14 14-Waves of Change (1/2)
Come Monday morning I spend an extra thirty minutes on the phone with Zayne talking him down from an anxiety attack. Even with Conrad gone, he's scared to go to school after everything that's happened. He came over on Sunday to watch a movie with me and catch up on school work he didn't understand, he looked so stressed out. He woke me up an hour before my alarm when he called me.
”I promise it'll be ok, the whole week you were gone and no one said anything to me or Arri,” I rub my eyes, ”The most you'll see is some dirty looks.”
”That was while I was gone, when it was only one of us, and admit it after everything with Conrad no one will want to mess with you,” his voice is quiet, probably so he doesn't wake up his parents.
”Babe,” I stretch out on my bed, ”You're the one who gave him a bloody nose and knocked him flat in the cafeteria. If anything, no one will want to mess with you when you get back. Conrad is on the verge of expulsion, he won't do anything when he gets back.”
I let out a long yawn that I had been fighting for almost ten minutes, ”You're tired aren't you?” he sounds upset.
”No I'm ok, do you want me to come over and go to school with you? I can text my mom so she knows I wasn't kidnapped when she wakes up.”
I hear a small smile in his voice, ”No it's ok, maybe meet me there, but if you can you should sleep more. I didn't mean to wake you up so damn early.”
”Yeah I always thought you were a little nuts because you are like the first person at school but you hate it the most. Why wake up at ass-crack-dawn when you don't want to be there?”
”I don't really know,” I hear the faint creak of his mattress, ”Maybe I'll try to go back to sleep with you, arrive barely on time like a normal teen.”
I laugh, ”Yes, please, sleep. It is calling to us, it draws me in,” I act all dramatic and smile when I hear his laugh.
”Sleep well,” I say as he hangs up, only now I can't go back to sleep. Instead I take my shower and get ready early.
While I sit there with all this extra time, I go get the big cardboard box out of my closet and dump everything out. Zayne's birthday is next week and I'm still preparing, every weekend of waking up to open Church's Chicken and stay until three in the afternoon is starting to pay off, what I don't spend on his birthday is now in a jar in my locked desk drawer for Christmas shopping.
I carefully handle each object and place them in the box, positioning them each in a special way to make it look nice. I still have more stuff I want to get but I wanted to finally organize this stuff instead of letting it sit unprepared in it's box.
Arriana walks into my room, pjs rumbled and her robe hanging off her, ”Josh, am I dreaming, what are you doing awake?”
”Zayne got nervous about going back to school so I talked to him for almost an hour on the phone, I couldn't get back to sleep.”
She comes up next to me and looks into the box, ”What is all this?”
”Zayne's birthday is coming up next week, this is for him. I've spent the past month gathering this stuff.”
She punches me in the arm, ”Why didn't you tell me his birthday was coming up? When is it?”
”Ow! Jesus, you may be small but you are angry!” I rub my arm.
”When's his birthday?”
”November sixth, jeez, if you're going to do something for him you do still have a little over a week.”
”I need my present to be better than yours. Tonight I begin!” She smiles and raises her pointer finger, she then plops on my bed next to the box, ”What are we doing for Halloween?”
”What?”
”It's this Thursday, we always dress up. So I had a couple ideas we can still order online, I kind of already have a few picked out that might include Zayne.”
”Arriana, I don't even know if he's into Halloween like we are, I hadn't even thought about it. You can probably do whatever costume you want this year, I think I might just wing it.”
She does a dramatic gasp, ”How dare you? We aren't related anymore,” she lifts her nose in the air and storms out.