Realize

I was sitting on my couch, watching an old episode of Boy Meets World when I heard my phone ring. I looked on my coffee table, but couldn’t see my phone. I hollered at Pamela.

“Hey Pam, have you seen my phone?”

I heard her grunt from the kitchen. She was preparing dinner and with her being in culinary school, no one but the chef was allowed in the kitchen while she was cooking.

“Can’t see it, but it’s ringing is ruining my concentration.”

I rolled my eyes. I threw my comfy blanket off of me and stood up from the couch. Whoever was on the phone must really need to talk to me, seeing as after more than 10 rings, my phone was still going off. Stepping around the coffee table, I walked over to the table by the front door and saw that I had left my purse there. I had gone into work, but left early because I felt sick. Picking up my purse, the door opened beside me. I smiled as I saw my and Pamela’s other roommate, Denise. She rolled her eyes at me.

“Please tell me she’s not cooking dinner.”

I let out a light chuckle. “It’s Thursday. She’s been cooking on Thursdays for the last year almost. Why, what’s up?”

She threw her bag down on the ground. “I’ve got some small groceries, including,” she pulled a container out of her bag and showed it to me, “ice cream and she won’t let me in there to put it away.”

I shrugged my shoulders, still digging for my phone, which had finally stopped ringing. “Well, you could always ask, but you already know how that’s going to go.”

She huffed and walked past me, down the hall to her room. I heard her holler a ‘hello’ to Pam on her way. A smile formed on my face as I felt my phone. Finally coming into my view, I searched through my missed calls. I saw that it was my mom. I looked to see if she left a message. She did, and just before I punch in my pin to listen to it, I hear a scream from the kitchen. Dropping my phone beside my purse, I ran towards the kitchen.

“Hey, what’s going on?” I saw Pamela looking at Denise with fire in her eyes.

“She’s in the kitchen. Roxy, you know it’s Thursday.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh Pamela, she’s just putting the ice cream away, it’s not going to ruin your kitchen shakra or whatever.”

“But Roxy…”

“No buts, Pamela. Just let her do this small thing.” I looked around the kitchen. “You’re almost done, anyway.”

Pamela looked around and slowly nodded her head. “Yeah, but it’s Thursday.” She said in a small voice.

“Oh, suck it up, Pamela.” Denise said as she walked over to the fridge, putting the ice cream in the freezer. “I’m all done. Now, I’m out of your hair. The kitchen is once again, yours.”

As Denise walked back out of the kitchen, Pamela looked at me with pleading eyes.

“Oh Pamela, you knew this was going to happen on some Thursday. You’ve been doing this for over a year now.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, I guess. I just thought that it would be you to do it. I’m less scared to hit you.”

I rolled my eyes and added a smirk as I, too, walked out of the kitchen. I walked back towards the door and heard my phone ring once again. I walked towards the door, and without looking at the caller ID, I answered my phone.

“I was just about to check your message, what’s up?”

“Hi Roxy, it’s James.”

My eyes widened and I began to stammer. “Uh, um, hey, how are you?”

I heard him lightly chuckle. “You thought it was someone else.”

“What? Oh, yeah, I just missed a call from my mom and I thought she was calling me again. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Listen, I’m sorry it’s taken me this long to call.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, a little confused. “Did I give you a date when to call?”

“No,”he chuckled. “No, you didn’t.”

“Well then, you don’t have to feel bad.”

James and I quickly fell into a conversation. I moved over to the couch and sat down, not even noticing Pamela flailing her arms in front of me.

“Um, James, can I call you back. My roommate is being a nuisance.”

“Oh, oh, is that him? Can I… can,..oh, give me that.” My jaw dropped as Pamela gripped my phone out of my hand and began to talk to James. Through sheer shock, I couldn’t make out all of their conversation, but I what I got out of it was James was coming over for dinner. Pamela wanted a new guinea pig for her cooking. When she handed me back my phone, my jaw finally closed.

“You invited him for dinner?!”

She nodded, innocently. “Yes, I did. I need someone new to test my cooking.”

“And what about your…oh, I don’t know what he is now. But, what about Chase?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, I don’t even want to talk about that. Let’s just enjoy the evening.” She left the living room, humming to herself.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. Looking down at my outfit, I gasped.

“Um, Pamela?” I yelled from my spot on the couch. I heard her respond. “When are we eating?”

I heard her yell back, “five minutes!”

I quickly hurried off the couch and ran to my room to change. I was still in my baggy sweat pants and the old t-shirt I changed into when I came home from work. I was feeling a lot better, thanks to Pamela’s chicken noodle soup that I had for lunch. I heard Denise laugh as she saw me run past her bedroom door. When I finally found a good enough shirt to wear that didn’t look like something I’d wear to work, I faintly heard a knock at the door. I didn’t know why this was bothering so much. It wasn’t like James and I were together. Sure, I enjoyed talking to him, but I didn’t take the time to think about how I felt about him. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about this before I walked out of my room. When I opened my door, Denise was there waiting for me, fully equipped with a smirk.

