Dude, I love you

Chapter Two

Jack Johnson’s POV

When I arrived at home no one was there which is what I expected so I just plopped down on the living room couch and surfed a few channels until my mom walked in half an hour later asking me to go get the rest of the groceries from the SUV.

After I brought them in I dug through the bags to find the bag of chips and bottle of juice I asked for and went to my room with my back pack knowing my mom would use whatever groceries she bought to make supper. She is the organized goal oriented parent in my family. Meaning she shops with the purpose to use what she buys.  My dad is similar in that sense but ends up buying extra things ‘in case we need them’, needless to say they don’t shop together very often.

My english assignment is due tomorrow morning during second period and I’ve been procrastinating for the past three days. Mr. Elmwood assigned it a week and a half ago. Some of the students finished the assignment pretty early on in the same week and said it’s not necessarily difficult to complete. I’m somewhat smart when it comes to school, not the best, but you know ahead of the slackers. Again probably because I don’t have anyone to hang out with at school so I just end up actually reading the hand-outs we’re given or the text books for an assignment.

Half an hour later I can kind of guess what my mom’s making for supper, Mexican food. Probably tortilla wraps, I seen whole wheat wraps under my potato chips and a jar of salsa beside my bottle of orange juice in another bag.

The assignment really isn’t that hard it’s just time consuming, I’m one third of the way done filling in the blanks and answering the short answer questions. Mr. Elmwood is against using Wikipedia with a passion, but the trick is to use the sources at the bottom of the page instead of reading directly off Wikipedia, that way you can see for yourself that it’s legit and he can’t say I got it from Wikipedia if you source it directly. 

Getting bored of looking at the paper and the computer monitor I decide to take a break. Checking my phone for any messages, of course nothing. It's almost six now, meaning my dad would be on his way home. Jeff doesn’t always make it home for supper, my mom usually just places his plate in the microwave for whenever he gets home which is always before nine.

This one time he came home late somewhat high but I didn’t notice, my mom did of course and searched his entire room for any kind of drugs. She did find something but it wasn’t drugs and by the way either of them or my dad wouldn’t tell me it was something embarrassing more than harmful.  I always assumed it was a dirty magazine or something.

I heard the doorbell ring and got up and walked to the stairway to see who it was. Steadying myself I leaned over the railing to see Stanley, my dog, wagging his tail jumping at the door beside my mom, eager to greet whoever it was.  My mom positioned her leg holding Stanley back and opened the door welcoming Jack’s parents through the door with Jack following behind holding a bowl of salad covered by plastic wrap.

I headed down the rest of the stairs towards the kitchen to cut them off. Jack had the same idea cutting through the living room since we both entered the kitchen at the same time.

“Hey.” he said putting the bowl down on the marble countertop island in the middle of the kitchen.

“Hey, let me get one of our bowls to put that in.” I say heading towards the lower cabinet near the fridge.

“Don’t bother.” He chuckles.

“Why?” I ask tilting my head slightly at him.

“You don’t recognize your own salad bowl?” he asks in feigned exasperation.

He’s right. That is one of our salad bowls. His parents probably took it home with some left overs the last time they were here.

“Your dad offered it when my parents came over last week for your dads chicken teriyaki stir fry.” He adds padding his stomach slightly. He probably isn’t even aware he did that knowing him.

“Oh right I bet it was for you.” I say nodding at his hand on his stomach.

“No it was for Molly, me and Laura but I ended up eating it all.” Dropping his hand quickly and smirking.

“Of course you, you fatty.” I say closing the cabinet with my foot.

“Hey I resent that, I am not fat.” He says watching me walk towards the basement door and begins to do the same. It’s what we usually do since it’s like a second living room down there with a flat screen and a sectional. I think our basement was designed to be an in-house bar since there’s a bar tender’s counter built into the floor plan with cabinets that remain empty. We used to play pretend and act like shop owner and customer when we were kids down there.

“Mmhmmm.” Sounding apathetic and raising an eyebrow even though he couldn’t see my face walking down the stairwell.

“Does THIS look like fat?” he says, making me turning around halfway down the stairs to see what ‘this’ is.

He lifted up his shirt to reveal his stomach and a glimpse of his nipple and started rubbing the side of his stomach, which was flat to be honest. The stairwell was dark but the light coming from the basement highlighted that V shape, that girls liked so much, which had started to form on his hips leading into his boxer’s waist band. I felt jealous, when will a wave of puberty make me more attractive the way it did for him. I realized I was staring a bit too long and tried to make it more obvious when I looked behind him instead; he had closed the door behind him.

I made eye contact with him after looking at the door and continued down the stairs. He usually leaves the door open when we come down, not that it’s a big deal.

I could hear his feet padding the carpet following me to the flatscreen TV.  Our dads sometimes watched sports down here so the set-up is pretty sweet.  Jumping over the back of the ’L’ sectional and making myself more comfortable I threw Jack a cushion and then grabbed the remote and switched the TV on, searching for South Park or Family Guy. Jack often sits at either ends of the couch and I usually take up the center spot where it bends into the L shape.

This is basically as far as we get without getting somewhat awkward, because soon he will start getting texts from someone in one of his classes and will keep his face glued to his phone and only half hears the TV when I chuckle at something funny. Sometimes I change the channel and he’ll ask when I did after a long while.

In all honesty I’m not mad at him at all for being left behind socially, I still consider him my best friend even if I’m no longer his, we made a promise the day we met and I still plan to keep that promise. However it does hurt knowing he’s not trying very hard to keep that same promise. He’s actually the one who said it to me when we were kids, on that swing set and I just agreed to it.

Almost right on cue his phone started vibrating and I knew I lost him. I pulled my phone out too and started playing games and checking out a few new apps.

Half an hour had passed by when Katherine’s voice called down to us. ”Jacks, come’n eat.” Our parents said that often when they’re referring to us or calling us at the same time.

“Kay” we replied in off-beat unison. I climbed over the back of the couch started towards the stairs when I felt a cushion hitting my shoulder blade then drop to the back of my calf, mid stride. I turned to Jack to see what’s up.

He held his phone in his hand while he asked “Hey, how come you don’t hang with me at school anymore?”

I was right; he really was oblivious to the other kids singling me out in the group. He’s usually good at reading people. Why didn’t he see that they were intentionally ignoring me, maybe he’s lost his touch.

I responded with an ‘I don’t know’ sound and raised a shoulder then continued walking towards the stairs hoping he would drop the subject. He did. When I reached the stairs I caught a glimpse of him with his face glued back to his phone out of the corner of my eye. 

Sighing inwardly I started up the stairs, I’m both disappointed and relieved he dropped it easily. I don’t want him to stop making new friends because of me but at the same time I wish he cared a bit more. 

Heading up the stairs I could smell the sweet aroma of spices and ground beef being made into tortillas or tacos. I didn’t realize I was this hungry. I didn’t hear Jack’s footsteps padding up the stairs behind me.