We chill for a while and just piss away the hours together. During a lapse in conversation, however, I hear a strange noise coming from downstairs. I look over at Ollie, but he’s starting to get up. He makes his way to the door and beckons me to follow him.

We go downstairs, and I figure out the noise was the front door having opened. Ollie’s mom, and a man I assume to be Ollie’s dad, are coming in from the entry.

“Hey, Ol!” Ollie’s dad says enthusiastically. He set down his large bag and gave Ollie a bear hug.

“Welcome back, dad,” Ollie says quietly.

They part and his dad turns to me. “Joey, right? Dora told me all about you on the way here.”

He beams at me and I smile awkwardly. “Yeah…nice to meet you, sir.”

“Please, call me John,” he replies.

“Boys, go get the rest of John’s things from the car,” Ollie’s mom, Dora, tells us as John sets down his bag by the front door and the two of them leave for the kitchen.

Ollie leads the way out the front door and we go to the car, a simple four-door, which has the trunk already open.

There are just a few more big bags inside the trunk, so Ollie and I lug them out and Ollie slams the trunk closed after.

Silent, though not uncomfortably so, we head back into the house. The bag I’m carrying is intriguingly heavy. I find myself wondering what Ollie’s dad does for a living…

John gets settled back in, and he and Ollie take the bags up to the master bedroom, while I help Dora make turkey sandwiches for lunch.

“So, Joey,” she says cheerfully. “You and Ollie seem to get along so well.”

“Yeah,” I reply with a small smile. “He’s a really neat guy.”

“I’m glad,” Dora looks up at me, her eyes so kind looking. “Ollie doesn’t have many friends.”

She hands me four plates, which I set out on the table in a manner I imagine is acceptable by their table-setting standards.

“Is that so?” I say quietly, a little surprised. I think back to when he said I was assuming things to think he had no friends…nice bluff.

Dora shows me the cabinet with the glasses, so I set four of those up as well, as Dora’s finishing the sandwiches. It almost feels like we’re a family together. I can only imagine what it would be like if Zak were here too.

Ollie and John walk in just as Dora and I are about done. They’re talking about something, but I’m not really paying attention to their voices. Ollie’s face is just so bright, and I can tell he’s very glad to have his dad back. They’re so much more family-oriented than we are.

We eat lunch together, and John talks of all the weird things that happened to him in New York (because something weird always happens when you go to New York).

Later, John got out a small bag, saying her got a few things.

“I would have gotten you something,” he says to me with a smile. “But I didn’t know.”

“Oh, no,” I say sweetly, and I see Ollie glance at me out of the corner of my eye, but I’m being sincere. “You shouldn’t have gotten me anything, anyway.”

John laughs and ruffles my hair. “So, Dora…once I saw this, I thought of you…”

He pulled out a necklace and she fawned over it as he told her the story of how he bought it.

Ollie and I sat over on the couch.

“So…” I say awkwardly, patting my hands on my thighs idly. Ollie looks over at me, a small smile on his face.

“What’s on your mind?”

“You know I can only think about you, baby,” I reply with a proper dose of sarcasm.

He scoffs. “Yeah,” he says quietly, almost as an afterthought.

We sit back and talk about little things as John’s deep rumble of a voice and Dora’s sweet croon flow together behind us. After it becomes apparent they’re mixed up totally in each other, Ollie gets up and beckons me with a “c’mon”, leading us back up into his room once more.

Glancing at the clock, I read off, “12:38. Only two and a half hours.”

Ollie laughs. “You’re counting down? That anxious to get away from me?”

“Why of course not, my love,” I say dramatically, a hand to my forehead. “It’s that I can’t bear the thought of parting ways with you.”

“Oh, yes, I know,” Ollie quips right back, “I am very hard to resist.”

I smile slightly, then sigh on a more serious note, my eyes drifting towards the floor. “The thought of my house seems so boring now, in comparison to your place.”

Ollie lips quirk downwards. “How come?”

“Well, it’s just…” I sit and really think about it for a moment. “I dunno…I guess it’s just that I don’t have any siblings, or anyone my age there. It’s nice just to hang out with you.” I look back up at Ollie with a genuine smile. “And you’ve helped me a lot, already.”

Ollie returns the smile easily. He runs a hand shortly down my arm in a simple kind gesture.

For the rest of the time we lay around quietly without saying too much. I love that it doesn’t feel like we need to speak in order to be content.

Once three pm rolls around, I dully say goodbye, not wanting to leave. Ollie hesitantly gives me a quick hug, which I am proud of him for. I say goodbye kindly to his parents, very appreciative of them for being so kind to me. I then head out the front door and start making my way back home. Once there, normality kind of sets back in, and I’m back to my every day routine, though left feeling kind of dull.

I finish all of the homework I started at Ollie’s on Friday, and then I’m left with nothing else to do. I sit back in my desk chair and allow myself to get lost in my own thoughts. After a while I get sick of myself and leave my room to eat dinner with mom. Afterwards I go and reorganize random things in my room that don’t really need reorganizing before just lying down, and ending up falling asleep.

By Monday, I’ve had all Sunday to simmer in my thoughts about Ollie. It almost makes me feel like a totally new person. Or perhaps just…like myself. This must explain why upon seeing Hailey in the morning, I don’t smile, I don’t greet her, I don’t do anything.

“Hey, Joey!” Hailey follows me as I walk right past her. “Hey, there. I’m gonna need to take a peek at your English worksheet, okay?”

“No,” I say quietly and I stop walking to look at her. “No, what you need to do is to learn how to do things on your own for once in your life.”

She stares at me, flabbergasted. Poor little Hailey, has to pick up a pencil on her very own. Note the sarcasm.

“You—” she pauses. It seems as though words escape her at the moment. Shocking. “You can’t—what do you mean?”

I raise my eyebrows. I don’t really know what’s overcome me. Keeping Ollie in the back of my mind helps keep me going. “Did I stutter? Do it. Yourself.”

Her blank look now imprinted into my mind for good I’m sure, I turn and quickly shuffle away before she can think of any sort of response. I’m pretty much extremely excited that I won over her for once and I find myself heading towards the art building with my eyes open for Ollie. But the bell to first period rings so I make my way to my class instead.

Later when I have English, I’m nervous about Hailey, but she just comes in and doesn’t say a word. She bounces her foot on my chair like usual and then leaves right after the dismissal bell. What a relief.

Once it’s lunch, I get serious about finding Ollie. I manage to catch him right before he goes into the band room.

“Hey, Ol,” I say cheerfully.

“Hey,” he returns, and beckons me to follow him into the band room.

“Guess what?” I chirp.

“What?” he asks, taking a seat at the piano bench.

“I told Hailey off this morning! And I was totally cool, too,” I grin.

He smiles back. “Awesome. I knew you had it in you.”

“Thank you,” I say sincerely. “You’re the only reason I got brave enough to do it.”

“No problem,” he responds.

“So now, you either have to play me a part of a song, or give me a big bear hug,” I tell him with a laugh.

“Aw, no fair,” he whines. “We didn’t agree to anything like this.”

“We did! We said we’d help each other out. Now that you have helped me, I shall help you,” I smile evilly at him.

He laughs. “Okay, okay,” and he starts to play Mary Had A Little Lamb. I giggle throughout.