Uneasy Hearts Weigh The Most

“So…?” I asked Aubergine as we walked home side-by-side on the sidewalk right after school was over.

“So what?” she responded and turned to me, throwing a cute little smile my way.

“I don’t know, I just thought you might have something to tell me about how your day was.”

“No, not really,” she answered peacefully and absentmindedly glanced up at the sky, watching the clouds.

“See any funny shapes?” I asked, joining her and throwing my head back. I just prayed that we wouldn’tliterally run into anyone on the sidewalk. That would either end up being funny, or being terribly dangerous.

“No.”

“Yeah, me either,” I said. “But why isn’t Grayson walking home with us today?”

“The guidance office wanted an in-depth conversation with him. They decided that a few minutes in between classes wasn’t enough time for them to get to ‘know him.’”

She’s so damn cute all of the time, she included air quotes with “know him” and everything. My heart melts (I don't care how cheesy that sounds) when she brings out some of her personality traits.

“How much homework do you have?” I asked.

“Not much, why?”

“I don’t have any, do you want to come over now or later? Whatever works better for you, like I said, I don’t have anything school-related due tomorrow.”

“Hmm…” she pondered as I waited patiently. “I think I’ll go home now, finish my homework and then come over. Because if I don’t get it done now I’ll never get it done.”

“Okay, that’s cool with me,” I said, containing my excitement successfully - after all, she's been my best friend for years, why would I be getting nervous about her coming over my house for the thousandth time?

“Do you want me to call you when I’m on my way over?”

“No, that’s okay, my parents don’t care. You know how it is.”

“I know, we’re so lucky, our parents are so chill all the time.”

Silence followed the rest of the way home until we arrived at her house.

“I’ll see you later then,” I said as I turned to face her.

“I’ll eat at home too, so don’t worry about that.”

“Okay, see you soon Aub.”

“Bye,” she grinned and it made my heart skip a beat.

From that point on I rushed home so I could clean my room. It wasn’t exactly rank, but I didn’t want her to have to see it dirty. Plus it would make my parents happy and when they’re happy that makes my life better.

My Dad was sitting on the couch when I got home nursing his burnt hand. I told him quickly about Aubergine’s arrival and Della’s request about a job offer. He okayed Aubergine’s upcoming arrival and replied he would look into a job for Della.

Without waiting to take another breath, I thanked him and sprinted up to my room, tackling cleaning my bathroom first. I emptied the garbage in the small mint green room (my Mom picked the color, I couldn’t stand it) and cleaned the counter until it was free of shaving cream, razors, body spray, and deodorant, all of which were hiding sneakily in the medicine cabinet.

In my room, first I picked up all the dirty clothes off the floor and shoved them into my closet, not hesitating to drop them on dirty shoes. I would fold or hang them as necessary over the weekend when I had more time. Once I got the clothes and other stuff up off the floor, I realized there was all kinds of nasty shit on my carpet. I had to roll the vacuum out and first figure out how to use it since it had been quite some time since I had used one. The floor looked much better after I did that and the room looked much bigger. The fact that the walls are painted navy blue and covered in posters didn’t really make it look big at all in the first place. But hey, I love my room, especially when I can see the floor.

I surfed the web until I heard the doorbell ring, which came at about 4:55. My Mom had already started dinner but that didn’t really matter since Aubergine said she would have already eaten and I wasn't that hungry.

I hopped downstairs to answer the door but my Mom had already taken that liberty for me, and I saw Aubergine bending over taking her shoes off and laying them on the rug put there only for that reason. She was wearing a v-neck t-shirt and I got a full view of everything. Sure, I’ve seen her a bikini before, but it’s been a long time since August.

“Hey!” she greeted when she stood up after removing her other shoe. “Thanks for letting me in, Mrs. Morris.”

“Oh, no problem dear, are you sure you don’t want any dinner, dear?” my mother asked.

“I’m sure, I already ate. Thanks though.”

I led the two of us back up to my newly cleaned room, but at a much slower pace then when I went up before. I flopped down on my bed and bounced up a few inches in the air before burying my face into the pillow. After a few seconds I looked over to see Aubergine standing alongside of the bed. She looked at me for about one more second before sitting square on my back.

