Page 29 of The Friend Scheme
I imagine being him, seeing my place for the first time. In front of us is the living room, where there’s a brown couch in front of a huge TV. Outside, through a set of glass sliding doors, is the pool. Down one hall is Dad’s room. On the other side of the house is a hall that leads to my bedroom and Luke’s, plus a bathroom. The floors are stone-colored ceramic tile. They make the whole place feel kind of frosty.
“Thanks. Um, what kind of pizza do you like? We should probably order, like, now, if you’re hungry.”
I bring up the app on my phone. He moves around and standsbeside me, so close that we’re nearly touching. I can smell his cologne now, and it’s very nice.
“Pepperoni, obviously,” he says.
Honestly, it’s the only acceptable answer. I’m glad he said it.
“Cool. How about I get one of those and a garlic bread? We already have Cokes and stuff here.”
“Sounds perfect.”
I order the food, and the app tells me it’ll be delivered in twenty minutes.
“I could show you the pool, if you’d like?” I ask.
He nods, so I take him through the house. Eddie follows behind, with the toy in his mouth. He’s so needy.
“I love your TV,” says Jason as he takes the toy from Eddie and throws it. “Where do you keep your games?”
“In the drawer.”
He slides it open, revealing my stack of games.
“Can I?” he asks.
“Sure.”
He rifles through them. “All nice choices, man. You clearly have good taste.”
“Thanks. But come on, I’m not done yet.”
“Fine, fine, sorry I’m so curious about you.”
I don’t know what to say to that. But for some reason, I blush.
We go outside and go through the gate, to walk around the pool. It’s lit up by underwater lights, which makes it look sort of magical. The whole area is really nice.
It gets a massive smile out of him.
“This is so awesome,” he says.
“I’m glad you like it. I hang out here a lot. Like, when I read or listen to a podcast, I sit there.”
“I do that, too, actually. Just, at my place.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.”
“Awesome.”
Once we’ve done a lap, we go back inside. He marvels at everything, including a piece of modern art hanging on the hallway wall. I know it’s ridiculously expensive, even though it’s pretty much just a single black line on a red background. Dad bought it for himself to celebrate landing a big protection racket deal. We get a lot of our income from that. Businesses pay us to keep them safe…
But if they don’t pay, they get torched. So really, we’re protecting them from ourselves. It’s totally messed up, and I hate thinking about it.
“I like this,” he says.
