Just Friends

by Billy Taylor

  “Breakfast, Hey you made it! I assumed you weren’t coming!” Verity said, throwing herself at Ethan, wrapping her arms around him as she opened the door. “There’s booze in the kitchen and downstairs. Try not to make a mess please. It’d help me out when it comes to cleaning afterwards.”

  She already appeared rather drunk she was swaying from side to side. It was only 9:17pm. Seventeen minutes behind schedule. They must have started early. She grabbed Ethan’s wrist, “Come, let me show you around!”

  Before Ethan could turn around to say anything, Verity had already dragged him away. Most of the attendees must’ve been downstairs in the basement. The bass from the music vibrated the floor below us. Almost shooting you off your feet. Max and I weren’t really in the mood to have bleeding eardrums this evening. I wandered around Verity’s living room while Max went into the kitchen to grab us a drink. It was surprising to see how welcoming Verity’s home was. I mean, it’s beautiful. Her parents have great taste. It was like stepping into page twenty of a furniture catalogue. Everything was perfectly positioned. I wanted to slip off my boots and scrunch my feet into the luxurious cream carpet. As I stood and stared down at the carpet, debating whether or not to take my boots off and scrunch my feet into it, something caught my eye. It was a framed photo booth picture of what I assumed to be Verity’s parents. I walked over to it, wanting to examine it further. They appeared to be around the same age as me. It made me feel all warm and funny, to see them together at such a young age and still be together now. That rarely happens anymore, everyone’s too busy cheating on one another. I hope they’re still as happy now as they were in those photos.

  Max re-entered the room accompanied by two tall glasses of orange juice. “Don’t worry, I checked the carton, it’s not from concentrate.” Max once gave us a big speech about how he hated concentrated orange juice and forbid Ethan and I to drink it. I haven’t touched a single drop since.

  “What are you looking at?” He asked, nodding towards the framed picture. “I’m guessing it’s Verity’s parents. I thought it was kinda cute, they’re so young.” Max didn’t seem to share the same emotion as me. “She’s hot.”

  “I suppose so.” I sighed. To be honest, Verity’s Mum was gorgeous. Her and Verity could be twins. Her Mum’s hair is just wavier and darker.

  “Shall we find Ethan?” I asked.

  I was expecting him to have rejoined us by now. Max nodded.

  Ethan’s voice echoed throughout the room as we descended the staircase to the basement. “Pick a card, any card please.” He’d been here no longer than fifteen minutes and he’d already started performing magic tricks. Max and I gathered around the crowd of fifteen or twenty people that made up the basement population. They had formed a circle around two sofas where Ethan was sitting across from Verity, holding out a fanned deck of cards towards her. She chose a card from the deck after peering amongst them for several seconds.

  “Show everyone the card, but make sure I don’t see it. Return the card to a different place in the deck,” Ethan announced as he placed his hands over his eyes. She held the card up so everyone could see. It was the three of diamonds. She struggled to return the card back to the deck so used her other hand in support.

  “Is August here?” He asked, standing up as he surveyed the room.

  He eventually found me at the very back.

  He pointed at me. “Come forward, please.”

  I crossed my arms, slowly making my way towards him.

  “Be a dear and shuffle the cards for me, please.” He whispered in my ear. Even after all these years I’d spent with Ethan, I always struggled to shuffle a deck of cards to a decent standard. Nevertheless, I unfolded my arms, snatched the cards off him and poorly shuffled them before handing them back. He thanked me and returned to his seat on the sofa. Ethan grabbed Verity’s hands, placing the deck between them and based his hands on top of hers.

  “Your card has now vanished from the deck.”

  She stared at Ethan before she forced open her hands and searched through the deck for her card. It wasn’t there, of course.

  “How did you do that?” Her drunken state seemed to enhance the amount of disbelief. Before Ethan could reply with the corny line, magic – I interrupted. “Check your shoe, Verity.” She stood without questioning my odd comment. Flicked off one of her little blue slip-on pumps, right foot first. The vanished card wasn’t there. After discovering its emptiness, the left pump quickly flicked off into her hands. A look of distraught spread over her face. She reached into her pump, pulling out a card. It was the three of diamonds, in all its glory. Describing Verity as excited would be an understatement.

