Chapter Four

"So she just slept with Rooster to get back at you for kissing Rory Dunlop?" an enraged Owen demanded later that afternoon in Phil's living room.

It was mostly a quiet day and then at around two-thirty, Nick showed up with Ikey in tow and soon after Owen dropped in. Eddie was happy to be back home but he wasn't quite ready to discuss Janet yet. He knew better than to fight his buddies on the matter so instead he chose to busy himself with the TV manual and remote. Much less questioning that way, he thought.

"What is it with women these days? Their men are not good enough for them that they have to go banging every other guy before they figure out they have the one?" Owen asked clearly annoyed.

"I dunno, O. Maybe she thought I would actually care." He said trying in vain to mask his hurt.

"Look man, you need to go up to her and tell her, 'Woman..... I want some answers and I want them now!'" said Ikey with a strong commanding voice.

"Relationship advice? Really?" Nick asked Ikey cringing. And everyone including Eddie laughed.

"All I know is that if it were me I would be majorly pissed. I feel kinda bad it's Rooster though." Nick stated matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean?" Eddie asked irritated.

Good. Now we're getting somewhere, thought Nick triumphantly. "Well it makes it so much harder to punch the guy's lights out if you know he's...well a scrawny little rooster." Nick laughed and Owen joined in.

"Eddie. Don't listen to these guys..." Phil began. He hadn't spoken in the entire conversation.

"I'm not." Eddie replied.

".... I mean you know in your heart where you stand and just like no one rushed Owen..." he paused looking at Owen, "no one is going to rush you with this thing. Just take as long as you need."

"Thanks man," said Eddie, "but you know what? I'm fine. Really. I mean, why wouldn't I be?" his eyes sparking as he grinned from ear-to-ear. "My buddy Phil here got us the perfect TV set ever. Check this out." he pushed a yellow button on the remote and the subtitle menu popped up with 45 languages to choose from.

The boys continued to "ooh" and "ahh" at Phil's new toy when the phone rang. Phil answered the phone on the second ring.

"Casa de Phil," he greeted.

"Hey, sweetie." Said Pizza Girl sweetly. "I'm just about to get off work, do you or the Rat Pack want anything?"

"Uh no, no that's okay. We're not that hungry." He said quickly.

"Hey!"

"What's wrong with you? I could eat!" they all began to protest in unison.

"Give me that thing!" said Owen grabbing the receiver from his hand. "Hey sweetie, can you get us 3 pies. Two with cheese and one with everything. Hold the anchovies though."

While Owen dictated his order on the phone, Nick thought of Hannah. "Hey guys, Hannah came into work today, and--"

"Right, because all good stories start with 'Hannah came into work today...'" said Eddie sarcastically.

"Would you shut up for a minute? She's heading up to Fitchburg next weekend to..." he hesitated. He knew they would make up every lame excuse in the book to get out of working. "....a barbeque at her grandmother's house. She invited all of us to go." He finished, flinching as Ikey shot him a look that said 'what the hell are you on about?'

"To her grandmother's?" Owen repeated as he hung up the phone. "Isn't she dead already?"

"No Owen, she's not dead. Listen I thought we could make a weekend of it. Buy some hot dogs for the road, tailgate every now and then and just hang out." he said.

"And she thought of us after all those years that she threw our own baseballs at us when we played near her petunias?" asked Owen.

"Nicky..." Ikey warned.

"Yeah it will be great. You know its been a long time she probably doesn't even remember and......oh what the hell. Hannah needs help to clean out her grandmother's attic and she asked us all to help out." he gave up.

"Sure. I'm in. I mean Allison's been busy at work these days anyway." Owen said.

"Yeah count me in too. I hate working at Best Friend Windows," said Ikey, "No offence man." He said to Eddie. They all turned to look at Eddie but he remained silent. Clearly he was only half paying attention.

"Huh? Oh yeah, next weekend sure. I'm in." He said and went back to programming his new TV.

Oh help, thought Phil.