Sonny

It was Thursday the tenth and I was having a smoothie with Nico and Grady at their favorite burger joint. It was in a little exclusive shopping-center-type-place and it was the perfect meeting spot, though we were outside and it was freezing cold, and the only thing protecting us from the downpour was the little green table umbrella.

We'd just about run out of things to talk about, yet I still had no idea what to get them. "So…have you guys seen any cool movies recently?"

"You already asked us that," Nico pointed out.

"Yeah," Grady agreed, stuffing a third chilidog into his mouth. "It might be just me, but I think our conversation is getting kinda slow."

"Right!" I agreed eagerly. "Right. I bet there's something you'd much rather be doing, isn't there? Like what?"

"Oh, don't get us wrong Sonny," Nico defended.

"Yeah, we love hanging out with you!" Grady established, punching me in the arm playfully, yet still a bit rough.

"No, don't hold back, please! Are there any like…video games you'd rather be playing? Skateboarding? Basketball?"

They exchanged a confused look.

I sighed. "Look, you guys…I have no idea what to get you for Christmas. I'm just trying to figure out what you'd really like, you know?"

"Aw, Sonny, you don't have to get us anything!" Grady insisted.

"But I want to. You guys are my friends! And I want to give you something, even if you don't get anything for me. Come on, give me something to work with! Anything! It would just make me feel a whole lot better knowing I had something for you."

They both thought, and glanced at me nervously, like they didn't want to ask for much from me. "Well…" Grady finally said. "I kinda want, like…a slinky."

I gave him an odd look. "A slinky?" Nico and I questioned.

"Yeah!" Grady elaborated animatedly. "You know, not like one of those plastic ones that always get tangled. One of the good old metal ones! Oh, oh! Only in orange!! If it doesn't come orange, I wouldn't mind if you spray-painted it. Oh! Or I could spray paint it! That would be so much fun!"

I didn't really understand why Grady would want something so simple. But, at least it was something, and it would be easy to find. I turned to Nico.

He shrugged. "I dunno…there's this comic book series…I don't really have the money to buy it because I spend it all on gum…it's called The Adventures of John Jacob and Jingleheimer Schmidt. But don't feel obligated, I really don't need them."

I smiled brightly and sucked down the rest of my raspberry smoothie. "Thanks, guys! We should hang out again this season. I miss your antics." I checked my phone. "Oh, it's six…I uh, I need to be somewhere."

"Okay!"

"Bye, Sonny!"

---

"So did you figure out what you were going to get your friends?"

After a few minutes of silence this question struck me by surprise. Chad and I were sitting on the couch drinking hot chocolate again. "I thought you didn't care."

He shrugged nonchalantly and took a sip while his eyes beheld the golden flames. "I dunno, it's important to you and we kinda don't really have much stimulating conversation going, so…" He looked at me sincerely. "Tell me."

I couldn't help but smile. "Well, I hung out with Nico and Grady today and I was trying to figure out what they wanted, but they gave me no clues so I just had to ask them. Grady wants a metal slinky, an orange one, but said it would be fun to paint it himself, so I'm gonna get a can of orange spray paint for him, too. And for Nico, I'm going to get a couple issues of The Adventures of John Jacob and Jingleheimer Schmidt…Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed. I just realized. "I've never even been in a comic book store. I wouldn't even know how to go about finding Nico's comics!"

Chad looked at me with something that looked like concern, but as soon as he rolled his eyes I realized it had been confusion. Well, at least he was listening. That was a start.

We sat there awkwardly again. I was just about to pull out my phone when, "Hey, do you think glasses are really made out of glass?"

I nearly spat out my hot chocolate, I was laughing so hard. "You watch Mitchell Davis?? I thought I was the only one!"

"Really? Me too! Darn!" he exclaimed in false disappointment. "I thought you thought I was being original."

"Haha! That's okay." I thought a moment and a grin spread across my face. "You could just, you know…black it off."

"Sleep it off. You're being ridiculous right now." He said it with a straight face, which made it even funnier. I started laughing and then we both cracked up.

"You're so good at that!" I managed to remark between guffaws. My sides ached and he now had his elbow on the armrest, chin resting on his fist with a faint grin on his face. How did he look like such a model when he didn't even try? "Wow. We actually have something in common."

Chad's eyes widened as he looked over at me. "Who knew? And it's…comedic! You know, I could get my laptop and we could watch Livelavalive…"

"That would be awesome!"

He got up and walked into his room, soon returning with a silver Macbook Air. Who seriously owns those? He sat beside me, our shoulders touching, and booted up his laptop, typing in his password at lightning speed.

As soon as he opened Firefox, I glanced up at the top right corner. "It's ten o'clock?!" I almost shouted in his ear. He winced.

"Oh. Do you have to go?" I nodded and stood up, and he quickly closed his computer and followed me to the door as I pulled my beanie down over my ears. "But…it's pouring rain! You should probably wait until the sky is clear."

"Chad, it's barely sprinkling!"

"But still…what if your windshield wipers act up and you can't see a foot in front of you?" He put a restraining hand on my shoulder.

I sighed and embraced him. "I'll be fine, Chad. And I'll come back tomorrow. I always do, right?"

"But Sonny…" He grabbed me by the hand as I started towards the door, and the gesture took me by surprise. I looked back at him in shock, him looking at me and then averting his gaze, dropping my hand quickly. "I'll…" he put one had in his pocket and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly with the other. "I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good night."

"You too."

---

"It won't happen again, Mom! I swear!"

"It had better not, Sonny Munroe!" She sighed and pressed her fingers to her forehead. "First, you take off without giving me so much as an hour's notice. Next thing I know you come home late three days in a row, and find the reason to be visiting some boy I hardly know!"

"Mom, it's just Chad!"

"Hollywood has really gotten to you, hasn't it?"

"No, Mom, it hasn't!" She opened her mouth but I beat her to it, sitting back down on my bed. "You wouldn't be this worried if I had just been with Tawni. Just because Chad's a boy you automatically assume the worst."

"Well can you blame me?"

I huffed and crossed my arms. Sometimes I couldn't even look at my mom. "It won't happen again, okay?"

"Okay."