Raise up your hands if you all wanna hang... With me and my gang

I woke up the next morning, finally feeling refreshed. It’s amazing what a simple GOOD night of sleep can do for you. I got up, got dressed, fed and let the dogs out. The door to what was now Matt’s room was closed, and I figured he was asleep. I put on some old shorts and a light long sleeved tee shirt, and went out for a run. When I came back, Matt’s door was still closed. I showered quickly, got dressed in a jean skirt and fitted v-neck, and decided to drive to this great mom and pop bakery to get some doughnuts.
When I came back, Matt was STILL asleep. I checked my watch. True, it was only ten AM, and I wasn’t sure how late he had stayed up. Thinking that, I felt a little guilty passing out and leaving him to fend for himself his first night here. I decided doughnuts weren’t going to make up for it, and started cooking bacon and my special scrambled eggs.
I was pulling the bacon from the oven (I bake mine, with a little corky’s dry rub on them. Amazing.) When Matt finally emerged from his room. His blonde hair was ruffled, his eyes puffy with sleep.
“Oh, wow.” He said, walking into the kitchen.
“Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for last night’s dinner, and apologize for passing out and leaving you alone last night. It’s been a long week.” I said, plating the bacon.
“It’s OK. I managed.” He said, smiling and sitting down.
We munched for a few moments in silence. Matt looked groggy, and I was glad to find out he wasn’t a morning person. I wasn’t either. I would have killed him if he was the type to chatter from the second they woke up. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable either, which shocked me. I did often get nervous in silence, and had a bad habit of rambling.
Finally, after Matt had cleared his plate and downed a cup of orange juice, he looked up at me and smiled.
“So, Ella. What’s on the agenda for today?”

Sunday I tried to keep things as low key as possible. I say tried, because it didn’t always happen, but I usually spent Sundays with my parents, or shopping, or doing something low-stress, aimless, and sometimes even pointless.
Today I had nothing on my schedule. My parents were busy, so I couldn’t visit them, I could have done paper work, but it was a beautiful day, sunny and warm with a light breeze. I told Matt to get dressed, and we’d spend the day just bumping around. We started out loading the dogs into the car, and we headed for the park. I laughed as I watched Matt romp around with the puppies, running and chasing and diving around with them. When they, and Matt were worn out, I loaded them back into the car to drop the dogs back off at home. Next we went to do one of my favorite activities, thrifting. It contained two of the very things I loved most: deals, and shopping. Being with Matt was easy. Conversation flowed, our sense of humor was the same. We spent hours digging through random crap, finding steals (Matt found a Ecko sweater, brand new, for 2.99! Less than three dollars!) finding random junk I could use to fill my prize box at work for cheap, and making fun of all the crazy things we stumbled across (old school acid wash jeans? Yes, I tried them on and modeled them for Matt, complete with an old school painters cap!)
It was while trying on the jeans that I took out my phone and saw I had a text:
Greg: C u 2night?
I smiled. “Hey Matt? Wanna round up a crew and go out tonight?”

