Cleaning Out My Closet

Chapter Nine

 All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

                Galileo Galilei

It was finally time for the weekend: it was a Friday night, a night of excitement for most kids, a night of relaxation for me. I usually didn’t do anything on my weekends besides spending time sleeping in, one of my favorite pass times.

So it was at that point on Friday night, about seven o’clock, when I hopped out of the shower to the bell ringing.

“Mom!” I yelled as I ran a towel through my hair, “door!”

“Oh, so that’s what that strange chiming sound is? I was afraid we were about to be whisked into some strange children’s show,” she called back up to me.

“You’re hilarious, you know it? A stand-up comedian right here, folks!” I hollered back as she apparently opened the door.

Suddenly her voice dropped to a normal level and I strained to hear the conversation. I slipped on my underwear, bra, baggy shorts and shirt and walked out onto the upper hallway. When I leaned around the corner, I saw none other than Braxton Hildenbrand, successfully schmoozing my mom.

I quickly hid behind the wall, panicking. What the hell was Braxton doing here? I was supposed to text him, he wasn’t supposed to just show up! I don’t know if I would’ve ended up texting him in the end, but still. It’s a matter of principal, people! I quietly ran barefoot to the bathroom and grabbed my phone off the counter.

Distract him!!! I texted my mother. Moments later I heard her phone go off, but apparently she chose to ignore it but still kept talking to him. I banged my head against the bathroom door frame, cursing Braxton for showing up here unannounced. I quickly ran down the hallway to my room and slammed the door shut, grabbing the hair dryer from its permanent place on my dresser and began to make myself look presentable as quickly as possible. I blew my hair dry as well as can be done in two minutes and checked my phone.

How much longer?? My mother had replied, and I quickly texted back.

One min, And I ran to my closet to put on some jeans.

When I walked downstairs, I found Braxton sitting on my couch, my mom keeping herself busy in the kitchen. It seemed that there was a perpetual pile of dishes in our kitchen sink, even when none of us have been home to dirty it, and she was working on it as she chattered. You could all but taste the excitement coming off of her.

“Hi, Braxton,” I said with a smile and ran my fingers through my still slightly damp hair.

“Hey, Ray. Sorry about not texting you or anything, but I lost your number today and didn’t know what was going down this weekend…” he trailed off uncomfortably, and I realized for the first time that as nervous as I was at finding him in my living room, he felt just as awkward being there.

“No, it’s cool. I guess you already met my mom,” I said, turning to look at her. There was a huge grin on her face, at least until she looked at my clothing.

She sighed and shook her head, muttering “back to the boy clothes” under her breath. I frowned at her and absently rubbed my forearms, turning to Braxton.

“Did I interrupt your night off?” He asked, looking at my outfit. It was similar to what I wear to school every day, but I guess if you’ve only seen me a few times and one of those was wearing “normal” clothes, this would seem more casual.

“Not really, I didn’t have any real plans. Just chilling,” I said with a shrug.

“You can chill with her,” my mom added, and I felt my face turn red.