If you could see what I see

"Oh, you are a fart!" Ting called Alfie out on this long drawn-out conversation about Poppy and Gage while they sat on the couch during one of her favorite episodes of The Candle in the Cave drama. She clicked it off and looked at him. "And a big fart at that!"

"What did you just say?" He gave her a look ever so daring. Was she trying to start something?

"Gage is goodlooking. A lot better looking than you," she did see Gage at the wedding. Of course, she did her best not to be nice to him.

 It was probably wrong that she went with Alfie, but she'd never been to a wedding before. Not that Alfie would notice, but she wasn't one of those girls on the top of anyone's list to be in a wedding. While Poppy looked like she could be the model bride's maid. Yes, she envied Poppy. And now Alfie was such a strange one. How on earth did he find it so easy to tell her what was on his mind about Gage seeing Poppy?

"I'm beginning to think you're mental." That about summed it up. She looked at the clock on the wall. If only her mom would get home from her date. Why had her mom decided on dating now? She never remembered her mom going out anywhere when she was little. This was all new to her.

She got up and went to look in the fridge. Naturally, Alfie followed. Oh, it was hard to be alone anymore. He was always chattering about something.

"What are you looking for now?" Alfie asked as if it might be a joke.

"What does it matter?" She looked back at him and knew he'd eaten all the grapes and the plums too. She reached for a yogurt. He wanted one too so she tossed him one, hoping she might hit him in the head just to knock some sense into him.

"Just like they say, misery loves company," she told him as she got out the spoons. She wished she wasn't so nice to him, but she knew her mom would say something if she wasn't. "I don't think you like yourself very much. If you did you would already be making Poppy happy. But you can't be completely happy, can you?"

She didn't wait for an answer. Ting marched right back to the couch and got to her spot to turn the remote back to her show.

"I don't know what you mean?" He clicked the remote back off.

"Look, how many times have you told me that you thought you couldn't be with Poppy because she deserved better?" Ting sighed as she shook her head. She hugged herself and waited for him to turn the show back on. 

He was steamed and she knew she should let it go, but maybe they were more alike than he even knew.

"Maybe you deserve somebody like me," Ting found herself saying. "I mean, no one wanted me at the orphanage back where I came from. I have one leg longer than the other and a cleft palette that grew back together. But somebody came along and fell in love with me at first sight. So yeah, maybe I didn't deserve that either, but here I am!" She didn't mean to start crying. But she didn't want to listen to another word he had to say.