Just Friends (4 page)

A car horn blazed from outside, awakening me from my nap. I realised my nap had lasted a lot longer than I intended. I shot to my feet and threw my clothes off and snatched at the ones I laid out. I struggled to jump into my jeans, whoever was downstairs must have thought I was trying to jump through the floor. I eventually slotted into them and surrounded myself with a cloud of deodorants and perfumes. I put on my black leather jacket that had been laid in my wardrobe for a while. The car horn blazed from outside again. I hopped out of my room as I placed on my boots, and sprinted down the stairs, jumping the bottom two steps. I Shouted goodbye to my parents who were sat at dining table. I slammed the door shut, catching the edge of my jacket in it. The perfect way to start my evening.

“Sup bro.” Max said as I paced up to the car.

“Maximus.” I replied, tilting my head in acknowledgement and hopping into the back seat of his truck. Ethan had taken passenger alongside Max. As I was fastening my seatbelt, Ethan turned around, “Miss Bishop.”

“Mr. Knight.” I replied with a thumbs up.

Max is a surprisingly good driver. Sure, the truck jolted at the start of our journey, he was a little nervous. It’s the first time we had been in his truck with him. It was nice. I wish I could afford a car. I’ve passed my test and everything, but I never manage to save enough money to buy one of my own… I drive my parent’s when it’s free, until I can afford one or have one bought for me. Ethan and Max were strangely quiet in the truck during the journey to Verity’s. I’m sure they’re both anxious of how the night is going to pan out. I gazed out of the window, focusing on the streetlights flowing by.

I must have dosed off for a few minutes, as Max banking the truck on the curb, woke me. He probably hoped for a smoother arrival. Still, he stuck the handbrake on as if sharply banking the curb was his exact intentions. I reached for the door handle before Ethan beat me to it from the other side.

“Me lady.” He said, offering his hand to help me out of the truck.

Ethan’s outfit didn’t really surprise me; black fitted jeans and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the hinge of his elbow. His typical everyday outfit except for his trainers, they’d been replaced. He’d exchanged them for his smart black shoes with pointy ends, accompanied by the black tie with white spots, I bought him for his thirteenth birthday. I pulled the back, tightening and readjusting it for him. Max walked around to our side of the truck and huddled us in.

“Right team, remember no man gets left behind or abandoned. I’m not drinking tonight, so please try to keep your behaviour to a mature level. I don’t want to embarrass you guys tomorrow with stories of unsuitable things you did while you’re nurturing your aggressive hangovers.”

Ethan laughed and put his hand on his shoulder, “I doubt we’ll even have that much tonight my man. We’re going to enjoy this on a sensible level.”

Max nodded sarcastically, “Whatever you say sargeant, right let’s roll out team.”

I couldn’t help but smile at them for being such dorks. They really spent too much time watching movies. I was genuinely expecting them to commando role and crawl up to the front door while I walked behind them, questioning our friendship.

“Breakfast, Hey you made it! I assumed you weren’t coming!” Verity said, throwing herself at Ethan, wrapping her arms around him as she opened the door. “There’s booze in the kitchen and downstairs. Try not to make a mess please. It’d help me out when it comes to cleaning afterwards.”

She already appeared rather drunk she was swaying from side to side. It was only 9:17pm. Seventeen minutes behind schedule. They must have started early. She grabbed Ethan’s wrist, “Come, let me show you around!”

Before Ethan could turn around to say anything, Verity had already dragged him away. Most of the attendees must’ve been downstairs in the basement. The bass from the music vibrated the floor below us. Almost shooting you off your feet. Max and I weren’t really in the mood to have bleeding eardrums this evening. I wandered around Verity’s living room while Max went into the kitchen to grab us a drink. It was surprising to see how welcoming Verity’s home was. I mean, it’s beautiful. Her parents have great taste. It was like stepping into page twenty of a furniture catalogue. Everything was perfectly positioned. I wanted to slip off my boots and scrunch my feet into the luxurious cream carpet. As I stood and stared down at the carpet, debating whether or not to take my boots off and scrunch my feet into it, something caught my eye. It was a framed photo booth picture of what I assumed to be Verity’s parents. I walked over to it, wanting to examine it further. They appeared to be around the same age as me. It made me feel all warm and funny, to see them together at such a young age and still be together now. That rarely happens anymore, everyone’s too busy cheating on one another. I hope they’re still as happy now as they were in those photos.

