Here Comes The Sun [wattys 2016]

MAY 2007

MAY 2007

Alex was not puzzled to receive a call from Jem at twelve o'clock in the morning.

They called each other at ungodly hours of the morning and sometimes ended up talking for hours. It was routine for Alex- watching the sun rise slowly, buttering his walls in white light, with one ear pressed against his phone and Jem's drowsy voice in his ear. It was a really bad habit, probably, but it was one they enjoyed a little too much to give up.

Jem owned a mobile so ancient that he could do nothing but call with it. It wasn't the best but to Jem it felt like the world.

Alex had been up studying for his finals when his phone rang. Not unlike others teenagers, he threw aside his book and scrambled across the bed to his phone. He saw Jem's number and immediately removed it from charging and picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Alex," Jem sounds delirious. Alex can hear people talking behind him in loud, excited voices.

He squints. "Hey? What's up?"

"My dad got the job!" Jem exclaims.

"What? Seriously?!"

"Yeah! My parents are freaking out."

Jem's father had been trying to get a job at an advertising agency for the past two weeks. The fact that he was no longer going to work at the shop and at an actual office with a good salary was the best news Alex had hear all week. He grinned. "Wow... Jem, God that's awesome. Congratulations!"

Alex could almost see Jem's smile when he spoke. "The pay's so good, okay, my parents are ecstatic. "

"That's awesome."

"Right? So anyway, my mom is saying..."

"What?"

Jem says, "That's it's high time I join school again because you know, it's eleventh grade. So I guess I'm joining this year."

"Wait, really?"

"Yes!"

"Jem, that's great!" Alex is practically yelling with joy.

"I know, right?" Jem yells back.

Alex leans back, fighting the grin off his face. "So when does he start?"

"Monday," Jem replies.

"God, that's great. Tell your dad I'm congratulating him. Right now."

Jem does. "He says, 'thanks.'"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, okay? We're shaking and opening a can of Coke. Since there's no champagne."

"Livin' the thug life."

"You bet."

"See you, Jem."

"Bye, Alex."

Alex He feels so ecstatic for Jem and his family that he goes to his mom's room and tells her. His mom keeps down the book she was reading, smiles and says, "That's great. Tell him I'm congratulating him," before waving him out of the room because it was apparently an important part.

*

"Maybe you could come to my school." Alex says.

Jem shrugs. He is straightening up some Joy Division CDs some kids messed up. Alex is pretending to go regard the track list of Unknown Pleasures because Jem's boss is standing at the counter, glaring at them. Jem had already been yelled at twice for 'wasting his time and his customer's time and would he please drag his ass and help the woman waiting.'