The Boy in Black

Chapter 7

      "Hey, I'll be right back," he said.

      "Oh- uh, okay," I said.

      He left the room and came back a few minutes later with the list and the pen. He walked to his desk that was pushed into the corner of his room and leaned down.

      "Whatchya doin'?" I asked.

      "Adding to the list," he said while writing.

   1) joking with Oliver
      2) jumping off swings
      3) watching the sunset on the ground
      4) the stars
      5) gang beasts

      "You're pretty determined about this list thing, aren't you?" I asked rhetorically.

      "Yeah, well, I'm determined to show you that the good can outweigh the bad. There is a possibility that this list could help show you that. So I'm determined about the list," he said.

      "Hmm," I hummed in response.

      "Hey, I'm getting kind of hungry, do you wanna go downstairs and get some food?" he asked.

      "Yeah, sure," I said.

The way that his house was, you had to walk through the living room to get to the kitchen. When we walked through, his mom was sitting on the couch watching New Girl.

"Oh, I love this show," Oliver said.

"I've never seen it," I said.

"You guys should come sit and watch it with me! I've seen all the episodes and I'm just rewatching it so we can start it from the beginning if you guys want to," Oliver's mom said sweetly.

Oliver turned to look at me, waiting for a response.

"Yeah, that sounds fun," I said.

"You'll probably like it, it's really funny," he said to me. Then he turned to his mom. "We're just gonna grab some food first."

"Oh, do you want me to heat you guys up something?" she said while getting up.

"Mama, you don't have to," Oliver said.

"No, no, no, it's no trouble at all. You always know I'm happy to fix something up. C'mon, let's go," she said.

I know it's wrong of me, but that pang of jealousy came back in tenfold. Is this what my mother would've been like? Or maybe it's not the parent, maybe it's me. Maybe it's my fault that Jen and Walter hate me so much.

"Barry?" Oliver asked softly. "You alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine. Just got lost in thought for a second." I said while giving him a small smile that was meant to be reassuring.

"If you say so," he said.

We walked further into the kitchen to see his mom with looking into the fridge.

      "Alright, there's leftover chicken and pasta from dinner, we have stuff to make sandwiches, stuff to make grilled cheese," she paused while opening the freezer. "We also have hot pockets, chicken nuggets and pizza rolls."

      "Uhh... a sandwich sounds good to me. Barry?" Oliver turned to me.

      "A sandwich sounds good," I said.

      "Okay," she said while pulling out the stuff to make them. "Why don't you guys get yourselves some drinks and also there's chips in the pantry. Also, Ollie do you think you could get me some Pepsi and a bag of chips?"