What even
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After laughing our way down a few streets, Andrew announced that we were near their apartment building. Sure enough, 3 minutes later Nate was unlocking the door to the apartment. It was nice. Definitely more upscale than ours was.
"Sorry for the mess." Nate said.
"It's totally fine."
"So I guess i'll get some shit together."
Jack seemed to really like that word. Andrew and Katie sat on opposite sides of the couch. Katie grabbed my arm and pulled me down so I was sitting between her and Andrew. I rolled my eyes at her as she gave me one of those "you'll thank me later" looks. For someone who couldn't talk, she could sure say a hell of a lot.
"Alright I have Coke, 7-Up, some Doritos and pretzels." Jack released everything he was holding onto the coffee table.
"Are those Kosher?" Andrew teased.
"You know i'm not a good Jew now sit the fuck down."
"No one was saying you were, Jack."
"Haha fuck you, Nate."
"That'll give you an STD."
"ANDREW. SHUT THE FUCK UP."
"I actually thought it was funny." I laughed.
"Thank you, Casey."
"You're welcome, Andrew."
The conversation continued, essentially just talking about music, something that the guys clearly liked judging by the amount of concert tickets on their walls.
"Hey, maybe we should watch a movie." Nate suggested.
We all agreed.
"How about 'Rebel Without a Cause'?"
"Ooh James Dean!"
Nate put the movie in. I thought about the last time I had watched Rebel Without a Cause. It had been with my sister and my dad a few years ago during a visit to Pennsylvania. I hated going back home. Within 10 minutes of stepping foot in the house, my mom would push me to the edge of nearly turning around and leaving. Of course, I always just smiled and nodded rather than arguing back. My mother was always a cold woman. I can't think of many times throughout my childhood when I actually wanted to be around her. My dad was the same way when my mom was around, probably because he was scared of her. As cold as my dad seemed when my mom was around, he was a completely different person when she left. This particular visit, my mom was going on a 3 night long retreat with a few women from church. After she left, my dad had immediately lost that stone-like look and relaxed a bit. Ashley was in 6th grade at the time. I was helping her with some of her homework when my dad came in.
"Do you girls want to get pancakes?" He asked.
As weird as it sounds, the typical "yay mom's gone" unspoken celebration began with going out for pancakes. Specifically pancakes from Marvin's, a diner the town over. We drove over to Marvin's, Ashley asking me more stories about college while my dad laughed. We sat at our usual booth, ordered, and then ate our pancakes.
"Who's James Dean?" Ashley asked out of nowhere.
"You don't know who James Dean is?" My dad gasped, dropping his fork in the process.
"No..."
"Well we'll have to change that."
When we got home, my dad came into the living room with a DVD and turned it on. The movie was, if you haven't guessed, Rebel Without a Cause.
Usually, things that reminded me
of my parents ruined whatever it was for me. In this case, it actually made me pretty happy. I only remember watching the first half of the movie with Katie, Jenna, Nate, Jack, and Andrew before I fell asleep.
