“Getting there,” Jensen covered and then whispered to me, “yours for now.”
My face burned as I quickly jotted down ‘Adams’ and then signed my name. After a few more minutes of standing there in embarrassment I was now a part of someone’s video store membership.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Jensen commented as we walked out of the store. He put his arms around me.
“That was totally embarrassing.” I shook my head. “I’m glad you know what to tell people.”
“Feel free to use that line anytime,” he chuckled at me.
I came back to the present and thought about what he’d said … Feel free to use that line anytime. It was like an epiphany and I decided when people asked about my ring and subsequent relationship status with Jensen, I would tell people we were ‘getting there.’
Feeling thrilled, I focused on the task at hand—choosing some movies for my boyfriend’s movie night with the guys; his last sendoff. Since the movies Candyman and Singles had come out the prior year they were easy enough to spot and pull off the shelf. The guys hadn’t suggested anything else, so I also picked up Sliver and Sneakers, also. Hopefully they wouldn’t mind that I wanted to see those two, but after all I was the one running the errands. After shelling out three bucks per movie, I headed back to Bullwinkle’s and waited another ten minutes for the pizza before being called to the counter to retrieve my order.
“Do you need some help out?” the server asked as I reached for the five large boxes.
“Nah, I got it. Thanks.” I put the movies on top the pizza boxes and carefully maneuvered the load toward the door, glad it was propped open already.
Heading to my truck, I had to set the pizza boxes down on the hood in order to fumble for the keys in my pocket. The pizzas and the movies fit well into the front passenger seat, and I used my purse to lodge the boxes in so that they wouldn’t slide to the floor on my way back to Jensen’s house. After pulling into the driveway where my truck blended in well with the other cars that were there, I got out and pulled the pizza boxes and movies across the seat to me, bumping the door shut using my behind. Carefully, I walked up the steps to the door and used my elbow to ring the doorbell. It took two more tries before Tyler, who was out of breath, answered it.
“Oh, hey, let me get that for you,” he offered seeing that my hands were clearly full, my head just peeking over the top of the pizza boxes.
I handed him the boxes and then grabbed the movies off the top. “Thanks!” I beamed. “I got Candyman, Singles, Sneakers, and Sliver.”
“Three movies that start with ‘S,’ that’s kind of cool,” Tyler remarked as I followed him down the stairs. “Hey, guys, the food’s here.”
“And the entertainment,” I added.
Jensen turned the music back down, which had been changed to Aerosmith. Livin’ on the Edge began to play and I found myself nodding my head to the beat and singing along. Jensen took the bag of movies from me and pulled them out to read what I’d gotten. He then set them on the coffee table.
“Are you guys done playing Sonic?”
“Yeah, we can start the movies as soon as everyone grabs their pizza.” He then kicked back on the couch and looked at me. “Babe, can you grab some pop from the fridge?”
“Are your legs broken? Who was it that went to pick up the pizzas in the first place?” I scowled at Jensen’s laziness. He was beginning to act a little too much like an ass for my taste.
“Yeah, squaw, go get our drinks,” Gabe joked. When he saw the surprised look on my face he quickly said, “Not really, you know I’m only kidding.” He got up from the couch. “I’ll help you since Jensen is kind of being an asshole right now.”
Jensen, who had been given back his game controller by a pizza hungry Karl, hadn’t heard a word Gabe said because he was too busy playing the game, trying to collect every ring.
“Don’t worry about him, he’s just preoccupied. Going away is a big fucking deal.”
Gabe and I were walking upstairs together and I found myself smiling at Gabe's use of the English language. Priceless. His choice of words had also rubbed off on Jensen.
“Won’t you be leaving for school soon, too?” I asked as we reached the top of the stairs and headed for the kitchen.
“Nah, I’m staying around here to save money by going to UAS. I may leave after I get my Associates, though.”
“I didn’t know you were staying here,” I said, pulling open the door to the refrigerator and seeing that someone had stocked it with multiple six packs of different kinds of pop. There were about eight six-packs of Dr. Pepper, Coke, Pepsi, and Mountain Dew. I handed four of the packs to Gabe, while I took the other four and the two of us made our way back downstairs to join the others. “So, Tyler is headed to some acting-type school in New York and Karl is moving closer to Jessica,” I reiterated, more for myself.
“Yeah, and you and I are stuck here in town. It kind of sucks that everyone else will be gone and starting new lives, so to speak. No more late pizza and movie nights. That’s when reality will hit.”
“Don’t remind me,” I complained, rolling my eyes.
“Well, we can be miserable together. I’m happy to hang out with you anytime. You’ve got my number, right?”
It felt a little odd having a conversation with Gabe about getting his number so we could hang out, but his face told me he was just being a genuine friend and I had nothing to worry about. I wish things were that way with Nate. Shit. Should I tell Jensen about Nate’s comment about my skirt? Or, what Alicia witnessed today at Heritage?
“I can get your number from Jensen. He’ll probably be happy you can keep an eye on me. You know … make sure I’m staying out of trouble and all. Also, you never know when I might need a handyman or a mechanic.” I laughed and the two of us walked over to the couch and set the pop down on the coffee table. Tyler and Jensen were still struggling it out, seeing who was best at playing Sonic.
“Who’s keeping an eye on whom?” Jensen asked as I sat down next to him and propped my feet up.
“Oh, Gabe. He’s going to keep an eye on me while you and everyone else are away at school. He’s staying here.”
“Oh, yeah, didn’t I tell you that?” Jensen asked, reaching for a can of Dr. Pepper.
I shook my head no and reached for my own Dr. Pepper to open. Although he'd gained back his short-term memory that he'd temporarily lost for a few months, every now and then he would miss something. Jensen opened his pop and handed it to me; he did have some chivalry left after all. I gave him my unopened can and leaned against him.
“Hey, no popcorn?” Tyler asked after pausing the game. I shrugged and he grabbed a giant piece of pizza instead and put half of it into his mouth.
I picked up the stack of movies and read the back of each trying to decide which one I wanted to see first while Gabe was checking out the game station trying
