Page 42 of Five Mountain Daddies

My parents are already in bed. I can tell since the outside light is on and the living room light is off. That’s their universal signal for “be quiet, we’re sleeping,” which I appreciate. I want to be a good roommate to my parents, and so I sneak up to thehouse.

I don’t get far before I hear a car door shut. I look across the street and I spot two people walking toward me. It takes a second before I realize that it’s Ryan andHenry.

I walk toward them, heart beating fast. “What are you two doing here?” Isay.

“Nice to see you too,” Ryan answers,grinning.

“We come bearing gifts.” Henry holds up a bottle ofchampagne.

“What’s thatfor?”

“You’re coming to work with us guys,” Ryan says. “We wanted tocelebrate.”

I watch them a second before shaking my head. “Okay, come inside. Just be quiet,okay?”

“Sure,” Ryansays.

“Sneaking into a girl’s house, just like the old days,” Henry whispers,laughing.

Ryan laughs too. “It’s actually kind ofhot.”

“Definitely,” Henry agrees. “Think we can make her moan loud enough to wake up the wholehouse?”

“Enough,” I hiss at them as we go in the side door. “Comeon.”

They follow me through the kitchen and down the basement steps. Fortunately, my parents have a finished basement, although it barely gets used anymore. I shut the door behind us as we headdownstairs.

Ryan pops the bottle open while I pull out some old glasses from behind the little bar my dad built in the corner years ago. We pour the champagne over the ping pong table, and toast standing near pictures of me from middleschool.

Ryan picks up one and inspects it. “You were not cute,” hesays.

“Give me that.” I snatch it away. “You jerk. I hadacne.”

“Not cute,” Henryechoes.

“She really blossomed, though,” Ryansays.

“She sure did,” Henry agrees. “I mean, look at her now. You’d never guess that ugly little duckling would turn into…this.”

I roll my eyes. “I wasn’tugly.”

“Not cute,” Ryan says again, shaking his head. He picks up another picture and I try to grab it away, but he won’t let me. “Oh, man, look at this, Henry. She’s in her socceruniform.”

“That’s kind of cute,” headmits.

“A little bit. But I definitely prefer the adultversion.”

“I hope so,” I say, finally getting the picture. Ryan laughs and the guys start hitting the ping pong ball back andforth.

“Stop!” I hiss at them. “You’re going to wake up myparents.”

Henry rolls his eyes. “What a good girl,” he says. “Worried about getting introuble.”

“You know you’re an adult, right?” Ryanasks.

“This isn’t my house,” I pointout.

Ryan and Henry share a look, but they stop playing ping pong at least. I don’t know what that look meant, but I’m not going to ask about it. I’m pretty sure I don’t want toknow.

---