I told him to quit that job.
“You’re getting a phone,” I said, reaching into a cabinet to grab some chips, rip open the bag, and shove some in my mouth. “Don’t worry about paying for it.”
“But I?—”
“If you think I’m gonna let you walk around without any way for me to call you or for you to call me when you need something, then maybe I should reintroduce myself.”
“So I can call Haz?” he asked.
“I don’t know why you need to talk to him when I’m right here, but sure.” He patted my arms—which was charming AF—and I lifted him down so he could retrieve my phone from the dining table.
I followed, of course. When he turned, I shoved a chip in front of his face. “Chip?”
His lips parted, and I pushed it into his mouth.
“I’ll call Kieran,” he said, crunching away. “I’m not sureif Haz has his new phone yet.”
I ate some more chips, just noticing they were salt and vinegar.
“Oh, this is Rett,” he said a moment later, eyes sliding to me. “Hiro said I could use his phone to call Haz, but I wasn’t sure if his phone was working or what his number was, so—” His voice cut off as Kieran bellowed for Haz.
“His grandmomma didn’t teach him no manners,” I muttered.
“Rett!” Haz yelled into the line, and Rett smiled.
I don’t know why he needed to smile like that. Kinda made me jealous.
“You’re chewing so loud,” Rett scolded and walked a few feet from my “loud chewing.”
Next thing he was going to say was that he wanted my side of the bed.
I’d probably give it to him.
I shoved three more chips in and tried to chew more quietly. It made them taste bad, so I went back to chomping. I liked to aerate my food. Gave it a little something extra.
“I was wondering if you have a set of headphones I could borrow. I need them for work later. Mine got ruined.” He went silent a moment, then made a sound. “Oh, it was Tommy. He broke into my house and put them in the sink.”
Haz exclaimed something, and I moved closer. “Put that on speaker. I can’t hear.”
Pip didn’t listen.
I was buying him some hearing aids. Strapping them on while he was sleeping.
“He tried. But Ghost showed up and tried to kill him.”
“So casual about death,” I remarked, still eating. “Kinda scary.”
Haz hollered once again. Kieran’s eye was probably twitching.
“I’ll definitely tell you all the gossip, but right now, I really need to find some headphones.”
Groaning, I went into the living room to reach into the cabinet under the TV and pull out a headset I used for gaming.
It was good for the reflexes.
“Will these work?”
Rett spun in my direction, eyes going wide. “Yes!” he said, rushing across the room to grab them. “Oh, these are so nice. Nicer than the ones I had.”