  “Oh my God, oh my God. How did you do that? That’s amazing!”

  She turned to her friends, handing them the card. They all snatched at it like it was a souvenir for them to keep. The circle gathered around went wild – clapping and cheering. Ethan bowed, before offering his hand out to me. It made me blush, but I took a small curtsy.

  “Thank you everyone. I am humbled by your appreciation and applause.” Ethan announced as if he’d just won a major movie award. Random shouts of another appeared from around the circle. In support Max and I joined them. Ethan held up his hands. “All right, all right. Will somebody pass me two beers from the fridge over there please? Bottled not canned, otherwise nobody will see the trick.” It seemed before he could finish his sentence somebody had sprinted across and brought him what he asked for. “Verity, will you inspect these for me please? Check they’re normal?” He handed the two bottles to her, she lifted them up to the light, tilting her head and wincing at them.

  “Yep, they seem good, Breakfast.”

  “So two normal bottles of beer everyone. I will now freeze them both, using only my hands.”

  He held the bottles five or six inches apart. He paused for a second before jolting the bottom of each bottle against each other rather hard. It made me jump because I expected them to smash. Everyone stared at them for a few moments before Ethan held them up for all to see. The circle remained silent as they waited to find out if it had worked or not. You could see something rising inside each bottle. Ethan handed Verity a bottle. “What! It’s frozen! What, how?” Her excitement exploded. “It’s frozen! That’s incredible!” Ethan passed the other bottle around the crowd. When it got to Max and I, we couldn’t believe our eyes. It’d frozen solid. He couldn’t have switched them or have hidden them up his sleeve. It would take time for me to figure this one out, not that I’d ever figured any out.

  The circle dispersed, and the music turned up again. Ethan sat down on the sofa to compose himself, running his hands through his hair. Max and I shuffled through everyone to get over and check up on him.

  “You ok, buddy?” Max wrapped his arm around him as we slumped onto the sofa.

  “Yeah, Verity and I have been taking shots, not the best idea after what happened last time!”

  Ethan wrapped his arm around me. “August, come do shots with me, it’s fun.” He got to his feet and tried to pull me up to join him.

  “I’m fine with my orange juice, Ethan, you go have fun.”

  I figured Max would need a hand helping Ethan to the truck. It wouldn’t help if Max had to carry me out, too. Ethan flapped his arms at me and wandered over to Verity, who had occupied the table where all the shots were lined up. As he downed a shot, his face grimaced. It was amusing to watch, Max and I thought so anyway.

  “Another orange juice?” Max grabbed my empty glass.

  “Let’s go mad.” I replied.

  He smiled and headed back to the basement stairs. As he passed Ethan, Verity and her friends in their drunken state, they pulled Max in for a group hug. I didn’t have time to see much else as Mark joined me on the sofa. He’s in my literature class. I’d say he’s five foot ten or eleven. He has short light brown hair and green eyes. We never talk at college. I don’t have an explanation as for why. I do know that he played rugby at a high level when he was younger b
efore he suffered a bad injury.

  “Hey August, enjoying the party?”

  “Yes I am, thank you”.

  “Your boyfriend is having fun.” He focused his vision on Ethan.

  “Oh, he’s not my boyfriend, we’ve been bestfriends for a long time.”

  He smiled, “Really? That’s good.”

  Even in the darkness, it wasn’t hard to notice how green his eyes were. You lost yourself in them. But I wanted to know what he meant by that’s good.

  I frowned at him. “How so?”

  I glanced over at Ethan again. Verity and him were giggling like a pair of kids. Mark’s eye’s flicked back between Ethan and me again.

  “Well, if I found out you and Ethan weren’t together. I was going to ask if maybe, possibly. You’d like to go out with me sometime, get something to eat?” He was embarrassed and shy, but it was kinda cute.

  “Yeah, that would be nice.” I was a little bashful myself.

  “I’m free tomorrow, if that’s any good, or is it too soon seeing as you asked me ten seconds ago?”

  “No, no. Tomorrow would be great. How about the restaurant down from college?”

  I nodded, “Yeah, would 3:30 be good for you?”

  I was worried I was being too forward and that I might frighten him off.

  Max returned, he coughed. “Sorry, am I interrupting?”

