Living History

Welp, Friends already?

The rest of the day went smoothly, I didn't really make any other friends but that was okay cause Ray shared two other periods with me, fifth and sixth.
"I'm home!!" I called up the stairs when I got home, my mother worked at home, online business or something, I never really properly asked. I wandered into the kitchen and dumped my back pack on one of the bar stools. I immediately began to rummage though the cabinets and the fridge looking for something to eat. We had so much food, I just wasn't interested in any of it. Groaning I yelled up the stairs where I hoped mother was again, "MOOOMMM WE'RE OUT OF FOOD"
"Don't be ridiculous, we have plenty of food in the kitchen."
"Ugh. Fine." I scoffed and walked back into the kitchen, time to lower my standards and try again. After long deliberation I decided on popcorn, I threw one of the bags into the microwave, we always buy movie style, and I pressed the popcorn setting. And now we wait.
I grabbed my phone out of my back pocket and checked my messages, nothing as usual, wait, what? I have a message, but who had my number?
Hey Lisa, It's Ray wanna hang?
Oh duh, of course it's Ray, who else would have my number, I waited a moment before responding, I didn't want to seem like a total loner with no life, even if that's what I was.
Yeah sure, where? I waited impatiently for her reply, now regretting taking my time in responding, I certainly hope that wasn't what she was doin- BEEP BEEP BEEP a loud beeping noise broke me from my thoughts, what the hell? That's not my ringtone?? Oh duh. The popcorn. I got up from my seat on the barstool and grabbed the bag, pouring it into a bowl, I always hated just sticking my hand into the bag, people think I'm weird or that I think I'm high and mighty or whatever but no, I just really really hate getting all the butter and salt all over my hands, I'm okay with fingers but anything more is just ick. After I had poured it into a bowl I carried it and sat back down on the stool, scooping up my phone I was pleased to see Ray had responded. I wonder why I didn't hear the ringer? Oh yeah it's off, despite being the only one there I found myself blushing slightly as I flipped the ringer to the 'on' position.
Oh I didn't think that far ahead, we can't chill at my place cause my brother has some friends over and just ick. How about your house?
Omg she actually wants to hang out, I typed my response at the speed of light,
My house works, mom is home but she always stays in the office so whatever, I just made some popcorn so your timing is perf
I hit send. Wait. Crap. I looked around me and realized how much of a mess the house was. Oh god. How am I going to make it presentable in time? Will she care? She said she had a brother so she's probs used to a messing living environment. Wait, I need to tell mom I have a friend. And that she's coming over even though I just met her today. She's going to be as embarrassing as she possibly can.
Sighing I abandoned my popcorn and went up the stairs, taking a right when I reached the top I knocked on the office door, "Hey Mom?"
"Come in dear, what is it?" Mom spun her chair around from the desk where she was working on the computer to face me.
"Oh yeah okay so I know you're really busy and stuff but I was wondering if I could have a friend over."
"A friend?! Omg yay!!!" Mother stood up and hugged me so quickly I barely knew what happened.
"Mom. Mom. You're squishing me. And please not ever say 'omg' again."
"Sorry hun," she stepped back but kept her hands on my shoulders as she maintained eye contact. It always makes me feel super uncomfortable when she does that, like she's staring into my soul or something.
"Mom. Chill. It's just a friend."
"Yeah I know but you haven't had one in ages. Oops!" She clapped her hand over her mouth with a horrified expression on her face, "I'm sorry Lisa, that was mean and uncalled for."
"True though." I looked down, my good mood ruined. "So it's okay if she comes over?" I asked, pointedly changing the subject.
"Yeah of course, when are you thinking?" Thankfully mom picked up on my clear discomfort and decided to let it go.
"Uhm as soon as I text her the address so sometime in the next hour depending on how close she lives?"
