Clyde Donovan
As soon as I woke up, I ran like the speed of light to the bathroom. As I heaved into the toilet, last nights events came back to me. Chastin had come to that party. Craig and I had both sold a few pills. Chastin's sister came by.
Chastin's sister. Man, she was so hot. Well, who would have guessed? Considering how good-looking Chastin and Emery are...Okay, I wouldn't have guessed because despite Chastin being a close friend of mine; I honestly never even knew he had a sister. I sit beside the toilet, my head feeling light and pounding.
My minds pretty fuzzy as I recall her fighting with Bebe...Bebe?
Oh yeah...
That skank cheated on me last night...with Kyle Broflovski.
Kyle Broflovski? That was low. Not because he's not okay, but because he's a friend of mine.
I get off the floor and flush the toilet. Rinsing my mouth, I brush my teeth and wash my face. I walk slowly back to my room and shut the door. I grab my phone and lay back down on my bed, willing my headache to go away.
A knock on my door.
"Clyde? Are you okay? I heard you throwing up." My sister asks through the door.
"I'm fine. Just a little sick."
I can hear her scoff. "Oh, alright. Sure. Anyways , dad and I are going away for the week. He has some business to do in San Francisco, I'm going to keep him company. Theres no more Tylenol, so you'll have to go to the store and buy some. Also, dad left you a list of groceries on the table and some money."
I groan and roll in bed.
"Have fun with your hangover. Theres breakfast downstairs in the fridge if you want anything. Bye Clyde."
I hear her footsteps trail away, and I'm left thinking of how much like my mother she really is. A sigh escapes me. An emptiness fills my stomach when I remember my mom. A few moments later I hear the front door slam shut and my dads car leave the drive way.
I check my alarm clock to see it's nearly 1:30 pm on a sunday. I check my texts.
There was nearly 20 from Bebe
'Its not tru. Can u call me?'
'Well fine, if u wanna be this way. Its over!'
'Ur a complete asshole anyways. I heard about all the girls you cheated on me with'
I didn't want to read the rest, I just deleted them all. My heart felt hollow as I think back to the past couple months. All we do is just fight now. It was great at the beginning and I really did love her, but then she went and started drinking more and I knew she was cheating on me. It's better off this way.
A few texts from Craig asking if I'm going to be okay.
A text from Chastin. I think he's trying to apologize, but it doesn't make sense.. A text from Kyle.
'Dude I am so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I never meant to hurt you, you're my friend. I wasn't in the right state of mind.-' I skim the rest of the text, but then decide to delete it. I don't entirely blame Kyle. I know he wouldn't have done it on purpose and Bebe's been chasing after him for months. My heart's beginning to hurt, so I will myself away from my phone. Getting up, I threw it on my couch on the other side of my room and made my way downstairs.
Trekking around my empty house in only my boxer shorts, it was kind of cold.I grab a blanket to wrap about me and continue walking around my house. I look outside to see the sky is grey with clouds and it's probably going to rain sometime today or tonight. My head is throbbing and my mouth is dry. I take the jug of orange juice from the fridge and see that my sister's made pancakes. I grab a few of those and go into the living room to lounge on the couch and watch movies.
I watched The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, sipping my orange juice out of the jug and trying to get my headache to go away. By the time I was halfway through The Return of the King, my headache is nearly gone. My house phone rings suddenly and thinking it was Craig calling me because I haven't answered his texts, I pause the movie and pick it up.
"Hey Clyde. How are you feeling?"
It's my sister.
"Uhm...Alright." I answer, regretting picking up the phone. Her nasally voice does wonders for my headache...not.
"Did you go get yourself groceries for the week?" Before I can answer, she does so for me. "No, you didn't because you're lazy. Now get to the store and pick up groceries for yourself , Clyde!" She snaps at me through the phone. "I knew you wouldn't go and do this. I just-"
"You're just making assumptions. I did go do it."
"I don't believe you. Go do it."
"I have to go to the washroom."
"Remember to leave the toilet seat-"
I hang up the phone on her and sigh exasperated.
Getting off the couch , I check the fridge and find that it's nearly empty. I really don't want to leave the house, but I know she's going to keep calling and harassing me till I get it done. She's just like mom.
I grab the 130 dollars on the table and the grocery list and head up to my room to change and grab my car keys. I throw on some old black jeans and a red t-shirt. I pocket my wallet and hesitantly grab my cell phone. I grab my car keys on my computer desk, slip on my worn high tops. I drive an 1999 ford taurus. It's a little run down, but I was being pretty cheap with my money and it was all I could afford at the time.
When I get to the grocery store, it's nearly 4:30.
I skim the list wrote out in my sisters cursive writing and quickly decide to buy whatever I want.
