After Hours (boyxboy) | ✓

Chapter Twenty-One

My walk with Jennie wasn't great. Very difficult. Not my favorite. But now I had an even harder task. Thankfully, I was able to get through the morning shift without acting too weird. Brendon asked once what we were doing tonight. I told him it was a surprise. A very fun surprise.

After work, I was going to hang out with Mags and Amy. It was brought to my attention at our movie night that Amy was lacking social attention. She had been thinking too much recently. Probably about college, as usual. I should’ve been thinking about it too, but I was a little… preoccupied.

It was a couple hours after I got home from work. Mags had just called me. We were meeting at her house. She has an in-ground pool in her backyard — a rare, but necessary feature of the summer. I grabbed a pair of navy blue trunks and a t-shirt before skipping outside to the car. For some strange reason, I was in a good mood this morning. I don’t know why. Maybe I felt cleansed by last night’s sob-fest. Maybe I was finally ready to move forward from the past (Brendon’s past). Tonight wasn’t supposed to be confrontational. I was just going to talk to him about it. We were going to discuss and he was going to apologize to me. And then we were going to move forward from the whole ordeal.

I turned on the car, relishing the cold air that was immediately pumped out of the vents. Mags lived a couple blocks from me. That was probably why we were such good friends. From first grade until we were able to drive, we sat next to each other every morning and afternoon. The school bus sucked, but it did forge one of my closest friendships. 

Her house was a little bigger than mine. She had a full garage (not like my empty carport), a nice porch, two stories, and a big backyard. The roof of the garage was replaced with a flat balcony, which was accessible from her brother’s room upstairs. She always wanted that room. Now she could have it — her brother was leaving for college later this month. 

I strolled up the walkway to the porch, and knocked on the front door.

“Come on in!” a voice called from inside. I opened the unlocked door and entered the house. Mags’s mom stood in the kitchen. She smiled at me. “Hi Emmett! The girls are in the back!”

“Thanks,” I returned her smile and walked to the back door. Through the sliding glass I could see Mags and Amy splashing around in the pool. They both waved at me.

The girls were talking about some guy when I got outside. He was apparently very cute, and they saw him order a pink drink at Starbucks. The only question I had about this was why they were going to Starbucks instead of L'Uccellino.

“We didn’t want to get between Walt and Zoe,” Mags answered. I nodded. It added up.

“How’s life, buddy-boy?” Amy asked as I sat next to the pool. I kicked my legs into the pool. The cool water surrounded my feet.

“It’s great,” I said, half-serious.

Mags frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. How’s your life, Mags?”

“I dunno,” she shrugged. “Some people are being annoying right now.”

I raised my eyebrows. A lot of people were saying that these days. “Such as…?”

“Reuben,” Amy butted in. I tilted my head. 

“What’d he do?” I asked.

“Nothing.” Mags’s blush was almost unnoticeable. But I could spot her flustered face from a mile away. I decided to drop the subject anyways. I pulled off my shirt and jumped into the water. It was cold — much colder than that of the country club’s pool (it was always a little bit warm from the sun).