"Okay honey that's fin-WAIT WHAT THE HOUSE IS A MESS I NEED TO CLEAN NOW"
I sighed. She always got like that when we were expecting guests, come to think of it, we were a lot alike. I chuckled to myself as she dashed out if the room and went into overdrive mode. It was scary how quickly she could go from business woman to big sister to insane soccer mom. I pulled out my phone and texted Ray,
I live on 6248 seeker rd. The big house with the blue door, mom figured if we choose a bright color it would be hard to miss our house. Idk.
It only took her about 2 minutes to text me back,
Oh cool, I'll be there in like a half hour, we live pretty close, weird we haven't met before right?
Totally
Well gtg see u later
Bye
I went downstairs to help mom clean up, claiming random items I had left lying around and taking them back to their respective places, including a jacket I had been looking for. Once the living room was clear I left mom to deal with the kitchen and anything else that didn't suit her as I went up to my room to make sure that was all good, in case you hadn't gathered already I'm not exactly the most organized person. Upon walking in to my room I realized exactly how disorganized I was. Well. Shit. It looked as if my dresser had exploded because of my desperate search for clothing this morning and I had dishes and random knick-knacks strewn about the room. Sighing I gathered up the dishes and old soda cans and carried those downstairs first, there was already a huge pile of unwashed dishes in the kitchen anyways. I chucked the cans into our recycling bin and went back upstairs, due to my time constraints instead of actually folding my clothing like a normal person, or an abnormal person really, not many teenagers fold their clothing. I think. I'm not exactly one to know. Anyways I just balled up everything and stuffed it in, simply hoping they were all clean and were all going to fit. What's next? Bed. Okay then, I straightened it out, made the sheet up and positioned the pillows artistically. I was actually quite proud of my work. Hmmm there's to much artificial light, I ran around to the windows, pulling back the curtains and cracking the windows so my room hopefully smelled less musty from the extended periods of time it went with shut windows, I'm not exactly an outdoorsy person. I'm more of a hide inside and blog things on tumblr while hissing at light kind of a person. But Ray didn't need to know that. Oh dear. With the natural light I could see how messy my room still looked, hmmm. I have wayy to many unnecessary things on everything. She's going to be here any minute, oh well there's nothing left for it. I swept up all of my little decorations and tossed them into the laundry basket in the closet, hoping the clothes would give them a soft landing.
DING a bell rung out as carry on my wayward son started playing, best idea for a doorbell ever. And Ray has amazing timing, like seriously that's majorly impressive.
Well, this'll simply have to do, I run downstairs, two steps at a time in hopes of beating my mother to the door. I wasn't quite as luck as I had hoped I would be. Ugh. Alright, it's rescue time.
"Heyyy, Mom, oh look! I've see you've met Ray? Good good, well I'm sure she's hungry, it's right around snack time, so let's feed her yeah?" I slung my arm around Ray's neck and started steering us towards the kitchen, making sure to keep up a steady stream of conversation so my mother couldn't talk, once she gets started she won't stop. I've learned that the hard way. "And after you've been working so hard all day I'm sure you're hungry too Mom, I made a bowl of popcorn earlier but I never got the chance to finish it, why don't you take it? It's not enough for two anyways but I'm sure it'll suit you! It's movie theater style jut the way you like it, here!" We had enters the kitchen and I removed my arm from around Ray and I scooped up the bowl and gave it to my mother. "Oh but what have I been thinking?" I only paused for breath for about a second before pushing forward with the rescue, "You've been so amazing mother, you even helped make the house presentable in time which I definitely could not have done myself, thank you so much and I'm so sorry for having kept you from your work for so long, I know you're an incredibly busy person so I'll let you go back to work." I smiled and stood with my hands on my hips, pleases with how well that worked.
"Ah-" Mother took a deep breath as if she was about to say something but I cut her off just in time.
"Oh it's okay, we understand, I'm sure that maybe on some other day when you're less busy you can get to meet Ray officially, but for now I'm sure she doesn't mind, there you go, talk to you later?" I turned my mother around and gave her a soft push. She wandered away, looking really quite dazed.
I turned to Ray with a smirk, "Impressed?"
