Get Outta Your Head

"You know you have to actually turn the TV on in order to watch it, don't you?" You ask, dropping down onto the settee next to Gary with a satisfying thud as Mark stares intently at the remote in his hands.
"It's new, okay?" He mumbles, perching on the edge of a sleek glass coffee table as he presses buttons to no avail . "It's too complicated for me."
"Mate, you've had it a month." Howard grins, wondering into Mark's living room with a set of side plates and a roll of kitchen towel. "Shift your ass, the food will be here in a minute."
Mark scoots fractionally over to the left, swearing under his breath as the TV flashes blue before fading back to black and you don't even try to stifle your laughter.
It only takes another six seconds before Gary's technological impatience prevails and he's leaning forward to swipe the remote away from the small man in the middle of the room. "Jesus Christ, Marko." Gary retracts his socked feet from the end of the coffee table, tapping Mark on the shoulder with the remote three times before he finally takes the hint and relents over to the new cream arm chair adjacent to the sofa. You feel like praising God when the television crackles to life and the exasperated eye roll Gary throws in your direction tells you that there was never really an issue in the first place.

"Here." He tosses the remote so it lands in your lap. "It's your week to pick a movie."
"Are you sure?" You frown, pulling your legs underneath yourself as you lean into the arm of the sofa. "I'm sure I picked the week before last, are you sure it's not Dougies turn?"
"Probably." Gary shrugs as you look toward Howard for approval. "..but he always picks shit ones."
"You piece of shit!" Howard gapes, lunging to his feet from his spot on the opposite settee before any of you when he hears the door ring with the promise of Chinese take out. "I'm having your Chow Mien for that."
"You're fucking not you know." Gary's laugh rumbles from his chest and still, even after nearly ten years of friendship, it's infectious as hell. You and Mark are still laughing quietly when Howard disappears into the hallway, offering to give the delivery boy a hand-job if he's bought him extra prawn crackers.

"Pick a damn film." Gary urges again, wrestling his arms out of his hoodie before leaning into the coffee table and distributing the plates.
"Alright! I'm looking.. Jesus Christ.." You mutter, wondering just how a movie night with three such high maintenance pop stars became part of your weekly routine. "..someone get the drinks in."
Mark, of course, leaps up immediately. "What's your poison?"
"Whatever you've got. Something strong. Surprise me." You murmur, flicking through the midgets vast selection of online movies.
"Whatever Howard bought round." Gary flashes a wolfish grin. "If he's having my chow mien, I'm having his booze."
When Mark retreats to his kitchen in stitches of childish laughter, Gary hitches his own thigh onto the sofa until he's shifted to face you.
"Tough week at work?" Suddenly, he's serious again.
Your return smile is mirthless as you continue to scour the movie titles. "You have no idea."
"You wanna talk about it?"
You shake your head. "Not really."
"You work too hard."
You scoff. "Says you!"
"I enjoy my job." Gary counters as you finally settle on A Few Good Men.
"And I enjoy mine." Pausing the film while you wait for the others, you turn your full attention to Gary. "It's just tiring at times."

"How was that date you went on on Wednesday?" He asks, genuinely intrigued, as Mark and Howard enter simultaneously; Howard with a box ladened with enough food to make your stomach rumble and Mark following in tow, wrestling with a two bottles of desperado, a homemade mojito and a glass of orange juice.
"Oh yeah! You never said!" His eyes are filled with boyish excitement as he places the drinks down on the side table and begins to dish them out.
"Yeah, because there was nothing worth saying about it." You roll your eyes, leaning forwards to help Howard unload the abundance of Chinese.
"That bad, huh?" Mark presses, screwing his face up in an adorably sympathetic manner.
"He was a chubby, four-times-divorcée with three children under ten, a rapidly reseeding hairline, a vicious gambling habit and a penchant for drooling over my cleavage."
"Yeah but can you blame him?" Howard grins in the perverted way that only he ever gets away with as he tosses a redundant plastic container back into the box. "You are pretty stacked."
"Dougie!" You try and fail to suppress your laughter. "You have girlfriend!"
"I know, but you're my oldest friend."
"That's a lie."
"One of the oldest."
"Lies."
"About the fifth oldest."
"Did the delivery boy enjoy his hand job?"
"What do you think took me so long?"
"I hate to break this up.." Gary clears his throat as he emptied his food onto his plate and flicks his wrist towards the TV, "...but I'm sure we have a film to watch."
"She is stacked though isn't she Gaz?" Howard grins as he stands and returns to his seat. You roll your eyes and turn your attention to the TV remote to search for Play. The start of the movie prevents an answer from anyone and so you sit back, relax and do what you have been doing for as many Friday's as you have all been able to manage for the last three years; eat. Drink. And rip the piss out of each other.