The Long Way Home (3 page)

This is what they bought there for a very reasonable price: 2 gallons of salsa, 1 gallon of onion dip, 3 gallons of nacho cheese dip, 2 pounds of corn chips, 5 pounds of assorted potato chips, 8 flats various drinks (for designated drivers), 4 water melons (because Mike likes them), 4 oversized jars of pickles and 15 boxes of popsicles (only because Mike liked the grape ones) 144 plastic cups (the smallest package) a box of assorted plastic utensils and 300 party plates. When they got home and started unloading they realized something was missing. While Mike was setting up everything in the main room, Grey ordered 150 pizzas to be delivered by 10:30pm (Grey asked for every possible combination). With a look of accomplishment on their faces Grey and Mike sat down in the living room and admired what they had created. They just sort of sat there and enjoyed it silently for a while. Grey thought that this is what Michelangelo must have felt once he finished the Sistine Chapel. Whereas Mike felt like it was just like defeating King Bowser at the end of Super Mario Brothers the part where you finally free the princess from Bowser's evil grasp. Either way to those two it was a work of art and they were going to have the party of the year. They looked at each other and silently decided that they could do no better. With a tacit agreement they got up and went to go and get ready for their party, they figured people would start coming at around 9:00 and it was already 8:37.

While Grey was changing he was plotting on how to get Mike with Jill. He knew that he couldn't just force them together he had to work it just right.

Funnily enough Mike was planning at the same time as Grey, on finding someone drop dead gorgeous for Grey to just have a good time. And to also start a real relationship it had to be someone that Mike could really trust wasn't going to just come along and crap on Grey's heart like Wanda did.

They were done and playing Madden NFL in Grey's living room when they heard the first knock. They got up looked at each other and both saw the look of determination on each other faces. They let the first of the guests in and were happy that the party was now officially under way.

After the first hour Grey was wondering when Jill would get there so that he could really get things started for Mike. The anticipation was killing him, but he kept his cool and just waited, he knew they would come. Jill's friend liked Grey too much not to. It was perfect and it was going to work, Grey just knew it if he could only remember Jill's friends name. Even though he had never said more than three or four passing comments to Jill he still knew her name it was the other one he had trouble with.

The last hoard of people just loading in and Grey was waiting hoping. He knew that there wouldn't be much more coming, hell half the school was already here. He found himself pacing like his father did then his mind drifted and he started to think of his father again... he missed his father at times when he was unsure of the future.

The day of the party Jill had forgotten entirely about it. This was mainly because of the fact that she had gotten very involved with her school work and was actually enjoying it for once in her life. She found that all she had to do was be interested in what she was doing then decided that maybe there was something to learn then all of a sudden she found that she could actually learn something useful. As a result the days before the party flew by primarily with her nose in a book. And when she got home she found that she yearned for more knowledge, also she discovered that she had less time for things that she vowed not to get into anymore (mainly boys). This was good because it allowed her to put her mind on other things. The only thing that seemed to keep her attention on the real world around her was of course Charlotte.

It was Charlotte that came to her house on Friday night to tell her that the party was Saturday night. Charlotte was so excited that she could hardly contain herself and was as giddy as a school girl on her first day. All that she talked about was Grey and how much she liked him.

"You should have seen him; I mean he just came right up to me in the middle of school to ask me to his party." Charlotte was almost stammering with excitement when she started to reenact the events of that day.

"I mean, I must of sounded like a total goon. 'Cause I was just like "Uh-I guess. But even then he still wanted me to go. He even told me when and where his party was." Charlotte was now jumping as she spoke and Jill was getting annoyed.

"He only told you that it was on Saturday and that it was at his house." Jill was being condescending now, and she didn't care.

"Yeah but I mean come on this is 'Grey Malapert' the 'Grey Malapert' I've liked him since the 8th grade and he has never said a word to me. Until he spoke to me that day at lunch I didn't even think that he knew my name." Charlotte thought her retort was rather witty.

"First of all what kind of name is 'Grey Malapert'? And secondly what makes you think he even knows your name? I mean did he even say your name when he came and talked to you. Third of all how do you know he isn't just asking every girl he knows to come to his party so that all his guy friends will think that he's 'cool' because there were a lot of 'chicks' at his party." Jill was getting upset now as this was the third time this week that they had the same conversation. And something about this guy was really annoying her and she just couldn't figure out what it was. Of course she knew who Grey Malapert was but she had never been attracted to him (other than physically) mainly because he never seemed interested in him.

"Well miss smarty pants I will have you know, I was talking to Angela today in geometry class and she gave me Grey's address. And no he didn't say my name but why would he come and talk to me if he didn't know my name. And lastly why would he ask me to come to his party just to have chicks at his party? If that theory was true then why didn't he just ask someone like you?" Charlotte was all flustered trying to defend herself; she couldn't understand why Jill was being so difficult to please about all this anyway. All she knew was that Jill was complicated at times.

"Look I am sorry, I just don't see what the big deal is?" Jill said now feeling awful for treating Charlotte like a child.

"You have to admit he's hot; just admit it and I won't say anything till the party." Charlotte had a new gleam on her face.

"Yeah that is one thing that we can agree on is that he is hot." Jill meant it too, because he was. She admitted to herself that she had had some interest in him before but he always seemed way out of her league. And now looking at it she was a little jealous of Charlotte, only because he asked her and not Jill. The better part of Jill decided not to let her hold this against Charlotte. She then and there decided that she was going to go to the party to let Charlotte have her fun and she would enjoy it vicariously through her.

