“Yo.”
“Amico! I’mhere. Just hung the jacket on your door. I got deliveries real quick though, so I can’t hang.”
“Cool, cool, you comin’ back?”
“I’ll be in and out. If I don’t see you before, good luck tonight.”
“Yeah man, thanks. And thanks for the jacket.”
“You got it, brother.”
I hang up the phone and check the time.
Before sliding it back into my pocket, I shoot Claire a text to make sure she’s still good for seven. I get a reply almost immediately.
CLAIRE:Still good :)
I make the cheesiest smile and for once I'm so glad that my backyard is an empty parking lot.
30
Claire
“Jesus Christ, Claire, it is pouring right now.” Chloe, who may be more excited about my date than I am, sits on speakerphone while I finish putting on my makeup.
“And on the one day I actually straightened my hair.”
“Nooo,” she says dramatically, rifling through something on the other end of the phone.
“Let’s just hope it stops long enough for me to enter and exit the car without looking like a drowned rat.” I comb my fingers through my freshly ironed hair as if willing it to stay this way.
“May the odds be ever in your favor,” she says in her best Effie Trinket.
“You get me,” I say, swiping one last coat of mascara to my already dark lashes.
It’s an anxious tick of mine. Whenever I’m going somewhere important or special, I always apply way too many coats of mascara, as if the long, thick lashes will catch all of my nervous energy like flies to a web.
“What time is he coming over?" Chloe mumbles, clearly eating something very unladylike. I look at the time - 6:40 pm.
“Twenty minutes.”
“Are you dressed yet?”
“About to be.” I put down the mascara and walk away before my eyelids are too heavy to lift.
“Ooh. Switch me. To Skype. So I can see. The whole look,” she says while crunching in between words.
“Yeah, I’m not going to do that. And what the hell are you eating?”
“Celery with peanut butter,” she says earnestly.
I laugh. “What are you, five?”
“I have to go grocery shopping!” she snaps. “Besides, you tell me ants on a log aren’tstilldelicious.”
I roll my eyes and shake my head. “You’re one of a kind Chlo.”
“I luh ya too,” she responds, mumbling again. “Caw me tomorrah!”
