Page 25 of Voices

“I have the clothes out here for you, Charlie. I’m going to go make breakfast.”

I don’t hear anything in return, so I let him be and head to the kitchen.

Ryder and the blonde are sitting in the living room watching The Notebook. He hates this movie. He looks over the couch as I walk past. “You gonna cook something?” He pleads with his eyes.

I stop and pretend to think about it. “I don’t know, I think I might join you guys for this riveting movie.”

“You like this movie too? It’s one of my favs. Ryan Gosling is so fine,” blondie says, clueless to my sarcasm.

Ryder begs me with his eyes to save him. Taking pity on my best friend, I tip my head towards the kitchen. “Come on, you can help.”

He jumps up so fast that blondie doesn’t have time to catch herself before she falls over. “Shit sorry. Keep watching while I go make us breakfast.”

She lets out an annoying as-hell laugh as we walk away.

“Thanks, man. She won’t get the hint that I wanted her to leave as soon as we woke up. She’s been talking my ear off all morning.”

I laugh at his misery as I open the fridge to see what we have. “Why didn’t you just tell her to leave?” I grab the carton of eggs, bacon, a block of cheddar cheese, and bagels. “Grab those peppers off the counter.” I turn to the island and kick the fridge closed, setting everything down.

“Well, I woke up to a blowjob, so there’s that. And when she was finished, she curled up next to me and fell back asleep. So, I woke her ass up and said thanks for a great night. Aka, get the fuck out. But all she did was giggle and then walked out of my room naked. We ended up showering together and…”

I hold up my hand. “Nope. Skip. Move on to the next part.”

He starts chopping the peppers as I shred the cheese. “After we got dressed, I walked her out here and handed her purse over, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She fucking giggled again and sat down on the couch. Next thing I knew, she had the remote and started watching TV. I was so confused as to how she was missing my cues to leave, that I just sat down next to her. And of course shehadto pick The fucking Notebook.” He’s butchering the poor peppers as he roughly chops them with his frustration.

“Stop. Go crack open some eggs in a bowl, you’re destroying those.” I put the cheese off to the side and salvage what I can of the pepper catastrophe. “Do you think she eats fats? If I cook the eggs in the bacon grease and top it with cheese, she might run away so the evil fats won’t get her.” I chuckle as I lay out the bacon on a sheet pan and put it in the preheated oven.

“That’s a great idea!” He turns to the living room. “Hey…shit, I forgot her name,” he whispers. “Sam, Sally, Sarah, Sasha? It starts with ‘Sa’, I think.” He rubs his hands over his crazy bedhead. “Fuck it.” He walks over to the back of the couch and leans over, talking to her quietly.

I grab a frying pan off the hook on the wall and start on the rest of breakfast.

As I’m putting the bagels in the toaster oven, Ryder and blondie walk over. Looking up to see if the plan worked, I spot Charlie peeking around the corner.

Ryder is saying something, but I ignore him and walk over to where Charlie’s hiding. When he sees me coming, he walks backward towards my door.

“Do you feel better?” He stops about a foot from my room, hood up, looking down at his bare feet. He doesn’t say anything as I lift his chin with my finger. He looks a little frightened, but his eyes are clearer, and he smells like my body wash. “Come on, breakfast is almost finished.” I grin and drop my hand tohis lower back. He’s a little stiff but otherwise doesn’t pull away from my touch.

As we walk into the kitchen, Ryder is alone and pulling the bacon from the oven. He looks up at us and smiles at Charlie. “Hey, Charlie. I made a late breakfast for us.” He holds up the tray of steaming bacon.

“Ryder thinking he can cook is funny.” I loudly say behind my hand to Charlie.

He looks at Ryder and scrunches his nose. I laugh my ass off as I walk him to the chairs at the island.

“I don’t smell. I took a shower this morning while you two were sleeping,” he says as he does a very obvious pit check. “I smell like sandalwood or some shit.” He smiles and winks at Charlie.

“Sit down, dumbass.”

He takes a seat next to Charlie. His cheeks are an adorable shade of pink as he scoots as far to the right as he can without falling off his stool.

I pull the bagels out of the toaster oven, lining them on the island. I add scrambled eggs to the peppers and onions and top them with the shredded cheese. “I hope you’re hungry. I made my hangover specialty- bacon, egg, and cheese bagels.” As I turn with the pan full of deliciousness, Charlie has his nose tucked in the neck of my hoodie. I look over to Ryder, but he shakes his head and shrugs.

“Is this okay? I can make something else for you.” I set the pan on a hot pad and lean over to get Charlie’s attention.

He peeks up at me through a curtain of wet hair. “I don’t eat meat,” he whispers and raises his shoulder to his ears.

“Oh.” Good thing I haven’t assembled the sandwiches yet. “I’ll leave the bacon off yours. It’s no big deal. The bacon just adds a crunchy, salty bite to the sandwich.” I wink at him.

“Sweet! More for me.” Ryder grabs four slices of bacon and takes a massive bite out of all four.

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