Fate

Sunshine Eggs & Video Games

I slowly and quietly close the door behind me, trying to not wake Carlisle for fear of getting bombarded with a thousand questions. I tiptoe down the hallway, avoiding all of the creaks in the floor and breathe out a sigh of relief when I make it to my bedroom. I close the door behind me and lean against it closing my eyes and smiling to myself. I literally almost die when I turn the lights on to see not only Carlisle, but Ellison, sitting on my bed with their eyebrows raised. They both jump at my embarrassingly girly scream. 

 "What the SHIT?!" I yell, jumping five feet in the air. Okay maybe not quite five feet but close. 

 "What the shit us?!" Ellison huffs, "What the shit you?! It's freaking 2 o'clock in the morning! We thought you'd been murdered or something! The least you could do was send a text notifying us that you were alive!"

 "Yeah, Harlem, we were worried sick." Carlisle says, glaring at me. 

 I stand there for a few seconds taking it all in and try to grasp the ridiculousness of the situation. I then begin to laugh, hysterically, at the ridiculousness of the situation. "Um first of all mom and dad, I am 21 years old and fully capable of setting my own bed time and keeping track of my own whereabouts thank you. Second of all why are you in my bedroom scaring the shit out of me at 2 o'clock in the morning?!" I look at Ellison, "And third of all, Ellison, why the hell are you still here? I love you but don't you have, I don't know, your own place?" 

 "Harlem!" Ellison whines, "You know how Jamie is. He's got a new girlfriend and God knows our walls are not sound proof. It sounds like a fucking porno over there right now!" I laugh, knowing exactly what he's talking about. 

Jamie's a bit of a nymphomaniac and every time he gets a new girlfriend they go at it like rabbits for the beginning of the relationship. I remember, after a night of clubbing, Carlisle and I stayed over there, too drunk to journey our way back to our apartment. Jamie had a new-at-the-time-now-ex-girlfriend and they had no shame. They went the whole nine yards; yells, moans, head-board banging, all of it. It was scarring. 

 "Alright, alright. Ellison we would never subject you to that." Carlisle smirks at him. She then turns her noticeably less pleasant attention to me. "Appreciate our concern and deal with our overprotective ways. Now spill. Every. Single. Detail. Now." 

 I roll my eyes and kick off my shoes, sprawling across their laps. "It was nice, he's actually pretty cool to my surprise. Not the famous, cocky, asshat I took him for at all." I look at Carlisle and feel Ellison nudge my leg, prodding me to go on. I tell them all of the details, not sparing a single bit of information. 

 "Harlem!" Carlisle squeals, earning an eye roll from Ellison. "So what now? When's the next date?" 

"We didn't plan one." I shrug, "Besides we're just friends so I wouldn't call it a date, technically." 

"From a guy's perspective, if he was just interested in being friends, he wouldn't have went to all of that trouble to make tonight special." El states, giving me a look. "I mean I wouldn't have driven forty-five minutes to a beach to have a picnic dinner, that I put in the effort to make, for just a friend." 

 I throw my arm over my eyes and sigh, "Whatever. Relentless of his intentions for tonight, I'm saying that we're just friends." 

 Carlisle laughs, "If you want people to believe that, you might actually want to sound convincing. Of course we have to meet him first," she jokes, "but he seems like a really nice guy. You should at least give him a chance." 

 "Out." I command, pointing toward my door. I'm past the point of exhaustion and beyond done with this conversation. 

 "Ugh I'm too lazy to move right now. Can we just stay in here tonight?" Carls yawns from her position under my legs.