Octopus Lips

Progress

           

     If there's been any reoccurring theme in my life these days it's that I don't know the people around me nearly well as I'd like too. At least I have Rosie I guess. I get the feeling she doesn't tell me everything either.

     Three years ago, her parents got divorced and I think that's when she... drifted away from me a bit. We still talked through the whole ordeal, I was there with every step of the way but I always got the feeling there were things she never told me. I was getting that same feeling now. I really wanted to talk to her about it but I had so much going on right now.

     "How was your day honey?" My mom asked, running her hands through my hair as the three of us sat down to dinner.

      "It was okay... boring... looking forward to summer already." I sighed.

     "Me too, bud." My dad chuckled into his mug. "Ah youth."

     I smiled thinly.

     "You know Jonathan Laurens, right?" My mom asked me.

     "Yeah, why?"

     "His parents have been stirring up trouble recently at the PTA board. Their kids are kind of crazy."

     A lump formed in my throat. "Crazy?"

     "Both have been through a lot of anger management. I didn't even know they had two kids but apparently, they go to two different schools.  Sounds dysfunctional." She jabbered on offhandedly.

     "Yeah..." I replied, and a wave of exhaustion flowed over me. "I think I'm gonna turn in early, gotta get sleep for school, right?"

     The two of them looked at me curiously. "You feeling alright kiddo?"

     "Oh yeah, just tired." I assured, and slipped up the stairs to my room.

     I leaned against my bed and pulled out my phone, quickly running through my list of contacts until I found Johnny's name and dialed him up.

     "Gwen...?" He answered. "What's up?"

     "Hi Johnny, how are you doing?" 

     He paused. "Good. Why are you calling me?"

     "What, I can't have a chat with one of old pals?"

     "Not with me." He scoffed. "You hate me."

      "I don't hate you." I sighed, and let the silence between us draw out for a bit. "How's Arthur?"

       "Oh. He's okay. My parents uh... I guess they didn't take it well. I talked to him about it... and I thought about what you said."

        "You did?" I paced back and forth in my room, watching my socks on the floor.

        "Yeah... I'm still thinking about it." He said quietly. "I won't... I'll stop being such a jerk, because I was, uh, a jerk. I can see it now."

         "Glad to hear."

         "I heard about what you said earlier in school."

          "Oh yeah?"

          "Yeah. It's cool, I guess."

          I smiled. "Good, you know I wouldn't have taken no for an answer."

           He laughed. "It crossed my mind."

            We sat there in awkward silence for a bit. The two of us on different ends of the same spectrum. Johnny was more like the ivy growing thick on the floor of the forest and I was the sun shining through the leaves. We knew each other, we were both part of our teenage ouroboros, but when it came down to it we were just too far away from each other. I wondered if that would change, I wondered if it was changing.

     "Ah, well... I gotta go." Johnny cut in, even though we both knew he didn't.

     "Yeah me too. Goodnight Johnny."

     "Goodnight."

     He hung up.