Lost and Found
Julie/Matt/Landry/Tyra, Off-season, PG13, 1540 words, Title from Gilmore Girls
You ever wake up one morning, and know — just know the day is going to suck? And there's nothing you can do to make it any better? No matter how good you cook those pancakes or how many times you kiss your loved one, nothing ever goes right. And no matter how hard you try, you just make things worse. You're lost in your own problems. It's frustrating, for one thing. And it's pretty damn stupid too most of the time. And worst part is… there's no way out.
Julie quickly got herself ready in the morning, and rushed to her parent's bedroom. There's only one thing she wanted and she wasn't going to stop until she got it.
"Mom, can Matt come over tonight and watch a movie? We can get pizza or something."
Julie noticed this approach didn't work out too well. It's not that her parents were against it, they just never heard her ask. They were too busy arguing over each other. Mom was saying something about how dad never gives her chance to help him get out of bed, and dad's saying something about being late. It was annoying, so Julie tried something else.
"Okay, fine, can I go over his house after school then?"
Still nothing.
Julie was getting even more annoyed at the lack of response to her question.
"Um, hello?"
"WAIT!" both her parents screamed at her simultaneously.
"Forget it then. I'll just go over his house. And who knows, maybe we'll go to some party, get drunk and have sex. YOU THINK ABOUT THAT!" she screamed as she walked back to her room. God, she hated when her parents fought. It wasn't that they always screamed and threw things. No. It was about the stupidest stuff you could fight over. And then during the night after one of their big fights, she could sometimes hear thumping through the wall, and that's just… EW. She knows it'll happen tonight and the thought just makes her want to vomit.
Neither her, nor her parents talk on the drive to school.
--
Landry began beeping the car horn every other second. After what felt like an eternity, Matt finally left his house and got in the car.
"What took you so long?" Landry practically screamed at him.
"You came early. I wasn't ready."
"And now we're going to be late because we have to go pick up Tyra. Now she'll hate both of us."
Matt tried to hold back his laughter as he read the morning paper.
"That's too bad. We were becoming really good friends too." This time Matt began laughing.
"You're an asshole."
Landry sped towards Tyra's house to find that her truck wasn't there. Curious, Landry knocked on the door to find her mom already on the other side, waiting for him.
"Oh, hey, her truck started running this morning, so she didn't need a ride. She wanted me to tell you when you got here." She gave Landry a smile. "Now hurry up, you're gonna be late."
Landry slowly walked back to his car and bashed his head against the steering wheel.
--
Matt got to his locker to find Julie waiting for him. He couldn't hide his smile in seeing her. She didn't look very happy though.
"Hey, you doing alright over there?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"You sure? You don't look very happy. You can tell me about it?"
"I said I'm fine. Quit badgering me!" she screamed at him. Well that's not how she wanted this conversation to go. "I'm sorry, I –"
"No, it's fine. I gotta get to class so I'll see you later."
Matt slammed his locker shut and walked off. He got to class only to find out he failed the test the week before. Not the best way to start a day.
--
Landry's day on the other hand, continued to get worse by the second. Some girl he didn't even know called him a geek for getting in her way as she was walking in the court yard (Landry thinks that if the airhead wasn't texting on her cell phone she wouldn't be bumping into people left and right) and Tyra didn't even care about telling Landry herself that her truck was working again, and thus, didn't need a ride to school.
"You know, you could have told me this before I started freaking out trying to get to your house and school on time."
"Well I didn't really think about it. I was just happy that my truck was working. I'm sorry."
"You know, sometimes, just saying you're sorry isn't going to work and make everything just magically disappear." Landry began going off on a tirade. Tyra wasn't even sure what was going on, but she wasn't too pleased at what Landry was saying to her. Landry didn't give her time to respond before he was walking away.
--
Lunch usually consisted of Landry, Matt, Julie, and Tyra sitting together and talking about anything and everything. But not today. Matt stayed with Julie in the library, where they did nothing but argue. He was pretty sure his comment about her growing up was the reason she called him an 'asshole' and stormed out. Landry sat in the cafeteria by himself and Tyra went home "sick".
Some day this was.
--
Julie sat in the backseat on the way home from school, feeling completely stupid. It was her fault that Matt was in a bad mood and it was her fault he flipped on her at the library. She knew he wasn't going to come over, and he probably wasn't even expecting her to be at his house either. But she had to make up for it. Her parents still arguing didn't make her feel any better, since she knew they wouldn't be arguing anymore in a few hours.
--
"You want to get something to eat?" Landry asked Matt as they made their way home from school.
"No, just take me home. I'm not in the mood."
"Okay then."
They drove in silence. Matt got out of the car when Landry pulled up to his house.
"I'll see you later man."
"Hey wait." Matt turned around to look at Landry. "Just… don't let one stupid, bad day ruin everything. Know what I'm saying?"
"You gonna take your own advice?" Matt shot back.
"I wouldn't say it if I didn't believe it."
Matt laughed and walked inside his house. He'd figured now wasn't the best time to try and call Julie and say he was sorry, so he took a nap to give both himself, and Julie time to cool off.
Landry decided to take his own advice, and called Tyra later that night to say that he was sorry he flipped out on here. She responded by asking him if he wanted to help with her homework and maybe they could get ice cream afterwards. Landry was at Tyra's house the minute he hung up.
--
Julie sat in her bedroom and looked at the time on her cell phone. It was eight o'clock and she could already hear the thumping going on. She's pretty sure she heard her mom laughing too. She needed to get out of her. Like, now!
She opened her bedroom window and started climbing out. No way was she walking out that front door. She'd have to pass that, and it would scar her for life.
She arrived at the Saracen house a few minutes later. Grandma told her that Matt was still sleeping and that it would be nice if she could wake up him already. So she walked in his room and lied next to him, which made him jump out of his sleep.
She began laughing. "Did I scare you?"
Still groggy, Matt tried to answer. "No."
"I don't believe you."
Matt laughed and sat up. "So what's up? I'm kinda surprised you still came over."
"Yeah, well I wanted to apologize for how I acted today. I was having a bad day and I took it out on you when you didn't deserve it. I'm sorry."
"You don't have to be sorry. I should be the one apologizing. I had a bad day too and had no right to say what I said."
Julie felt a rush of relief all over her body. "So you're not mad at me?"
"Not anymore." He leaned in and kissed the top of her head. "I'm not going to let a stupid, bad day ruin everything. There's always tomorrow."
"Tomorrow will be better." She said, kissing him back for a long while. "You wanna get something to eat? All this bad day talk is making me hungry."
He smiled. "You know it."
So, the morale of the story is… well, I'm not sure there is one. The bad days always have their problems that pile on and on, but at the end of the day it's all about the basics. Get rid of the waste and start fresh. Because life can suck sometimes and there's no reason to let the bad overcome the good. But if it does, just remember that you can always count on that one thing… that one person… that makes tomorrow better.