Joey and Wheels passed in front of Snake's house. He was waiting for them outside like every morning.
«So? Party's on?» he asked.
«I wish, but no. Dad's going to call yours» Joey sighed.
«Mine? My Dad? Why?» Snake blurted out, alarmed.
«They know each other, he wants to ask him if I can stay at yours» Joey explained, but Snake didn't seem any calmer.
«Oh don't worry» Wheels chimed in. «It's not like he's going to say yes. Party's still on»
Snake breathed deeply. «Well, maybe, if your parents ask mine as a favour they might let you»
«Easy answer, it won't be Joey's parents that ask yours»
Joey was confused. By Snake's assertion that his parents might change their mind, and by whatever Wheels just proposed.
«Snake's the one who's going to ask, and his parents will go on their usual "we hate to see you happy, you better die lonely and sad" spiel and you'll be home alone. But we have to do it in the morning, so when you come back home you already have an answer» Wheels explained.
Snake's mind got filled with worst case scenarios. «Can't I ask when I come home and then call you?»
«By then your parents might have already talked»
«Okay then, I'll call home from school» Snake sighed. He actually had to ask his parents now. Guess there's a first time for everything.
Snake get closer to the payphone. Thankfully his friends stayed back, close to their lockers.
He couldn't risk them listening in. It was morning, so the only person at home was going to be his mom.
She picked up fast. «Simpson residence, who is it?»
«Hi mom»
«Archie! Let me guess, rehearsal will run late and you won't be home for dinner?»
He hesitated a bit. Why else should he be calling? «No, no, don't worry»
«Then why…» Madga's voice fell. «I don't know what your father said to you, but there's no reason to worry you in the middle of your school day, make you pay for the call, just to check on me»
She wasn't mad, not really, thankfully. But Snake should have thought more about this whole thing. It could have ended badly.
«Sorry» he said, out of muscle memory.
«It's not that» he added, then looked back at Joey. He couldn't hear what Snake and his mom were saying. Better to lie that risk her saying yes. «This Friday, there might be a party, and I wanted to go»
«We could have talked about this at home» she says, clearly untrusting of the purpose of the call.
«So?» He asked, as if he actually cared for the answer.
«Why would we say no? It's not a school night. Curfew's the usual though»
«Yeah, sure, I just wanted to be sure»
«Get back to class and we'll talk more once you're home»
«Yeah, sorry for the call, bye» he said hanging up.
He slowly moved back to his friends, his mind already coming up with thousands of ways this was going to backfire.
«So?» Joey asked eager.
Snake inhaled. «She said no»
Wheels and Joey shared a high-five.
«Yeah, party!»
«Math's not right!» Carol cried as the front door opened.
«Wanna do my homework?» Joey joked. He wasn't getting his math to be right either.
«Are you going to do mine?» She pleaded.
«Can whoever's in the kitchen help me with the groceries?» Their mom shouted from the entrance.
Carol dropped everything she was doing and ran to help. Joey followed.
They brought the groceries on the kitchen table, over the books and started putting it away. Carl was mainly taking the things out of the bags, looking for something that might spike her interest.
She found it: a sparkly birthday candle to put on her cake. It was shaped like an eight with a blob resting against it, the blob had a Disney princess printed on it.
«Sorry, Joey, it was the only eight I could find» his mom apologised. They had a eight shaped candle before, but it broke in half during his father's latest birthday, so they had to retire it. Joey's eighteenth birthday cake was going to be interesting looking.
«Is there anything else for the party?» Carol looked into the the closest bag again.
«No, it's in over a week, and sadly when I go grocery shopping alone» Mrs Jerimiah stressed that word, to make them feel a bit guilty that they stayed home, «I have to think of four children»
«That's sorta your fault mom» Joey joked.
His mom sighed, amused. «Well maybe later we can talk about something that is your fault, Joey»
«What do you mean?» Joey asked genuinely surprised. He hadn't done anything wrong recently. Not that he could easily think of.
«I ran into Magda Simpson at the shop. I wanted to say that I understand why it would have been a problem to host you this weekend» She started explaining.
Joey still didn't have a clue. Sure they sort of omitted the reasoning behind the invite, but it wasn't lying. «And?»
«Joey! "And" what? She had no idea what I was talking about!» his mother was definitely upset. She sighed to calm herself. «You want us to trust you? Lying is not the way»
«I'm not lying, Snake called her, I was there!»
«So she just didn't hear him and you assumed the lack of answer was a no?»
Actually, it was Joey who didn't hear what was being said. He was too far from the phone to hear Snake's side of the conversation, let alone his moms. «I don't know what they told each other exactly»
«Nothing, apparently. But we talked, and even though Friday is tomorrow, they'd be glad to have you over.» Mrs Jeremiah sighed.
Joey couldn't stop thinking about the fact that Snake lied. She was going to say no like every other time, so why go the extra mile?
But she did say yes eventually, so what did that say about every time they waited in the yard because Snake had to quickly take something and "you know they don't like you, sorry"?