Something About Us

Part Five

Part Five

I found myself in the warm walls of Hunter's house three days later. He only lived one block away from me, so once school was done I got off the bus a stop early and walked it down to his place. I had sent him a text earlier asking him if I could come over and he said I could.

"You have reached the telephone of the Boulstridges. The Boulstridges seem to be out, so please leave a message after the beep. If you leave your name and number, they will return your call as soon as possible. If you're calling for James press one. . . If you're calling for Jane press two . . . " I had heard the dumb monotone of the Boulstridge butler so many times I could've probably recited it right then. I wanted to smash the cordless phone against the wall. Why wouldn't Holiday answer? I couldn't just pop up there uninvited, that was rude.

"Okay, dude, listen to this song I just wrote for Julia." Hunter was sitting on the floor with me in his bedroom. It was about the same size as mine but felt larger because his room only had one bed where mine had two; mine and TJ's.

Hunter was giggling and laughing like he had just heard the funniest joke in his life. "It's called. . . Julia."

"You are so original."

Hunter fell back on the bed with laughter. "Why are you bringing me down, man? Why are you bringing me down? DON'T BRING ME DOWN!" Hunter quoted Family Guy. "I should be a stand-up comic, don't you agree?"

"No." I said with a small smile. I dialled Holiday's house number a series of digits that I had memorized by heart. Eighth time's the charm, right?

"Stop tryin-ta ruin my dreams," Hunter sat up and wiped his face and tried to put a serious smile on his face. "Alright, here's Julia. You-"

"Sounds familiar." I stopped Hunter dead in his tracks. He looked at me with this stunned look of disbelief and then mimed beating me with the guitar. I smiled with Hunter genuinely. Hunter was the only one who hadn't let me down in some way over the past few days.

"So let's just get this straight. You went out with Seven Evans, he got mad because you led him on, so then he kissed you-"

"Forcefully."

"He forcefully kissed you and then gave you a hickey for the purpose of Holiday getting mad at you. Then the whole crux of the situation was reached when you and TJ had a fight and then TJ lied to Holiday to get back at you. Then Holiday pushed you and broke up with you."

"Pretty much." I started to dial Holiday's number and then I threw the phone at the wall, but it hit Hunter's stuffed bear from infancy and bounced into his bed. "What if he doesn't take me back?"

"Move on. There's nothing else you could do. You can't just hang yourself up on Holiday. He's your first boyfriend and there are going to be others. Try a girl. Julia has a hot younger sister."

"Dude, she's like twelve. She just turned twelve three months ago. And I'm practically sixteen." I groaned. Sometimes Hunter's logic just wasn't. . . sometimes I wonder if Hunter grasped the context of basic logic at all.

"But she's a hot twelve. Like she got her tits early. Julia says she acts like she's six-"

"Stop it, Hunter," I quipped. "What if your mom walks by and hears you being a pedophile?" Only real losers dated elementary school girls while they were in high school. If you were in grade nine and you were flirting with a grade eight that was fine but after grade nine there was no reason to fart in the direction of any girl that was under fourteen.