Max re-entered the room accompanied by two tall glasses of orange juice. “Don’t worry, I checked the carton, it’s not from concentrate.” Max once gave us a big speech about how he hated concentrated orange juice and forbid Ethan and I to drink it. I haven’t touched a single drop since.

“What are you looking at?” He asked, nodding towards the framed picture. “I’m guessing it’s Verity’s parents. I thought it was kinda cute, they’re so young.” Max didn’t seem to share the same emotion as me. “She’s hot.”

“I suppose so.” I sighed. To be honest, Verity’s Mum was gorgeous. Her and Verity could be twins. Her Mum’s hair is just wavier and darker.

“Shall we find Ethan?” I asked.

I was expecting him to have rejoined us by now. Max nodded.

Ethan’s voice echoed throughout the room as we descended the staircase to the basement. “Pick a card, any card please.” He’d been here no longer than fifteen minutes and he’d already started performing magic tricks. Max and I gathered around the crowd of fifteen or twenty people that made up the basement population. They had formed a circle around two sofas where Ethan was sitting across from Verity, holding out a fanned deck of cards towards her. She chose a card from the deck after peering amongst them for several seconds.

“Show everyone the card, but make sure I don’t see it. Return the card to a different place in the deck,” Ethan announced as he placed his hands over his eyes. She held the card up so everyone could see. It was the three of diamonds. She struggled to return the card back to the deck so used her other hand in support.

“Is August here?” He asked, standing up as he surveyed the room.

He eventually found me at the very back.

He pointed at me. “Come forward, please.”

I crossed my arms, slowly making my way towards him.

“Be a dear and shuffle the cards for me, please.” He whispered in my ear. Even after all these years I’d spent with Ethan, I always struggled to shuffle a deck of cards to a decent standard. Nevertheless, I unfolded my arms, snatched the cards off him and poorly shuffled them before handing them back. He thanked me and returned to his seat on the sofa. Ethan grabbed Verity’s hands, placing the deck between them and based his hands on top of hers.

“Your card has now vanished from the deck.”

She stared at Ethan before she forced open her hands and searched through the deck for her card. It wasn’t there, of course.

“How did you do that?” Her drunken state seemed to enhance the amount of disbelief. Before Ethan could reply with the corny line,
magic
– I interrupted. “Check your shoe, Verity.” She stood without questioning my odd comment. Flicked off one of her little blue slip-on pumps, right foot first. The vanished card wasn’t there. After discovering its emptiness, the left pump quickly flicked off into her hands. A look of distraught spread over her face. She reached into her pump, pulling out a card. It was the three of diamonds, in all its glory. Describing Verity as excited would be an understatement.

“Oh my God, oh my God. How did you do that? That’s
amazing
!”

She turned to her friends, handing them the card. They all snatched at it like it was a souvenir for them to keep. The circle gathered around went wild – clapping and cheering. Ethan bowed, before offering his hand out to me. It made me blush, but I took a small curtsy.

“Thank you everyone. I am humbled by your appreciation and applause.” Ethan announced as if he’d just won a major movie award. Random shouts of
another
appeared from around the circle. In support Max and I joined them. Ethan held up his hands. “All right, all right. Will somebody pass me two beers from the fridge over there please? Bottled not canned, otherwise nobody will see the trick.” It seemed before he could finish his sentence somebody had sprinted across and brought him what he asked for. “Verity, will you inspect these for me please? Check they’re normal?” He handed the two bottles to her, she lifted them up to the light, tilting her head and wincing at them.

“Yep, they seem good,
Breakfast
.”

“So two normal bottles of beer everyone. I will now freeze them both, using only my hands.”

He held the bottles five or six inches apart. He paused for a second before jolting the bottom of each bottle against each other rather hard. It made me jump because I expected them to smash. Everyone stared at them for a few moments before Ethan held them up for all to see. The circle remained silent as they waited to find out if it had worked or not. You could see something rising inside each bottle. Ethan handed Verity a bottle. “What! It’s frozen! What, how?” Her excitement exploded. “It’s frozen! That’s
incredible
!” Ethan passed the other bottle around the crowd. When it got to Max and I, we couldn’t believe our eyes. It’d frozen solid. He couldn’t have switched them or have hidden them up his sleeve. It would take time for me to figure this one out, not that I’d ever figured any out.

