21st Century Breakdown: Nathan and Ari

9 - Last of the American Girls

(A/N: I like Ari's POV the best. Expect a lot of her in this chapter...and some Joey. Damn, I love Joey.)

Chapter 9

Ari Armstrong

It was a typical Friday night/Saturday morning here in the Armstrong residence. Nathan and Anthony were here, as always, and we were watching 1,000 Ways to Die, my on-again, off-again TV obsession. Joey would've been here with us, but he was at Anna's seventeenth birthday bash or something like that with Emma. Of course. Like, yeah, start going out with the most popular girl in the school and you become popular by default. Nice one, bro.

My stomach growled, making me laugh. Anthony looked at me weird from his place on the love seat. I shrugged. "You guys wanna order pizza and wings or something?" I asked. Nathan lauged. "What?"

"Ari, darling, it's almost three in the morning. I'm pretty sure that all the pizza places around here are closed." He laughed, shaking his head. "Let's go to the 7-Eleven and get something. And Slurpees. You can not forget Slurpees when you go to a 7-Eleven," he said matter-of-factly. Anthony and I both nodded in agreement.

I got up off the couch. "So," I began, looking down at what I was weaing, "we're gonna go in our pajamas?"

"Fuck yes!" Anthony shouted, jumping up and doing a really stupid little dance. I laughed, shaking my head at him. "So, come on my dearest friends, let us go to the 7-Eleven and get Slurpees and food for Ari!" And with that, he linked arms with me and Nathan and skipped to the front door, hauling us behind him.

Nathan sighed. "I'm driving, right?" he asked.

I nodded. "I don't trust Anthony to drive. Not like he's acting, at least." He laughed, looking out the now open door. Anthony was dancing around in my driveway.

"You guys coming or what?" He called to us, putting a stop to his stupid dance.

I laughed and nodded, putting on my Nike slides by the door and walking out to meet Anthony. "Come on," I said, grabbing Anthony's hand and hauling him across mine and the Pritchard's lawns and to Nathan's car.

"Nathan is driving?" Anthony asked. I nodded, getting into the passenger seat. "Why do you get shotgun?!?"

"Because I got here first," I said in a matter-of-fact tone. Anthony just shook his head, getting into the back seat. After what seemed like a while, Nathan finally came into my view, walking across his lawn.

Anthony sighed from behind me. "Ari, why didn't you invite Amy to this little get together tonight?" he asked as Nathan got in the car. He put the key in the ignition and started it, pulling out of his driveway.

"It's not a get together. You guys just kinda showed up in your pajamas and demanded to stay the night. And it only worked because if you do anything wrong, your houses are next door and across the street." The two boys laughed. I just looked at them. "What? It's true! And Anthony, Mel's hanging out with Amy tonight."

I saw the blond look at me in the rear-view mirror. "Oh, right. I forgot. I'll hang out with her Sunday. It's supposed to be rainy. We can watch movies and listen to music all day," he said, leaning back against the seat.

Nathan chimed in with, "Sounds like one of mine and Ari's 'dates' from a few years ago." I just shook my head at his comment. "Don't deny it! It's true! All we did was hang around one of our houses and watch TV shows or movies or Netflix and listen to music!"

"Ah, true," I said, not feeling like arguing with him, even though he was right about that. Back before Nathan and Anthony got their driver's licenses and Nathan and I were still together, we didn't go on real dates. All we did was lounge around one of our houses and watch TV or movies or Netflix, or listen to music. We went to the movies twice with other people. Once with two other couples, and once with Jake and his "wife" of about three years, Juliet O'Riley. I honestly think that there was one time that we went to the movies by ourselves, and we had to walk home in the rain that time. It was cute, though, because when we were about half way home from the movie theater, Nathan stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and kissed me in the rain. Every cliché hopeless romantic's dream.