It was a small group of us heading out that night. Matt had called Stacey, who was the only one of his co-workers to make it into town yet (the rest of them would be coming in later in the week, due to work or school conflicts.) And she was with us, as well as James, my friend Ed, and also Jarren, who had started to annoy me from the get-go by instantly making googly eyes at Matt.
It’s not the fact that she liked Matt that annoyed me. But, I think every girl has that boy crazy friend, and it’s a little hard to deal with sometimes. Jarren never failed to fall in “love” with some guy every time she went out with me. When I was younger and we were roommates, it worked. We were younger, and I think every teenager is boy (or girl) crazy, and I of course, loved the drama that it brought. But as I got older, I grew tired of having to deal with Jarrens meltdowns and pick up the pieces every time some guy she knew for all of five minutes had rejected her. Our relationship was strained in other ways as well. She lived with her Dad, worked only part time, was always getting fired for not showing up to work, and was constantly fighting with either her Dad, her Mom, her sister, ranting about her employers (if she had one), or complaining about how it wasn’t her fault that she got fired. Everything always happened TO her, she never took responsibility for her actions. She was also upset with me because I recently told her she couldn’t move in with me. It’d be one thing if Jarren was down on her luck and couldn’t find a job. Jarren simply didn’t want a job. Jarren didn’t want to clean up after herself. Jarren didn’t want anything to do with being an adult. It was growing old, and I didn’t want to take care of Jarren. I knew I should have just ended our friendship, but it’s hard to just walk away from someone you’ve known that long, even if they are toxic.
Jarren sat next to Matt and immediately started flirting. Matt paid her no attention, looking bored, and turning to talk to Stacey and James instead. Jarren did not get the hint, instead paying close attention to the conversation, injecting herself whenever she could.
We arrived to the show earlier than I had planned, and had to sit through a couple act to wait for Greg to come on. It was nice that the club was split into three levels, because kids were allowed on the first two levels, and in the early evenings, they would have acts by children or teenagers. It was the teen acts who were on now, Greg being the first adult performer of the night after they were done.
We ordered a few drinks, but I kept it light. I eyed Jarren warily as she quickly downed hers. I wondered if she had even brought any cash. Ed, who was sitting next to me, got up to go to the bathroom, and Jarren slipped into his seat.
“God, Matt is cute. No wonder you didn’t let me move in, you wanted to keep him all to yourself!” She whispered.
“He is cute, but he has a girlfriend, and I didn’t let you move in because I have no place for you to stay.” Half-truth.
“Oh.” She considered this for a moment. “Well, it’s not cheating if you’re in different area codes. Or is it zip codes? Ha, either way it works!”
I just shook my head. This is why Jarren was constantly getting her heart “broken”. Besides falling in love with guys in two seconds, she also used sex to try to lure guys, whether it was trying to lure them away from their girlfriends, or just to try to get them interested. I told her it would backfire on her, and it always did. Guys who cheat aren’t guys you want to be with anyway, and just because a guy has sex with you, doesn’t mean he’ll have a relationship. But Jarren never learned.
Greg came on then, and I shushed Jarren who was opening her mouth to say something. She eyed the stage and squealed.
“He’s cute too! Why do you get all the good ones!”
I ignored her, and concentrated on the show, which was a good one, despite Jarren making an ass of herself and trying to goad me onto going onstage. I loved magic, and always desperately wanted to know what the secrets were, but never asked any magician. I knew the magic was in the secret, and I didn’t want to ruin it.
Greg ended his show, and went backstage. He had already texted me to let me know he was going to change, and told us we could go upstairs to the restaurant and grab a table, and he would meet us up there. I suddenly grew nervous as we were being led to our table. Greg and I had never really hung out. Sure, there seemed to be chemistry when we talked on the phone. I liked him as a person, I thought he was funny, and we flirted with each other, but… Would that translate?
I sat down next to Matt, leaving an empty seat next to me, and Jarren sat on the other side of that empty seat, still making eyes at Matt, who did his best to ignore her. The group chattered seamlessly, and I was glad that both Matt and Stacey felt comfortable with us, but I still couldn’t join the conversation. I was bouncing my leg up and down, looking around, waiting for Greg to show. Matt sipped his hand under the table, and put it on my knee. Instantly I stopped, looked at Matt, and felt that same old spark. He smiled, winked at me, and removed his hand.
Greg chose that moment to come, and everyone stood up to let him in. He reached over, and gave me a hug. He smelled amazing, and looked pretty relaxed in jeans and a tee-shirt. I made introductions, and we sat down to order.
It turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Greg fit in with the group, and it was as easy to be with him in real life as it was to talk to him on the phone. At one point, while we were waiting for our dessert, I was sitting with my hands in my lap, leaning forward slightly, paying attention to a story Stacey was telling. I felt Greg’s hand reach under the table, and take mine. He squeezed it slightly, and I smiled, feeling like a teenager with a crush. He slipped away, towards the end of the meal, to go to the bathroom. I found out later, when the check came, that he had actually slipped away to find the waiter and paid for my dinner.
He had offered to drive me home, but I declined. I wasn’t sure Matt knew his way around well enough to be able to drive my car home, and I felt bad about leaving him to fend for himself again. Instead Greg walked me to my car (Matt pretended as if he had left something in the restaurant, asking me to pick him up at the door while he went back to go get it.), kissed me on my cheek, and told me he couldn’t wait until Thursday. Neither could I.
Matt didn’t say much on the way home, and in fact spent most of the time texting, his brow furrowed. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but he didn’t really seem talkative. He had been in such a good mood at the club, I wasn’t sure what had happened. He said goodnight when we got home, and after I reminded him what time I leave for work in the morning, shut himself into his room. I sighed, hoping he wasn’t home sick or that I had done anything to make him angry, and checked my email. I had one from Kayla.
She said she was sorry she hadn’t been in touch for awhile, but the move to California had been hectic, and there had been a mix-up about base housing. She said she had discussed surrogacy with a few people, and one of them had given her a health questionnaire to fill out. I started to do so, but my heart stopped when I reached question seven: Have you ever been pregnant before, and if so did you abort, miscarry, or carry the baby to term?
It gave me pause. I didn’t know if anyone had ever brought Kayla into the loop. She and Toni were also good friends, and maybe Toni had decided it was something Kayla needed to know. Still, I didn’t feel right lying, and if I went through with this, I would have to tell the doctor about my previous miscarriage, and who knew if Kayla would find out then or not? I took a deep breath, and answered with yes, a miscarriage at 12 weeks. I quickly finished the rest of the questionnaire and clicked send before I could change my mind.