  “No, No. We were just chatting.” Mark stood and allowed Max to reclaim his seat. “I’ll see you tomorrow, August. 3:30.”

  “What did he want?” Max asked, passing me my glass.

  “We have a date tomorrow.” I replied in embarrassment.

  Max stared at me.

  “What are you looking at?” I asked. I’m not sure whether he implied Mark was out of my league, or vice versa.

  “Nothing, I always presumed if you would ever date anyone, it would be, you know…Ethan.”

  I looked down at the floor. In the back of my mind maybe I’d strangely always thought that, too. I opened my mouth to reply but before any words escaped, Max stood. He was looking over at Ethan, who had lain on the floor. He’d survived about an hour before his flop. Max walked over to Ethan and knelt down beside him, followed by me. We lifted him upright.

  “How you doing Ethan?” Max asked.

  “I’m great, the room started spinning, so I thought I’d lay down. I’m such a light weight!”

  Ethan smiled up at me and shut his eyes. We struggled to get him to his feet and carried him to the sofa. We didn’t place him on the sofa, more of a… catapult. I wasn’t expecting Ethan to be so heavy, saying that, I’m not exactly the strongest. He exhaled as he slumped on the sofa, “Guys, I don’t know about you, but I can’t drive home.” Max and I couldn’t help but laugh as we sat either side of him. Ethan then thought it would be more comfortable to sprawl himself across our legs. “I love you guys, you guys are the best.” He kept repeating it over and over. Until it faded into a murmur and then he fell asleep. Verity occupied the sofa opposite to us, her make-up had stained the pillows of the cream sofa, a terrible choice of colour evidentially. Her emerald eye shadow however, remained on point. On the downside, she had a bit of drool running out of the corner of her mouth.

  It’s 10:50pm, we’ve been here around an hour and thirty-five minutes, and it’s already time to leave. Nevertheless, I’ve had a wonderful time, even after spending most of the night babysitting. Max and I decided it was time to take Ethan home. We woke him up and helped him to his feet. He managed to stand on his own, so it would only be bundling up the stairs instead of horrendous bundling up the stairs. I said goodbye to Verity’s friends while Max helped Ethan upstairs. I asked if they’d tell Verity we had a good time, but had to leave to take Ethan home. “Bye Breakfast!” They all shouted over my shoulder as Max and Ethan stumbled up the stairs. I found it hard to grasp how many admirers Ethan had. They seemed to increase by the day. Max and Ethan had made it to the top of the staircase as I left Verity’s friends. I think Ethan tried to make conversation, but all that came out was moans and groans, and the occasional random giggle. Max opened the back door to the truck while I held Ethan. I could barely hold myself when I’m sober, never mind trying to help a drunk Ethan remain standing. We stuck him in the back seat, promoting me to front passenger. I didn’t fancy sitting in the back with Ethan in case he threw up, which would have also made me throw up. Max decided Ethan should stay at his. It wouldn’t be fair to dump him at home on his own. The truck was silent throughout the first couple of minutes of our journey back home. I kept looking back and checking if the sleeping Ethan was ok. “August?” Max said, holding the steering wheel with one arm as if he was in a rap video.

  “Yes?” I replied.

  “What are your plans for when this is all over?”

  “You mean college or tonight?” I said with a puzzled face.

  He nodded, keeping his focus on the road. I hate when people do that. You ask them a question with an optional answer and they reply with yes. How on Earth am I supposed to figure out what you meant? I’m not telepathic.

  “Well I suppose, if we don’t go to university or whatever you will pursue your journalism career, and I’ll pursue my big break in my acting career. If that doesn’t work out I’d like to open a florist. As for tonight I’m going straight to sleep when I get home.”

  He had a concerned look upon his face as he stared into the rear view mirror, “What do you think he’ll do?”

  I turned around to check on Ethan, “I’m not sure Max, I’m sure he’ll pursue his magic career. He mentioned that he would like to open up his own bar when he retired. He may have to fetch it forward a decade or two if it doesn’t work out.”

  Ethan must’ve heard our discussion coming from the front since a new lease of life came about him. “Hey guys, how are we, I love you, you know that right? Can we get pizza? I want a pizza.”

