“Really?” she teased. “What did you mean then?”
“I just meant that people – all people – like their friends to…like their crushes or whatever, right? Tell the truth?”
She chuckled. “Is that why you always tell me my boyfriends are shit.”
“I care!”
“You’re nosey. You’ve never once cared what I thought about any of your girlfriends.”
I paused. “That’s not true. I wanted your opinion on… Liv!”
“You wanted to know if I thought, and I quote, ‘if even the dweebs thought she was easy’. You then asked me if I thought she’d sleep with you.”
“See, I cared!”
“About you.” She said it gently. She wasn’t pissed off with me. Yet.
“I care about you.”
“I know. I care about you, too, dude.”
“Yeah. But I, like…love you,” I said solemnly, then realised way too late what I’d actually said.
It was a good thing Charley didn’t say anything for a while because it gave me time to try to come up with a backpedal. Not that I should need to backpedal. It wasn’t the first time I’d told Charley I loved her. It was maybe the first time I’d just come out and said it, I couldn’t remember. But it was definitely the first time I’d felt like I needed to justify it, and I wasn’t sure why.
I cleared my throat and looked around the party to see if anyone might have heard me. “…as a friend. I love you…as a friend.”
It felt weird to say. It felt contrived to say. It felt stupid to say. But it was true.
I cleared my throat again. “You know.”
I heard her clearing her throat as well. “Mm hmm. Yeah, no. I know.”
“‘Cos you’re like a sister to me. Right? But I actually like you.” I huffed a laugh.
Oh, my God. Dude, shut the hell up right now!
But, for whatever reason, my mouth was just going for it. It was a constant scramble to fix a situation that hadn’t even needed fixing in the first place. I was allowed to love her, for cripe’s sake. I knew I’d had a few beers, but this was ridiculous.
“Not that I love you like…” I barked an embarrassing laugh. “Like that. Because that would… I mean… Pfft. You get it. I love you like–”
“I… I get it, Zane,” she said stiltedly.
It did the trick of stemming my verbal diarrhea though.
“Maybe go grab a glass of water, yeah?” At least there was still a smile in her voice. Not all was lost then.
I nodded. “Sure. No, yeah. I will do that.”
“You have a good rest of the night, yeah?”
“Yep. Will do.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“If you appear at my window and demand access to my home, yes.”
“Cool.” I grinned, knowing she wasn’t actually hinting that I don’t do any of that.
“Let me know if Eden changes her plans.”
“You offering to be my driver?”
“Sure. We’ll call it that.”
“Because you love me?” just popped out of my mouth from habit.
Before I could satisfy the mad urge to justify myself, she replied with a definite wide smile, “Sure. We’ll call it that,” then hung up.
I had never felt so giddy after someone had hung up on me before. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been hung up on and worn such an idiotic grin. Charley had hung up on me heaps over the years. And she hadn’t been the only one.
I’d felt neutral after being hung up on, and I’d felt annoyed. On the rare occasion Charley hung up on me, I usually felt a tad guilty about something because I’d usually said something stupid. But not this time. This time I felt a significant rise in my mood.
I went back inside and re-joined the party.
“You seem happy,” Harvey commented.
He was the only one not glued to Brock.
I put my arm around his shoulders. “I am, Harvo. I’m good.” I nodded to Brock. “You like him?”
Harvey shrugged a little awkwardly with my arm around him. “He’s okay, I guess. Seems a bit…?” He paused like he was trying to find the right words.
“Of a total goober?” I asked.
Harvey smiled at me. “Something like that.”
I nodded. “You’re a good man, Harvo.” I patted his chest. “Good man.”
Chapter 11: Charley
After Zane’s weird semi-drunk phone call, where I had a minor, short-lived freak out, things went back to normal. He appeared at my window the next day and had the conversation about the key with Brendan again. We spent the next few days at school in our love-hate battle of wills.
So, it came to Wednesday and I was getting my homework out of the way. Not that we really had homework by now. It was really just that night’s designation of work so I didn’t get behind on my due dates. Unlike Zane, who left everything until the last minute and then complained the teachers were biased when he didn’t do as well as he thought he should.
I had a desk in my room, but it was covered in I didn’t even know what anymore, so I was in the habit of working at the kitchen table. This also meant that I got to watch when Brendan picked Mum up and started dancing with her in the middle of the kitchen.
As always, Mum blushed and laughed.
Brendan wasn’t doing it because I was in the room. He had nothing to prove about his commitment to my mum and me, and he knew it. Instead of trying to prove he was a worthy partner for Mum and dad to me, he’d just earnt it. He hadn’t pushed, he hadn’t pressed. He’d let everything move at a pace Mum and I had been comfortable with and earned our trust by being there when we needed him and giving us space when we needed it.
I’d been too little when Mum and Dad divorced to remember their relationship, but I didn’t feel weird about Brendan and Mum. I couldn’t when I saw Mum so happy, when I saw how much Brendan cared. I looked at the two of them and knew that, when I was ready, that was what I wanted. They were two people who fit together perfectly even though it didn’t really make sense on the surface.
I was distracted from their cutsey-ness as my phone went off.
Zane:
SOS
Zane:
NOT A DRILL
Zane:
S. O. S.
Zane:
*GIF of everything on fire*
Well if there was any emergency situation, this would be it. That was fairly clear from his messages. Although Zane was known for his exaggerations, I’d never received a full-on SOS before.
I got up quickly, fearing the worst.
“Everything okay, kid?” Brendan asked.
I nodded absently as I sent a reply to Zane. “Yeah, Dad. I’ve just got to… Zane needs me.”
“Okay. Not too late, though.”
I nodded again. “I know. School night.”