, holding it tightly between her forefinger and thumb. She held it close to her nose and inhaled.
Jim raised his eyebrow.
"Smells lovely."
"You're fucked."
"Not yet!" Zana raised the paper in her hand. "Cheers!" She placed it on her fingertip and dropped it softly on her outstretched tongue.
Jim stared at Zana for a moment, frowning. He finally smiled and followed suit.
"How long Jimmy?"
"Not long."
"What do we do now?"
"Now... we wait."
"I hate waiting."
Jim got up off the floor and stood with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked solemnly down at the petite figure sitting on the carpet in his apartment.
Zana sat cross-legged on the floor and rocked back and forth. She grabbed her bag from the chair to her left. She rooted around and with a triumphant "Ah ha!" extracted a spiral-bound notebook. The cover was plastered with glitter and rainbow star-shaped stickers. She opened it to a seemingly random page somewhere in the middle of the notebook. She scribbled on it, glanced at her wristwatch, and scribbled again.

-1991kmh