As A Cliché: A Short Story

Year #3: Jax's 18th Birthday Journal

"Just wake him up." I heard my friend Kendal whisper.

I felt myself slowly awaken to see shadows through the fronts of my closed eyelids.

"Wake who up?" I asked knowing he meant me but the sleep was still effecting my brain.

"Surprise!"

I jolted up and fell out of bed when three or so people all yelled in my ear.

I groaned and rubbed my eyes trying to see who they were from the comfort of my hard wood floor.

"Oh gosh are you okay?" Celia asked.

Celia was Kendal's girlfriend, and Kendal is my closest friend.

You see, two years ago when I moved here to California I knew no one. I had no friends. I mean sure I could call and text my old friends and I eventually got Katie's number from one of her other friends, but they were all the way across America, so I had no friends I could actually, physically hang out with.

Then I met Kendal. It was the first day of baseball tryouts for the junior varsity team, and again I didn't know anyone. So when the time came around to warm up, Kendal approached me and asked if I wanted to warm up with him, simple enough. I'm sure you know how the rest goes, we become friends, he introduced me to his friends, he even got me a spot on the varsity baseball team with him, with him being the catcher for the varsity team, and me used to being the pitcher on the varsity team back in Albany. To help it even more, Katie's calls came less and leads frequently, going from everyday, to every week, now barely at all.

I grabbed the hand that was offered by my other buddy Carter and he pulled me up from the floor.

"What're you guys doing here it's like 4:30." I yawned and stretched my arms over my head.

"Well we all know you get up at the crack of dawn, so we had to beat your alarm clock."

I grinned at my friends and dusted some imaginary dirt off of myself. wait.

"Get out Celia!" I yelled and pushed her lightly towards the door.

"What! What's wrong!" She asked frantically.

"I'm in my boxers!" I motioned to my bare chest and underwear.

"Oh my gosh! My bad" she blushed furiously and turned to run out the door, running into the doorframe in the process.

I know what you're thinking, your almost a senior and you still can't talk to girls? I mean it's not entirely that I can't, I just can't talk to a girl that's not Celia of course, without thinking about how much I miss Katie.

"Hey! Why you blushing girl? You have a boyfriend hello!" Kendal ran out behind her, leaving me pushing Carter out behind them.

"Gosh, you're like a girl." he muttered and they all went downstairs for breakfast.

Ok fast forward like twenty minutes. I walked downstairs after deciding to skip today's workout, and was greeted by the smell of breakfast. burnt breakfast to be precise.

"What the heck!" I ran around the corner into the kitchen to see smoke billowing up from a pan which I assume once held something edible.

I yanked open the cooking cabinet and grabbed my moms industrial sized box of baking soda and dumped the whole thing on the fire.

"Guys!" I yelled. I heard their footsteps scurry from the living room to right in front of me.

I dragged my hands down my face and slowly opened my eyes to take in the mess again.