Cold Summer

Chapter Six

Gen

"Who is this?" he says in a husky sleepy voice. The way I'm describing this makes it sound like his voice is sexy and appealing when he wakes. It's not. It's just husky and sleepy and has so many yawns between each two words he utters.

"How many friends have you got, genius?" I reply sarcastically

"Well there's Emerald, she's the girl who likes me and there's Ronda she's the girl I smoke with and there are like another fifty whom I don't remember their names. I'm a loved guy," I can see him smiling in my mind

"Emerald and Ronda? Their names sound like one was brought from a YA fiction novel and the other sounds like a diet coke, cheap brand, the kind of cheap people don't get near."

"Well there is this one real girl, I would've said her name, but you know, she's calling me at five in the afternoon which she knows is my nap time,"

"Oh your nap is more important than her?" a joke-warning

"She already woke me up," he's a tease

"You're a tease"

"Bizarre" I know he's smirking

"You watched it, progress"

"I watched it for my girl," he's trying to be romantic

"Which one? Emerald or Ronda?" This phone call is beyond pointless.

"Genevieve Jacque Belle" he's trying to be romantic and to sound French, he always teases me about how I'm the only one in the family whose name sounds purely French

"Why are you calling me right now?" he says after I don't reply, he senses something is wrong but I don't tell him what it is, because we've been over it a thousand times before and I'm not ready for a thousand times to come. We've been distant and he knows it's what's bothering me and why I'm always calling him up unexpectedly. But he asks what's wrong for the sake of doing it.

"No reason" I lie

"If you say so"

"Charlie is on a date and Les has been out since the morning with a guy and his friend, they came by with coffee earlier and said something about a shift and time and ran along, I don't even know,"

"Where's your mom?"

"Grocery or something I don't know, not around"

"Where's your pot?"

"In your underwear" I say in a French accent and a husky voice.

"You're bored"

"Such intelligence"

"Go walk Daisy"

"I miss you"

"When'll you be back?"

"I don't know, you can come, mom doesn't mind I guess"

"I'll try" he won't

"Love you" I'm about to hang up, he knows it

"Don't hang up" he says

"It's pointless"

"What is?"

"This phone call"

"I like it"

"Go back to sleep"

"Can't, you're not beside me"

"Smooth, bye JJ" I hang up before he tries to keep me on the line. I don't know why I called him. I knew he was sleeping, but I guess I needed reassurance, that he is here, that I'm there, that we're still together. That I'm not alone. I go take Daisy for a walk, I grab my purse and don't bother changing, I'm in sweatpants and one of JJ's t-shirts and converse and my hair is pulled back in a pony tail, I check my purse before closing the door. There's a lipstick, a pack of cigarettes, wrapped up marijuana, a pack of tobacco, and a very old necklace.