You and I will be alright

Chapter Nine

Parker

Mason was talking about this mess of a computer he was servicing yesterday, the old lady who owned it didn't understand him over the phone and it overall was a fucking disaster. The way he told the story was making everyone crack up. When he came to an end, Maverick raised his eyebrows at me.

"Parker has a pretty cool set up." My eyes widened at him, before sheepishly looking at Mason who looked curious.

"Oh shit, yeah?" Mason then asks, intrigued.

I shrugged. "It's okay." I try to brush it off.

"Can I see it?" He then asks. Seth looks at me curiously too, and I made a mental note to get payback on Mav later on for this. I hoped he would know by now I don't like this center of attention nonsense.

"Sure." I tried to think back on what the current state of my room was, if it was a disaster zone. I placed my beer on the counter and walked quickly to my room, looking inside. Thankfully it was clean, besides my full laundry basket and my ruffled up sheets. I pushed the door open and motioned for them to enter, pointing towards my desk. Mason's brows raise as he gets a bit closer, examining the inside of the computer tower, which has a glass wall so the inside is visible.

"If anything goes wrong with it, you can always ask me to check it out. I wont charge ya." He says. "It's pretty sick."  Seth hums in agreement. I felt Maverick eyes on me yet again but I didn't bother to look over, trying to act normal. I had already drunk the entire can of beer and it made me feel warm and a little funny. Here's to drinking on an empty stomach I guess.

"I'll take you up on that." Suddenly, the buzzer at the apartment door went off, indicating the chinese food delivery guy was here. "Oh thank god." I mumbled. My room wasn't huge and with three tall people in it plus me, it felt slightly cramped. I was a bit happy that he liked the set up though. I didn't say it much but I was pretty impressed with it myself. Michael was a whizz with that kinda thing, so he made sure to build me the best of the best. We left my room and I closed the door a majority of the way. Maverick buzzed the guy up and pulled his wallet from his pocket. Seth and Mason walked to the island stools and took a seat while I went into the kitchen and grabbed four plates then sets of cutlery. Seth and Mason were chatting about some random stuff and sometimes Maverick jumped in here and there. He pays the guy and sets the food down and we all set it out and grab our stuff. I didn't feel weird and out of place like I originally assumed I would have.

As we ate I watched the three interact and it was so obviously they were long term friends. It was nice to witness. Maverick had been opening up more to me lately but with these guys he was fully out of his shell and seemed genuinely happy. I sometimes caught a glimpse of him when he wasn't sure I was looking, and he always looked like he was thinking. His brows were furrowed or his leg bounced anxiously. I wondered if he was thinking of his father like I thought of my mother randomly throughout the day. I could sense he held quite a bit of angry feelings inside. I sometimes wanted to ask, but I didn't want to damper the mood like always. So usually if I saw him like that, I'd approach him with a random or happy topic.

"So Parker, what are you up to? Are you working, in school?" Mason wonders. Now they were on their second or maybe third drink and they had poured me a rum and coke as well. By now we were finished eating and I had put the food away, Maverick had helped with doing so towards the end. I had begun when he was outside for a smoke with the others.

"School full time, and I work here and there. I usually work more in the summer."  I thankfully could barely taste the rum in the drink but it was obvious it was there. It made my insides feel warm, and I began to think back on when the last time I had rum was. I couldn't even remember. Though the alcohol was making me feel more social and less anxious in their presence. They were very similar to Maverick in the sense that they were very relaxed and laid back and I understood why they got on so well. Obviously there was more to it than that. They matched each other's energies well. When one said a joke, the other always had something clever to say back.