They spent the rest of the night talking about what they were going to do once they left school and dreaming of what lay ahead of them. Jill really wanted to go to law school and become a lawyer. Charlotte wanted to as well only because she wanted to stay with Jill. When it got late they decided when they were going to meet the next day to get ready and go to the party. Jill had to admit to herself that she was excited and that maybe just maybe she might have fun, even if she was just doing it for Charlotte.

The next day (the day of the party) Charlotte was a mess of excitement and could do nothing to contain herself. Jill was woken up at an ungodly hour; Charlotte insisted that they go shopping before the party to get new outfits. They left at 9:02am and seemingly went to every major clothing store in greater Los Angeles and its surrounding cities. When Jill walked into her house she was carrying enough stuff to clothe an entire third-world country. And even though she was tired enough to sleep for days she was so excited about everything that she forgot that she didn't really even want to go to this thing. By this time she could not have been more in the moment. All of her past considerations about the whole thing were now gone and she was now all about this party. She glanced at the clock on her wall when she walked in to her house and it read 7:57pm. Jill's jaw nearly dropped they still had to try things on and take showers and get ready and get there.

They were a blur of busy girls getting ready for this party. In the middle of this Jill was trying to figure out how she got so excited about this party, the very thing that she all but denounced only a day ago. It troubled her for all of about 5 seconds until she came to the conclusion that she had nothing better to do, so she just decided to overlook the fact that this went against everything she wanted to change.

They were ready and on their way Jill looked at the clock on her wall on the way out and it was 10:27. She knew that the party was just starting and that by the time they got there it would be perfect timing to make their appearance.

Grey got so busy meeting and greeting everyone that he all but forgot about Jill and her friend coming over. He was showing someone his selection of music to play when out of the corner of his eye he saw Mike near one of the kegs just downing one beer after the other. Grey was concerned not because of anything other that the fact that he did not want Mike to be totally wasted by the time the girls came. So he looked at his watch and it was 10:35 and they weren't here yet. A bit of nervousness fell over him when the thought came to him that they may not show up. He debated in his mind whether or not he should call them. He tossed that idea when he realized how lame it would be to call someone's house to see if they were coming to his party. Either way he figured that he needed to keep Mike somewhat sober. He headed towards Mike through the now increasingly growing numbers in his house to get Mike's attention on something else other than beer.

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It was when they were driving through the moderately middle class neighborhood, and Jill saw all the cars parked randomly around one house that she began to have second thoughts about all this. Maybe she shouldn't have dressed the way that she did or for that matter come at all. But she had to admit, the outfit she had on was very cute. It was a little blue dress that had these spaghetti strap thingies on them. She couldn't say much for Charlotte's attire it was... well to put it mildly... a bit scanty. Charlotte opted for the black leather mini skirt that left little for the imagination and a white halter-top with what were essentially stripper shoes.

It was only when they were walking up the long car cluttered driveway that she realized that she should have stuck to her original plan of just dropping off Charlotte and then going home until she called. But it was a little late now they were too close and she couldn't just turn on her best friend now. No she was going to do this and she was going to have a good time, just as long as she didn't get involved in anything with anyone.

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Grey was on his way to the kitchen when he looked to the front door and saw the girls being let in. Through the party he veered his course with Mike and they set sail due north towards the girls. He didn't want them to be confronted by anyone else before he got there. He was looking at them before he got close enough them to talk to them. Jill was gorgeous in her little blue dress it accented her hair wonderfully and now that he noticed she had a cute wrinkle whenever she smiled. The girl standing next to her looked good to but he couldn't get over how happy he was at Jill's appearance. Grey new that Mike would like Jill and would go for her, only what Grey didn't know was going to be a problem in the long run.

Grey went up to Jill's friend and at this time he really wished he had bothered to remember (or for that matter even car about) her name and cursed himself for overlooking that small detail.

"Hey you guys made it I was starting to think that you weren't going to come or something." Grey said honestly.

"Yeah-um we-um were running a little late-um yeah," Charlotte managed to stammer out with all the grace of an avalanche. Jill on the other hand wondered if Charlotte actually knew that she sounded like an old motor boat.

"Cool. This is my friend Mike, Mike this is..." A wave of sheer terror rolled through like a tidal wave and filled Grey when he realized that he did not know this girl's name.

"Charlotte, yeah my name is Charlotte I was named after the placed I was conceived, Charlotte North Carolina." Charlotte's IQ always dropped a good 70 points whenever she got nervous. Right now she was really nervous.

"Right" Grey said trying not to make it sound like he knew she was acting stupid.

"And Mike this is Jill." Grey was glad they got by that part. Mike looked excited to see Jill and Grey was already getting his hopes up for Mike and her.

Mike on the other hand had something else in mind, yes he was excited but it was because he knew that Jill was the girl for Grey. And Mike now knew that Grey had set this all up. He knew Grey too long for this not to be a regular thing. All Mike had to do was get to know Jill, befriend her and then turn her onto Grey. Prefect Mike thought.

Mike decided to play Grey's game and use it to get to know Jill. He knew now that Grey wanted him to go out with Jill. That much was obvious because Jill was prettier than the other one. He knew what to do, all he had to do was hang out with Jill and Mike knew that she wouldn't go for him. Then they would just become "friends" at which point he would turn her onto Grey.

"Hey Jill how's it going I haven't really seen you around much except at school." Mike said with confidence.