Love Is Blind

I found Daniel waiting in line at the bus stop after school.

“Hey, Daniel, I had a question for you. Some of my friends and I were going to have a barbeque at my house later on, did you want to come? You could bring your parents if you wanted. Get to know the neighbors sort of thing.”

“Sure, Abbie, I’d love to come. Just let me know what time.”

“It will probably be around five, I think. I’ll come get you before that if it ends up starting earlier.”

“Sweet. See you later Abbie.”

“Bye Daniel.”

I jogged over to my car where everyone was standing.

“So, what did he say Abs?”

“He said he would come. Now, we need to go to the store to get supplies.”

“Meet you at HyVee?”

“Meat is better from Fareway though.”

“Okay, meet you at Fareway.”

We all piled into our separate vehicles and took off out of the parking lot and down the street. We didn’t have much time to get everything we needed and get back home to plan the barbeque. Especially, if we had to go around to all the neighbors houses and invite them.

I decided to call my mother.

“Yes, Abbie?”

“Mother, my friends and I were planning to have a barbeque tonight to welcome the new neighbors. Could you call around and invite everyone on the block for me?”

“Sure dear. I’ll see you in a little bit.”

“Bye mother.”

After I hung up the phone, I was almost to the entrance of Fareway. I found a parking spot and raced inside, hoping that it wouldn’t take more than twenty minutes to get everything and get home.

I grabbed a cart and started walking down the aisles, looking for random items that we might need. I wasn’t sure what kind of soda Daniel liked, so I grabbed a two-liter of Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Diet Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, and Diet Doctor Pepper. And then, just to be on the safe side, I grabbed a few more. In the next aisle, I grabbed baked beans and chili in case people wanted chili dogs. I went up to the meat counter next. Before I could tell the employee what I wanted, my friends all appeared at my side with various items from the other aisles.

Skye brought different kinds of ice cream treats for dessert. Aiden brought various dipping sauces and cheese. And Hailey brought different kinds of chips. After they dumped everything into the cart, I turned to the guy working.

“This is going to be a large order, so you know.”

“That’s fine.”

“Okay, I need ten pounds of hamburger patties, ten ribeye steaks and ten t-bone steaks, ten pounds of chicken hindquarters and ten pounds of chicken breast, five pounds of polish sausage, and ten pounds of bratwurst. That should be everything. Oh, Skye go grab about four packages of hot dogs from over there and Aiden go grab hamburger and hot dog buns. About five of each.”

After the guy at the meat counter had given me all the meat I ordered, we walked up to the front to pay. It was a good thing my family was rich, just the meat alone came to over two-hundred dollars.

“Damn, Abbie, that’s a lot of meat.”

“I know Aiden,” I said as I started giggling.

I swiped my debit card once everything had been rung up. After all the groceries had been put in the trunk of my car, we decided we needed to get moving. We were barely going to have time to get everything together and start grilling before people started showing up.

A short two minutes later, everyone had pulled into my driveway and were helping me unload everything from my trunk and taking it inside. Skye took all the ice cream and put it in the freezer and Aiden put the soda in our beverage fridge. Yes, we have a fridge just for beverages. Hailey put all the chips in the pantry and the dip in the fridge. I started opening up the meat packages and washing it.

Once everything was put away and the meat was washed and stacked nicely on plates ready to be grilled, we went out back to the patio. We made Aiden grab the bag of charcoal since he is a guy and we enjoy making him to the “heavy lifting,” if you could really call it that. It was shortly after four when we got the coals lit and now we just had to wait.

“Guys, keep an eye on the coals. I’m going to find mother and see how many people accepted the invite.”

I found mother in the library upstairs.

“Hello dear. Did you get everything you needed for the barbeque?”

“I think so. We got soda, chips, dip, more meat than anyone can possibly eat, baked beans and ice cream.”

“Abbie.”

“What did I forget?”

“Garlic potatoes. Does that ring a bell?”

“Oh, crap. I’ll be right back.”

I ran downstairs and back onto the patio. Skye had been the last one to pull in the driveway, so I ran up to her first.

“Skye, can I borrow your car? I forgot to get stuff for garlic potatoes.”

“Sure, Abs,” she said as she tossed me her keys.

“I’ll be back soon guys.”

I ran down the driveway and hopped in Skye’s car. In record time I was back at Fareway. I grabbed a bag of potatoes, an onion, a shaker of garlic salt, and some tin foil and got back in line at the checkout.

I got home just as fast as I got to Fareway and went back inside. I peeled the potatoes, washed them, and cut them up. Next, I cut up the onion and washed it off. I put the potatoes and onions inside the tin foil and sprinkled garlic salt on top of them and added a little bit of water before wrapping it up.

Going back outside, I handed Skye back her keys.

“How are the coals doing?”

“They’ll be ready in about ten more minutes.”

“Okay, I’m going to run over and get Jace.”

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and dialed his number as I was walking across the lawn to his house.

“Hey Jace, we’re almost ready to start grilling. I’m coming over to get you for the barbeque. Are you ready?”

Before I could even knock on the door to let him know I was there, it opened and he walked out to meet me.