Stranded

My eyes sprung open, my leg in so much pain. I jumped up from the couch, trying to keep quiet. I heard a soft thump and cursed silently. Makahla! I heard her groan in pain. “Shoot! Makahla, I’m so sorry!” I apologized, my mind still in a pain induced haze.

“What happened?” She mumbled, still nursing her broken leg.

“Charlie Horse.” I smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry!”

“The couch is too dangerous; we should probably go someplace else. There’s another bed in Alley’s room…” She explained, I couldn’t really see her in the dark though, so I squinted.

I nodded and helped her into Sara’s sister’s room so we could curl up together on the extra mattress. Of course, I had to watch out for her cast. I went back to sleep thinking about how nice it was to lay beside her and sleep.

~~

I opened my eyes, feeling a little drowsy still, but I already felt energy flowing through me, so I knew I wouldn’t be going back to sleep any time soon. I went to go look for some coffee. Coffee always made the energy come faster…and in a greater volume. I was confused when I couldn’t find any coffee, but there was a coffee maker.

“Makahla, where do they keep the coffee?” I shook her awake. I saw Makahla reaching for something, but didn’t get what it was until it was zooming passed my face. I blocked it with my ninja skills. “Did you just throw a shoe at me?” I asked, appalled. Of course, she didn’t like to get woken up.

It didn’t matter, I needed coffee! “Makahla, I need coffee!” I pouted.

Makahla sat up, scowling. “There is no stinking coffee! They don’t drink it! They’re Mormon and don’t keep hot caffeinated drinks in the house!” She burst. “Now let me sleep for ten more hours” Suddenly, as if woken from the dead, Sara climbed down the ladder to the bunk bed, hitting her head on the ceiling and mumbling something, she went out the door.

Curiously, I followed her out. Her eyes were only half open, and she moved automatically, like she’s done it a thousand times before. They used the coffee maker for hot chocolate! I realized, suddenly feeling stupid.

“Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” I asked, and Sara jumped ten feet in the air.

“Goodness! You scared me!” She seemed awake now, taking the first drink from her cocoa. “I don’t know, I’ve never been to Starbucks…but there’s a Walmart seriously like….two minutes that way.” She explained, pointing.

After she said this, she wandered outside to sit on the jungle gym and stare at the mountains. Weirdo.

If I had to go someplace, I would go in style. I grabbed the first two shoes I could find, which happened to be one of mine and one of Makahla’s…both left feet. I shrugged and put them on anyway. And Makahla’s purple hoodie. I guess it was because I was still hardly awake, but I walked outside anyway, telling Sara I was borrowing her mom’s car.

“Please don’t crash…I don’t want the evil Jack fangirls coming to kill me because I let you drive…” She called to me. She sure woke up fast.

“You shouldn’t worry about the fangirls, you should worry about my girlfriend and your best friend!”

“She loves me too much to kill me.” Sara smirked.

I waved goodbye and went to get some coffee…sweet sweet coffee. I got some filters too, since I’m pretty sure they didn’t have any of those. Feeling accomplished that I didn’t come back with 100 dollars of useless stuff, I got back to Sara’s house and made my coffee.

Cofffeeeeeee…..I drooled. Sara sniffed, making a disgusted face. “Great, now I’ll have to power fabreeze everything…” She grumbled, going back into her room. I chuckled and poured an extra cup for Makahla.

“Kay kay!” I sang, coming into the room, “I got you some coffee!” I swung the cup in front of her nose and she slowly woke up. I smiled when she took the cup and took a sip.

“I SMELL COFFEE!” I heard Alex shouted, and running footsteps. Great, the noise began. I looked at Makahla, she was grimacing.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just got a little headache…and they’re being a little too loud for me.” She rubbed her temples, coffee cup on her knees.

“Do you want to go outside and sit? Where it’s quiet?”

Sara moved around the room, distracting me a little, but then she left with an armful of clothes. Makahla smiled at her friend. “Yeah, let’s go outside. It’s a little stuffy in here also.”

