SWNOVELS Chapter 2 Snack Break
A couple of steps from the blue carpeted stairwell inside the house, I commented, “Alright, I’ll stop. But no way, that’s sooo sick, we gotta duke it out.” My stomach then grumbled so, I added, “B-B-Bu-u-u-u-t-t-t I can’t fight you on an empty stomach. What kind of snacks did you get Be—-uhh I mean me this time?”
“You know what, I don’t know, I’ll ask my mom.”
Josh went back down the stairs and disappeared somewhere. I guess he went to the kitchen, so I followed him. But then I got distracted by a calendar hanging in the hallway. I took a closer look and was shocked that I found out that today was November 1st, 2002. I was actually alive in 2002! I may have been a baby who didn’t remember anything, but at least I could experience it now.
My attention quickly gravitated towards a certain date on the November calendar as the dates before it were crossed out except for today and something was written in the upcoming week specifically on Tuesday, November 5th and in big black sharpie was titled:
The Field Trip!
Before I had a chance to see if there was any more info about this supposed field trip, I felt something vibrating. Without a second thought, I knew it had to have been my phone as I haven’t seen or felt since… well since my journey got started. It was vibrating in my bottom left pocket and when feeling for it, I recognized and felt my thin IPhone case. But the strange part was when I pulled it out of my pocket, the ringing had stopped and suddenly my phone looked different too, even its shape.
Before I could call back the scammer or whoever called me, I felt someone hugging me from behind saying in a thick Hispanic accent,
“Hola Ben, it’s so good to see you.” This person then stopped hugging and turned me around asking,
“How did school go and are you excited about rooming with Josh for the Field Trip on Tuesday?!”
Field Trip?
ROOMING?!
You mean I am joining Josh on some sort of field trip. To where? Paris? A local museum perhaps? It could be anything. Judging by the look of my very obvious confused face, Josh’s mom - at least I am assuming she was – said,
“The DC trip… it’s this Tuesday. Did you forget how close it was already? I had it marked on the calendar over there.” Pointing to the calendar that I was looking at.
The DC TRIP? As in Washington DC. Oh, that brings me back, I mean the last time I heard about a trip to DC was when I was… I was in…. eighth… grade. OH NO!
I gulped and took a deep breath, tried to put on my best happy face and replied,
“Oh, the DC trip, sorry, I was thinking of something else. But yeah, of course I’m excited. Who wouldn’t be? This is way more fun than the usual sleepover.”
Mrs. Martinez chuckled at my comment and replied,
“I know how exciting, but it’s a shame you three are going to be separated for most of the tour though, at least that’s what Josh has told me.”
Wait, there’s another best friend Ben has that’s obviously a girl. Interesting. Before I could ask her more about this supposed other best friend, I felt my phone going off again. I ignored that feeling for now as this was now more important. Before I said another word, Josh went,
“Mom. I’m sure Ally is bummed too. But at least she gets to spend more time with the other girls instead of us. Like she always wanted.” Josh’s mom sighed and changed the subject by asking us or really her son,
“What are you two boys’ plans for today?”
“Well, Ben and I are going to play my N64 in my room and I don’t know if we have time for anything else if his sister doesn’t intervene.”
Mrs. Martinez asked, “How’s your sister Meg doing?”
“Not her too,” I mumbled. “My sister is doing fine, thanks. And so is my family.” I hoped she didn’t notice my struggle to answer.
Luckily, she didn’t. She was too busy grabbing an orange plastic bowl from a cabinet and filling it with something from a bag on the counter. It looked familiar.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Doritos,” she said. “You always have these when you come here.”
She paused and took the bowl away from me. “Do you want to try something else for a change? Maybe some pretzels?”
Uh-oh. I screwed up. I tried to save myself.
“No, no, these are fine, thanks, Mrs. Martinez. I just didn’t see what they were at first.” I laughed a little.
I didn’t know if my acting sold it or she just thought I was being a stupid kid, but she said, “Oh, Ben... don’t forget your Dr. Pepper.” She handed me my soda can. “I’ll be in my office if you two boys need anything.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Once she was gone, I put the bowl on the counter to quickly look at my phone and realized it was an old Nokia phone that my dad used to have. I scrolled through my contacts and saw that I had two missed calls. Oops, I just missed Ben’s sister’s call and the other one must have been from his mom. I should probably let his mom know I’m here, so she doesn’t call the cops.
I told Josh, “Hey, before we go back upstairs, I need to make a quick phone call.” He nodded, so I put my phone back in my pocket, grabbed the bowl, walked to the living room and put it on the table and called Ben’s mom. She seemed nice and wasn’t too upset that I missed her call, which was good. Most parents aren’t like that. She asked me the usual mom stuff like, “Are you okay?” and “Did you make it to Josh’s okay?” I answered, “Yeah, I’m fine, Mom. I just got to Josh’s. When will dinner be ready so I can bike back?” It was around 3:30, as I looked at the clock in the living room.
She said, “Dinner will be ready at 6:30, and Ben, you don’t need to ride your bike back home today. Megan will be picking you up.”
I was shocked. “What, why?”
His mom’s response wasn’t any better. “Just be glad you have a sister who cares about you. Some sisters don’t do that, you know. And be sure to give her a call as soon as you can. You know how she is.”
She then paused for a couple seconds as she seemed to go do something, then added, “While you go do that, I gotta work on dinner. See you at home, love you, kiddo.” But before I could respond to Ben’s mom, she hung up on me. As I sighed thinking about the similarities between mine and his family while picking up Dr. Pepper can and my Doritos chip bowl, I heard someone from behind me ask,
“Ben?”
Startled, I looked up and turned around, saw it was Josh and stuttered,
“W-What?”
