Chapter 4
I called my father before dinner on Finn’s landline. I told him I was staying at a friends house for the night, and when I did he simply said the words okay. I was unsure if the reason for his easy agreement was because he believed me or because he wanted to. I was too happy to find out.
Finn was right about his mother’s spaghetti. At first I didn’t believe him because his mother’s food looked good set on the nice table cloth with a creamy red sauce and parmesan cheese put over it. Only when Mrs. Wehr placed the food on my plate did I smell the odd scent of stale pasta.
Finn was the first one to take a bite and he spit it out right after earning a scowl from his mother and a kick under the table from me.
“ It’s not that bad.” Mrs. Wehr took a bite of her pasta and rolling her eyes at Finn. “ Stop being so dramatic.”
Then she looked at me and with a smile she said, “ Edith what do you think?”
I looked at her before slowly putting the pasta in my mouth and swallowing. It wasn’t as bad as Finn made it out to be, but it definitely was good either, nevertheless I still put on a smile.
“ It’s good” I lied earning a grin from Mrs. Wehr and a small laugh from Finn. I ended up eating the whole plate, not because I wanted to, but so I didn’t come off as rude. Finn on the other hand touched none of his food telling his mother how paprika was not a spice for pasta, which caused his mother to laugh and tell me how all of her sons knew more about cooking then she did.
Finn kept his word about ordering a pizza too. Once he brought me back to his room he turned on an old movie and dialed a number on the phone. At first I believed he was ignoring me, leaving me to talk to someone better but then he started saying how he wanted the “cheesy pizza combo” and how he wanted garlic bread without the cheese and I realized I was being paranoid.
“ This is my favorite movie.” Finn murmured after hanging up the phone and lying on his stomach. I looked towards him before shifting on his bed giving him more room. He laughed.
“ You’re something else, Edith.” He laughed before looking back at the screen.
The movie Finn had put on was the kind of movie that was hard to keep up with. There were four main characters and though we already half way through it I didn’t know the name of any of them.
“ You look bored.” Finn said after a while. I sat up on the bed, pulling down my shirt. “ I'll take that as a yes.”
Finn mimicked my actions before leaning against his headboard. he sighed.
“ I’m sorry I’m being boring.” He said quietly, before using the remote to turn down the volume. “ I just don’t usually invite people to my house often.”
“ You aren’t being boring.” I assured him looking at my hands. “ I’m just a bit tired that’s all.”
He laughed dryly.
“ Side effect of not sleeping.” I nodded knowingly before looking at a poster on the wall.
“ Who’s that.” I pointed to the main on the poster before looking at Finn. He smiled wearily.
“ His name’s Elliott Smith.” He murmured quietly edging a little closer to me so our shoulders were touching. “ He’s, uh, one of my favorite singers actually.”
I looked at him for a second leaning my head against the back of the wall. “ You’re different than what I expected.”
Finn cocked up an eyebrow, “ And what did you expect me to be?”
I laughed quietly before shrugging, “ I don’t know… it’s just, in class, you seemed different.” I glanced at him wondering if he understood what I meant. “ I just mean, It just seemed liked you wouldn’t want associate yourself with people like me.”
At this he laughed, “ Why wouldn’t I want to be friends with you?” I blushed and he stopped laughing his voice becoming serious. “ You don’t give yourself enough credit, you know that right Edith.”
Finn looked at me as if he was hoping to find something but he must not have found it because his smile dropped.
“ Edith do you maybe want to-” Finn’s voice was cut off by the sound of his doorbell ringing through his halls. He looked a bit agitated before grunting and standing up. “ I’ll be right back.”
Finn’s mom must have still been awake because when the door shut I heard his mom, once again, saying her pasta wasn’t that bad, which, of course, caused Finn to laugh.
When Finn got back to the room he was holding a large box of pizza in one hand and a brown bag in the other.
I looked at him nervously, “ I don’t think can eat all of this.”
He laughed before setting the food on his bed, “ I know, I didn’t expect you too.”
After that he swung the pizza box open taking a few paper plates out of the bag and handing me a slice of cheese. I thanked him quietly, before studying him.
There was something odd about Finn, and the way his eyes looked. It was something I never noticed, something I doubt anyone did. But there was this certain insignia his eyes wore that I couldn’t shake off. Bitterness? Anger?...Hurt? Whatever it was, it was beginning to become more clear.
“ Why do you eat it like that?” Finn asked me after some time. I was still one my first slice…he was on his third.
“ What do you mean?” I felt like I should’ve been offended, and I probably would’ve been if it were anyone else, but it was Finn, so I wasn’t.
He laughed a bit before taking the pizza from my hand and folding it in half.
“ That’s how you eat pizza.” I looked at him before bursting out laughing, and for some reason he did as well. So we just sat there, on his bed, laughing our heads off and even when the time came when we know we should’ve stopped, we just kept laughing.
“ Pizza is pizza.” I breathed out fianlly after laughing. Finn had finished well before me but smiled as I continued to laugh. “It doesn’t matter how you eat it.”
“ I have much to teach you.” Finn said, and I suddenly felt a bit better. He said he had much to teach me, which meant he thought he’d hang around for a while. I found this rare considering most don’t.
I smiled a bit to myself before biting into my pizza, Finn watching me before applauding and standing up on his bed causing the plates and box to slide in where his feet were indented.
“ By God she’s got it.” He said an accent that I couldn’t detect.
For some reason, whether it was the look on his face, or the way his lips were quirked up in a funny way, I started laughing and then he did as well. And suddenly we were laughing all over again, and continued to even when there was nothing good to laugh about.
And it suddenly felt good again; two tired souls laughing for no good reason.