Part 15 (1/2)
”You deleted it.”
He raised his eyebrows and grinned coyly. ”Or I kept a copy. You'll never know.”
”Dude-”
”Speaking of which, we still have a ton of debris to round up and get rid of. I told mom that you'd be coming over this week and helping me do my share.”
”Seriously, man? You're gonna blackmail me?”
His friend smiled. ”Nothing I do to you will be worse than what I prevented.”
”But you're my friend!”
”Yeah, well, then you should've gotten in touch with me at some point the past two weeks.”
”Man, I'm sorry, I've been busy. And hey, it's not like we don't go all summer without hearing from each other-”
”Yeah, but this was like the storm of the century. I was dying to talk to you about everything that was going on.” Roby frowned. ”I tried to get my mom to drive us by last week and see how you guys were doing, but my dad is still militant about the gas. We've been driving everywhere at like twenty miles an hour. I thought he was gonna cut a hole in the floor and go Flintstone on us.”
Daniel laughed.
”I'm serious, dude. He got all end-of-the-world. You shoulda seen him. We were on rations for the first week.”
The more grave Roby tried to look, the harder Daniel laughed.
”I'm glad you think my suffering is funny.”
”Ditto. But hey, at least you got to spend a ton of time with your girlfriend, though, right?”
”I wish. She has an aunt and uncle nearby. She went to their house after the party and stayed there for the storm. I just saw her a week ago as she was heading back to Columbia. I think she's gonna come back down in a few weeks, if her parents and NOAA say it's alright.”
Daniel laughed.
”I'm not kidding,” he said. ”Her parents have already set up hurricane rules for our weekends together.”
”Guess what?” Daniel asked. He figured now was a good time to fully explain neglecting his friend the past weeks. ”I kinda met someone after the storm.”
”Yeah?” Roby's eyes lit up. ”A girl?”
”Guess what her name is. I'll give you a hint: It's real ironic.”
”Like real ironic or Alanis Morissette ironic?”
Daniel thought about that. ”I'm not sure, actually.”