Sooner or Later

Kenzie went inside and headed straight for the bathroom. Let’s just say she didn’t need a gym member ship when she had best friends like hers. Now that she was alone she noticed how bad she smelt, how hadn’t she noticed this early? The odor must have been covered up by the smelly boys around her. She hopped in the shower and couldn’t have been in there for more than fifteen minutes. She walked into her room with a towel wrapped around her head and another wrapped around her chest to find out that had given John enough time to blow up her phone though. She had four texts, two missed calls and a voice mail.

Hey, what did you mean by slob…?

Did I do something?

Why aren’t you answering me?

Okay, that’s it; I’m coming to get you.

Great; she probably only had enough time to get dressed before he barged inside and invaded her personal space. With a sigh she grabbed the first pieces of clothing she could find and pulled them on; a Nirvana shirt and a pair of skinny jeans; the epitome of her wardrobe. As predicted, she only had enough time to pull on her combat boots before John stomped into her room.

“Where have you been?” he demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I was in the shower, something you should probably be doing if you’re going on that date tonight. I can smell you all the way over hear.”

“Yeah, well I don’t know what to wear!” he exclaimed. She raised her eyebrows at him, recalling his previous objections to his help. “Shut up,” he snapped, grabbing her hand and pulling her outside to his truck.

“I didn’t say a thing,” she giggled, letting herself be dragged around like a ragdoll.

“Did you really raid your closet?” she asked, looking around the messy room after the short drive to his place.

“No,” he scoffed throwing a pile of clothes off his bed and onto the floor. Well that explained it.

“So where are you taking her?” Kenzie asked, picking up a shirt from his dresser and smelling it. Nope, definitely not.

“A movie, then maybe we’ll grab a bite,” he replied. He was lounging on the bed staring at her. She was starting to think that he wasn’t really worried about what he was going to wear, he was just lazy.

“How original of you John?” She rolled her eyes, heading over to his closet, there had to be something clean in there. “Bet you five bucks she wears leggings and a crop top.”

“You can’t possibly know that, you’ve never seen her in anything other than her work uniform.”

“Believe me, I know. Now, you’re not going to want to wear, well, what you’re wearing, but you’re not going to want to dress up too much either,” she told him.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” he asked, sitting up, glancing down at his current outfit. He was wearing a black cut off t-shirt, a plaid shirt around his waist and back jeans.

“John, you look like a cross between a homeless person and a five year old. And you definitely smell like a hobo, how about you shower while I take care of this?” He sighed, rolling off his bed and pushing himself into a standing position.

“Fine, thank you for this Kenzie, really. It means a lot,” he pressed his lips to the top of her head and left her alone in his room. Minutes later, she heard the water running from down the hall. Okay, time to get down to business; she needed to get this right.

Now, as previously mentioned, band t-shirts and plaid shirts were a little too casual, he always wore them to the coffee shop, he needed to impress this girl if he wanted to keep her around. He couldn’t really wear a button up and his suspenders, yeah a lot of girls found it attractive, but it wasn’t really movie attire. What about a short sleeved button up? That could work. She started pushing through the rack up hung up shirts until she found his leather jacket. Fall was rolling around, it would be cool out. A girl like Shannon either would have forgotten to bring a jacket or would have neglected to bring one with the hope that she could steal John’s. Bingo. Pair that with these black skinny jeans, that white t-shirt and his own pair of combat boots and you had the picture perfect bad boy. Picture perfect. She felt her pone vibrate in her pocket. She dropped the pile of clothes onto the bed so that she could read the text from Garrett.

We’re ordering pizza; it should be here in twenty minutes. You snooze you lose. ;)

Shit, she needed to get to get to Garrett’s if she wanted any dinner tonight. She would have to go by foot so she had to leave not. She grabbed the pile of clothes and placed it outside the bathroom door.

“John,” she said knocking, hoping she was speaking loud enough for him to hear her over the water. “I’m heading out. Text me later; tell me how it went!” With that she left out the back door and hastily started walking towards Garrett’s place, praying that she would get there in time. They may have just had lunch, but she sure worked up an appetite today. That was another thing about being friends with a bunch of guys; you don’t worry about how much you eat. You certainly get influenced into eating a lot; you worked up an appetite throughout the day and then there was always food around or there was always food involved. Just thinking about it made Kenzie’s stomach growl. She quickened her pace; nope she would not be missing out on the pizza, not today.

“Did I make it in time? Is there any left?” Kenzie exclaimed once she’d knocked one on Garrett’s apartment door and had thrown it open. She had found the guys in the kitchen around the table, loading their plates with food.

“I saved you some,” Pat replied, holding up a plate with a slice on it for her.

“Patrick, you doll,” she kissed his cheek and grabbed another slice from the box to add it to her place. Her appetite had increased during her walk and she knew if she didn’t claim her food now, there was no guarantee that there would be any left. All is fair in love and food with these boys.
“So what’s the plan for tonight?” she asked as she chewed on some of her pizza. They had relocated to Garrett’s living room and she was lounging on the couch.

“Ken bought a bunch of video games on sale so were gonna play some of them,” Garrett replied as he set up the consol. Kenzie groaned, thinking that maybe she should have stayed home. Sitting around watching them play videos games all night wasn’t really worth the free food. They always chose the most boring games and they never let her join in. She decided that she would entertain herself with her phone seeing as she didn’t want to walk home alone in the dark. She’d gotten a text from John.

I owe you five bucks.

