We Can't Be Heroes

Eric I

Eric Abelman's summer so far was very uneventful. While his classmates were at the local pool hanging out with friends, or overseas with their family, Eric spent his days at his father's book store. 

He hadn't done anything remotely exciting since Molly's party, which in itself wasn't that enjoyable apart from the free drinks. It had been three days since that Friday night, and even though summer had just begun, Eric was sure his vacation would continue to be completely monotonous.

But he didn't mind. He liked the monotony of it all, the way his summer was dragging along like someone trying to walk through mud, time ticking along slowly. This was his kind of summer. All he needed was something to do, which in this case was working at his father's book store. He had entertainment, food & water, he was getting paid and of course most importantly, he had the sweet cool air from the A/C.

Sitting behind the counter, book in hand, fully immersed in the story, Eric Abelman was content - he believed his summer was doing just fine. Well, it was going fine until the bell of the door rung, signalling the arrival of another customer. 

However, Eric was so immersed in his book, the ding of the bell flew right past him and so his head was kept down, his eyes scanning the pages. 

He did however hear, the sound of his father's footsteps coming from the small back room where boxes of books laid unopened. 

"Ryan!" Jacob Abelman exclaimed with a surprised smile.

Wait, Ryan?

Eric looked up and low and behold, Ryan Finch stood behind the counter. Out of all the places in Salem, Oregon, Eric would never, ever  guess that Ryan Finch would waltz into his dad's bookstore. Instead, he should've been at the mall or something, with his popular friends.

Oh right. His friends. Eric forgot about the irrelevant drama between Ryan and his friends at the party. But if he had to be honest, he couldn't care less about the friendship breakup. Much like how he couldn't care less about how he never talked to his childhood friends. Although that was another matter entirely and one that he would rather avoid to dwell upon.

Ryan smiled bashfully towards Eric's father. "Hi,  I was wondering if you have any cookbooks? It's for a gift for my mom."                                                                                                                       
 "Of course, Liz's birthday is coming up! We have some cookbooks on that shelf over there. Eric, why don't you help him,' Jacob said, coaxing his son to help his estranged friend.                                "Sure dad," Eric replied indifferently. With no other choice to dodge this, Eric stood up and made his way over to the shelf with Ryan in tow.

"Take your pick," Eric said to Ryan. "We've got a range of different types. What would suit your mom?"                                                                                                                                                                             
Ryan looked at the different books. Eric could see by his eyes that he was having difficulty choosing one. But it wasn't like the difficulty of choosing something so trivial, like whether you wanted green sneakers or white sneakers. This was a different sort of internal debate. Eric didn't know what that meant though, but it seemed as if Ryan was struggling with something, searching way too deeply for the right answer in which book to buy. 

Or Eric could just be reading too much into things like he normally does. 

Ryan sighed in defeat. "I actually have no idea. I barely talk to my mom because she's always...busy," he faltered.
"Well, if she's always busy, why don't you get her this."
Eric picked up a heavy cookbook: Simple Meals On The Go.
"Right. Don't know why I didn't think of that myself," Ryan chuckled embarrassingly.

They walked back to the counter where Eric's dad was trying to organise the mess that was the front counter.

"Just this one Mr. Abelman," Ryan said, handing the book to Jacob.
"Any plans for the summer?" Jacob asked Ryan, while scanning the book and bagging it up.
"No not really. Right now I'm probably just gonna go to the diner and have lunch," Ryan said handing over the money to pay for the book.

That was when Eric saw the cogs turning in his father's brain as he thought of an idea that usually never ended well. Especially if it had anything to do with Eric.

"Eric was actually planning to go there 'round about now. He was going just going to get a take away and eat it back here. Although I'm sure he'd love to stay there now that he has some company."

Oh god no. 

Apparently now Jacob Abelman's ideas consisted of forcing teenagers to hang out with each other. Great. 

"Dad, Ryan's probably going to be hanging out with his own friends at the diner and I don't wanna to intrude," Eric interjected.
"Oh no it's fine. I'm not actually meeting anyone and I could sure use some company too, instead of looking like a loser eating lunch by myself."
"Fantastic, it's settled then. Eric, just make sure to come back before the store closes," Jacob said happily, giving Ryan the bag.

Eric Abelman's summer was not going as planned.

~~~ To be continued...