With the receiver between my chin and my shoulder, I brought the phone cradle from my desk over to the bed so the cord would reach. Then I kicked off my shoes and flopped down on the bed.
"Oh! So I forgot to ask you... How was the barbeque last weekend?" Julie's voice said from the other line.
"Ugh. Terrible... Brady joined the group of five year olds in chasing me around the yard with water guns."
Julie laughed. "Eh, don't worry about it, Andy. One of these days he'll go through puberty and grow up a bit."
"Doubt it," I muttered.
It had been about two weeks since school started. My classes had finally fallen into a routine and my family and I had managed to unpack most of the boxes. You don't realize how much crap you own until you have to put all of it on shelves and in drawers.
I spent most of my free time with a group of people that Julie had introduced me to. They were a pretty laid back group and I fit in with them well enough. We all ate lunch together at the café during school and we'd hang out at night or on the weekends.
When I mentioned to Julie that I had been looking for a job, she had managed to get me one working at a local coffee shop with her. Once in a while, the two of us would end up with the same shift, but otherwise it was pretty boring. The store was tucked away in the corner of a big shopping center, so barely anyone came in.
One thing that didn't change, however, was that Brady was still taking any opportunity to make my life hell.
"So what're your plans for the night?" Julie asked.
"Don't have any," I told her. "My mom's on a business trip in Virginia until tomorrow, Jamie's at basketball practice, and I would have been stuck watching Danny if he wasn't sleeping over his friend's house tonight."
"Wanna come over, then? Beanie, Jess, Steve and Tompy are all gonna hang out here around seven."
I thought about it for a second, absentmindedly twirling the cord around my pointer finger. "I don't think I can... My car's been crapping out for the past two weeks and it wouldn't start up again yesterday. I don't wanna get stuck somewhere, you know? And Jamie took my mom's car to practice, so..."
"I can ask Tompy if he can give you a ride? He's driving Jess..." Julie suggested.
"Yeah, but she's just around the block. I'm really out of the way... Nah, don't worry about it," I decided, "I'll pass on tonight and just see you guys tomorrow... Maybe they'll be a good horror movie on TV tonight or something."
"You loser. Spending a perfectly good Friday night at home," Julie laughed. "And aren't you terrified of horror movies, anyway?"
"Terrified? No way... 'Slightly frightened' would be more of the correct wording. Besides; I'll make popcorn. And popcorn fixes everything," I explained.
"Whatever you say, Andy... I'll call you tomorrow with plans, okay?"
"Alright. Tell the guys I said hi."
"Will do," Julie said.
"Okay. See ya," I replied, hanging up the phone.
