The Two of Us

Defenestration

Saturday was unbelievably boring.

I tried calling one of my friends to get them to hang out with me, but none of them were available.

I asked Leslie, but her two sisters had apparently dragged her into some sort of girly makeover from hell that she couldn't escape from, even though she told me that she wanted to and that if she had to put on one more dress she was going to set the house on fire.

I asked Freddy, but he was sick. And when Bon-Bon answered the phone he complained to me about it for like, fifteen minutes.

I asked Fallon, but they were hanging out with Lyle and Frankie.

I asked Blair, but I guess she somehow got stuck babysitting her three sisters.

I asked Yenn, but he was at work.

I even asked my brother, who usually constantly begged me to do dumb shit with him, but even he couldn't hang out with me. He was seeing some animated movie with Bonnibel.

So...I was bored as genuine fuck.

I supposed that if I still lived back in Hurricane I wouldn't be because I was used to being stuck by myself when I was there. Mom was always busy and I didn't make friends with T-Frex until eighth grade.

So, for quite a while, I was that awkward friendless loser who sat alone during lunch and who couldn't get anybody to work with her for group projects.

It was still kind of weird to think that I had actually made multiple friends after moving to Charlotteville, because on my first day of school I just assumed that it was just gonna be a repeat of my old school.

Did my dumbass deserve to be friends with some of the coolest people I had ever met? No, but it was pretty neat that I was.

"God, If I keep laying here thinking about this shit, I'm gonna fucking cry. And that's not gonna happen because that's just like... way too much," I said to myself.

I dragged myself up off the floor and went downstairs to the kitchen to get something to drink.

My dad was sat down at the kitchen table doing a crossword puzzle when I walked in.

"Hey, Dad."

"Hello," he responded. "Do you know what word is used to describe the action of throwing somebody out of a window?"

"Uh...defenestration?"

He tried writing that down. "Yes, that fits. Thank you."

I grabbed a knockoff SunnyD from the fridge and was about to leave when my dad stopped me.

"Oh, Riley, wait, before I forget,"

"Yeah?"

"I'm a bit short-staffed at the restaurant."

Pretty sure I haven't brought it up before, but my dad ran a place called Silver Eyes.

"Do you think you'd be willing to work there for a while? It'd only be until I can get someone else."

"Sure."

I worked there during my last visit with my dad, which, in case you forgot because I mentioned it like twenty-five chapters ago, was during the summer following my freshman year.

It wasn't terrible.

"Thank you." He smiled. "I'd ask your brother, but the last time I did that he managed to set three separate glasses of water on fire in one day."

"That doesn't surprise me."

"I'll write down the details and give it to you before Saturday is over, okay?"

"Okay," I said in confirmation before finally heading back to my room.