In the Book of Me and You

I’d slept the rest of the school day away when we’d gotten home from my old house and was woken by a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. Regardless I picked it up since it had a local area code and waited to hear who it was.

“Hey, it’s Nick, Dakota gave me your number. I think you need some cheering up so I think you and Dakota should come over and spend movie night with Halvo and me. We’re basically going to be watching Harry Potter and having pizza and ice cream,” came the voice, not really waiting for me to say anything in response to who it was.

“Oh hey. Yeah. Yeah that sounds good actually. I assume Dakota already knows,” I said, and looked at my clock to see it was five. Apparently 3 hour naps were a good way to spend the afternoon when you weren’t feeling good, because I did feel at least a little better now.

“Yeah, she’s been coming over to movie nights for a month actually...” Nick said and grinned slightly. Was that so? I’d have to ask Dakota about that at some point, as to whether there was something there.

“John’s not going to be there is he?” I asked, not knowing why I asked after I’d already agreed to go over there.

“Nope, he has family dinners on the same night,” Nick said and I almost was a little disappointed. Well that was great, now I’d spend the next two hours trying to rationalize why I was disappointed about the fact that he wouldn’t be there. Lovely.

“Alright, well I’ll accompany Dakota. See you whenever it is!” I said, laughing goofily because I was just going with this not knowing anything about it really.

“Bye Andy,” he said and I sat my phone down, dressing and fixing my makeup which is to say removing the sleep and crying smeared makeup and redoing it. I walked down the hall to knock on my cousin’s door and I went inside when I heard a quiet, “Come in”

“So. You and Nick?” I asked bluntly and Dakota who was drinking a glass of water at the time choked on her water and started coughing hard, spluttering from water going down the wrong way.

“What do you mean?” she said when she could talk again, a little red, but that was probably from lack of oxygen more than anything.

“I mean that you go to movie night with him and Halvo and you gave nick my number easily, and clearly talk to him a lot. I was just suggesting you were good friends, but considering the fact that you nearly just choked on water, I’m reconsidering,” I said, pleased at the way she began to twiddle with her fingers nervously.

“Yeah, we’re good friends. He’s a good friend and I uh,” she cleared her throat and looked down, mumbling something I couldn’t make out and I was sure even a bat wouldn’t be able to hear.
“What was that?” I said, enjoying myself as she shifted uncomfortably and looked back up at me.

“I don’t know Andy. He’s just great. Whatever, don’t look at me like that,” she said and I knew what look she meant, my smug sort of ‘aw you have a crush’ look.

“Did you really forget Deej? About the..anniversary?” I said, lacking a better way to describe what I was talking about, thus borrowing John’s.

“I’m sorry Andy,” she said and I nodded, but honestly, it was fine. I wouldn’t really expect her to remember it like her mom or I did.

“It’s really alright. Now, I hear there is a movie night for us to go to!” I said, not wanting to get on the topic of what the public seemed to believe my role was in my parents demise. To her credit, Dakota knew to grab onto the subject change and not keep pushing.

“Halvo is picking us up in twenty minutes, so now, I have to get ready and you should go talk to mom,” DJ said and I nodded, leaving her to get ready for the movie night that was definitely not at all a covert date.

I went downstairs and saw my Aunt in the kitchen cooking a meal for two, obviously she knew about movie night. When I got in there and she hadn’t noticed I cleared my throat and she turned around, smiling at me.

“Well nice to see you’re awake and it seems like you plan on going to movie night with Dakota too after all,” she said and I really took a second to appreciate what a nice person my aunt was.

“Yeah, she told me to come see you though so I was wondering if there was something you wanted to tell me,” I said and she gave me a look that told me that this wasn’t going to be a particularly easy and carefree conversation.

“Andrea, I just wanted to talk to you about the news mostly. None of your family’s friends believed you did it and we tried to talk to the papers and tell them it wasn’t you and that you had probably died that day and they just hadn’t found you. They bought it mostly, that you’d died along with your parents in the fire, but for a while before we tried to clear things up there was speculation. Obviously it was stupid, but the news is often..” Aunt Amy said and I nodded, but something was bothering me.

“You said family friends didn’t believe it but John who was Mrs. O’Callaghan’s son seemed to believe it…” I said, fighting my temptation to call her Mrs. C.

“She never believed and neither did the rest of the family. But John got a lot of grief from the whole thing. Reporters harassed him for a while about the situation until Mrs. O’Callaghan got a restraining order on them. But he was young, I think he was impressionable,” she said, giving me a look of sympathy. And I bore it even though I was starting to get really tired of all the sympathetic looks on my behalf.

“Oh. Well, I think Halvo is going to be here soon so I need to go check on Dakota. But thanks Aunt Amy, for explaining,” I said and hugged her before darting back upstairs. I knocked on my cousin’s door, she pulled it open, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“You know it’s a movie night right? Cause you look date night ready to be honest,” I said and she flushed a little and gave my arm a playful punch. I just turned around now with her in tow to head downstairs and wait to be picked up which didn’t take long. Soon we were off, me sitting shotgun and Dakota in the back.

“It’ll be nice not being the third wheel for once,” Halvo said after a while of silence as he drove and I erupted into giggles which cause Dakota to protest that he wasn’t a third wheel and they were all friends.

“Yes, I often dress very nicely for movie nights with two friends and would totally not be rollin in in PJs,” I retorted and Halvo threw a grin in my direction. Dakota knew she was outnumber so she just surrendered and grumbled to herself until we got to Nick’s place at which she perked up.

“Hey Nick!” she said excitedly when she saw him on the doorstep paying for pizza and Halvo and I both burst into laughter which drew a look of confusion from nick and rather threatening one from Dakota. We walked up to the house and went inside, ending up in the living room.

“What was so funny?” Nick asked and Halvo and I exchanged mischievous looks while Dakota sat there glaring a warning directed at us.

“Absolutely nothing,” I said, still smiling, “But I’d like some pizza and Harry Potter now, please.” There was a ring at the doorbell and now it was Dakota’s turn to grin like a chesire cat, a grin that didn’t bode well. There was the sound of the door opening and someone letting themselves in and then John O’Fucking Callaghan was standing there looking in.

“Oh, John, fancy seeing you here,” Nick said in a way that made it perfectly clear it wasn’t coincidence whatsoever.

“What are you talking about, I told you I didn’t have dinner today so I could come over,” John said, raising an eyebrow at Nick. Now people were trying to force me to be friends with John, this was just great, as if my day hadn’t already been crappy. I soon realized too that the last seat available on the couch was next to me and I just rolled my eyes; it was so predictable.

At least I could eat and watch the movie without having to talk to John, so with that in mind I put on a happy face and stole a slice of pizza from the box, humming along with the Harry Potter intro song.