“Ugh, what are you doing?” I huffed, all of the air having been squeezed out of my lungs, even though Aubergine wasn’t that heavy.

“Well, you didn’t offer me anywhere to sit,” she replied sweetly.

“So?” I wheezed. “You’ve been here so many times, you would think you would know by now you can sit where ever you want to.”

“I know, and I am.”

“Am I really as comfortable as a chair would be?”

“Hmm…” she pondered, and showed she was doing so by rubbing her hand across her chin, stroking a nonexistent beard. “Let sit here a little while longer and think about that.”

“I have a better idea. Why don’t I get the office chair across the hall.”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

I went across the hall to get the leather chair that I spend countless hours sitting in when I study for school. When I came back, Aubergine was stretched out on my bed, her head under two pillows.

“Why is it so clean?” she asked as soon as I rolled the chair in and plopped down on it.

“The chair? I don’t know, I guess my Mom –“

“No, you idiot. Your room,” she giggled.

“Well I figured, you’re a girl, you know –“

“Yes, I know,” she said, and I shot her a look that clearly screamed ‘don’t interrupt me’, but in a friendly way.

“And I figured you wouldn’t want to see my disgusting boy habits.”

“But when have I ever cared before?”

“I don’t know. I’m sorry I thought about you then.” I huffed, and crossed my arms like a sad five-year-old girl who doesn’t get the Barbie of her choice.

“Aw, Zac, I was just joking!” she said in a baby voice, playing back with my fake immaturity.

I pouted my lip out in response.

“Oh, don’t give me that, you big baby!” she cried.

“Okay, whatever,” I said brightly and stopped with the little girl act.

“So what exactly are we doing?”

“I don’t know, I hadn’t figured that part out yet.”

“Fantastic.”

“Well, I don’t know, what do you want to do?”

“We should go to the park, we haven’t been there in so long.”

Aubergine was referring to the small playground complex about a mile away that we would ride to on our bikes multiple times during the summer.

“Okay, that’s cool with me. It won’t be dark for a while, so why not.”

“Sick nasty then. Can I just borrow a sweatshirt in case it gets cold?”

“Absolutely not,” I responded as I stood up with the intentions of opening my closet door to look for a sweatshirt for her.

“Okay, which one can I take then?” she responded without missing a beat.

“This one is the smallest, I think,” I said, handing her a deep olive zip up hoodie that I couldn’t wear very often anymore because I had outgrown it.

She tried it on over her t-shirt and it contrasted perfectly with her dark hair and brought out the color of her eyes.

“Belissima,” I said, and grabbed a pair of black lace-up slip-on Vans from the bottom of my closet.

“Zac, dinner is almost ready,” my Mom said as Aubergine and I sat on the floor of my living room putting our shoes on. “Where are you going?”

“To the park. I’ll eat when I get home,” I said without looking up.

“Are you sure? Can you wait that long?”

“Yeah. We’ll be back soon. I have my phone.” Even though I’m a big boy now, she still gets worried about me when I leave the house to go anywhere besides school or a friends’ house.

“Ready?” I asked Aubergine, who was standing up and zipping the hoodie to an appropriate height for how she wanted it.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

The two of up hopped out the door, walked off the porch, and headed to our left where the garage which contained the bicycles was.

I opened it with the handle fixed in the middle of the door, and it reeled up into the track, revealing all kinds of useless shit we don’t use that often, like the snowblower and leafblower, and then things we do use often, like the recycling and garbage cans. Our garage is pretty much the catchall for things we don't know where else to put. The bikes were resting against one of the walls, and I walked over to them, moved the kickstand up for my bike, and maneuvered it out from the other bikes.

“Am I riding the handlebars?” Aubergine asked from the mouth of the garage.

“Yeah, I figured you could, it would just be like old times.”

“That’s fine. It’s not like it’s that far.”

“Hop on then, my good lady,” I said after I situated myself on the bike with my legs on either side of it for support and my hands on the handlebars. Aubergine hopped up onto the handlebars after some minimal difficulty, and just like that, her ass was right inbetween my hands. Ah, does life get any sweeter than this?