this world of broken people

Chapter 5- Happy Birthday, Charlotte Carey!

Chapter 5- Happy Birthday, Charlotte Carey!

 

Whenever Andy or I got grounded, we would bring the other a few movies, a box of popcorn, and the biggest, cheapest, candy bar we could find. It kept our boredom at bay for at least a little while. We would sit in whoever’s room it was and watch movie after movie and eat bag after bag of popcorn until whoever’s dad yelled at whoever wasn’t grounded to leave.

When I was in tenth grade, Andy got grounded for sneaking out of the house to go to a party with Max. His dad found him perched on the edge of the roof, his shoes in one hand and the other griping the tree branch that just happened to be hanging right beside his window. I only knew about his grounding because he texted me, at 11:00 at night, all about it and demanded I come over right then and bring him the movies.

I scowled at the text, but did as he so politely asked.

Once I climbed up his tree and was lightly knocking on his window, food and movies in hand, he pressed his face up against the glass of the window and started making faces. They all involved him crossing his eyes, pressing his open mouth against the glass, and swirling his tongue around. I could only see the outline of the strange things he was doing, due to the fact that it was dark out, the street only lit by a single street light a few houses down.

Eventually I got fed up and just pushed the window in. The latch had always been weak and, sometimes, if you shoved it hard enough, it would open. This happened to be one of those times, and Andy fell onto his butt, a shocked looked on his face.

“You’re annoying,” I said simply before climbing through the opening and not-so-gracefully falling into his room. The lights were out, so I found my way to his TV by groping aimlessly. Once I felt the thin screen, I felt down to the floor the TV was resting on and then to the Blu-Ray player just off to the right. Quickly, I turned both the player and the TV on and put the disk for Star Trek: The Revenge of Khan. This one was the best Star Trek movie ever, in both of our opinions, so we almost always watched it whenever we were grounded.

“I am not annoying! I’m charming!” he exclaimed. When I glanced over at him, an incredulous look on my face, I noticed he was still sprawled out on the floor.

I snorted. “Sure, Andrew. Whatever you want to believe.”

I could hear the scowl in his voice as he said “Don’t call me Andrew, Charlotte.”

“I like my name. You’re the one who recreated it.”

“Well… Fuck you!” he cried. He then fell onto his bed, the springs from his old mattress creaking as his 140-pound frame flopped onto it.

Just then, Andy’s bedroom door creaked open and his dad stuck his head through the opening. With an eyebrow raised, he said “Hello there, Charlotte. I’m guessing your dad doesn’t know you’re here?”

I grinned at him. “You know me, always the rebel.”

“Oh yes, just like your doofus friend over here,” he said and then looked over at Andy. He was doing his best to look innocent.

Andy’s dad sighed. “Just be gone by morning so I can beat the child without anyone hearing,” he told me, causing me to laugh and Andy to look a bit scared.

“Will do, Mister Winchester!”

 

~*~