Irreplaceable

6

"Hey guys, where are you both headed so early on a Saturday?" Dad said to us as we came down the stairs. I was a little in shock that he was awake and coherent at 9 am, until I noticed his office door open. One of his clients who had known us since we were kids waved to me from the chair and I smiled and waved back.

"Hey Mrs. Peter! How are you?" I called out to her.

"I'm wonderful, thank you for asking young man. Look how big your boy is getting! How old are you now Bradley?" She said to me.

"Sixteen Mrs. Peter. Nate and I are going to give out resumes today for summer jobs." I told her and my dad. They both grinned at us excitedly.

"Oh how lovely. Be sure to go down to my Dan's garage and say hello." She replied. I nodded dutifully. Dan was her oldest son who had grown up with my dad. He owned the Peter's Garage on the main strip now. It caused a lot of confusion to out of town people since it was named after their last name.

"Yes Ma'am. We will." I waved to them and we went outside. Nate drove us around to stop at the grocery store, the hardware store, then two fast food places and the garage down town. I saved that one for last because I was the most nervous about it. Dan was a nice guy, but I didn't want to count on anything.

I still got all dressed up nice, printed out a proper resume and was sure to be very polite to the others at the garage. Susan manned the office, so she was the one who took our resumes. Dan made an appearance from the back and shook our hands after he had wiped them with a cloth. We ended up talking more about how the school's soccer team was doing rather than the shop though.

"I think that went okay. What do you think?" I said as we both got back in the car. Nate looked over at me and shrugged.

"I guess. My mom said this place pays the best, so hopefully we get those summer positions. Do you want the back drive in spot or the front desk one?" He asked curiously. I shrugged this time.

"I don't think I care. Might be better if they rotated us between them in case someone was off or something." I mentioned thoughtfully.

"Yeah you are probably right." He sounded surprised.

"Don't say it like that." I growled.

"Like what?" He smirked.

"Like you are shocked I would think of it." I mumbled.

"Well. If you put that much thought into your school work, then I wouldn't have to help you all the time." He quipped back.

"What are you, my mom?" I shot back.

"If I was you wouldn't be such a slacker." He replied. I gasped and stared at him.

"How dare you! I will have you know I put a lot of work into doing nothing!" I yelled at him. There was a momentary pause and we both laughed ourselves silly.

"You want to grab something to eat before we head home?" Nate finally asked me. We were walking up the street back to where we had parked the car. I looked at the choices and thought to myself that we were probably overdressed for most of them. I did not want to get chili sauce or oil on my best suit pants. Okay my only suit pants.

"Where are you thinking?" I squinted at him. He glanced at his outfit and mine, probably thinking the same thing I was.

"What about the Greek's?" He asked me. I thought about it. It was a small family run restaurant, not too uppity but nice inside.

"I could go for that." I responded and changed my direction to cross the street. He turned with me and we watched traffic for a minute before we had an opening to cross.

"Table for two?" The guy at the front asked. I nodded absently and looked around the room. There were only two tables occupied at the moment. It was a little early for dinner and a lot late for lunch. One table was two older ladies with their heads together chatting away. The other was a young couple with a small child.

"Drinks to start?" The guy asked before he left us.

"Two cokes." Nathan replied with a smile. They both looked at me for confirmation and I just smiled. The guy left, looking over his shoulder at us once as he walked away.

"What are you having?" I stared at the menu, himming and hawing over my choices.

"The Souvlaki Dinner, an extra chicken skewer, Baklava and ice cream." He announced after a second. I nodded.

"Alright. I'll have the same." I said. He snorted.

"No. You won't. If you order that much food, we will be here all night waiting for you to eat it." He grinned. I glared at him and huffed.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes as the waiter approached with our drinks and pulled out a notepad. Nate ordered, adding extra tzatziki on the side as well. They both looked at me expectantly and I hesitated. He was probably right. "I'll have the Souvlaki Wrap and a Baklava."

"That was smart." Nathan said approvingly after the waiter had left. I blushed a little and looked away.

"No, you were right. It would take me forever to eat that much food." I relented. There was a minute of comfortable silence between us. I took the fork and played with it for a minute. He made a face while he sucked on his teeth. I wondered what he was thinking about as he looked around the restaurant.

"Have you thought about whether or not you'll be going to university?" He finally asked me. I shrugged.

"I don't figure there is a point. I would be better off going to the community college for their advanced mechanics course and working here in town towards my apprenticeship." I replied. He nodded thoughtfully. "What about you?"

"I have looked at a couple. Haven't decided on one yet." He answered after a long second.

"You could apply to all of them and see which ones you get in to." I suggested. He looked down at the table cloth and shrugged.

"I suppose." He mumbled. I watched him picking at his fingers for a minute. The silence was actually becoming a little awkward. That was weird. I looked over to see the waiter watching us from the counter where the food came up. He looked away when I stared for a second. Our food was up and I sat up expectantly as I waited for him to bring it over.

"Here you go. Do you need anything else?" He said to us. I shook my head no, and wasted no time in digging in to my food. Nathan politely responded and then slowly tucked in to his. It took me forever to finish my first bite because I tried to shove too much food in at once. Nathan was much neater as he ate, cutting up his food before taking a bite.

"Do you think I will have time senior year to play sports? I was thinking of playing anyways, since I don't really have to get good grades." I babbled. Nathan raised his brows.

"I don't know. I guess it is up to you. I won't be. I want to concentrate on my grades to get in to University. If I get a high enough average, then I can apply and qualify for more scholarships." He replied. I nodded. I could see that. His parents had at four children who might go to post secondary school, so it was thoughtful of him to save them money.

I talked about what classes I was thinking of taking, about my parents being upset with my midterm test results, and about my sister hiding my favourite movie on me this week. He finished his food around the same time I finished mine and I protested when he got up to pay.

"It's fine. My nana gave me lots for my birthday this year. Sweet sixteen and all." He blushed and headed to the cash to pay for our food. I went to the washroom quickly and then met up with him outside. His face was red and he was looking down at the sidewalk. I bumped his shoulder with a smile.

"Come on. Let's head back to mine and watch some Netflix." I proposed.

"Yeah." He said, his voice soft.