G E O R G E

Nine: Right Back at Square One

S U N D A Y | J U L Y
George:

WHACKING SAM upside the head I buckled my seatbelt in his car and turned on 99.9 radio.

He groaned as he pulled out of my driveway and used a button on the steering wheel to change it back to the channel he wanted. I cursed at Fiona's new high tech car.

Fiona had run in a contest to win a new car, and she won. Fiona, who didn't really like the car, gave it to Sam as a late eighteenth birthday present. Sam was quite grateful and at first, he tried declining the present but she wouldn't let him. Now he took pride in it and drove it everywhere.

"So what are we doing today?" he asked turning to me, stopping at a stop light. I shrugged and pulled out my phone. "It has to be fun."

"Well, to start, we could go get ice cream," I say pointing indicating the light turned green. He looked back towards the road and drove. "I'm in the mood for ice cream."

"Okay, " he said turning the corner. I looked out the window and thought about the events of last night. I felt bad for Mary, she didn't need any of that. "We're going to McDonald's then."

"Yeah, that's fine, I'm cool with that. What are you getting?" I asked putting my phone back in my pocket. He shrugged and pulled into the drive-thru of McDonald's.

"Just a plain cone," he said stopping for a second and pulling out his wallet. "What are you getting?"

"I'll have a cone too. I'll pay for myself, though," I say waving him off. He pulled up and as the lady on the other side spoke he ordered two large cones. I whipped my head back and glared. "I said I was paying for myself!"

Usually when we go out Sam is too lazy to get out of the car, so he pulls through the drive Thru and then parks so I can get out and go in order up front.

"Well too bad," he said driving up to the window. I stuck my tongue out at him and took my cone and licked it. "And you're not paying me back."

We drove for a little longer before Sam parked in by a park and we got out walking around the city eating ice cream. We passed the school and several Tim Horton's before we started up a conversation about our time back in high school.

It seems like forever ago, high school, like eleven years has passed and we're thirty years old, married and have three kids.

I'm kidding.

But am I?

I mean at the rate I'm going, my love life will be in the dumps by then.

"Remember when you got hit in the nose with a football?" Sam laughed out loud, throwing the wrapper that was wrapped around his cone away. "You're nose was bleeding so much."

"How could I forget?" I grumble rolling my eyes.

"Shit, are you hurt, George?" Sam had said pausing his conversation with Mary. I looked up at him with a straight face, blood running down my chin from my nose.

"No, I usually have blood pouring out of my nose." I deadpan holding my hand below my chin, my hand soaking with my own nose blood.

"Oh, okay then," he said and continued talking to Mary.

We laughed at the memories of doing stupid shit together before Mary came along. We'd probably had been expelled if Mary hadn't come and smacked some sense into Sam when she caught him skipping to meet me.

"Then there was the time we glued Mr. Felton's mug to the desk," Sam recalled smiling. I laughed and shook my head at how classic of a prank that was. "He was so mad, and then Carter Jenson came in swearing and he forgot all about it."