Just Hate Me and We'll End It Here

Alex

“So?” I ask her. “Our ride coming?”

She hesitantly returns my phone. “I’m not too sure. Apparently Rian’s at the movies with Kara, and so Jack had the phone and started whining that he could drive us.”

“Taxi it is,” I say quickly with a nod. She returns the slight smile, and grabs one of her own bags to make it lighter for myself, and we start for the doors. Surprisingly, though, it’s pretty packed for early Monday. Taxis and cabs are packed and I suggest we grab something to eat before we head out.

Bailey shrugs in agreement and we find a Starbucks, getting some drinks and a bagel for us each. I get her to talk a little and we chat about how neither of us will probably go to work today, but we can’t think of anything to do. But of course she reminds me we need to do clean around the house, like yard work, and repack the pantry and fridge since everything’s probably moldy now.

At last we return outside to look for a cab- when my familiar car comes straight up to us and Jack pops out, grinning madly.

“See?!” he cries jubilantly. “I can totally drive just fine! And I missed you, Allie!” He wraps me in a tight hug happily.

“Uh, yeah, bro. Missed you, too. But don’t call me that,” I chuckle, punching him lightly on the shoulder.

“Dang, you take the fun out of everything,” he pouts and gives stiff Bailey a quick hug, but then he comes back to me whispering, “she still kinda scares me.”

“Good, so don’t touch her again,” I mutter and start shoving everything into the trunk.

“Coolio,” he chimes. “Oooh, shotgun!”

“No,” I correct him. “I’m driving, and Bailey gets shotgun. You get the back. Or walking,” I add when he starts to protest.

“That’s not very nice,” he whines. “I brought your car here just fine!”

“Barely,” I roll my eyes and slam the trunk. “Here,” I mutter, opening the door for Bailey.

Her hand runs through her hair, glancing up at me. “Thanks, Alex,” she says softly and shoves her backpack in, stepping in and I shut the door. I jog around and get in, so we can start off.

Jack chatters noisily in our ears the entire ride home, asking a few questions of what it was like back home and keeps chattering about how he kept going to our house and partying and meeting some girls and so on. Gets a little annoying, but I concentrate on driving and soon we’re home.

I make Jack leave and walk home [what? He lives like four blocks over. The wimp can walk just fine, too…after one party our senior year, very drunk, he ended up walking out of town- over ten miles! Crazy…], and I quickly unload everything from the car for the two of us.

Going to my room, I hastily unpack all my crap, shoving some in a pile to get washed… wow, that pile’s getting high. Huh. Might have to do some laundry soon, after all… I scratch my head and shrug. After a moment I figure I’ll go see what Bay’s doing, but that’s when my cell goes off. “Yo,” I pick it up.

“Hey, man, are you back now?” Rian’s voice comes.

“Yeah, no thanks to you,” I grin, lying down on my bed.

“Sorry about that, I thought you were coming back later,” he explains. “But anyways, we’ve got an interview with AP coming up. You ready?”

“Eh, sure. When?” I ask, fiddling with a tennis ball, tossing it up and down.

“Tomorrow, around four. Sound okay?”

“Sure does,” I nod even though he can’t see it. “Talk to you later, then, man?”

“Yeah, later.” And we hang up. I fiddle with my ball, bored for a while. Then I finally recall I had planned on checking on Bailey, and maybe getting her to open up again. My thoughts stray to her random mood swings as I stand up, heading out. It’s just weird. I mean, I’m sure there’s some reason to it, but her mind just works so… differently and odd, I never know what to expect. And while I love it, it also sometimes sucks, too.

“Bay?” I ask, knocking on her door. But when I peak in, I find that her stuff is all put away and she’s not even in there. Frowning a little, I search around the house a bit, and finally walk outside to see if I can find her.

Hoooooly hot sauce.

She knows how to mow the lawn?