Sugarcane Chronicles Volume I: One and Lonely (ryden)

Patrick, I Hope That's You

The rest of the week was pretty normal. The only change was that we had lunch with Mikey, Jack, Alex and Vic every day, which was nice.

On Friday Ryan invited me to stay over that weekend because it was his birthday. As soon as I got out of school I ran home and packed my bag. After I had, I remembered I had to ask my mom if I could go.

“Hey, Mom?” I asked, walking into the kitchen with my backpack already on. “Can I spend the weekend at Ryan’s? Well, Ryan, Patrick, Spencer, Jon and Pete’s?”

“Uh, I’ll have to take it up with your father, but sure,” Mom said. “I wish you would’ve asked sooner, though.”

“Well, I wasn’t even invited until today,” I said.

“Oh,” she said. “I’m going to go ask Dad about it know.” Mom walked into the living room and I sat down at the kitchen table. When Mom came back in she told me Dad was ok with me going.

“I’ll have to call Pete first, though,” she said. “You know that, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” I said. “Do you have his number?”

“No, that was what I was about to ask you,” she chuckled.

I gave her Pete’s phone number before going down to my music room to get my ukulele. When I came back up she was still talking to Pete. I told her I was leaving and she hugged me before telling me to say bye to Dad before I left.

I walked through the living room and told Dad I would see him on Monday. He told me to have fun and stuttered out something about not to have too much fun and that I knew how to use condoms(?).

I walked to the woods and up the path to the house. I walked in without knocking and heard Spencer and Patrick arguing about something in the kitchen.

“Why did you wait until the last second to do this?” I heard Patrick ask.

“Why did you wait until the last second to remind me?” Spencer retorted.

Patrick sighed. “Wait, no,” he said. “Under and then to the left.”

Spencer sighed.

I walked in at that point. “What are you guys doing?” I asked.

“I’m trying to help Spencer make a bracelet for Ryan a day before his birthday,” Patrick said, “and failing miserably.”

“Well, it’s not my fault you’re a bad teacher,” Spencer said, folding his arms across his chest.

“I am not a bad teacher,” Patrick defended. “You just don’t listen.”

Pete (thankfully) walked in at that point. “Yeah, yeah, he’s right here,” Pete said into his phone before handing it to me. “It’s your mom.”

I took the phone from him. “Uh, hello?”

“Hi, Brenny-Bear!” she said. “I just wanted to tell you to have a great weekend and to have lots of fun! You didn’t see it, but I just winked.”

I smiled. “Alright, Mom,” I said. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

“See you then, sweetie,” she said. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said at regular volume because I loved my mom and nobody was going to make me feel embarrassed about it. “Do you want me to give the phone back to Pete?”

“Yeah, sure,” she said. “See you later. Bye.”

“Bye,” I said and handed the phone to Pete.