I hear a car door shut and glance out the window. Of course he brought Annie. He always brings Annie, and though she never seems like she wants to be here, she’s always happy to be around him.
Poor guy.
I smile at them both when they walk through the front door. “Afternoon, you two. How are you guys feeling?”
“Dude, your neighbors have to hate you.” He drops a few cans into the sink. “And I’m fine. Little hangover but I was definitely black out drunk.” He glances at Annie and I see her look away.
“And you?” I ask, heading for the fridge for a water.
“Hungover but I’m surviving.” She takes the bottle of water from me. “Thanks,” she mutters. I glance at Able who’s standing there watching us.
“You want one, man?”
“Uh, yeah.” He looks confused, like she did something weird, then I realize what I just heard. Annie’s southern accent she’s always hiding.
“Get it yourself.” I wink at him and sit at the table.
"Yeah, of course. Wouldn’t expect anything less, ya lazy bastard.” He heads for the fridge.
“Why didn’t you two move in together? You’ve known each other your entire lives,” Annie finally asks after downing almost the entire bottle.
“When I finally moved to town Able was already shacked up with the stoner weirdo. Plus, this place is cheaper rent and I don’t have to share with anyone. Not sure if you know this or not, but your boy’s a clean freak and I can’t live like that.” I grin at her and her eyes go wide.
“I’m not claiming him,” she blurts. “But I know what you mean. He’s always picking up after me.”
“You, are just flat out a slob,” he says to me, then looks at her. ”And you’re a little messy.” He sits down. “And the main reason we don’t live together is because this fuckhead can’t keep his eyes off my Aunt Jenny and she hates him, and my Uncle Jack wants him dead. I’m sparing his life by living with Jimmy. Just a bonus you moved in.” He winks at her.
She laughs and I see the way he watches her when she isn’t paying attention. This poor guy’s going to get his heart broken by her if she doesn’t realize she’s in love with him soon. I’m honestly shocked it’s gone on this long without her figuring it out.
“Hey, you were at the party the whole time last night, right?” Annie blurts, changing the subject.
“Yeah, pretty much. Why?”
“I uh...” She laughs. “I have some questions.” She pulls out a notepad with notes all over it and I glance at Able.
“Is she serious?” I laugh, leaning back in my chair. “Notes?”
“She’s trying to figure something out.” He stares at the notepad. “Not sure what, ‘cause nothing to figure out except alcohol impairs judgment.” He stands and moves toward the TV, turning on the Xbox.
“Wait, did you black out, too?” I ask her and her cheeks turn pink. This girl’s got a dead giveaway any time she’s hiding something and she doesn’t even know it. I look at Able who’s ignoring us but trying his hardest to hear everything I say to her.
“I may have,” she says slowly. “I’m just filling in some blanks, that’s all.”
Able chuckles and shakes his head from the couch and it starts to click into place.
“Wait.” I laugh. “Did you two?” I wave my hand between them and her cheeks glow almost red. “Holy shit, it’s about time! Nice, Able!”
“Dude.” He glowers over his shoulder at me. “Shut the fuck up! She’s not some skank that’ll be a notch in someone’s belt. So shut the fuck up.” His red face is from pure anger and it’s obvious this is a touchy subject. He turns his back to us to focus on the TV.
I look at Annie who’s got her head hung and her hands flat on the table. “Sorry,” I mumble. I’ve known he’s loved her since day one. I didn’t realize it wasn’t something I could celebrate, though, when the time finally came. “So what do you want to know?”
“Anything really. You didn’t happen to get any pictures, did you?”
I glance at Able who’s focused on the TV and pull out my phone. Swiping the screen to unlock, I notice a text from him that came through a minute ago.
Able: Don’t tell her I like her. It’ll freak her out.
I glance at him and he’s looking back at us. I look at her and sh looks like she’s about to lose her patience with me. She doesn’t know how he feels? I guess I assumed she knew. Especially if they fucked...
“Uh,” I mumble, moving to my photo stream and laughing at the first picture that pops up. “Well, someone groped you at some point.” I laugh, but the look on her face isn’t funny. “Probably just Able during the keg stand.” I zoom in and notice it isn’t Able and cringe. “Or not.”
She steals the phone from my hand and squints to focus as the groping is happening in the background of a selfie I took with my beer.
“Who is that?” she mumbles, trying to recognize the guy gripping her tit.
Able’s behind us in no time. He yanks the phone from her hand and lifts it to his face.
“Who the fuck is that?” he mutters. “Didn’t you feel someone grab your tit?” he then barks at her and my eyes go wide.
