Just Another Reason I Could Never Forget You

I’m not exactly fond of waking up at six in the morning, especially on the weekend, but today was the day that I was going job hunting. Meaning I had to look as good as I could in casual clothes that wouldn’t have me sweating up a storm by the time I got to the business part of town. Rummaging through my closet, I she pulled out a plain black skirt and a Fall Out Boy tank top. My converse were the shoes of choice, since I wore them everywhere, and they were the most comfortable to walk in.

Grabbing my wallet, I pulled out a crisp new twenty and folded it in half twice before pulling off the back cover on my phone. Placing the folded twenty on the back, I clicked the cover back in place and smiled. Nobody would think to look in the back of my phone if they wanted money from me. Pulling my crimson hair back into a ponytail, I took one more look at myself in the mirror before going downstairs and leaving the house.

It took nearly fifteen minutes to get to where all of the stores were, but I was speed walking the whole way and my legs now hurt. Walking into the first building, which was the bowling alley, I asked for an application. It didn’t take long to fill it out, and I quickly moved onto the next building. I went through this process three more times before deciding it was safe to stop. Looking around, I figured I had a pretty good chance of getting a job somewhere. I had applied to the bowling alley, a music store, a drug store, Burger King and Starbucks. Out of those five, I was hoping for a call from the music store or Starbucks.

I pulled the twenty out of my phone and went back to the Burger King to get myself some food because I was starving. A Whopper, fries and shake later, and I was ready to start walking back. This time I opted to go the other way home, which took me past Alex’s house. I was going to see if he wanted to come over for a barbeque later.

Less than a block away from his house, there was another set of footsteps behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder. There was a person dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans, with a black hoodie on. They also had on a baseball cap, and the hood was pulled up over that. I quickened her pace, and the person behind me did the same thing. What the hell? Talk about creepy… Biting my lip, I upped my speed again, only to hear the person do the same. With no idea what else to do, I took off running towards Alex’s. I’m a fool for actually thinking I was safe, because the person tackled me and I lay sprawled in the grass with the figure on top of me. Oh god…I’m going to be raped in broad daylight. Why is this happening to me?

The figure above me laughed, and the laugh was one I’d never forget. “You’re an asshole! That’s not even the slightest bit funny, Jack!” I cried, her eyes wide. Rolling us over until I was on top, I quickly stood up with a pissed look on my face.

“Awww…I sorry, Jerri-Berri. I didn’t mean to scare you as much as I did. It was all Zack’s idea though, I swear. He told me to follow you to make sure someone didn’t try to hurt you while you were out. He also said he’d pay me twenty bucks if I scared you before you got home,” he said, a small frown forming as he realized he’d been played.

“I should’ve known. That boy is so in for it tonight,” I muttered as I grabbed Jack’s hand and pulled him towards Alex’s house.

“Alex, open the door!” I yelled to his open bedroom window.

A few minutes later, the door opened to reveal Alex in nothing more than a pair of pajama pants with his hair all messy. “Jesus Christ, do you know what time it is? It’s 10 o’clock in the fucking morning, Jericha. What’s going on?”

Pushing past him and pulling Jack inside with me, I sat on the couch with Jack on my lap. Looking over at Alex, I grinned and pulled out my phone. “I’m going to have a barbeque tonight and want all of you to come. Especially Zack,” I said, emphasizing his name.

Alex and Jack exchanged a worried look before nodding. Jack then launched into the story of him following me all morning. Alex listened, his eyes beginning to get the sparkle they always did when he was planning something. When Jack finished, Alex stood up and went into the kitchen, returning with a few sodas and smiling.

“Alright, so you’re planning on getting back at Zack later tonight. And you’re going to need our help since we know him better than you do. Rian can’t find out because he would try to stop us. Now….what to do, what to do?”

He stood and began pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace, talking to himself while I and Jack watched. Alex continued doing that for another fifteen minutes, while Jack and I had thumb wrestling wars.

“I’ve got it! Zack’s afraid of clowns, so I saw we hire a clown to come out and perform for us at the barbeque tonight. The only catch is that we have to make sure Zack can’t leave,” he said with a triumphant grin.

I sat there, thinking over the idea in my head. It couldn’t be that hard to find a clown for rent for about an hour. Sure, I wanted to scare Zack as much as he’d scared me, but I didn’t want to put him in a catatonic state. Looking at Alex, I nodded to show that I like his plan before I looked at Jack.

“I think we have some shopping to do then. We’re going to need to get enough food for the five of us,” I said with a laugh as I stood up, holding Jack in my arms. He began kicking and hollering for me to put him down, so I did as he said and dropped him on the couch.

“Yay! Shopping! Can we get some ice cream too? Can we? Can we? Can we? With the little ice cream cones that goes with it?” he asked, bouncing up and down like a little kid. I sighed and nodded, knowing that he was going to ask for that. He always did.

<->

Walking through the meat department, I looked at the different choices before picking up two big packages of ground beef. Those were for the burgers, of course. Now I needed a small package of meat for the kebabs, and a couple of packs of Italian sausages. The chips were already in the cart, as was the three containers of potato salad, the two containers of coleslaw and the four 12-packs of pop. Jack was off getting some ice cream and the little cones to put them in, leaving me to hunt him down at the front afterwards.

I finished getting what we needed and headed back to where I and Jack had agreed to meet up and found him constantly shifting the ice creams from one arm to the other. “Finally! My arms are freezing!” Giggling, I put the ice cream and cones in the shopping cart and headed to a self-checkout so that we could get out quickly. I had a long day of cooking ahead of me. Of course, Rian had promised to come help, so that made things a bit easier.

Overall, the total was higher than I thought it would be, so I was quite glad that I had brought my mom’s credit card. She had lent it to me, telling me she’d get us a couple of 6 packs of beer while I got the rest of the stuff. I had to hand it to my mother; she knew how a barbeque should be done. She wasn’t gonna buy enough to get us drunk, but just enough for us to have a fun time. God, I loved my mother.

Me and Jack loaded all of the bags into the back of his car, then he returned the cart and we drove to my house, where Rian was already waiting. He’d texted while we were checking out and said my mom let him in before we left. Now, I’d just have to remember to keep my mouth shut about the surprise. Well, mine and Jack’s mouths.