Everything Changes...Ready or Not.

30 minutes later, we pulled up to our family’s favorite restaurant--Andy’s. This is where we went whenever my mom insisted we have a family lunch. And that happened very often, especially because Kyler was leaving for college in less than 3 months. “So,” I said after we had gotten a booth and ordered our drinks. Before I could say anymore the waitress came and asked for our orders. “The hamburger special with tomatoes, no unions, and a side order of fries,” my dad recited. He ordered the same thing every time we came. Mom was next, “I’ll have a chicken salad with tomatoes and ranch dressing.” And finally Kyler and me. We ordered the same thing: a hotdog with ketchup and no mustard, and a side order of fries. All while we waited for our food, my parents were firing questions at us. A question for Kyler, a question for me, and so on like that for a good while. I felt like if we were to answer one question wrong a buzzer would go off and announce that we had not won the 1 million dollar prize. This was going to be one long family lunch I thought in my head as Kyler was currently answering a question about college that my dad had asked.

“Yeah, I’m glad we got out of there alive,” Kyler complained. “Tell me about it.” We were sitting in our father’s truck, Kyler in the driver’s seat, and me in the passenger. “Okay, so where we headed to,” I asked. “Nathan’s garage,” he answered. Nathan was the drummer and also one of my closest friends. I know I said that I didn’t have any friends…and that wasn’t a total lie. The only people I ever talked to at my school were my brother’s friends. Sometimes I thought that he resented me talking to them, but they didn’t seem to mind too much. All of them except for Kyler. Oh well. In my mind, Nathan was my best friend, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I was in his mind…if I was in it at all.

We pulled up into Nathan’s driveway and got out of the car. Kyler walked up to the door, and without knocking or ringing the doorbell, walked right in. I lingered in the doorway for a couple of seconds and then followed him up the stairs. Kyler peeked his head into Nathan’s room and then walked in. “Hey,” he greeted them. He got a mumble of hey’s back in response before they continued their video game. And then they saw me. I hadn’t seen them in a couple of months and I started to wonder whether they remembered me or not. Right as that thought came into my mind, Nathan dropped his game controller, ran over to me, and gave me a bear hug. I hugged him back as tight as I could, relieved that he remembered me and missed me. Kyler rolled his eyes and I smirked because we both knew that his band was excited to see me.

Maybe Kyler was right, I thought. Maybe they do like hanging out with me. “Hey,” I nodded my head to the rest of them: Caleb, Jude, and Jake. “Hey Maggie,” they replied looking up from their game and smiling at me. It felt so good to see them all again I couldn’t stand it. Nathan side hugged me and then walked over to his bed and sat down. He motioned to an empty spot beside him. So, I walked over and plopped down on the bed, as I felt Nathan lightly punch my shoulder. “Where ya been Mags,” he asked, “we haven’t seen you in forever…just your brother’s same old face,” he joked. He started laughing and Kyler punched him laughing back. “Watch out, Emerson, cause you and I both know I can kick your ass,” he said still laughing. “Yeah, yeah,” he replied. Jokingly to me under his breath he muttered, “And we all know that’s a lie.” I chuckled softly as I looked around the room and thought how I ever managed without these guys.