January 18, 2015
C A L U M
I grab Michael's arm to keep him from leaving as he walks towards the door. Luke and Ash already disappeared along with the hours of the night and if Michael leaves, it'll just be me and Aspen watching a movie.
"Are you leaving? Aspen's gonna be here any minute." I beg him with my eyes to stay. It's not that I don't like Aspen because she's great, I just don't want her to think I planned on us being alone.
"Sorry, but a cute girl named Taylah works at the music store and I plan on going there." He smiles.
Just as Michael yanks his arm out of my grip, the door is knocked on.
Probably Aspen.
And I don't know why, but I start getting nervous.
--
Aspen laughs out loud at a really funny part in this movie that I've lost track of, distracting me from my mindless daze for a second. I look over at her smiling at the screen and smile myself. When she looks over at me, she furrows her eyebrows and presses her lips into a straight line.
"Stop." She laughs and kicks me in the thigh. I chuckle and look back at the screen, hoping to maybe get back into the movie.
Right when Aspen got here, we agreed that it shouldn't be awkward between us. She said we should just skip the weird stage when friends aren't really friends and become what we were in middle school again. So we're just mates again, laughing and joking around like nothing has changed since middle school, even though a lot has.
What seems like five hours after we started the shit film, the credits start rolling, some shit song in the background. I look down at the pizza box to grab another slice, but it's empty.
"I should've ordered a large." I sigh.
"Well..." She exhales pathetically, mocking my sigh.
"Don't mock me." I laugh.
"I just did."
I kick her back in the thigh, not going as hard as I could because she's a girl and girl's are sensitive. One of the downfalls of having Aspen, obviously a girl, as a mate is not being able to be rough with her like I could be with the guys I'm friends with.
"How do you even stretch like that with those tight ass jeans?"
"No one knows this, but I cut the holes in the knees so that I can move my legs."
Her face squishes into a cringe and she laughs at me again.
"That's so weird. But hey, you keep being you, Cal."
"Exactly. So what now?" I say.
"I don't know but its only 8:45." She says as she checks her phone.
After thinking for a while, I muster up a plan in my head. We're going to play some pranks on my roomies.
"Let's... Pull a prank on my mates for making what was supposed a five people party a two people party." I smile slyly.
"I love pranks. What's going on in that mind of yours?" Aspen sits up at the edge of the couch, staring at me intently.
"Well, for Luke, we fill his closet up with balloons, we'll have to make a trip to the dollar store- yo, what are you doing?" I ask as she starts typing away on her phone.
Since we're just friends, I don't have to pull that being a gentleman shit with Aspen like opening doors for her and putting her first. So I not-so-politely elbow her.
"Typing up a list. Keep talking." She elbows me back right in the ribs.
"Ouch..." I whine and rub my rib cage "Three bags of balloons, saran wrap, hot dogs, string and... that's it." I smile.
"Shit, I can remember that." She sighs and puts her phone back in her pocket.
"Let's go."
--
Aspen and I practically run to the party aisle of the dollar store that smells strongly of cleaning supplies, me having to push the stupid cart. Just like when we were kids, we're giggling and pushing each other.
And when we walked in, I didn't open the door for her.
"What color balloons, Cal? All black, multi colored, or all white?" She asks, studying the different bags of balloons. I push her over a bit to grab three bags of black rubber sacks that will be filled with my breath and Aspen's breath. Balloons are so weird.
"Why the fuck do you want hot dogs?"
"You're just asking me this now? Wow. Well, Ashton doesn't like the word wiener so we're going to get, like, three packets of wieners, hang them by the ceiling with string and tape a piece of paper to each one that says wiener." I say as we walk to the wall of refrigerators in the back of the store.
"That's actually genius. Props." She chuckle and I smile confidently.
"I know."
"You get wieners, I'll get string." Aspen says. The way she's taking this so seriously is making me like her even more.
"You got it, boss." I laugh. She smacks my shoulder as she walks away.
After taking a glance at her butt, I grab a few packets of those nasty as hell microwaveable hot dogs, throw them in the cart along with the black balloons, and then run to catch up with her. There's a squeeky wheel on the cart, so my idea of scaring her is flushed down the shitter. She leads the way to the arts and crafts isle.
"There. String." She throws in a packet thing of sturdy string that eleven year old girls use to make friendship bracelets.
"You know... We should make friendship bracelets." I speak my thoughts.
Aspen looks up at me with the clearest expression of amusement on her face.
"Maybe next time, chummy." She laughs and leaves her hand on the edge of the cart as we make our way over to get saran wrap. I usually hate it when people hold the edges of the cart when I'm pushing it because it messes my pushing up, but I don't fight Aspen.
"Woah. Chummy?" I act confused over dramatically.
"Sorry. My friend, Darcey, she's from England and she's always calling me chummy. Rubbed off on me." She shrugged.
"Well, 'chummy' is now our thing, chummy." I laugh.
"Okay, chummy." She laughs with me.
I throw a long rectangular cardboard box of clear saran wrap into the cart and then we head for the check out.
[an]
I HAVE SO MANY MORE VIEWS THAN I DID LIKE TWO DAYS AGO AND I WAS SURPRISED AF WOWOWOWOWOOW
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
