thilly thenny

Just over 500 words to go before it’s all over tomorrow… err today.  Here’s the last excerpt.  Enjoy!

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“Let’s go to Spec’s.”

“Um… I’m not sure they have dinner there.”

“I need to get alcohol for my place anyways. Besides, there’s food there.”

“Spec’s has food?”

“Yeah. I mean it’s not as good as Whole Foods or Central Market, but it’s pretty darn good.”

“Okay. I’ve never been before. Let’s go.”

“Wait, you haven’t been to Spec’s? Wow, this will be an experience for you.”

“Yeah, I never had the chance. When I grew up here, I was never old enough to buy alcohol.”

He pulled his SUV into a parking space. It was lightly drizzling outside, and she had purposefully taken out her umbrella before she left to go to his place. She forgot that it ever drizzled in Houston. He reached over and slid the clutch into park. They both exited and made their way to the entrance.

She was hanging out with a high school friend. She always knew that he had a crush on her and couldn’t help spending time with him. She liked the attention that he lavished on her, and it was a much needed distraction from her current relationship, or whatever you want to call it. Boy had texted her the day before saying that he found his phone and was going to call her. Of course, she hadn’t called back, and he never called that evening as promised. When she texted him the next day, he said the phone was charged enough that she could talk to him. That was probably a white lie. She was sick of the entire situation. So she was out with Michael drinking at the moment. Well, they were preparing to drink. Hopefully, there will be other people joining them because she didn’t have enough strength to play the rejection game without being a total bitch.

Walking down the aisles, she asked inane questions, trying to gauge how other people, besides him, would react to her returning home. Of course, many people would think that she’d failed, which is whatever to her. She didn’t care what other people thought, as long as they were willing to hang out with her and give her a chance. After all, that’s all she wanted. She wanted emotional closeness to a select group of people and fuck the rest.

He picked up tequila, rum, vodka and the regular mix of drinks that people usually stocked up on. During the conversation, she found out that he and his roommate, another friend from high school, just moved into their apartment together and he needed to fill up on a lot of things. During the process, she found her favorite childhood candy, Kinder, and bought more than her fair share, which was about $20 worth. It was extremely overpriced but she didn’t care. All she wanted to do was feel wanted and included in some group. She tried so hard in San Francisco to fit in and feel like she belonged. Somehow, it just didn’t happen to work out.

They went back to his car and drove to the local grocery store to buy food. There, they filled up on a couple of sandwiches, completely forgetting the mixers and made their way back to his place. Sitting down to eat, he kept texting his friends, trying to gauge who wanted to hang out and what was going on this Saturday night. She had bought two sandwiches and was alternating her attention between the two of them. Whenever she was famished, her mind was always bigger than her stomach. Hence, her current weight situation.

After a quick phone call, he turned to her.

“Come on. We’re leaving to go eat hamburgers.”

“What?”

“They’re the best in town. Sam and Jason are waiting for us. We’ll go eat there and decide what to do for the rest of the night.”

Not wanting to disappoint these people she hadn’t seen since high school, she quietly obliged. Although she did take half of her tuna sandwich, not wanting to completely lose power. On the drive there, he talked about nothing at all, mostly singing along with the music. It annoyed her terribly; she’d rather hear the song than hear his singing voice but didn’t say a thing.

As they pulled in the parking lot, Sam and Jason were just walking into the restaurant. To her amazement, they were always gone and inside when they locked the car door. Michael mentioned something about the restaurant’s ordering system, but she thought it was just plain rude, although she didn’t say so. Inside, they waited in line to order. Jason pretended not to know her very well, but Sam was more than polite. He was just as she remembered him and all of a sudden, she was so very glad for his politeness and courtesy. Of course, she didn’t like Jason that much during her high school years and this was no different. He seemed in his own world, and she wasn’t part of it.

After they’d ordered, she got nothing because she didn’t feel hungry at all, they made their way to the table. Michael was nice enough to get her a drink. There were big screen TVs all over the restaurant, clearly a sports place. Tonight was one of the final rounds for the national college football championships of some sort. She had no idea what was going on and all the semi-explanations didn’t do the trick. Somehow, everyone assumed that she knew something about college football and seemed to leave out some crucial details. She didn’t k now how the system worked at all, having gone to a private school and wasn’t understanding why people cared so much for a random sport. The teams had nothing to do with their own alma mater, especially since A&M, UT and UH didn’t stand a chance of getting in the finals. At least that’s how she understood it. UT might have a slimmer of a chance if OSU won but that wasn’t happening by a 10 point spread or so. That’s about as much as she could understand.