I grab a basket and wandering the store aisles, I fill it up with all the junk food I want. I pick up a box of these weird-looking candies, and as I read the back I turn a corner and bump into someone from behind.
"Hey!" I look up abruptly to find myself face to face with the girl from last night. Chastin's sister.
Her long blonde hair is up in a ponytail, as far as I'm concerned she has no makeup on. Still her eyelashes are long and thick and her green eyes stare back at me. She's wearing a long-sleeved grey shirt that hangs of her left shoulder and black leggings with flats. She's carrying a leather handbag on her shoulder.I realize I've bumped her basket out of her arms and I scramble to pick up the mess I've made. "I am so sorry! Really! I should have paid attention to-" I redden as I pick up a bottle of Advil, a container of strawberry ice cream, hair ties, cat food, and tampons...
I put them back in her basket and hand it to her, red-faced. Her cheeks are pink with embarrassment, but when she looks at me her expression changes . It's recognizing.
"You're Chastin's friend from the party last night. Clyde, right?"
With her smile, the awkwardness kind of subsides. I nod. "Yeah. That's me."
"Listen, I'm sorry about the trouble I caused you last night. I didn't know that smoking isn't allowed and I'm sorry I made your girlfriend ma-"
"She's not my girlfriend." I tell her.
She looks away for a moment, briefly. "I should also apologize about what Chastin did. God knows, he won't. He doesn't even remembering getting home last night." Her green gaze meets my eyes. "That wasn't right of him. It wasn't his business. He was just taking up for me."
"It's fine. I think Chastin did try to apologize earlier. I got an incoherent text from him this morning..."
I laugh awkwardly, running my fingers through my hair.
Nessa shares the awkward laugh. "Yes, that must have been before I took his phone away from him. He was blacking out by the time we got halfway down the block. We'd been drinking before the party, but I think he'd brought something else with him when Emery and I dropped him off earlier."
"Yeah, he probably did."
She nods.
"How did you guys get home? I didn't see Emery after that fight with those girls."
"Oh, he drove that one girl home. Chastin and I walked home afterwards."
After the party, Craig and I took his truck and drank cold shots in the back woods of South Park with Token and Tweak. I don't remember much else after that.
"That must have been terrible. I know how Chastin is when he blacks out. He's not all that fun."
She gives me a smile. "He's my brother. I can handle him."
"Of course you can." I reply.
She looks away briefly for a second and then back at me. "What did you do after the party?"
"Me, Craig, Token, and Tweak went to the back woods to drink cold shots and have a bonfire. After that, I really couldn't tell you."
"Craig, he's the one with the black hair. He smokes?" As she says this, she tugs on her own white-blonde hair.
"Yeah, that's him. Why?" I ask suspiciously.
It comes to me as I remember that he blocked her from a drink that Bebe threw at her.
"Oh, no reason. I just wanted to know. Token's the black guy?"
I nod.
"And Tweak...Well, I doubt you know who Tweak is. He didn't really come around you."
"Blonde guy with the wacky hair? Looked pretty nervous as if someone was going to come up from behind him and stab him?"
I give her a weird look. "You sure are observant."
"It would be hard to not notice that boy." She replies.
"You have a fair point there."
She nods again, then briefly looks at my basket full of chips, pop, cookies, and other junk food.
"Planning for something?" She says this in an almost teasingly way.
"Food for the week. My dad and sister left the city , so I have to fend for myself."
She picks up a box of chocolate chip cookies and then gives me a skeptical look.
"This cannot be healthy."
"It won't be." I reply with a grin.
She drops the cookie box back in my basket.
"Gummy bears? Alright, how about this...How about you come to dinner with my family for tonight and then for the rest of the week I will make it my obligation to cook for you until your sister and father come back."
I blink in surprise. Dinner...with her family? Her parents? What would Chastin and Emery think? Their sister inviting me to dinner. And then, her offering to cook for me for a week? Pretty sure my mouth dropped."Are you serious?"
She nods. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be? Letting you go home and eat all that junk food is just an injustice and frankly, Clyde, I couldn't let myself live with that."
Some part of me is saying, she's totally pulling my leg. With the look on her face that isn't hard to believe.
"Would your parents be okay with this?"
"Of course. I don't see why they wouldn't be."She replies.
"What about your brothers?"
"Chastin and Emery would love to see you there. I'll text them now and let them know." She says, digging in her hand bag.
"Wait!" I stop her. "Are you sure they would be okay with it?"
"Clyde, you're not asking them for my hand in marriage. It's just dinner. It will be fine." She's laughing at my surprise. "So, will you come?" She asks.
I bite my bottom lip, then finally agree with it.