The circle dispersed, and the music turned up again. Ethan sat down on the sofa to compose himself, running his hands through his hair. Max and I shuffled through everyone to get over and check up on him.

“You ok, buddy?” Max wrapped his arm around him as we slumped onto the sofa.

“Yeah, Verity and I have been taking shots, not the best idea after what happened last time!”

Ethan wrapped his arm around me. “August, come do shots with me, it’s fun.” He got to his feet and tried to pull me up to join him.

“I’m fine with my orange juice, Ethan, you go have fun.”

I figured Max would need a hand helping Ethan to the truck. It wouldn’t help if Max had to carry me out, too. Ethan flapped his arms at me and wandered over to Verity, who had occupied the table where all the shots were lined up. As he downed a shot, his face grimaced. It was amusing to watch, Max and I thought so anyway.

“Another orange juice?” Max grabbed my empty glass.

“Let’s go mad.” I replied.

He smiled and headed back to the basement stairs. As he passed Ethan, Verity and her friends in their drunken state, they pulled Max in for a group hug. I didn’t have time to see much else as Mark joined me on the sofa. He’s in my literature class. I’d say he’s five foot ten or eleven. He has short light brown hair and green eyes. We never talk at college. I don’t have an explanation as for why. I do know that he played rugby at a high level when he was younger before he suffered a bad injury.

“Hey August, enjoying the party?”

“Yes I am, thank you”.

“Your boyfriend is having fun.” He focused his vision on Ethan.

“Oh, he’s not my boyfriend, we’ve been bestfriends for a long time.”

He smiled, “Really? That’s good.”

Even in the darkness, it wasn’t hard to notice how green his eyes were. You lost yourself in them. But I wanted to know what he meant by
that
’
s good
.

I frowned at him. “How so?”

I glanced over at Ethan again. Verity and him were giggling like a pair of kids. Mark’s eye’s flicked back between Ethan and me again.

“Well, if I found out you and Ethan weren’t together. I was going to ask if maybe, possibly. You’d like to go out with me sometime, get something to eat?” He was embarrassed and shy, but it was kinda cute.

“Yeah, that would be nice.” I was a little bashful myself.

“I’m free tomorrow, if that’s any good, or is it too soon seeing as you asked me ten seconds ago?”

“No, no. Tomorrow would be great. How about the restaurant down from college?”

I nodded, “Yeah, would 3:30 be good for you?”

I was worried I was being too forward and that I might frighten him off.

Max returned, he coughed. “Sorry, am I interrupting?”

“No, No. We were just chatting.” Mark stood and allowed Max to reclaim his seat. “I’ll see you tomorrow, August. 3:30.”

“What did he want?” Max asked, passing me my glass.

“We have a date tomorrow.” I replied in embarrassment.

Max stared at me.

“What are you looking at?” I asked. I’m not sure whether he implied Mark was out of my league, or vice versa.

“Nothing, I always presumed if you would ever date anyone, it would be, you know…Ethan.”

I looked down at the floor. In the back of my mind maybe I’d strangely always thought that, too. I opened my mouth to reply but before any words escaped, Max stood. He was looking over at Ethan, who had lain on the floor. He’d survived about an hour before his flop. Max walked over to Ethan and knelt down beside him, followed by me. We lifted him upright.

“How you doing Ethan?” Max asked.

“I’m great, the room started spinning, so I thought I’d lay down. I’m such a light weight!”

Ethan smiled up at me and shut his eyes. We struggled to get him to his feet and carried him to the sofa. We didn’t place him on the sofa, more of a… catapult. I wasn’t expecting Ethan to be so heavy, saying that, I’m not exactly the strongest. He exhaled as he slumped on the sofa, “Guys, I don’t know about you, but I can’t drive home.” Max and I couldn’t help but laugh as we sat either side of him. Ethan then thought it would be more comfortable to sprawl himself across our legs. “I love you guys, you guys are the best.” He kept repeating it over and over. Until it faded into a murmur and then he fell asleep. Verity occupied the sofa opposite to us, her make-up had stained the pillows of the cream sofa, a terrible choice of colour evidentially. Her emerald eye shadow however, remained on point. On the downside, she had a bit of drool running out of the corner of her mouth.