Jason wasn’t too keen on the details of his life. Every time, she made a polite general question he thought it was directed towards him. Any courtesy she could afford, which was very little at this point, was overlooked. Sam, however, was more than a gentleman. Michael, for the most part, remained quiet.

After dinner, they went back to Sam and Michael’s new place to drink the freshly bought alcohol. Jason was disappointed at the selection and went back to his truck to get a ready filled cooler with cold beers and ice. She fixed herself a drink, which was way too strong and not at all what she thought. Apparently, they had bought the wrong type of triple sec, which wasn’t triple sec at all, and anyway, she had used Pucker to make the original concoction, a drunken experiment gone right, for once. They sat, watching college football and not talking much. Jason was pent on leaving. Clearly, he just wanted to hang with the boys and was annoyed at her presence. Ann, Sam’s girlfriend, showed up a while later. They had known each other since middle school, but she didn’t seem to recall her at all. She wasn’t sure if it was Ann’s actual forgetfulness or just her. Ignoring the awkwardness, they proceeded to hang out and talk about everything from the game to iPhone apps to movies and TV shows. The alcohol was warming her up to everyone, or what that just time?

Jason made some excuse about leaving and left. She made her way to Michael’s couch and took his spot. There, she proceeded to plug in her iPhone and text boy. Doing so required her to leave over Michael’s lap. Neither of them seem to mind, although Ann and Sam looked a bit suspicious and uncomfortable. As they were watching crappy TV, boy called. Ann instinctively unplugged her iPhone and handed it over to her. She talked for a bit and then went outside for some privacy. She didn’t mean for the call to last long but the alcohol was affecting her. It was just natural for her to run out and get some smokes, since she was out. Starting the car, she drove around aimlessly, trying to find a gas station. The call was distracting her and he frustrating her, so she said she’d call him back and just drove. A pack of cigs later, she called Michael and asked him to open the door. As always, he obliged. That’s what she appreciated most about him. Even during her bad habits, he was always a gentleman and could be counted on for support. Back in his apartment, she showed them two girls and one cup, a movie that she didn’t watch but laughed at their reactions of horror. Even though the clip had come out over a year ago, she thought it was more of a rite of passage. Clearly, they didn’t agree.

They watched TV until close to two in the morning. She felt that since she was technically visiting her parents’, she should at least adhere to the two am-stop-drinking limit that most clubs in the Bay Area imposed. She excused herself and prepared to leave. Thankfully Ann thought the same thing, although she couldn’t tell if Ann was just waiting for her to make the signal or not. Giving a rather formal goodbye at the door, she hugged Ann and Sam before heading out to the car with Michael. He had insisted on walking her out, which was very gentlemanly of her. Once there, he made a quick goodbye and she was left at the door of her mom’s car. Quite buzzed, she lit a cig and began smoking it. She was too tipsy to properly feel the nicotine, although she loved having the freedom of being able to smoke without judgment. Sometimes it just felt good to be able to have a smoke without people looking down on her or hurrying before her parent caught her or having to worry about what people at work thought about her frequent 20 minute breaks. Even the Starbucks people were joking about her having nothing to do at work that she hung around so much. This was nonjudgmental smoking, even if it was at two am on a Sunday morning, standing outside her friends’ house drunk and not caring. After she finished her fag, she promptly went into the car and drove home. The streets were mostly empty, particularly because her parents lived in a residential neighborhood that didn’t see the heavy traffic of young people going out. As she pulled up to driveway, she made sure that the headlights were off.

After a shower, she picked up her cat and nestled with her for a moment. The cat was used to her showing affection. When she first go the baby, the cat didn’t like being kissed but was used to it now. She lied on top of her, stroking her head while kissing her fiercely, roughly nuzzling her. The cat seemed to like the attention. After all, she had been sleeping upstairs and the cat didn’t enjoy the usual night time bonding that they usually experienced back home. Back home, she always slept naked, and the cat would come up onto her bed and suckle on her arm pits like a nipple, needling her soft layer of fat. This hadn’t happened for several days while she was back in Houston, so they both obliged each other to this bonding behavior. Maybe she was being too loud, but her mom was outside her door. Quickly and embarrassingly, she got dressed. Her mom remarked that everyone could see her naked with the blinds open. She hadn’t really paid attention, since none of the neighbors had remodeled to include a two story house. No one could possibly see her naked unless they had binoculars and were looking at her window specifically at three am in the morning. Nevertheless, she closed the blinds and got back into bed to sleep. The cat was still in the room. Hopefully, she would have another chance to bond with her baby before leaving the following Tuesday to return back home.