My Boyfriend's Back

Two

Tuesday 12:00 PM
September 24, 1996

"YN!" I was standing at my locker when I heard someone yell my name from down the hall. Looking to my right I saw Casey running towards me. "Where's the fire?" I asked, chuckling as she caught her breath. "I wanted to catch you before you went off to lunch," she said. I closed my locker and turned to face her. "What's up?" I asked. "I was wondering if you work tomorrow night?" She asked.

I nodded my head, "yeah. Want me to grab you a couple movies for your movie night with Steve?" She smiled and nodded, "that would be great! Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street please. I want to have everything set up before he gets there." I laughed, "yeah, okay. I'll have them quoting for you," I told her. She gave me a hug, thanked me and then we went our separate ways.

I walked down the stairs and outside to meet everyone at the fountain where we normally had lunch together. "There she is!" Stu said, standing up and jogging over to me. "What took you so long?" He asked, pulling me over to the fountain. He sat down, one leg bent up on the ledge of it and pulled me down to sit between his legs. Billy and Sidney were on the left side of us. Sid's back against his chest. Tatum sat between the pair of us and Randy on the other side of me and Stu. "Casey stopped to ask me a question," I told him. "Oh, yeah, and what was that?"

He and Billy shared a glance before he was resting his chin on my shoulder. "She asked if I could have two movies ready for her movie night with Steve tomorrow. Why are you so curious?" I asked, turning my head to look at him. He shrugged his shoulders, "no reason. Just wanted to know what was so important that I had to wait an extra five minutes until I got to see you." We all groaned at this answer. "God, Stu, you're so pussy whipped!" Tatum said, laughing. "Hey, I don't mind especially when the pus–" I jabbed him with my elbow before he could finish talking. "Shut up!"

After school was over I got a ride from Randy since we had work. It was again our night to close. Randy was putting returns away like always while I dealt with the customers. "Well, ma'am, that movie was in the horror section. That should be a sign that it's not for children," I said. "Well, it has a cute little animal on it! Maybe you should make things more clear!" She slammed the rental on the counter. "Well… the name Gremlin should be more than clear that it's not about a cute little animal. Maybe you should also not let your children wander off. I can not give you a refund. You rented the movie." She huffed, grabbed her kids hand and walked towards the door. "You just lost a customer!" She yelled. "Oh, no! How will I ever survive!"

Probably not the smartest thing to do. But let's be real here, customers are not always right. "Brad's going to fire you if you keep doing that." I looked over at Randy and shrugged. "Not like I actually need this job. I just have it so I don't have to be at home." I checked out another customer while he came around the counter to make sure the returns that were brought back were rewound. You'd be surprised at how many people didn't rewind the vhs before returning it. Or maybe you wouldn't.

"You and Sid still not talking?" He asked. I turned to look at him, "we talk. Just not that much. We mostly argue. She's starting to sound like mom, with her complaining about my music," I said. It was half true. Sidney did come beating on my door to tell me to turn down my music but she didn't do much complaining. Usually she just turned her own music up if she wasn't trying to study or something. But she was also more like mom than I ever was. Some days I wonder if we're even sisters.

The next hour was quiet besides the occasional ringing from the bell above the door and when a customer would ask Randy where a movie was or come to check out. When it was closer to closing Randy came up to the front and jumped up on the counter. "So… think Sidney will break up with leather-face?" I looked at him with a look that said 'really?' and he shrugged. "I doubt it, Randy. I'm sorry to hurt your ego or whatever bit Sidney will never break up with Billy and go out with you. You're stuck in the friend zone, buddy."

After we locked up Randy took me home. When I walked into the house it was dark and the memory of that night came back. It was the same time as before and in a fews would mark a year. I shut the door behind me, locked it, and walked up the stairs to my room. I walked around the banister and across the landing but stopped in front of the door. Dad had moved into the spare room.

The door to the master bedroom has been shut since they had crime scene crew come in and clean it. The whole room was stripped. The images of it being covered in blood flashed through my head. The way she laid on the floor with her eyes wide open looking up at the ceiling. I could still feel the blood on my hands. I could feel it seeping into my jeans. The strong metallic smell that filled the air still hung in my nose. It was permanently burned into my senses. "Yn?" I jumped when I felt someone touch my arm.

I looked to my right to see Sidney standing there with a look of concern. "Sorry. I've said your name a couple times. Are you okay?" She asked. I blinked a few times and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," I said. She gave me a look but let it go. "I'm going to bed. Good night." I turned and walked the rest of the way to my bedroom and closed the door. I doubt I would be getting a lot of sleep tonight.