Cassie Clark
English Hour 7
The Pact as an Alternative
Chris and Emily have been best friends since birth- and that's putting it lightly. Being three months apart gave them childhood years they had in common (until Emily matured faster than Chris of course) being under fifty feet apart from each other and bedroom windows face to face gave them nights filled with morse code and toy telephone lines with ravioli cans as the head pieces, even their mothers, who held their relationship even stronger did everything they could to keep them together. Like calling up school's to have them set in the same homeroom classes. Maybe that was the problem, the jury stated. Maybe they were too close they had to get away. Or maybe worse, they were too close they couldn't be apart, and even college wouldn't be able to separate them. But before there was ever a Chris and Emily, there was Michael, Melanie, Gus, and James.
Michael and Melanie were new to marriage and moved to a house in a suburb of Massachusetts. Two months pregnant at the time were Michael and Melanie when they moved next door to James and Gus. Gus, being as social as she was introduced herself right away.
"Hello! I see you're the new neighbors. I'm Gus, my husband is James but he's at work right now. Being the doctor he's always gone."
"Oh, hello. I'm Melanie and this is my husband James. We've moved from Delaware, for James job. He's the communities only vet now, so I suppose he'll be gone a while too- oh! How far along are you?" Melanie asked as Gus walked around the car and came into clearer view.
"Five and a half months, and married at two!" Gus exclaimed excitedly showing off her new ring.
"Newly married, congratulations! I'm pushing two months." Melanie held her stomach supporting the little roundness barley showing.
"Seems as you ladies have hit it off, but Melanie, if you don't mind, I'd appreciate a little help over here." Michael was secretly happier knowing there was another woman
so close to their new home, where he wouldn't have to worry about her being alone when he left for those long work days.
"Oh, I'll helped!" Gus jumped right in to the moving van and helped James and Melanie who all conversed in the kind of conversation not just friends made but "real people" who ment every word they said and took consideration to other person and let them have their say.
That night after James got home, he noticed Gus wasn't there. He tried calling her cell phone, but she didn't answer. I spent 500 on the stupid thing for Christmas and do you think she takes time to figure out how to use it? No.
The distance between the Harte's and the Larson's was only a short trail between a small collage of trees. James decided to break in his new coat from Macy's his wife had bought him the previous month and walk over to the new neighbor's house and see if she was over there. She had always been the social one, he thought.
Unsurprisingly there was Gus, over at the neighbors house and helping to unpack the moving truck that was now almost empty.
"Oh James, good your home! Help us finish unpacking the truck then we'll take Melanie and Michael to TGI Fridays after. Michael, this is James. James, Michael. Melanie's the one you can see through the front window making the reservation on the phone." Gus was a tad over enthusiastic while introducing James and Michael.
"Pleasure to meet you James, as you know I'm Michael. Your wife has been over here all day. She really hit it off with Melanie, you know with the baby stuff. She has been so helpful, we'll have to thank you when all the furniture is set and have you over for dinner and football a game." Michael's very hospitable; James thought. And he likes football! Ever since Grant moved out of the state I've been down a football partner.
"Gus and I will take you up on that. I'll help with this last box and then I'll go get my car." With that, James finished adding the box to the stacks of boxes neatly organized in the entryway where a crisp breeze blew through the grand door hitting the grey-blue walls which matched the sky making it feel colder. Looks like a chance of rain, he thought as he ran through the brush of tree's to get his car, where it threatened to not work at all.
He pulled out of Gus' and his long drive way which he hated because it'd be such a hassle in the winter when he'd be at work and Gus would be watching the kids. He made his way to the Harte's drive way where Gus jumped right in to the front seat while Michael held the door for Melanie to slide in, though it was more of a slump the way she skipped through the door and sat just the way she landed.
"Friday's it is? Coincidently it is a Friday, don't we get some kind of coupon or deduction on the check for that?" Gus opened the conversation hesitantly, small talk- but it helped.
