Gutter ***s

Sweet Home Alabam-whoops Washington

“Oh why don’t you come?” I groan as Tre starts playing with the stress ball on my desk.
“I just don’t wanna.”
“What the hell!” I yell, “If you’re going to break up with me then do it already!” Tre puts down the stress ball and stares at me.
“Break up with you?”
“Go ahead.”
“Why would I want to break up with you?”
“Well, why don’t you want to come spend part of the summer with me?” I ask as I cross my arms.
“Your parents are going to be there.” He states, “I somehow think they’ll be less than ecstatic that I’m there boning their daughter.
“Yeah, there’s one itsy bitsy detail I forgot to mention.” I say meekly, “If you come back home with me then you’ll have to sleep in the basement.”
“Uhuh.” Tre nods, “So the sex you were offering was none existent.”
“No.” I shake my head.
“Its kind of hard to have sex with someone when they’re in a separate room!” I roll my eyes at his explosion.
“We’ll do that stuff when everyone’s out.” I raise my eyebrows.
“Yeah but.”
“Both my parents work and my apparently my brother got himself a girlfriend.” I say simply, “So what do you say?”
“Erm, okay.” Tre says uneasily.
“Ahh c’mon it’s going to be fun.”

Later that week Tre and I find ourselves boarding a train to Washington state.
“I’m nervous.” Tre mumbles to me.
“Why?”
“I’m afraid of your father.”
“Umm why?” I furrow my eyebrows. He sighs.
“Okay, see the last girlfriend I had took me to meet her parents and well they hated me.”
“So? Who cares?” I ask laughing.
“I was like scum to them because I dropped out of high school.”
“You just did two semesters of college.” I remind him, “Its fine, they’ll like you.”
“And if they don’t? Its not like I can just go home after an hour, I have to stay for two weeks and then your dad will keep giving me the snake eye and-“ I kiss his lips to stop his rambling.
“Its all fine, they know you’re coming, they know you’re a drummer in a band and they’re fine with it!”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, so stop worrying.” I giggle, “They know I hang out at punk scenes, so what other kind of guy would I be dating?” Tre lets out a deep sigh of relief.
“So they know all about me?”
“Well they know you’ve signed a record deal and that you were touring over the winter.”

Tre and I sleep through most of the train ride and end up getting off the train drowsy and tired.
“So how are we getting to your house?” Tre yawns.
“Someone’s picking us up.” I say as we get to the entrance. I see my parents’ station wagon parked next to the sidewalk and my brother leaning against the hood, “There’s my brother.”
“I think I can take him.” Tre jokes. I wave to my brother Andrew as we walk towards the car.

“Long time no see.” Andrew says as he pops open the trunk, “You must be Tre then, huh?”
“Yeah.” Tre says shoving his bag in the trunk.
“I’m Andrew.”
“Nice to meet ya.” Tre says calmly.
“Kind of shy for your type Lis.” Andrew jokes.
“No, he’s just scared Dad’s going chop his balls off.” I say, Andrew laughs.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe, Lisea’s brought home worse.”
“What do you mean by worse?” Tre asks him.
“You know, Mohawks, stupid stoners, bad teeth, you’re looking pretty good already.”
“Not that bad.” I protest.
“You’re improving.” Andrew says as he pats my head, damn him for being taller than me.

We get into the car and Andrew drives back to my childhood home. Tre rocks back and forth in his seat the whole way there.
“Tre, everything’s going to be fine.” I reassure him for the millionth time. I turn to Andrew, “Who’s home?”
“Mom is, Dad is over at Uncle Fred’s so he’ll only be home late, oh and my girlfriend Jessica is coming later.”

Andrew pulls into the driveway and we get out of the car. Tre and I each take our own bag out of the trunk and head through the front door which Andrew left open.
“Mom!” I call as I get in the house.
“In the kitchen.” I take his sweaty hand and lead him to the back of the house where my mother is putting a couple of plates in the dishwasher. “Oh Lisea!” she hugs me tightly then looks at Tre. “And you must be Tre.”
“Hi.” He says barely making a sound, “Nice to meet you.”
“This is my mother Claire.” I say smiling hopefully.
“Well its nice to meet you too, every time Lisea calls its always, Tre this and Tre that.” My mother rambles but she stops when she looks at the bag in my hand, “That isn’t your only bag, is it?”
“For two weeks, yeah.” I say looking down, “I mean unless the washing machine exploded then-“
“Two weeks?” my mother exclaims, “I thought now that you’ve finished college, you’d spend the summer at home and then find yourself an apartment nearby once you got a job in tact.”
“Ma, I have an apartment back in Berkeley, and I plan on getting a job in San Francisco or Oakland.”
“B-but,” she stutters.
“Can we talk about this later?” I ask hopefully, she nods uneasily, “C’mon Tre I’ll show you where your rooms is.”

I lead him down the stairs to the basement which we converted into a guest room, basically a sofa bed and an old TV which sparks if its not plugged in just right. He lets out a deep breath as he puts his suitcase down.
“See, I told you she’d like you.” I say smiling.
“Yeah.” Tre says putting his bag on the bed, then falls back on it. I lie next to him and we stare at the ceiling tiles for a bit, “So are you staying in Berkeley for me?”
“Sorta, but there’s a crackload more photographer jobs there anyway.” I sigh, “I’m going to put my stuff in my room.” I get up and grab my bag, Tre gets up too.
“I wanna see your room.”