"I'll come. Thank you for inviting me over, Nessa."
"Alright. Let me get a pen and I'll give you the address." She digs in her purse and I hand her my arm. She writes in neat writing her address on my wrist. "Dinner will probably be around 6. You should probably wear something neat."
"Do you have a cell phone? I'll text when I'm coming over."
She writes her number on my wrist. After she's done, she looks at my "groceries".
"How about I'll do your shopping with you tomorrow? I would do it now, but I need to get these Advil pills to Chastin before his head explodes. He's probably texting me now in annoyance. Also, Emery's waiting outside in the car for me."
"You really don't have to do that." I say objectively.
She looks at my "groceries" again.
"Looks like I probably should if I'm going to cook for you for the week."
"I have a grocery list my sister left me." Pulling out the crumpled piece of paper out of my pocket and handing it to her.
She looks it over and nods, acceptingly.
"Keep to that list. It will help." She says, handing it back. "I got to go. I'll see you later, Clyde." She flashes me another smile before she leaves.
For the next hour and a half I find myself putting away all my food and refilling the basket with my sister's list of healthy stuff. When I go to the till I've found that everything on my sisters list is much more expensive than my own. Carefully calculating, she left me forty bucks.
I think about what Nessa said about "dressing neatly." What would that mean? Like tuxedo?
Cause I don't own a tux and even if I did, it would be pretty weird walking up to Nessa's house in a tux while her brothers Chastin and Emery are wearing the same clothes from yesterday.
After I put the groceries away, I decided to call for a second opinion. So I call Craig.
Craig Tucker
"Craig! The phone!" I hear my mom call from downstairs. I ignore her though, I'm on level 38 on Black Ops Zombies playing with Token, whose at home.
Token's dying. Need to go save him. The rounds almost over. If I can hold on a little while longer. "Craaig! Clyde is on the phone! Answer it!" My mom screams at me from downstairs.
"Craig, I'm dying. Help me out here." Token says through his mic.
"Give me a second." I reply.
"CRAIG TUCKER!THE PHONE!"
"What's your mom yelling about?" Token asks.
"Clyde phoned. Don't know why."
Suddenly I get attacked from behind and I die.
"Goddamnit, Craig! You shoulda revived me!" Token snapped.
"Whatever.I'm going. Talk to you later." I take of my headphones and shut down the x-box. I search around for the cordless phone, only to find it under my pillow.
"Craig!"
"I got it! Fuck off now!" I yell back to her.
I pick up the phone. "What's up?" I ask , leaning on my computer desk. It was nearly 5 o'clock pm and I was still in my navy flannel pajama pants.
"K, you won't believe this. Today I was at the grocery store and who do I meet?"
"Megan Fox." I reply dully. Clyde 's voice is almost shrill with excitement.
"No! Better."
"Better than Megan Fox? Who?"
"Nessa Locke. Chastin's sister."
He's right. Way better than Megan Fox. I haven't really got her off my mind since she left Bebe's party. I was thinking of texting Chastin to hang out, but then I realized I didn't know if I actually even wanted to see her. I wanted to, but I didn't. It was confusing. "What happened?" I ask.
"She invited me to dinner with her family tonight. Can you believe that? She even offered to cook for me this entire week."
I freeze.
"You're fucking kidding me." I say. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to think. Other then the fact, I'm pissed off at Clyde.
I told him last night I was into her. We established rules. Right after Bebe's party. After drinking in the back woods with Tweak and Token, I told him straight up to leave her alone. At least until I figure out what I'm feeling. "No, I'm not. Anyways, she told me to dress neatly. Do you know what that means?"
I am about two seconds away from telling him to fuck off and hanging up on him, but then I realize I don't even know what I'm getting mad over. I don't even know if I'm actually into her and Clyde's been my best friend since as long as I can remember. Also, he was probably blacked out by the time I told him. He'd drank lots after Bebe's party. "Craig? You there?"
I try to compose myself before I answer. "Yeah, I'm here. Uh...I don't know, dude. Just wear a nice t-shirt and shower or something." I say this is the coolest tone I can manage.
"Really? That's all you got? Wear a t-shirt and shower? Nothing else?"Clyde says. His tone is almost annoyed.
" I really don't even care. I don't know why you'd come to me for this."
"Okay, well thanks anyways. I'll tell you how it goes."
"Please don't." I say as he hangs up on me.
When he hangs up I can't help but be pissed off. I don't want to turn on my x-box again. I'm at a loss for a few seconds, but then I know.
I throw on a black t-shirt and a yellow sweater and put on my blue and yellow chullo hat. Grabbing my keys to my truck and my wallet, I head out.
Within an hour, I'm parked by Stark's pond getting high.