"Don't worry honey, I have the bill, and it will be a nice evening." James insisted.
"Oh, Gus you were right we have the best men any women could ask for." Melanie jumped in to converse, pulling out of her previous state of admiring the woods as they drove down the long, gravel, and abandoned road the families now share. Such a nice neighborhood, and lovely big houses. I can't even grasp why they wouldn't put money into a safer road. Melanie thought.
"I don't know James, they've been talking about us all day. What do we do for them?" James said teasingly as he brushed Melanie's bottom cheek and her temple pulsed pink. That's what I love about her, how you can never tell what she thinks by her cheeks, but by the flush of her temple. James thought as he continued to stare at her.
"We take them out to dinner." James replied looking at Gus who was not hiding the fact that she was happy the couple's were already conversing like they'd been old friends.
The night had lasted longer then it felt to all of them. It started regularly; order the appetizer, get the food that seemed to take forever, order the desert, but just when the conversation took a turn to babies, Michael and James decided they walk to the bar and order a drink while checking the basketball score.
"Surprisingly tonight isn't packed! I'm sure it has something to do with that new dinner/show/lounge thing that just opened. Gosh- whats it called?" Gus said. Melanie and Gus seem to have become best friends during that night and decided after the appointment, and since James and Michael would be gone for work, Gus would come over for lunch and help unwrap all the furniture and set up, though they both agreed Gus would have to limit her work being so full of pregnancy and her belly already bursting from her seams.
The men had lost track of time and returned to the table at 10:45 pm while Melanie and Gus didn't seemed to have minded their hour delay. They didn't even seemed to have noticed.
"Time already?" whimpered Gus half-heartedly.
"It's almost 11:00. I don't think we need to stay any longer.
"Has the time gone by so quickly? Ugh- I have an appointment tomorrow at 9:00 in the morning." Melanie said while standing up and grabbing for her coat which Michael was ready to fit her when she stood.
"Well then we best be on our way." James and Gus' voice almost seemed to have sang as they said the same sentence together.
From that Friday night on, the Larson's and the Harte's continued to make their annual Friday night trip to TGI Fridays, and the families became so close, they eventually became almost like a second family.
Gus had given birth three months prior and now it was Melanie's turn. Michael was taking care of an animal patient when it happened. Gus was already over at Melanie's for lunch when her water broke.
"Okay we'll go to the hospital James works at, it's faster to get to and I know the nurses so they'll be extra careful with you." Gus said trying to calm a hysterical Melanie in the front seat. "I already called James, and he said he'd try and get a hold of Michael."
Chris, Gus' son was in the back of the car sleeping, like a sloth that could not be disturbed. Gus was so happy all the riot in the front wasn't disturbing him in the back.
Four hours later Melanie woke up with a tiny little girl in her arms and Michael leaning over her and crooning the babies pink flushed cheek.
"She's beautiful." whispered Melanie trying to talk as soft as she could so her diaphragm wouldn't disrupt the baby.
"I came as soon as I heard, I'm also aware Gus made a great replacement for me." The sound of regret flooded out of his mouth but Melanie wasn't mad or sad, she wanted it to always be just as it was now; happy and content.
Chris and Emily grew up their whole lives together and even closer considering the fifty foot distance full up with trees between the two houses.
James, Gus, Melanie, and Michael all knew what they wanted. They wanted their children to fall in love, marry, and have children so they would be family as well, sharing the same grandchildren.
In late middle school, about the beginning of eighth grade did Emily and Chris start dating. Both parent's had noticed and were even aware that during one of the vacations the families took together, James had walked in on Emily and Chris kissing, but they were only twelve, young, but a good sign of things too come.
Things seemed to have gotten more serious in high-school, until they broke up for a week or so for Chris to scout out his options. It wasn't but a week before Chris figured out he and Emily were made for each other. It all changed the day Emily committed suicide, and made things worse when Chris was suppose to have killed himself with her but failed. That's when the lawyers came in and the families loyalty and trust deflated beneath them.