She laughed, girls were too predictable.

When she complains about being cold give her your jacket.

“Geez, I know John’s not here but would it kill you to be a little social?” Kennedy teased as she put away her phone.

“Well excuse me John’s the only one who includes me on nights like these. You know I hate it when you play video games,” she retorted. “Why can’t I play?”

“Because it’s no fun with you, you always win,” Jared replied.

“Not my fault you guys are sore losers,” she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Alright that’s it, no more!” Garrett paused the game and threw his controller away from him, making the others groan. They had been at it for a couple of hours or so already.

“Come on, it wasn’t that bad of a game!” Jared exclaimed.

“Yeah, Gary” Pat threw in, making Garrett glare at him. They were playing this weird post-apocalyptic game and where they had gotten all the zombies were walking around groaning Gary and it had been getting to the bassist.

“How about we do something Kenzie wants?” he suggested, making the girl look up from her phone. She could kiss him right now. She pondered what they could all do.

“Movie?” she suggested. The boys whined, that’s what they always did when they got together. “How about a drinking game, then?” They all agreed, what could be more fun than watching a ridiculous movie while getting plastered with your best friend. They started off with Psycho with a half empty case of beer before moving on to watching The Hangover during which they moved onto drinking liquor seeing as they ran out of beer.

Kenzie was feeling a buzz, the movie seemed funnier than the last time she had seen it and she was pretty happy. She wasn’t drunk though, she was completely aware of her surroundings.

“Dude, do you have any tequila?” Kennedy asked.

“Maybe in the kitchen somewhere,” Garrett groaned from the other couch. “But if I get up I might vomit.”

“I’ll go,” Kenzie said getting up.

“I think you’ve had enough to drink too Kenz,” Jared pointed out. Garrett and Pat had already quit, but she didn’t want to, she felt fine. She stood up from the couch and took a step towards the kitchen, but she didn’t make it very far. She tripped on her own feet and fell back onto the couch, giggling too herself. The upright position had finally let all the alcohol go to her head.

“Not drunk my ass,” Jared chuckled, patting her thigh. “You’re cut off.” Kenzie pouted, she wasn’t even drunk. Sure, maybe she was tipsy rather than just happy, but she wasn’t plastered! She could out drink any of these guys any day of the week!

There was a knock on the door and John appeared a moment later.

“Johnny!” Kenzie exclaimed, perking up. He would let her drink a little more. He stared at her quizzically for a moment, why was she so happy to see him? He took in the rest of his surroundings and he put the pieces together, seeing the whole picture.

“You guys got her drunk,” he growled.

“I’m not drunk!” Kenzie exclaimed. John rolled his eyes.

“Alright, how many fingers am I holding up?”

“Well stop moving them so fast and I’ll be able to tell you,” she replied. John looked at her skeptically.

“Alright I’m taking you home,” he reached for her hand and tried to pull her up.

“No, I don’t want to do. I wanna stay here,” the girl pouted, but John didn’t listen. She tried to fight back, but her feeble attempts couldn’t stop him. He threw her over his shoulder and started heading towards the door.

“Hey John?” Pat called; he turned to look at the younger boy. “You may want to turn her upright if you don’t want her vomiting down your back. She looks kind of green.” The lanky boy quickly put his friend into an upright position before picking her up bridal style.

“So long Gary, and thanks for all the booze!” Kenzie called as John carried her out to his truck.

“How was your date?” she asked as they drove towards her apartment.

“I’ll tell you when you’re sober,” he snapped. “I still can’t believe you guys got wasted. Whose idea was it?” He was probably going to have to kick their ass tomorrow.

“Mine,” she replied. He looked at her shocked. “John I’m only a year and a half younger than you, you know?” she pointed out. “Besides, at twenty-two, almost twenty-three, I’m allowed to go get drunk.”

He’d known this girl for ages; to him she was still his sweet little innocent best friend who lived up the road. He was older, he had to protect her.

“And what came over you to want to get drunk?” he asked as he pulled up in front of her building.

“I dunno, we were bored,” she slurred. He chuckled; she was pretty amusing when she was drunk. He picked her up again before trudging up the three flights of stairs of her building to reach her apartment. He cursed her landlord for neglecting to fix to elevator. Kenzie didn’t mind, she told him it was her daily exercise.

“What are you giggling about?” John asked as he tried to unlock her door with the set of keys he’d fished out of her pocket.

“Usually you’re the drunken one and I have to take care of you.” He rolled his eyes and helped her up from the floor where she insisted on sitting. Not because she couldn’t stand, no it was because “her feet hurt.”

She walked passed him and headed towards her room. She unbuttoned her jeans and kicked them off before climbing into her bed. The shirt she had on was long enough to cover her bum, not that she cared right now.

“You gonna come cuddle?” she asked. John glanced at his phone, it was only midnight but he was exhausted. They were probably going to meet up tomorrow to talk about his date so he’d save himself the hassle of driving home and coming back in the morning. Besides, she’d probably need someone to hold back her hair in a couple of hours, not to mention when he was the one who was drunk he always made her stay with him too. With a sigh he kicked off his shoes and his jeans and peeled off his shirt. Shannon had gone home with his jacket, not that he minded, it looked good on her. He climbed in next to his best friend and she immediately found her place against his body. Her tiny frame was almost swallowed by his larger one. Their legs entangled together, his arms wrapped around her and her head rested in the crook of his neck. With a sigh she quickly fell asleep, listening to the sound of his heart beating.