"Wow. Okay, how do you have enough oxygen in your lungs to keep up a string of conversation like that?? And thanks for the rescue, although it really wasn't necessary, your mom seems really quite nice."
"I am just that talented. Also you have to learn to talk over people and constantly or you'll never get a word in edgewise, I love her dearly but she can talk. And talk. And talk. And I'll be sure to tell her you approve."
"Heh, sounds fun."
"Yeah well this way I can totally hold breath longer then anyone on the swim team and I'm not even on it. Oh so our popcorn is gone but I can make more, what would you like?" I turned and walked across the kitchen, my hand resting on a cabinet handle.
"Oh that's okay, I'm not really hungry." Ray looked quite uncomfortable at the thought of accepting anything food wise.
"Yeah well I'm hungry so I might as well make you something while I'm at it."
"Oh, okay, uh popcorn is good."
"Movie theater style?"
"Yes please"
"Cool, oh can I offer you anything to drink? It's kinda salty," I grabbed the popcorn packets and threw them into the microwave, hitting start.
"Uhh, water is good?" Ray sounded clearly uncomfortable and I turned and looked at her, my shoulders slumped.
"Hey, sorry I know I'm being very Ieee" I did jazz hands as a sort of demonstration, "I'm not good with people or their feelings, but I can tell you're uncomfortable and I'm sorry I make you feel like that, I just...I don't have many friends, any really. So any chance at a friend at all, well I tend to pounce on that opportunity and that usually scares people away cause of how high intensity I can get."
Ray made a visible effort to pull herself together, "No it's okay, I'm just not that good with people, I'm always super awkward and I don't know what to say, it's not you that's making me uncomfortable in particular, it's just sort of my natural state."
"Huh. Okay," I turned and grabbed to glasses and began to fill then with water, "you seemed so chill and you talked to me in class first and everything, I guess I never really thought of you as the awkward type." Ray let out a dry laugh, clearly quite disbelieving. I decided to ignore it and I handed over her water. BEEP BEEP. Microwave. I grabbed the popcorn and two bowls as Ray shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable with the prolonged silence.
"Annnyyyways," She was clearly trying to get the conversation going again.
"Yup." I passed her bowl to her before sliding onto one of the bar stools across from where she had just taken a seat.
"So, you know I have a brother, but do you have any siblings?" Ray asked conversationally, now she's getting the hang of it.
"Nope, it's just me and my Mum." I tossed a piece of popcorn up into the air and caught it in my mouth, barely.
"Oh, okay cool, what about your Dad?"
"Don't have one, just the two of us, and that's fine by me, it just means I don't have to share her." I smiled at Ray, I really wanted to change the subject though, I despised the pitying look she was giving me. "So, whacha wanna do?"
"Uhm I didn't really this this bit out," She responded, fortunately picking up on my subject change and taking the hint, "I've never been to your house before, obviously, and I don't really know what there is to do."
"Well, how about I give you a tour then? Just know you'll be touring the backyard, living room, and my room because in my effort to make the house presentable in time, all the extra crap just got stuffed in the extra rooms so going in any of them could cause an avalanche. So those three places are the only ones available." Oh god shut up Lisa you're talking too much, why did you tell her about the mess the house was in? The whole point of cleaning up would be so she didn't know. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Ray laughed, "Sounds perfect to me, so madame, could be tell me what this exquisite room is?" She had put on a posh but playful accent, and it was hilarious.
"Well," I stood up and took a deep bow before turning around and spreading my arms in a great encompassing gesture, "This room is a very rare and antique room we like to call a 'kitchen' if you'll look over to your left, you can clearly see a thing called a 'microwave' it's a highly rare and sought after piece of equipment, used for making food such as the rare and elusive 'popcorn'" I played right along, adopting an accent and sounding like a tour guide/advertisement person. Ray barely held back a laugh as she followed me about the room, nodding and making small observations, all while in her role. Soon we finished with the kitchen and we proceeded to parade about the house, she nearly lost her shit when I explained to her about the extremely rare, illusive, and hard to catch throw pillow.