These Days

Sidney sat with his face in his hands rubbing his temples. Mario was starting at him inquisitively. When he asked what was wrong Sidney just grunted and the great Penguin walked away. After several minutes of this Sidney pulled his hands away from his face and got his cell phone out.

“Break up with Jordan.” Sidney instructed his sister after she picked up on the first ring.

“Sidney-no!”

“Taylor, I cannot have you doing sex things with one of my best friends and teammates. You’re splitting my focus. You need to break up with him.”

“Sidney, I said no.” Taylor shouted into the phone.

“You’re a baby, Taylor! You’ve got a life ahead of you. You’re going to university. You’re going to get a job and be a real person. Jordan’s not good enough for you.”

“Sidney-”

“Taylor, I love you. And I love Jordan. And this, whatever relationship the two of you have, will not work. Please end things now. Before either of you gets hurt.” Sidney said. He heard Taylor inhale and exhale.

"Sidney-"

"You're being really selfish, Taylor. Think of what this is doing to me. Think of what this would do to mom and dad. Stop thinking of only yourself for once."

“Alright fine,” She said. Sidney opened his mouth to reply but Taylor plowed on. “You need to apologize to Karen. She’s the first girlfriend you’ve had in years. And I like her. Do we have a deal?”

Sidney closed his eyes. “We have a deal.”

“Good. Goodbye, Sidders.”

“Bye, Tay.” Sidney stood up and walked to Mario’s fridge and pulled out vitamin water and chugged the whole bottle before going back to the table, sitting, and dialing Karen. She picked up on the last ring.

“Hello?” She answered hesitantly, her voice a little hurt. His chest clenched, knowing he had caused that. “Sidney?”

“Yeah, hi, I’m sorry.” Sidney said hurriedly in one breath. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m dumb and was jealous when I shouldn’t have been. I just want you to be my girlfriend.” Sidney said quickly.

“I’m sorry, what?” Karen asked, actually shocked.

“Don’t make me say it again.” Sidney closed his eyes and put his fist to his forehead and waited for Karen to reply.

“Well, how could I say no to an offer like that?”

“Sarcasm?”

“Yes.” Karen laughed breathily.

“So we’re good now?”

“Yeah,” Sidney could hear Karen’s smile through the phone, “We are.” Neither said a word until there was a rustle from Karen’s end. “So I’m kind of at the hospital right now.”

“Wait…what?” Sidney again felt his chest tighten. A myriad of images of Karen getting hurt ran through his mind at high speed.

“Yeah, the butt of a gun hit Brett in the head so Evan and I had to take him to the hospital. That task was a miracle, I tell you,”

“Please explain.”

“Well, I’m from Montana and most of us have guns so when I heard Brett had never shot a gun I had to change that. So we went out to the country side and we rented out one of those lookout towers from the olden days that the government owns know and climbed up it. We hung out and had a good few drinks. And then Evan went down and set up cans and I showed Brett how to use this gun and I took a couple of shots and then handed it over to him.

“Brett had a few last minute reservations about the whole thing but he was buzzed so I patted him and Evan says “Listen, this will be fun. You’ll get to shoot a gun before your days are done” and he was ready to pull the trigger. So we set him up and looked out over the land. So we heard the shot and I look and see he missed, but what the hell? First time you shoot a gun you’re more than likely to miss.

“But I turned around to pat him on the back and all I see is just blood running from his face and this big mark on his forehead. Turns out the scope bounced back into his forehead with the shot and banged him nice and good. So we climbed down from the lookout tower and go find the car. It’s clear to say we were all pretty drunk but I got in the front seat and drove anyway and somehow we all made it to town in one piece. Evan just wanted to buy him some Neosporin and a Band-Aid but Brett insisted hospital so that’s where we are.”

“Only you, Karen,” Sidney laughed. “What now though?”

“Oh, well he’s just filing out some papers and then we’re going back out to the lookout tower because we’ve still got it rented for a couple hours.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Duh.” Karen laughed. “You’re going to love these pictures.”

“I missed you,” Sidney said after a minute. Karen reciprocated his sentiments and promised to call him after the rest of the shooting expedition. He then hung up and went to take a shower but not before his phone rang once more. He grumbled about how he hated it but took a look at the text.

“GENO AND VIOLET ARE HAVING A BOY?!”