“Obviously I was too drunk to remember anything from last night or we wouldn’t be doing this,” she snaps, taking the phone back. “Fuck, my head is killing me.”
“I’ll get you something for it.” I push away from the table and head to the bathroom.
A few seconds later, Able’s closing us in. “Listen to me. You know how she is. If she even thinks I think she’s pretty she’ll fucking move out. You get me? We have to be friends and only friends. She’s so freaked out about why we slept together! Just say alcohol. It was alcohol’s fault.” He’s nodding, waiting for me to agree.
I can’t, though.
“It wasn’t the alcohol, man.” I pat his shoulder. “I mean, I don’t want her to go anywhere. You’re a better person when she’s around. But I’m not going to tell you what you two did was only because you were drunk.”
“It was alcohol, Corben. Do you hear me?” He’s talking through gritted teeth, still nodding his head like a damn fool.
“Naw, man.” I chuckle. “All I know is she’s hungover and you're not taking care of her so I have to.” I wink at him because I like poking the bear.
He growls. “I’ll end you,” he says pinning me to the wall. “Don’t fuck around, Corben. And way to go, ya douche.” He gives me a shove, backing away. “Nice, Able,” he mocks what I said earlier in a dopey tone. “Way to make it seem like I’ve been trying to get her in bed.” He slides his hands over his head stressfully.
“Wow.” I laugh. “Okay, so you’re more stressed about this than she is. You guys fucked. That’s a good thing.” I push off the wall and grip the bottle of pills. “She’s not leaving you, dude. She’ll figure out what she feels before she runs for the hills.”
“Yeah, not according to her,” he mutters, pulling open the door. “Hey, you want to get out of here?” he asks her before I can give her the pills for her headache.
“At least let the girl take these.” I shove the pill bottle at her and slide a water bottle across the table since she downed the first one.
“Thank you,” she says in that southern twang she’s been rocking since she walked in the door. Maybe he fucked the sense back into her. We all know where she’s from and she’s always claimed she didn’t have the accent.
“So are we not getting food?” I ask, referring to my original text to Able.
“I don’t care, man. It’s up to her.” Able sits at the table next to her, stressed she’s looking through the pictures on my phone. “Annie.” He pokes her a little.
“Look at this picture,” she murmurs. “Everyone’s having a good old time and smiling for this huge group picture, but we’re not paying a lick of attention.”
She holds the phone out and I see what she’s talking about. Everyone in the photo is smiling, holding their drinks and having a grand time.
And then there’s Able and Annie. On the couch in the back ground, inches from each other. In their own little world. Like always.
“You two were like that all fucking night,” I say, flicking through a few more pictures. “That’s about midnight ish.” I point to a picture and Able zooms in to see the two of them holding hands heading down the front sidewalk towards her car. “You left without telling me goodbye. And you assholes drove home drunk.” I slap Able on the back of the head.
“Maybe Jimmy slipped us something before we left. I don’t remember any of these pictures.” He chuckles, and scrolls through a couple. “And I never drive like that.”
“Well one of you drove. I didn’t pay too much attention, there were too many chicks here last night for me to worry about you two.” I wink at Annie and she rolls her eyes.
“So we left together,” she mumbles, pulling out her notepad to take notes.
“Who have you interrogated today?” I laugh, seeing all her chicken scratch.
“You, Jimmy, and Kate.”
Kate.
“Okay, cool cool.” I bite my lip, remembering how much of a good time that friend of hers was. “So, Jessica and Ashley were there. Maybe they can tell you more?”
Annie scowls at the mention of the girls. “I don’t know if I want to see them hang all over Able just to get answers,” she mumbles quietly then gasps and looks up at us. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
Yeah she did.
“So can we end this now? It was alcohol’s fault. We’re sober today. Back to ourselves. Awesome roommates.” He holds up his hand for a high five but she leaves him hanging so I lean over and slap his hand, getting a scowl from him.
“You two are awesome roommates,” I agree. Would be even more awesome as a couple, but I feel like if I push it further right now he might actually punch me.
“Yeah,” Annie says, putting her notepad away. “Thanks, Corben. I’m ready to go. Bro-house smells like shit and it’s not helping the hangover.”
“Funny,” I say, rolling my eyes. “I haven’t shit yet today so it should smell like roses.”
She scowls at me and Able chuckles.
“Later, dude. And clean up your yard before you get another eviction notice.” He waits for Annie to stand then lets her lead the way to the door, but he opens it for her.
The man’s got it hard. And as they walk down the sidewalk to her car and he wraps his arm around her shoulder, I start to see that she’s in the same boat. She just doesn’t know it yet.