  I turned around to him and put my hand on his knee and smiled. He tried to force one in return, but struggled. “Do you want me to tell you how I did the apple trick, August?” He closed his eyes and put his head back. My response was like lightning. “You already did?”

  “Remember when I said you need two identical apples to perform the trick, well you need three… and a little varnish. The first apple I took a bite out of, varnished it so it wouldn’t go off. It was in your lunch container before you even got to first period. The second you took a bite out of. The third was a simple whole unbitten apple to replace the second. Clever, huh?”

  It did amaze me. First, he explained it drunk. Second, he pulled the trick off without me noticing. Ethan slipped back off into his sleep. We then pulled up at a set of red lights. Max stuck on the handbrake. “I’m so tired, I cannot wait to climb in to bed.” His tiredness must’ve been contagious because I yawned straight after. The traffic lights switched to green. Max removed the handbrake and pressed the accelerator. At that moment, a huge bright light on my side of the truck came out of nowhere, blinding us. The light got closer, and closer, and closer until something slammed straight into us. There was a deafening sound of metal scraping on metal, the truck jolted, I couldn’t tell if we had flipped over or spun. There wasn’t time to say anything or protect myself. I had my eyes closed and kept them closed, hoping we’d be ok. It lasted no longer than a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Everything seemed to pass by in slow motion, the thudding beat of my heart echoed throughout my body as I was tugged and thrown in all directions. My life flashed before my eyes, I saw Madeline and Ethan making their friendship bracelets again. I saw my parents cuddling on the sofa while I platted Madeline’s hair in front of the television. I saw myself spitting the blackcurrant juice all over Ethan at his seventh birthday party. Then everything came to a halt. I tried to compose myself and gather my bearings. My vision blurred, my head shaken and numb. I got a tiny glimpse of Max turning around and saying, “Oh my God, is everyone ok?” Then everything went black.

  May 24th

  My ears woke up bef
ore my eyes, there was a strange beeping noise I couldn’t comprehend. My eyes took a few forced blinks to respond. I tried to sit up, but a huge stinging pain shot through my head. I placed my hand on it, hoping the pain would decrease. Then I realised I was lying in a hospital bed. I’ve no idea how I got here. I was just happy to be alive. I couldn’t see any other patients as I was hidden behind a large white curtain. The unmistakable smell of hand sanitiser filled my nostrils. My arm had a small plastic tube running from it into a little clear bag, held up by a thin metal rod. A middle-aged black woman wearing a long white coat approached my bed after appearing from behind a curtain.

  “Hi August. Good to see you coming around. How are you?”

  My mouth felt so dry I could barely speak. I glanced to my side to see a bottle of water on the shelf. She must have noticed me looking at it as she grabbed it and poured me some into a small cup. Never had water tasted so good.

  “My name’s Angela. I’m a doctor here at Samuel’s Hospital. You were involved in a car crash last night. You hit your head pretty hard. You suffered a mild concussion and a little cut to your head, which luckily for you, didn’t need stitches. We kept you sedated until the morning to be on the safe side of things. How do you feel, dear?”

  It’s a lot to take in after waking up from a car crash, but as soon as she said dear I immediately thought of Ethan.

  “I’m fine, my head hurts. How are my friends? Are they ok? Where are they? Are they dead?”

  I needed to know they’re ok. I began to panic, and breathing became a struggle. Angela crouched alongside my bed. “Relax, deep breaths in and out. Do you remember what happened last night?” I nodded as I followed her instructions. She held my hand as I maintained my breathing. “One of your friends is sat in the waiting room with your parents. Do you want me to send them in?” I nodded and wiped my eyes. She gave me a comforting smile before disappearing behind the curtain. My parents worried if I’m a minute late home, especially my Mum. I remember when I was younger I had an ear infection. One night they had to take me to the kid’s hospital because the pain had become unbearable. I was only a kid so I may have empthasised it a little. My Mum was crying because I was crying. After a little medicine I was as good as new. But I’ll never forget how worried my Mum was. It was like the world was ending… over an ear infection. I can’t even begin to imagine what my parents are currently going through. Mum won’t have eaten, drank, or slept since hearing the news. I just wanted them to hug me, and tell me everything would be ok. Mum appeared from behind the curtain first, she’d been crying.