I Like The Way It Sounds

Garrett never responded to my text, not that I expected him to. That’s exactly how I knew that everything was fine between us once again.

It was Thursday afternoon and I was enduring the last 30 minutes that I would ever have in a high school class. Seniors had Friday off while underclassmen had review classes for their impending finals/Regents exams the next week, prom was on Saturday night, and Commencement was the following Saturday morning. Anyway, I was sitting in my Human Anatomy class. Since it was the last day, my teacher, Mr. Gittler gave us a free period. My classmates sat in clusters signing year books and sharing some tearful, premature goodbyes. I sat with Char, an open notebook, my favorite purple inky-pen and my cell phone.

We were making a list as we texted Tim Kirch; he was the manager of The Maine and also Pat’s older brother. He’d called the night before to let us know that Eric Halvorsen had met up with the band in Washington D.C. and was catching a ride in their van to Massachusetts. (Eric is in the band A Rocket To The Moon and the lead singer of his band, Nick Santino, lives outside of Boston. Eric and John have been inseparable since they were in Kindergarten, which means that Eric is yet another “brother” of mine, Nick too.) He and Nick were working on some writing and had figured that being together would make the process easier, and Eric felt the need to spend some extra time with The Maine on the way, and, by default, me. Now I was going to have John, Garrett, Pat, Jared, Kennedy, Tim and Eric staying in my apartment. Yay?

My Dad left for a business trip on Tuesday night and wasn’t coming home until Saturday afternoon. That meant that I had to set up the apartment by myself, unless I could convince Char to help me. (I planned on doing this by telling her how impressed Pat would be by her assistance…)

Anyway, our list. We’d worked out sleeping arrangements for all of the guys; since my Dad wasn’t home, John was going to take his bed, Jared, Kennedy and Eric would share the guest bedroom, and Tim and Pat would each take a living room couch. That only left Garrett. Being my best friend, he got the trundle bed in my room. When I was younger, we’d bought it in order to make sleepovers with Char easier, but we always spent the night in front of the TV and not in my room. Now, that bed was Garrett’s whenever he was in town; we can stay up and talk and stay next to each other all while keeping things “innocent”, which always eased my Dad’s fears of my having a male best friend. Other than that, we had a running shopping list dedicated completely to taco ingredients per Tim’s request, plus last minute prom stuff.

Char and I headed home after the bell finally rang, stopping to buy food and air freshener (because boys smell). When we got back to my apartment we plugged in my iPod and began cleaning as we danced along to all of our favorite songs. By 2:30 in the morning, the entire apartment was spotless; all of the beds (and couches) had fresh bedding, the kitchen was fully stocked, the bathroom cabinet was stocked full of soap to wash away repulsive “tour germs”. Since we’d spent the whole night cleaning my place, Char invited me to sleepover at hers so that we wouldn’t mess up our handiwork. I agreed enthusiastically and changed into pajamas, grabbing my phone and keys.

As few minutes later, we were sprawled on the giant fluffy carpet that was Charlotte’s bedroom floor and I decided to text the boys quickly. They didn’t have a show the next day, so I knew that they were up drinking or just goofing around in the van. I let out a tiny squeal and smiled at the thought of getting to spend the entire weekend with “my boys”, Char got up and hugged me, knowing how much they all meant to me, as I typed “See you tomorrow! (And remember, I have photographic evidence of how clean this was before you get here…)” and attached a picture of my freshly-disinfected bathroom.

One by one, they responded;
Pat: It’s shiiiiiiiiiiiny! See you tomorrow, Caite!!
Jared: Caitlin, you know I cannot make these kinds of promises! Save me a bear hug anyway?
Kennedy: Don’t blame me! I don’t even have as much hair has some of these other clowns…
John: I know Ken’s being a girl and talking about his hair. Ignore him, we all do. See you tomorrow, sis.
Tim: See ya, Cait!
Eric: You’ll make an exception for me, right? LOVE YA GURL.

Garrett’s response took a little bit longer, but it was my favorite… “I love you too.”