Funny Little Love

Oh, Hey Alex, You Came...

35

ALEX

TRRRIIINNNGGG...

The intolerably loud bell of the Hoffmann residence rang out loud throughout the neighborhood as I pressed the little button on the set slightly right to the doorframe.

Does everyone in immediate proximity have to know about who visits Shawn and his family?

I look at the door, waiting for someone to open it.

I'm wearing a loose pair of black jeans, a plain white t-shirt with no prints on it and a black running sneakers that I had actually bought two years ago, for a dance drama that I was rehearsing for.

I definitely stopped growing two years ago. How else would a sneakers that old still fit?

I'm carrying a bottle of expensive chardonnay wine, on which I spent my entire week's salary working in the local McDonald's branch.

Did I need to buy that?

Absolutely yeah.

Why?

I absolutely needed to buy that because this is not just a dinner with my neighbor or my best friend's mom, but also a dinner with Shawn's mom.

Whenever I think of the cringe conversation that I had with Shawn when we decided that we should start over as friends, I think of putting a knife through my heart, but I'm also afraid of dying, so I chicken out before I act on that urge.

I wish I was a phoenix and be reborn from my own ashes after I die, so in a way I'd never actually die.

Is there any phoenix on Earth?

There is a slight click at the door before the door swings open.

Shawn's mom is there, standing at the door smiling.

She's an angel. She broke my intense procrastination chain and saved my brain from disintegrating.

"Oh, hey, Alex. You came." Shawn's mom happily said.

"Yes, I was going to. Didn't Shawn tell you?" I ask.

"No, he didn't. He forgets about things he is not interested in. I'm surprised he remembered to tell you about it." Shawn's mom says.

Wow.

Is he interested in me or telling me about the dinner or just the food?

"Come in. You don't wanna stand there all night." Mrs. Hoffmann says.

Mrs. Hoffmann steps aside to leave me space to enter through the door.

I enter the house.

It is lit brightly with white lights on the ceiling.

It seems neater than usual suggesting Mrs. Hoffmann had sorted some of the mess that Lizzie and Shawn made while she was gone. The T.V. is straight up, aligned again after Lizzie made it slant a little while trying to turn it on a few weeks ago which she thought she could do by shaking it.

Turned out the battery in the remote had run out.

Lizzie is sitting on the couch placed in front of the T.V. and peering at her phone close to take an detailed look at something.

I hear the door close behind me with another click and Mrs. Hoffmann's footsteps heading towards the kitchen.

I  walk to Lizzie.

I stand behind her couch taking a lot at what she's staring at.

It's a red dress on Amazon.

She hasn't even realized that I'm standing right behind her.