We rampage up the stairs, across the house then up to the stair to the second floor. I turn off into one of the rooms and drop my bag on the single bed.
“Well, its kinda empty.” Tre speculates.
“That’s cause all my stuff is at my apartment.”

He looks at the stuff on my shelf.
“Ohh! Battleship!” he exclaims grabbing the box off my shelf, “Can we play?” I can’t help but laugh.
“Yeah.” He pops open the box and takes the two playing cases and passes me one as we sit on my bed. We place our pieces and Tre has a dopey grin on his face as I say my first coordinates.

We play for about five minutes when I sink his first ship.
“I don’t wanna play anymore.” He pouts. I throw a couple of little white pegs at him and stick out my tongue.
“You’re such a sore loser.”
“Am not.” He says chucking the pegs back at me, “I’m just bored.”
“Either way, its your turn.” I see him shift his weight and crane his neck.
“Stop looking at my ships!”
“I’m not, I’m looking down your shirt.” I roll my eyes and guard my ships.
“Jay, seven.” He mumbles.
“Hit.”
“Really?” he asks, his eye bulging, I nod, “Yes, yes, yes, yes!”

There’s a knock on the open door, we both turn to see my mother.
“I made some lunch if you want.” She says kindly. She next to never makes lunch, which is strange.
“Okay.” Tre says carefully closing his Battleship case, “I’ll be back.” We both get up and head downstairs.
“She must really like, she like, never makes lunch.” I whisper to him.

We get to the kitchen to find Andrew and what must be his new girlfriend eating chicken salad sandwiches.
“You must be Jessica,” I say to the blond haired girl sitting in my usual spot.
“Yeah,” she nods, “And you’re Lisea, right?” I nod in return.
“This is my boyfriend Tre.” Tre nods in a sort of hello way as we take the two remaining plates with sandwiches and chips on them and sit at the table. I can see Jessica burning a hole in Tre’s forehead with her eyes.
“Are you okay?” Tre asks her.
“Sorry, its just you look really familiar, I think I’ve seen you before.”
“Well I’ve never been to Washington before-“ Tre starts.
“Well I’ve been to umm the Oakland area countless times, maybe I’ve seen you there.” She starts, “What’s your name again?”
“Tre, Tre Cool.”
“Fucking shit.” She says, getting the attention of my mother, “You went out with my sister a couple of years ago! When she was in college!”
“Your sister is Amanda?” Tre asks glancing from me, to Jessica worriedly. Jessica nods.
“Man was she pissed at you!”
“What did you do?” I ask Tre, when he doesn’t answer I look at Jessica.
“He left for a four month tour without even so much as telling her!”
“What she’s leaving out is that she threw a five pound text book at my head.” Tre murmurs to me.
“Only because you checked out another girl!” Amanda yells in return.
“For the millionth time I WAS NOT!” Tre yells back. Andrew and I both stand up quickly and hold our significant others back.
“Tre calm down.” I whisper.
“No, she’s accusing me of something I didn’t do, just because her sister’s a paranoid psycho.” He turns to Andrew, “I’d be careful if I were you it could be genetic!”
“Amanda must have been out of her fucking mind to date you for as long as she did!”

“Everyone shut up!” My mother yells, she next to never swears, you can pick up on it when a person is not much for swearing because even Tre stares at her stunned, “Now, Tre and your sister had their, umm differences, but its all in the past, so lets all be civilized people and eat lunch.” Tre clears his throat and my mother eyes him for a moment and then we all sit down.
“I didn’t check out another girl.” Tre murmurs as we all silently eat our sandwiches.

After Tre and I finish eating lunch I suggest that we go take a walk. He doesn’t agree nor protest, but we both head outside and start walking down the street in an awkward silence.
“So,” I say trying not to laugh, “What’s it like to get a five pound text book chucked at your head?” he laughs and pulls me into a kiss.
“You’re not mad or anything?”
“Why should I be?” I ask laughing as we walk through a park. He shrugs.
“Am I off your mom’s good side?”
“Erm, not really, I think Jessica is bordering it though.”

We go to sit down on the swings. Tre looks at his feet.
“So did you look at the other girl?”
“That other girl had a piece of toilette paper stuck to her shoe, it was too funny.” Tre laughs, “But Amanda has to be the most jealous person I’ve ever known.” I can’t help but start laughing. I start to swing as high as I can, so does Tre.
“Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” I yell childishly, he does the same. We continue to swing for a good long while and then we head back home.

As I walk up the front steps I notice my dad’s car is in the drive way.
“My Dad’s home.” I say calmly, “Just letting you know.” Tre clears his throat uneasily.
“Okay.” I open the door and step inside, I’m guessing my father just got home because he was taking off his shoes.
“Hey Dad.” I say smiling.
“Lisea, weren’t you only coming later?” I shake my head as he pulls me into a hug.
“Dad, this is my boyfriend Tre.”
“Hi sir.” Tre says nervously.
“What’s this sir business, call me Jerry.” My father says patting him on the back, “I thought you were in a crazy punk band, you’re the shyest thing since-“
“Dad.” I say rolling my eyes.
“Nice to meet you.” he says shaking Tre’s hand.