My Buddy Archie [1]

14..

I peeked out the window was glad to see last night’s snow didn’t accumulate too much last night. I slipped on my shoes and went downstairs to gather all the trash from this week. Usually I got Archie to help me with this, but he was up all night ‘practicing’ his lines for a play they were doing at Pointer. He only had one line—one word—but it was important to him that he said it ‘rightly’. So, I let him sleep in as I did all the dirty work. I hauled all the trash bags out to the bins, then dragged them up the driveway to the curb.

“Hey!” I knew it was Bucky before I even looked up. “Bro, where the hell have you been?”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t see you, like, all last week. I gotta tell you how that date with the girl from Victoria’s Secret went.”

I laughed and crossed my arms, “Yeah, how’d that go?”

“It was actually nice,” He chuckled. “She not just a hot girl, you know? Funny too and smart.”

“Aww.”

“Oh, shut up. So, tell me, what’ve you been doing? Oh! Didn’t you go to MK’s party last weekend? How was that?”

I scratched my head, “Um…it was…fine.”

“Uh oh…”

“Yeah.”

“What happened?”

“Long story short,” I sighed. “I drank too much and fucked her…twice and fell asleep. Woke up and realized I forgot about Archie—who I was supposed to get that night—then flipped out at MK because she tried to make me stay again.” I shrugged, “Then guilt was trying to kill me for a couple days.”

He let out a long sigh, “Shit man.”

“I know…I really fucked up.”

“Well, I mean, you did when it comes to Archie—but it’s not a bad thing that you drink too much. You didn’t drive did you?” I shook my head, “Yeah, see? It’s not too bad. So you fucked some girl at a party, that’s a good thing! There’s nothing wrong with acting your age sometimes.”

“But Archie—”

“I highly doubt Archie’s going to hold that against you. He’s three—he doesn’t know how to hold a grudge. Seriously man, don’t beat yourself up so much. Just because you have a kid doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.”

I only shrugged but deeply considered what he said. Maybe he was right.

“So, Sunny told me you guys went out for sushi.” The blood drained from my face as I tensed, trying to assess his tone. Is he angry that I went out to lunch with his sister—for the second time—or does he not care? I couldn’t tell, so I just didn’t say anything. “Mind telling me where that place is? I love some sushi.”

“Uh,” I coughed. “It was right on the corner of 16th and Grove.”

“Okay, cool.” He nodded, still not giving away what he was thinking. “It’s fucking freezing out here. I’ll catch you later. You working today?”

“No, it’s Saturday.”

“Oh, right,” he chuckled, “See you around then.”

“Yeah.”

----

Archie and I spent most of the day at the Rec Center—it was the only thing I could think of that would help get rid of some of that energy. He insisted we wear the football jerseys my mum got us a while ago, but I didn’t complain.