Part 28 (1/2)
Sat.u.r.day I worked all day, and the craziness of a nearby col- lege football game kept Cellar busy. It would have sucked dealing with the morning tailgater drunks, but I was lucky to be making subs in the back. The day moved quickly, the Patron Saint of Subs doing what she did best.
I brought subs home for dinner, and my family ate together in the kitchen. AJ and CJ were still too young and clueless to have any plans for Sat.u.r.day nights, and I needed to spend the eve ning with Becca before she headed for more chemo torture on Monday.
”I'll do the dishes,” CJ declared when dinner was over, and pro- ceeded to crumble our sub wrappers.
”You're such a help,” Mom said sarcastically.
”So you'll raise my allowance?” CJ hinted.
”Only if you stop raising my blood pressure.”
I heard my phone ring from my bag in the hallway, and I ran to --1 -0 -+1 105-54406_ch01_1P.indd 161 105-54406_ch01_1P.indd 161 4/17/13 8:58 PM.
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get it. I a.s.sumed it was Becca asking me when I'd get to her house.
But it was Leo. I forced myself to answer it.
”Hey,” I said.
He cleared his throat. ”Hey.” Silence.
”How's it going?” Lame. Stupid. Dumba.s.s.
”Pretty s.h.i.+tty. You?”
”Much less s.h.i.+tty, I'm guessing.”
”Yeah.”
”Yeah.”
Was I supposed to be talking? When my dad died, people loved to regale me with their memories of him. It bugged the h.e.l.l out of me.
My dad was dead, and their personal stories seemed to belittle that fact, like, ”He was your dad but I knew him fi rst.” I wish people were forced to write their stories of the dead down, so when the living were ready to hear those stories they'd be there waiting. The only story I had about Jason was from freshman year. He was a se nior, and I had no idea where I was going for fi rst period. But I really had to go to the bathroom, so I ducked into the nearest one a.s.suming it was a girls'. It was not. One lone pee- er straddled a urinal. I gasped when I saw him, which caused Jason to turn around, still peeing. ”The f.u.c.k?” he asked. I said nothing and ran out, lucky no one else saw.
That didn't feel like an appropriate story to share after someone's death.
”Could you come over?” Leo asked hesitantly.
I didn't know what to say. Becca was expecting me, and she'd be out of commission again soon. On the other hand, how could I say no when Leo's brother just died and he wanted me to come over? But -1- on the other hand- or, I don't know, foot- my original plan was to 0- break things off with him before his brother died. Now that death
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was involved, I only saw it as going one of two ways: I end it, or I become his intense, committed, we can never leave each other because we've survived death together girlfriend. I wasn't sure I could handle that. Still, I wasn't yet the world's biggest a.s.shole, so I told Leo, ”Sure. I can come now if you want.”
”My parents are at my aunt's house.” I didn't know if he told me because parents being home was always awkward, especially grieving ones, or if he was telling me ”my parents aren't home.” ”So can you park on the street?” he fi nished.
”Oh. Yeah. Sure.” It was a parking thing. ”See you soon.” We hung up, and I went upstairs to change clothes. Not that I needed to look nice, but I smelled like ham. Or maybe I wanted to look a little nice.
Show respect. Instead of a printed T-s.h.i.+rt, I put on a plain, black t-s.h.i.+rt with my jeans and Chucks. Pretty much what I always wore, which didn't make it any less appropriately somber. I grabbed a few DVDs from my collection, just in case Leo, too, liked a little gore to keep his brain at bay. I also packed the cookies originally plated for a breakup.
Now they'd look like a gesture for the grieving, which made me seem a lot nicer than I was. I called Becca to tell her of my change in plans.
”That's disturbingly sweet of you, Alex. Don't break his heart to night, okay?”
”I'll try not to,” I confessed.
”That's all I can ask.”
”So what are you going to do now that your exciting plans fell through?”
”I had this idea of inviting Caleb over.”
”Really? Is he allowed to leave his house after dark?”
”Good question. But even if he's not allowed, he could just sneak --1 across our windows somehow.”
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”Sorry I'll be missing that.”
”I'm not. I mean, I am, but not if I get Caleb in my room, if you know what I mean.”
”You mean something s.e.xy. That's what you always mean. Even if you end up playing Parcheesi, it'll be, like, strip Parcheesi.”