words

Chapter 2:

Luke never did show back up that night. Not that I expected him to anyways, he gets busy when he has a plan like this, and it takes up a lot of his mental compacity. It's the next day and I'm sitting on my couch. With my laptop on my thighs, I do the finishing touches to the invites I had made the night prior and email them to Luke. He eventually responded with, "Looks good!" which prompted me to insert my flash drive and save them there.

I close my laptop and turn on some TV. Nothing good, but I settled for some shallow speed dating show marathon. After getting reluctantly sucked in, a few hours went by, and it was around 1 pm.

Knock, knock, knock.

"It's open!" I yell to whoever is coming, never taking my eyes off the TV. I was about to find out who wins the girl's Golden heart and eventually takes her home. It's the season finale. Luke comes in without a word and sits on the couch next to me. We exchange smiles and he starts watching. A few moments go by, and he breaks the silence.

"You know these are reruns right? I watched these all last year, I can't believe he won."

"SHHHH, I've never seen it before so don't spoil anything. It only has 5 minutes left."

"Okay gotcha."

Another few moments went by, and the end credits were playing. I start bitching.

"Danny? Really? If I were her, I would've picked Jack. Danny was a literal asshole from episode 3. I guess nice guys do finish last."

"Anyways Drama Queen, get ready we have a long day ahead of us."

I throw on some better clothes than my pajamas and get ready. We walk out the door and Gloria isn't there today sadly. I enjoy seeing her in the morning and making small talk. She's like a mother to me honestly. When I first moved to Manhattan, I had only my parents, who lived with me for the first 2 months in my new apartment as they had business in the city. Gloria was new to the city as well because her mother had passed a few weeks before and she needed a fresh start. We were there for each other in a newcomer type of way, and then slowly became more than a tenant/building worker to each other.

We make our way to the parking garage down the street where Luke parked his car. We rarely drive, considering we live near the university we go to, and everything needed is within walking distance. Today was different though because the party store was on the other side of town, and as strong as my legs have gotten over the past two years, I'm not exactly ready for that type of trek.

Beep. Unlock. Vroom.

Going down the street, Luke starts to make small talk.

"I have so many people already talking about this party through the grapevine. Sadly, that includes your ex though."

Molly. My one and only girlfriend that I've had since starting college. She was a sweet girl, but a little too intense for someone like me. Plus, my pride never let me live down the fact that she asked me out (Not that there's a problem with that, I just wanted to be the one to ask). We ended on good terms though.

"That's fine. Molly and I are fine. We haven't talked in a while though and I intend to keep it that way."

"I gotcha there buddy. She's actually psycho."

A little bit of time went by. We started listening to some music. That's the one place where me and him couldn't agree. I like rap as much as the next guy, but I have to give it a break every now and again or I feel like I'll go insane. Sometimes I like slow stuff. Sometimes I like happy stuff. Pop, Rock, Indie. Anything but continuous rap.

We make it to the party store. I pull my little list out of the alcohol and party supplies we needed. Luke looks over my shoulder.

"You call that a 'little' list?" he says.