Geeks, Punks, and Pick-Up Trucks

Chapter 2

The living room is crowded with 7 people and one couch and one chair. Phillip is sitting in the chair. Lola, Mel, and I are on the couch, and Matt is in the kitchen, already searching for a snack. The other boy, who's name I discover is Michael, sits cross legged on the floor.

If I ever forget I'm in high school, the sight of a teenage boy scarfing down most of a cold, left over pizza serves as a weird reminder.

Miles is standing by the door, clearly uncomfortable, looking ready to dash at any given moment. My hands tug at the hem of my skirt. I'm uneasy, too, and regretting my decision to let 3 boys in here that weren't Matty.

"So are we just gonna sit here staring at each other all night?" Melanie finally asks, breaking the awkward silence. Lola giggles drunkenly, adding drastically to the awkwardness. Matty returns with a bowl of Ramen, somehow, even though my mother is strongly against the consumption of the packaged, processed, noodles.

"Okay..." He draws out the word and stares at us in our uncomfortable state. He reaches down and leaves the bowl on the floor. "Okay." He says again, more certainly this time. "You guys are gonna talk, and I'll break out some cards or something."

He leaves the room, and we still don't say anything. "Talk!" He shouts from where I assume is my bedroom. Matt used to practically live with us, so I'm okay with it.

"Did you know," Melanie begins cautiously, "Opossums have 13 nipples? Twelve of them are in a circle and the thirteenth is in the middle. They can also fake their death by falling into a sleep that can last, like, four hours."

I raise my eyebrows -it's an interesting concept- but Phillip is laughing at the word "nipple."

As for Matty, he returns with a fold-up TV tray table and a deck of Uno cards. "Let's ruin some friendships and destroy the chance of some to ever exist in the first place." He says, setting up the table and putting down the deck. He goes to the kitchen and gets some chairs, picks up his ramen on the way there. He gestures toward Miles to join us, Michael scoots forward, I realize there is a ridiculous amount of people with names starting with the letter M in the room.

Before I know it, we've played 3 rounds of Uno, Mel has won 2, and I've nearly won them all. Conversation steers to social lives and mutual friends. I don't join, as I don't have much knowledge of that aspect of life, but I do laugh at Melanie's monotone tales of obsessed, misogynist, boys.

"So he grabs my arm and I punched him in the gut. He was drunk and he didn't even ask nicely. What the hell made him think it was okay to touch me without asking?"

"You're absolutely right," Michael responds genuinely.

Soon it's way past midnight and Matty offers to take everyone else home. Philip nearly forgets to put his shoes on. It takes Michael a while to give up his conversation with lovely Miss Melanie. She's actually interested, which is new. Over all, they're out of the house nearly 3 hours later than expected.
Miles glances at me as he walks out.

It's just me, Lola, and Mel.

We go to my room to get ready for bed. I lug blankets from the linen closet and set some up on the ground for Lola and Mel and I share my full size bed. We've done this since our first sleepover ever. Lola's bladder is tiny, so she's always on the floor because she gets up at least once a night. We sit around and talk about the night.

"That Miles kid is something else. He tags along and hardly says anything the whole night." Melanie points out.

"Lola hardly said anything either." I retort.

"That's because she was mostly asleep."

"True."

We go quiet for a second, waiting for a response from Lola but she's sound asleep.

We set up a movie and talk through the trailers, because none of us want to get up to skip them.

"Miles is so fine, though." Mel says.

"He's okay." I respond. He is so fine, but I take pride in my lack of interest in the male gender. "Michael is super interested in you."

Melanie shrugs. Staring at the screen, she responds, "He's okay."

We're quiet throughout the most of the rest of the movie.

"Maybe we should go to bed." I say, when it's nearly over.

"Or not." Melanie laughs.

We wait for it to end, then raid the kitchen instead.