"Well Calum," I said. "I guess we’ll see you in a week." I took the pizza, opening the box and setting it on Luke’s desk next to the lab equipment. Calum was leaving to go to China for a week, so the four of us were hanging out one last time before he left.
Luke’s room was very cluttered. At the moment, it was because he was taking a shot at making his own hair gel. Green liquid bubbled in the beakers and test tubes, some had long straws connecting each other. Luke had always been interested in science, he’d convinced his parents to even buy him a chemistry set a few years back. As long as Luke had what he needed to be successful, they were happy. They would buy him anything.
"Bon voyage, Calum!" Ashton laughed, making us laugh too.
"You’re confirming out suspicions that you’re Asian," I said. "You know that, right?"
"I’m not Asian," He replied, crossing his arms.
"So, this hair gel," Luke just wanted to walk about his creation. If we let him do this for a few minutes now, we wouldn’t have to hear about it sporadically through our mini goodbye party for Calum. We knew how this went.
"It’s completely eco-friendly, not toxic or anything." He gestured to his set-up beside the pizza. "Like, we could put it on the pizza, and it would probably make it taste even better!”
"B-better?" I stuttered. Two words that went together well, better pizza.
"You heard me," He nodded. "You wanna try?"
I looked at the other guys, they didn’t look too sure about it. “C’mon, it’ll make it taste even better! And it’s really hard to make pizza taste better. What’s the worst that could happen?”
"Hmm, let’s see. It could end up being toxic and we could all die!” Ashton said, standing up. He was a scrawny guy, and the shortest of the four of us as well.
"Don’t be a baby," I rolled my eyes, then turned to Luke. "Hit me up."
Luke looked extremely pleased with himself as he put some of it on the pizza. I know, the idea was insane, but who could turn down better pizza?
I took a bit.
"Well?" Calum asked.
“Wow,” My eyes got huge. Luke was right, it was really good. “You guys need to try this.” I took the beaker from Luke’s hands, then began putting it on three slices, then handed one to each of them. “Try it now.”
They all took bites, and their faces went to absolute joy.
"Well done, Dr. Fluke," Ashton said, devouring his piece. "But if i wake up green like that hair gel, looking like the incredible hulk, I’m blaming you."
Luke chuckled. “How do some video games sound, gentlemen?”
We played for awhile, then continued to talk about the girls at our school. We were in senior year, but at the bottom of the popularity food chain. We were all nerds, and we knew it.
"It’s getting late," Calum stood up once it was getting dark outside. My parents are gonna wonder where I am, and I still have some homework to do"
"You leave for your trip tomorrow, though!" Luke said.
"Still, I don’t want to have to do work on the trip." He paused the game with his controller, Luke just sat there looking surprised and then dropped his controller next to him.
I stood up and gave Calum a bear hug, “Have a safe flight, come back to us okay!” I patted him hard on the back, he did the same to me.
"Thanks, Mike. Good luck with Meg," He said, pulling away. My cheeks turned red, Meg was the girl I was chasing after. She was one of the poetry club girls. She hung out with people who had passions for words and music, and she wasn’t too far out of my league.