“Damn, that boy is fine.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “You did not just say that.”

“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. Just be thankful I have Frank, or you would be one lonely girl.”

“Denise, we’re just friends. Hell, I hardly know him.”

“Your cheeks tell a different story.” She said as she walked away.

I raised a hand up to my cheek and could feel the heat radiating off of it. I shook my head and walked into the kitchen. My hopes to get a moment alone with Pamela to ask her how long dinner would take were crushed when I saw not only Pamela in the kitchen, but James as well.

“Hey Roxy.” James smiled at me. I returned his smile.

“Hey, long time no talk.”

He smirked and nodded. “Dinner smells delicious, huh?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it sure does. Pam, didn’t you say before you interrupted our phone call that dinner was ready?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes, Roxy, it’s ready. Why don’t you take James to the table while I bring it out? Denise has it all set up.”

I nodded and gestured James to follow me. As we left the kitchen and I was sure we were out of Pamela’s earshot, I turned to him.

“I’m so sorry about this.”

He shook his head. “Oh, it’s no big deal. I was only going to order pizza. This is much better.”

I smiled, hiding certain thoughts that were floating around in my head. We walked up to the table and sat down. Denise had placed us beside each other, even though there were never seats spoken for at any other dinner. Denise smirked at me as I sat down.

Dinner went by pretty smoothly, but if I thought that it would end at dinner, I was so, so wrong. After dinner, Pamela asked James to try her famous chocolate peanut butter balls for dessert. I gave her a pleading look, but received nothing but a smirk. James excitedly agreed and next thing I knew, the four of us were sitting in the living room.

“Well, Chase is just getting off work, so I’m gonna head over there with the left overs.”

I rolled my eyes as Pamela stood up to leave. She turned and faced Denise. I was sure that she was giving her a death glare, wanting her to get up.

“Oh, and I’m gonna….well, I’m gonna go find something to do.”

I heard James chuckle lightly beside me. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair as Denise, too, stood up and my two roommates walked out. Within five minutes, they both left the apartment, leaving James and I alone.

“Okay, so was that as obvious as it seemed?” James asked, chuckling beside me.

I slowly nodded my head, chuckling myself. “Yes, yes it was.”

“So, dinner was nice.”

I smiled. “Yeah, it was. Pamela cooks every Thursday night. It’s kind of a tradition.”

“Yeah, she told me.”

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, not knowing what to say.

“So….I hate to ask, but I don’t know what else to say, any news on the lockout?”

“No good news, unfortunately, but I didn’t really come here to talk about that.”

My ears perked up a little bit. “You came here to talk about something?”

I turned my head to see James shrug his shoulders. “Well, I already told you I was sorry for not calling. I know that we never made plans in the grocery store as to when we would call or text each other, but I felt like I needed to make the first move and I stalled on that.” He ran a hand through his hair.

“James, you don’t need to explain anything. We’re not…well, we’re friend, much to the disbelief of my roommates.”

He smirked lightly. “Yeah, I know. I just, I don’t know, I felt like for the first time, with you, I can talk about anything and not feel judged or worry about the lockout or anything to do with my job.”

“You can do those things. You can talk to me about anything.”

I heard a cell phone go off and I knew it wasn’t mine. Looking around to see if rather Pamela or Denise had left their cell behind, I heard James whisper beside me.

“Um, it’s mine.”

I looked over at him and he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He didn’t put the phone up to his ear, so I guessed it was a text message. He chuckled lightly at the message. I tried to hide my interest as to who was texting him, but I wasn’t doing a very good job.

“Um, that was Paul. He needs my help with something.” He chuckled.

I could feel my shoulders slump, but tried to hide my disappointment.

“Oh, okay.”

I heard James shuffle in his seat. “You….uh….you could come with me, you know, if you want to. I just have to go pick him up and take him home. He’s just a tad wasted.”

He showed me the text message, and not being able to comprehend a single syllable, I chuckled to myself. “Lead the way.” I said as I stood up from the couch. We slipped on our shoes and after I grabbed my purse, we were out the door.

I sent texts to both Denise and Pamela, letting them know that I left the house. Pamela immediately replied with a “don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. ;)” I smirked at that and continued looking out the window.

“So, where abouts is mister Drunky McDrunkerpants?”

James chuckled at my new name for his teammate. “He’s at your work, actually.”

I tried to hide my giggles, but a couple slipped through. “I could just see Roman seething now.”

“Haha, yeah. That guy is a tight-ass. I don’t know how you deal with him.”

I shook my head. “It gets easier with each day, believe me. You just tune him out after a while.”

“Oh, guess I’ll have to come by a little more often then, huh?”

I looked over at him with a smile. “Yeah, I guess so.”