Stand And Be Strong

We woke up early the next morning, since the furniture was supposed to be delivered between 9 and 10. Casey and I were like zombies at this hour. We trudged our way through the apartment making coffee and sitting next to each other on the floor, waiting for the doorbell to ring. It never did, though at around 11:30 Casey went outside to see if they were there. She was only gone for a few seconds before she returned screaming her head off.

“what is the matter with you?” I said, standing up and putting my coffee cup down on the counter.

“it’s all out in the bloody hallway!” she screamed. Fuck. I walked out the door and sure enough, there was the couch, the box containing the table, four chairs stacked up, and several smaller boxes. “we cant move this by ourselves!”

“I mean, we can probably ask Max but I don’t know if he’s home…” I hesitated. I didn’t want to burden him with this when he had only met yesterday but Casey was marching over to his apartment door. He looked tired as hell.

“hey Max, sorry to bother you but uhh, do you know how to move a couch?” she asked him nicely. I laughed. She was screaming a few minutes ago and now she was sweet little Casey. I saw Max smirk in the doorway and glance in my direction, though I didn’t hear his response.

“he said all the guys are there so he’ll bring them over in a few minutes” she smiled, coming back to me. We went back inside and I started more coffee in case they wanted some. All we really had inside of here, were counters, our beds, a refrigerator, and a coffee maker that Casey had brought with her with some coffee grounds.

There was a knock on the door and I went to answer it because Casey was just laying on the floor for some reason. “did somebody call for help?” Max smiled widely with his four friends behind him looking a little bit tired except Matt, who was clearly hung over.

“yeah, can you just help us move the couch in here? We can probably get the rest of them..” I said biting my lip. He nodded and him and Dan were on their way out the door. I pulled Casey up from the ground and pulled her into the hallway with me. We each grabbed a chair and brought them inside as Dan, Max, and Josh lifted the couch and carefully brought it through the doorway. We told them where to put it and they put it down. “do you need any more help?”

I told him we’d probably be okay but Casey jumped up and asked if they knew how to put a table together. I hated bothering them with all this and I’m sure Casey and I would have gotten it put together eventually if we tried. Once the box was inside though, the seven of us sat around it in a circle, passing the directions around and trying to figure out how to get this done. Dan was on one side of me and Chris was on the other.

“the pieces are probably lettered for a reason…” Max mumbled, but no one was listening because everyone was talking aloud about their own ideas. Except Dan and I, that is. The directions had reached us and we were looking them over discussing amongst ourselves how we would go about setting up the table. About a half hour later, the table was up and standing in our kitchen and everyone was sprawled out amongst the couch and the various chairs.

“thanks so much for helping me, really” I told Dan as we were the only ones who were left in the kitchen. Everyone else gave up on the table and went to watch a movie, leaving Dan and I to it.

“it’s no problem, love” he smiled and I nodded. We were silent which was becoming slightly awkward, just standing here in my kitchen with some guy. “do you guys want to come out with all of us later on? We’ll probably go out to eat or get some drinks or something..” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

“yeah, sure” I nodded and he smiled before going out in the living room to leave with his friends.