Totally Clueless

chapter 5

 

   Wednesday Josh dragged himself out of bed at four in the morning. He did not acknowledge how tired he was or how relaxing it would have been to sleep a few hours more. He just staggered to the bathroom. Washed his face. Went downstairs and began his meditation and exercises. Then he practiced his karate routine. His moves clean, precise and perfect.

   Chrisy sat in the passenger seat of her best friends car as they drove over to meet Josh and Reid at their house that same afternoon. Chrisy could not contain herself as she told Kerry about the previous evening she had spent with Josh.

Kerry watched her friends eyes dance and light up as she told her all she felt as she watched him pump iron all afternoon long.  Then the conversation shifted to the tournament. And Kerry told Chrisy how she wouldn't be able to go because her aunt T. had a family dinner party planned and she had to play the role of a happy smiling hostess. It would take her days to practice and perfect that image.

"Josh will do great, I just know it..."she reasurred Chrisy.

"I don't doubt that...but I just keep getting so nervous, its weird"

"Your worried about him." Kerry teased. And she rolled playful eyes at her.

"No...well, I guess...a little bit, we're after all friends now...right?"

"Right..." kerry replied sarcastically as she knew their could easily be more than friendship between them.

"I'll never get it...how can you just let somebody hit you...for a prize..."

"I'm sure there is more to it than that Chrisy...besides...it can't be easy for them living on there own... There's gotta be all the things that we never have to think about...they need the extra money."

Chrisy stared wide eyed at her friend.

"Say what now?"

"Its just them, Josh didn't tell you...oh...Maybe I shouldn't have..."

Chrisy sat there in silently for a while to process the thought. She had asked Josh about his mother but he had just been so vague about it. Now thinking back she thought 'how could she not have seen it. Reid had a Job for crying out and Josh claimed to work for her dad under a complicated arrangement. Why had Josh never mentioned it to her? Where were their parents?

Kerry pulled up outside their home.

"Don't Say I told you...please." Kerry begged her friend as they walked up to the porch together.

"I won't say anything." Chrisy promised.

   They met Josh and Reid on the porch practicing together. Slow fluid movements. Perfectly insync. Their hands swayed In the cool, afternoon breeze and their foot work complicated, yet clean . Kicks high, but controlled. Every movement was perfection. Their whole bodies moved in the exact same way with the exact rhythm at the exact same time. It was amazing to watch.

Chrisy was intrigued by it, but this evening in particular, she was distracted. She saw everything differently now, after what Kerry had just told her. It's as if she was entering their home for the first time. She realized everything in the apartment was all them, a part of their personality. Their mother never chose the welcome mat at the doorway or choose the furniture so precisely, from the large masculine looking black sofa to the classic table and lamp next to it or the modern study desk in the corner of the living room that housed a desktop, stationary and desktop speakers. She wasn't the one that made their floors spotless. Decorated the house. Payed the bills. They did it all along with school, karate, a job. She wasn't sure what emotions to feel. They went to sit on the porch.