Josh then poked my shoulder and said, “Ben, are you done with the phone call? We haven’t got that much time left, let’s—-what are you thinking of doing now?”
“Can you set it up for me? I’ll be there in a minute. There’s someone else I need to call.”
Josh looked at my phone, probably noticing the other missed call and replied, trying not to laugh, “Oh, it’s your sister again. What a surprise. Can you text her and ask if she remembers that time in third grade when you—”
“AND I WOULD DO THAT WHY?” I asked, unamused.
“Oh, come on, it was hilarious.”
“To you, maybe. Not to me.”
Josh made a face. “Fine, you big baby. I’ll get my N64 ready, but you come up as soon as you’re done. Otherwise…” He grabbed my bowl and soda can from my hands. “This bowl AND drink might be gone, so you better hurry.” He then walked away and headed somewhere upstairs where his room might be.
When he finally left me alone, I scrolled on this phone to see what Ben’s sister Megan had texted. Suddenly my phone rang, and it was her. I dropped my phone in shock. Nervously, I picked it up and asked,
“Hello?”“Oh, so you answer to Mom but not me! I see how it is,” Megan said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Why didn’t you text me back or call me earlier?”“I was out riding my bike when you texted me,” I said, feeling guilty.
She scoffed. “Yeah, right. And do I have to call you all the time to get a response?”
“No.”
“Good. Don’t make it a habit.” She paused. “And Benji...”
Oh, no, not the pet names, I thought.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m picking your sorry butt up at six, not a minute later. Don’t forget.”
“Cool... thanks for the lovely reminder, sis. Bye.” I answered, unamused.
But before I could even hang up, she said, “Woah, woah, woah, not so fast there, Short Round. Before I let you go, I gotta hear you say it at least once today.”
“Say what?” I asked, internally begging for this conversation to be over.
“Well… “I love you” is a start. Does that ring any bells, Doofus?”
Already? I thought. I know her for like what, not even a minute and now she expects me to say I love you. Then again, she’s the typical annoying older sister type that I’m sadly all too familiar with. So to get it over with I said,
“Alright, I love you too... Dweeb.” I don’t know if that was Ben or I that said that but that was really funny. Anyway, she realized right away that I made fun of her and said,
“Heyyy and by the way mom is making your favorite Sloppy Joes for dinner so don’t miss out like last time.”
“Oooo can’t wait.” Then paused and asked, “Can I go have fun now?”
“Yes… yes you can, knucklehead, see you soon.” As she chuckled.
Sisters, I thought as I hung up the phone. God, she reminds so much of Mary right now that I can’t help but have flashbacks of. I am so glad I hung up the phone when I did as I didn’t want another Mary in my life. At least not now anyway. I first had to make sure to keep this friendship between Ben and Josh alive so I immediately headed upstairs to find him. It didn’t take me very long because I heard him calling out to me the entire time I was coming up the steps. Once I followed his voice to his room - and I got to say it was very baseball themed, specifically the New York Mets, from the wallpaper to the bed sheets - there he was on the floor setting his green N64 up to the TV. Anyway, once he noticed me coming in, he said
“Finally, you made it. Was wondering when your sister would stop talking to you.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” I said while taking a glance at me through Josh’s bedroom mirror. So I sat down on the floor right next to Josh and was immediately offered a bowl of whatever Doritos chips there were left and my can of Dr. Pepper of course, which I gladly accepted both and drank like no tomorrow. Hey, it’s been a while since I drank and ate something modern that I at least recognized.
As I was drinking, he said,
“Ben, here’s the surprise that you’ve been waiting for. You ready?”
Then without hesitation, he showed me some box with a guy on it holding a gun. You guys may not remember but to the gamers out there: this was not just any box, it was the N64 Goldeneye 007. I was definitely surprised. I’ve heard so much about it too and just had to ask,
“When did you get this?” Josh then smirked hearing my excitement that he beamed with such joy that he answered,
“Yep. Pretty cool, right? I got it today. Before you came here. Why’d you think I told you to come later, huh?” I don’t know why but I demanded to Josh that,
“We gotta play it now!”
“Way ahead of you, amigo. Pick up that controller right next to you and let’s dive right in.” Wait, this weird and gray m-shaped thing RIGHT NOW is the controller. This doesn’t feel right. Maybe I’m holding it wrong? I then put my drink down to pick it up again and asked,
“Thanks, but how do you use this?” Josh gave me a look and said,
“It’s a controller you play with by using the joystick in the middle and mash buttons.“
I rolled my eyes and replied,
“I know what a controller is, Josh. I’m not that stupid... I meant to ask how you play this game as I don’t know the controls. It could be different. Also, I’m a little rusty with them, that’s all.”
“I’m a little rusty too and you’re right, they could be different. So before we start shooting each other’s brains out, let’s figure out the controls first since neither of us have played in a while and no hitting or shooting each other right away.” as he stared right at me as if I ever would do such a thing.
Which come to think of it may or may not be true. Anyway, as we started to pick our characters, Josh who went to pick his first said,
“I can’t believe Ally couldn’t hang out with us today, man.”
“Dude, don’t sweat it, things happen.” I replied, shrugging it off.
“No, it’s not okay, Ben!” He began to shout. Then in a more hushed tone, “This is not the first time she has done this to us and I’m sick of it and you should be too.” The moment he chose his character, I saw him put his controller down saying,
“It’s always ‘no sorry, I’m busy’ or ‘the girls took me somewhere’ and ‘I won’t be back till later’.”
“Then later never comes.” I chimed in to point out as I was starting to get the idea that the new problem I was faced with now was something totally new to me. A breakup between two best friends.
MY WORST NIGHTMARE!