Funny Boy

Five

Friday I was awoken by someone entering my room. Startled, I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. There stood my dad in a fancy suit, his hat and suitcase in hand, a cheesy grin on his face.

"Daddy!" I sprung out of bed and into his arms. He hadn't been home since the week I came home from school. His job had him traveling all over for weeks at a time.

"How's my baby?!" He spun me around once.

"Good. I missed you." He kissed my head.

"Missed you much more."

"How was Arizona?" I asked him. He shrugged.

"Hot, and about as good as work can get. Business mumbo-jumbo."

"Sounds fun." I mumbled.

That day was spent with my dad. My mom and I heard all his stories about Arizona, and he and my mom discussed business stuff which I didn't really get. Jack took my shift at Mabel's, too, which was sweet of him. He was being rather nice lately since Tuesday night, and as great as that was, I kind of just wanted everything to go back to normal. I missed asshole Jack.

Candie came over after dinner. We laid on my bed as she suffered through my music. She always hated my music. "Too boring," she never forgot to remind me.

She finally got the chance to explain what happened with her and Sam. Turns out, she was in a similar position as I was. She and Sam hooked up, and she regretted it. Only difference was she regretted it because it made her like him again. I regretted mine because it made me like him less. Or not at all.

"So do you think anything will come of that?" I asked her while painting her toes. She scoffed.

"I doubt it. I'm young and beautiful, I can't be tied down right now. Do you know how many guys have tried hitting on me since summer started? Gosh, I can't even count at this point," she gushed, a cigarette dangling from her mouth. "What about you? What are you gonna do about Dennis?"

I shook my head. "Nothing. I don't even wanna think about him, Candie. I don't even want to think about boys."

She smirked and took a drag of her cigarette. "Sure, Faye."

Saturday night my dad took me and Jack to Rita's while my mom had her fellow neighborhood moms over for coffee and probably a whole lot of gossip. I knew I was over the whole Dennis thing when I didn't even cringe while pulling up to the diner. Finally a weight had been lifted off of my chest. It would've been a tragedy to associate such an important place in my life with something so stupid, anyway.

"Burger or BLT? Gosh, I think they've expanded this menu," Jack said as he flipped through the menu.

"I'm almost certain it's the same, Jack." My dad pulled out his reading glasses.

"It's not, pop. The Big Kahuna? I don't remember that being on here."

"Isn't that what you used to order?"

Jack laughed. "You really are getting old, pop! I have never heard of any Big Kahuna."

God, how I missed these moments. Jack and my dad arguing about such silly things, me sitting there relishing in their determination to prove each other wrong.

The waitress walked over, our favorite one, Kathy. She was a short, chubby woman who always wore her hair in a low bun. She was old, but I swear she's looked the same since I was 5.

"Ah, my favorite Moretti's. What can I getcha?"

"I think you mean the only Moretti's. Kathy, my lady, tell me: has this menu expanded at all?" My dad inquired.