We were outside a couple minutes before Sara and her mother and sister filed out, looking nice and proper in skirts and dress clothes. I pulled my eyebrows together. Sara in a skirt did not make sense.

Makahla jumped up, well, as best as she could with a broken leg. And shouted for them to wait.

“Come on Jack, we’re going to Church.” She smiled deviously, I was a little scared. Another thing that didn’t make sense? Me. In a Church.

“Sara, do you have church clothes for Jack to borrow?” Makahla called, Sara’s face brightened and she ran over to us, telling that she’d take Alley’s car in a few minutes. She led us back into the house and ran up the steps. She came down fast and threw clothes at me.

They shoved me in the bathroom and laughed devilishly. Okay, now I was even more scared. I wasn’t even sure what church we were going to. I put the clothes on anyway, it might be fun.

I got out of the bathroom and hit Alex in the head. He was on his second cup of coffee in front of the television. “What the heck was that for?” He shouted. I noticed he had cut back on swearing…could it be because Sara didn’t like it, I wonder. What a cheesy guy. “Why are you wearing a suit?” He asked, confused.

“We’re going to church….yes, you too mister.” I told him. “Sara! We need another pair of clothes!” I called before Alex could make up an excuse. Sara rushed up the stairs, and came down with another pair, looking for the person who would wear them. Her eyes fell on Alex and she looked a little confused.

Makahla giggled a little and we all listened as Sara told us some ground rules. No swearing, no crude jokes, and no vulgar hand signals. She didn’t need to tell us this, it was church after all…

I hadn’t worn clothes like these in…well, I can’t remember the last time I wore them. We all got into Alley’s car, it wasn’t a smart car like Kay kay and Sara’s were, but it was a hybrid. These chicks sure were environmentally conscious.

We got there and sat through meetings in a room with older people, including Sara’s mom. Then we moved to another room, this one had padded seats! They looked like benches.

“They’re called pews, Jack.” Makahla laughed. “It really has been a long time since you’ve been to church.”

“Mike!” Sara squealed suddenly, running up to a man about 21 years old. “You got back from your mission!”

“Yeah, about two months ago.” This apparent Mike answered back. He was also dressed in a crisp white shirt with a light purple tie and black jacket thing, whatever those are called, and his black hair was cut just above his ears.

Makahla and I looked at Alex as Sara talked very animatedly to this Mike character. “Someone is turning into a green-eyed monster.” Makahla teased as Alex scowled at them. No contact had been made physically but a handshake. Alex still looked mighty ticked.

Sara came over with Mike. “Jack, Alex, this is my friend Mike. Mike, this is Alex and Jack.” Sara introduced, firm handshakes were given. I’ve gotten a lot of handshakes today, my hand was getting a little sore. What was up with these people and those things anyway? What happened to hugs?

But now, Sara had her arm around him in a tight hug. Ah-ha! A hug! “My second bestest friend that I haven’t seen in a long two years.” She gushed, smiling.

Sara really did look nice dressed up like this, a flower skirt that went just below her knees and puffed out around her legs with a white dress shirt. Her hair was held back with butterfly clips and a couple of bobby pins with white flowers. If I thought she looked good, I couldn’t imagine what Alex thought about her.

Still, to me, she couldn’t compare to Makahla. She had on a hippie style blue skirt with some kind of white pattern and random sequins, along with that she had on a white puffy shirt (it kind of reminded me of a pirate’s shirt) and a hemp knitted vest type thing-a-jigget.

As we sat down, I grabbed Makahla’s hand and whispered to her that she was beautiful. For the thousandth time today. She blushed cutely and smiled.

Sara sat between the two men, and I leaned into Makahla. “Were they really only just friends?” I whispered.

“They dated for like…three months before he went on his mission.” She explained as the organ played a greeting hymn.

“Alex would be soooo jealous if he found out.” I smiled devilishly. Makahla nodded. Mike did look a little sad when he noticed Alex…I wonder…