Chapter 16

"Oh Jess!" I wailed as I flopped down on her bed. "I have no clue what to
do about AJ."

"And I'm supposed to know?" she asked me rasing her eyebrow.

"Well, you could help!"

"Hmm...let's see...how about you just tell him!" she said. I threw a pillow
at her.

"No, I can't," I sighed. I really didn't know how to get out of this one.

"I guess telling wouldn't work. Why don't you talk to him. See what
happens. I mean if he treats you like shit then kick him to the curb, if not
then maybe you should try to work it out." she offered. I shrugged my
shoulders and got up off her bed.

"Well, I have to go now, so I'll give you a call later, who knows what'll
pan out." I said.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

When I got home there was a message on my machine.

"Hey Lezlee, it's Kev! Howie and I are totally moved and I was just
wondering if you wanted to stop by and check the new place out tonight. Give
me a call, later. Kev." I picked up the phone and dialled him.

"Hello," Howie said into the receiver.

"Hey D!"

"Hey Lezlee, sup?"

"Well Kev called and asked me to come over tonight,"

"That'd be great, the new place is awesome."

"Well what time should I stop by?"

"How about 6:45 or so?" he said.

"Sure," I replied.

"Kay, well we'll see you then." he said.

"Bye," I said and hung up. I ran upstairs and hit the books before I went
out. I had a ton of chem and I wasn't about to do it when I got home.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

"Hi!" Kevin said as he flung open the door of his new house.

"Wow," was all I could say as I stepped inside of the house. It was done in
blues and whites and looked amazing

The blue marbled tiles underneath my
feet were so shiny and they looked great against the white wainscotting on
the walls.

"You like it?" asked Howie who had come out of the kitchen carrying a
pineapple.

"Yeah! I really do!"

"It turned out great thanks to my handwork," Kevin said as he hiked up his
belt like a carpenter.

"You didn't lift a finger in this house!" said Howie.

"Well, I supervised," said Kevin with a big smile on his face.

"Oh I see," I said, "What's the pineapple for D?"

"Uh, housewarming gift from the weirdos next door. They gave us a pineapple
and a fruit cake. That's all. Odd huh?"

"Really..." I said looking at the pineapple. Weird neighbours.

"Yum!" I heard someone yell from the basement downstairs.

"Brian.." said Kevin looking towards the stairs.

"Well you guys head down and I'll fix us some drinks," said Howie. I headed
down the stairs.

"Hey! Brian! Do you have to?" Kevin asked as we looked over at the back of
the couch and saw Brian hovering above Jessie with his shirt undone. It was
funny because all we could see was Brian's head and half of his torso
because the couch back was in the way.

"I'm not doing anything bad!" he said with a mischievous look on his face.

"Woah" he yelled as Jessie pulled him down and kissed him.

"For god sakes," Kevin said rolling his eyes. I looked around trying to not
pay attention to the two of them on the couch.

"They've been at it for a while," Nick said looking up briefly from the
Mortal Kombat arcade style video game in the corner.

"Well, this place looks great!" I said. There was a pool table in the
centre of the rec room, and the Mortal Kombat game in the far corner and
the tv and the couch in the other corner.

"It does look cool huh?" Kev asked as he kicked Brian off the couch and sat
down.

"Ouch!" said Brian as he got up off the floor and started to button up his
shirt.

"Sorry, but this ain't no love central!" he said with a smile as he flicked
on the tv. The football game was on and the Miami dolphins were ahead by 7
points after a nice touchdown.

"Alright!" yelled Nick as he leapt over the back of the couch and landed on
me.

"Nick!" I said.

"Yeah?"

"Never mind," I didn't even bother...Nick wasn't going to move. We watched
the game for a while longer until Howie came downstairs with our
drinks...and with AJ.

"Hi guys," he said to all of us. I looked at him and gave him a little
smile.

"Hi..." I mumbled as I threw Nick off of me and got up.

"I've uh...gotta go..." I said. I didn't really but I didn't think I was
ready to be in the same room with AJ and hang out like we were buds again,
just yet.

"Well, I can walk you home, I've got to go to. I just stopped by to see the
place." I looked at him trying not to let my jaw drop.

"Um...ok..." I said as I waved goodbye to everyone and headed up the stairs
with AJ on my heels. I slipped on my runners and then headed out the door.

"So....Jess' party was great huh?" AJ said trying to make small talk after
we had walked about a block.

"Yeah, it was." I said. I kicked a pebble along the street. We didn't say
anything to each other.

"E, can we talk about the other day?" he asked me cautiously.

"What's there to talk about. You broke my heart, I was upset, we ended our
friendship."

"Look, I know we said we did but it can't be over. We've been friends for
so long."

"Yeah, so? Being friends for a long time doesn't warrant us staying friends
forever."

"Well, we've been through so much together."

"Really," I said sarcastically. I wasn't in the mood to sort this out with
him.

"Oh come on, like do you remember the time in grade 3 we went bike riding
and you flew over the handle bars and broke your ankle? I had to ride you
home in the basket on the front of your bike. You didn't even fit! We looked
so funny!"

"Yeah," I said trying not to smile.

"Or the time in grade 3 too when we got in trouble picking all the flowers
of Nick's mom's flower bed," he said running in front of me and walking
backwards. I couldn't help but laugh. AJ and I had pulled up the whole row
of daffodils and begonias for our mom's. We thought we were being nice but
instead we dragged home a ton of dirt and wilted plants and not only that
but Jane made us go back and plant a whole new row of flowers while Nick
looked on and laughed at us.

"Then we lied to him and told him candy would grow out of his arms if he
stood in the dirt for while and let us plant him," AJ said. I laughed so
hard.

"That was hilarious. He was up to his ankles in dirt for half an hour until
Jane came out and yelled at him for standing in the dirt in his barefeet.,"
I said.

Nick had been so gullible up until grade 5 when he just got more
gullible.

"See? E, we can't stop being friends...not now," AJ said as we headed up
the driveway of my house.

"Yeah, well.." I said my voice trailing off.

"Look," AJ said as he paused and pulled something out of his pocket and
opened my hand. He dropped in the silver banded thumb ring I had given back
to him.

"I'm sorry and I want you to know that," AJ said as he looked me into the
eyes. I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say.

"I'm really sorry," AJ said again, "Can we start from square one?" he
asked. I nodded.

Then he opened his arms and we hugged. I knew things were
on the road to being better between us. He released his grip, turned and
walked down my drive way, turning back only once to smile. I watched until
he was just a small speck walking towards the setting sun. I looked down and
opened up my hand. There lay the ring, I slid it on my thumb and looked at
it.

AJ had given me back my heart, and I loved him for that.

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