To be Frantastic

Chapter 4: You win

I stood on my brother's doorstep. I had the address written down on a piece of paper that I was holding with my right hand, and inside my head I waged war on whether I should get in or not. It is the day after my birthday, and I have managed to reach Portland as soon as I found a flight. But it is in the middle of the night, it is raining. I need to ring the doorbell. I mean, I'm dripping wet and I'm already here for fuck's sake. But why won't I ring it?

Shit I'm such an idiot, I never think anything through! My brother hasn't even called me for my birthday, he probably forgot. And who do I think I am, coming to his house out of the blue, expecting for him to give me a bed to spend the night? For a week? I know for sure I wouldn't take someone uninvited like this.

For the next five minutes I was, quite literally, walking back and forth from the doorstep back to the sidewalk. My carry-on luggage on my left hand, and my head covered from the rain only by a hoodie, I was bound to catch a cold at any second. At some point I went and rang the doorbell, but almost immediately backed off and started to run for it in the opposite direction, but the door opened.

-"Yes? Who is it?"—asked a female voice, from Sasha, Dustin's girlfriend—"Is that... Connor? Connor is that you?"

As I had already been spotted, it was probably pointless to run away now. Slowly, I faced Sasha and gave my best winning smile... and by winning, I mean completely awkward.

-"Heeeeeey... Sasha... how's... life?"—I asked waving at her from a distance.

-"Jesus Christ, Connor! Get in at once! It's literally showering outside!"—she said, motioning towards the door.

Once inside I gave a huge sneeze, and Sasha went to the second floor of the house to get me a towel right away. She started drying me off as she took me down to the kitchen, where she served me a cup of hot chocolate.

-"You are one crazy kid!"—she said—"How long had you been standing there in the rain!?"

-"Oh, only for a couple of min... of min... of—-ACHOOOO!"

I would say my sneeze gave me away. Sasha started scolding me about how I must be more careful and how I should have called Dustin to pick me up from the airport and what not. Sasha is shorter than me, has black hair, oriental eyes and wears glasses. She and Dustin met in college, and the two have been together since their sophomore year. She's practically part of the family. None of us said a thing to Dustin about it, but we were all in high hopes that sometime soon they might get engaged.

-"Oh my God."—Sasha said all of the sudden—"Connor didn't you turn twenty one YESTERDAY?"

I choked a little bit on my hot chocolate as I turned red as a blood orange.

-"Well... yeah?"

-"OOOOOOH HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAAY!"—she said while lounging over me and giving me a huge bear hug, and getting wet in the process—"Oh my God I haven't got you a gift or anything but don't worry! We're going out for dinner and we're having a cake and Dustin will surely get you something—-OH GEEZ, DUSTIN! OH YOUR BROTHER IS SO DEAD!"

Sasha rushed upstairs leaving me clueless with my warm drink. I could practically hear her footsteps on top of me; I believe she was changing as she rambled on about Dustin.

-"... HE TOTALLY FORGOT TO CALL YOU, DIDN'T HE!?"—she yelled from upstairs.

-"Eh... well... yeah, but it's fine!"—I answered, uncertain on whether she could hear me or not.

-"OH MY GOD YOUR MOM CALLED YESTERDAY MORNING TO MAKE SURE DUSTIN WOULD NOT FORGET! HE ALMOST FORGOT TO CALL BRANDON FOR HIS BIRTHDAY LAST WEEK! I SWEAR SOMETIMES HE'S JUST IMPOSSIBLE...!"