Now
GRAYSON
A knock echoes on my bedroom door, followed by what sounds like Noah’s voice. “Can we come in?”
“Yeah,” I say.
Noah sits down to the left of me, and Xander plops down in my office chair. They have these ridiculous smiles on their faces as they stare at me.
I break the silence. “Instead of burning holes through my head, why don’t you ask me whatever questions are on your mind?”
“How did it go?” Xander asks.
“The trip to see my mom went great. She was so happy to see Violet. Mom moves in with Laura on Wednesday, but she said she doesn’t need my help. I’m taking her word for it.”
“You’ll be on standby though, right?” Noah asks.
“Oh, hell yeah.”
Xander flips the chair backwards, so he can lean on the back of it with his arms. “Okay, what did you guys do after you saw your mom?”
“We went to Coastal Shores for lunch. She cleaned off the barbecue sauce that was on my face with her thumb and sucked it off with her tongue. We went to Sweet & Salty because she wanted to make sure everything was running smoothly.”
Xander’s mouth drops open. “I’m sorry. Hold on a second. Rewind. What did she do?!”
Noah looks at Xander. “It’s the same shit that happened with Dani and I, just reverse.” His focus shifts back to me. “How did you handle that externally?”
“Fine. She didn’t suspect a thing. Internally, I felt like I was being set ablaze and there was no way to put the fire out. I’m surprised my hormones kept their shit together.”
“When are you seeing her again?” Noah asks.
“Halloween.”
“Why on Halloween?” Xander asks.
“The team is throwing a Halloween party, and I have no interest in attending. She says she normally stays in her apartment, watches movies, and eats candy by herself. I asked if she wanted company, and she said sure.”
“She said sure. Did she have more enthusiasm when she said it to you?”
“Oh, shut up, Xander!”
Noah rolls his eyes. “Alright, moving on. So, you’re going to watch movies and eat candy with her?”
“Yeah…I’m not going to make a move on her if that’s what you guys are thinking. I still don't know what happened all those years ago, so I’m not doing shit until I find out the truth. I don’t want to jeopardize this friendship we’ve been building.”
“It’s obvious you know what you’re doing. We’re doing our best to look out for you because we’re your best friends. We don’t want to see a repeat of what happened six years ago,” Xander says.
“I’ve changed a lot since then, and I’ve taught myself how to handle tough situations. I do appreciate you guys looking out for me. Trust me, it’s going to be fine.”
“That’s enough chatter for the night. Good night, boys.” Noah gets up from my bed and leaves my room.
Xander stands up from my office chair, lingering in the doorway. “I know I can be annoying sometimes, but it’s only because I care about you, man. I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”
“I know. Good night,” I say.
He huffs and walks away from the entrance to my bedroom, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
Today reminded me how much I enjoy spending time with Violet. She radiates peaceful energy, and it’s such a nice change compared to when I’m around the guys.
Something I can’t wrap my head around is how Halloween is this week. Every year flies by faster than the previous year. I swear yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and now we’re getting closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I wish we could live life in slow motion to savor the good times, but that would only work if we were living in a sci-fi movie.
If Violet and I were living in a romance book, we’d have our own happily ever after. The truth is, our story isn’t fiction. It’s reality.
And reality isn’t that simple, it’s incredibly complicated.
FRIDAY, HALLOWEEN NIGHT
This week flew by like a person running on superspeed.
I had a bunch of assignments due for my classes. I’m taking three for my major and one for my minor this semester. The amount of credits I need for my major are thirty-six, and I need eighteen for my minor. Since I graduate next fall, I still have a lot of credits to complete.
On top of my classes, I have my responsibilities as Captain of the basketball team. We didn’t have practice today because of Halloween.
Rewinding back to Wednesday, Mom moved in with Laura. She originally told me she wasn’t going to need my help, but I showed up anyway. She’s funny if she thought I wasn’t going to come and help her move. I said this to her when I got to the house, and she laughed.
Mom didn’t have any furniture with her because all those items belonged to the shelter. She was thinking of hiring movers to help her, but she realized she actually didn’t have a lot of things, so she decided against it.
I saw the light surrounding her the second she entered the Kaplan family’s home. I’m so happy she has found herself again, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for her.
As for Violet, I haven’t seen her in-person since we visited my mom. We have texted off-and-on these past few days, but that’s about it. I didn’t want to bother her too much because I’m sure she’s busy with her classes and work.
She told me I could head over to her place between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. the last time we texted. Right now, it’s 5:32 p.m. I’m not even ten minutes away from her, so I don’t have to rush out the door.
Noah and Xander were going to tag along with me to the team’s Halloween party, but they changed their plans since I changed mine. Noah thought it would be a good idea to invite Dani and Bella over to our apartment. I’m curious to hear how this goes when I get back home later.
The three of us are chilling in the living room. I’m sitting on the couch with Noah, and Xander’s sitting on one of the plush chairs.
“Did Dani talk you into doing a matching couple’s costume?” I ask Noah.
“If anybody is the convincer out of the two of us, it’s me. We’re all just going to hang out together without the possibility of exploding eardrums because of loud music,” he says.
“I’m surprised you’re not hanging out with Dani without Bella and I tonight,” Xander mentions.
“Why?” Noah’s face scrunches up.
“I don’t know. I thought you guys would want your alone time.” Xander raises his eyebrows over and over again.
“And what makes you think we won’t have our alone time tonight?”
“On that note, I’m out of here.” I get up from the sofa.
“Hey, don’t do anything stupid.” Noah points his index finger at me.
“Yeah, what he said.” Xander crosses his arms in front of his chest, nodding and puckering his lips out.
“You better be careful. Your face might freeze like that forever.”
Xander flips me off, his face becoming emotionless.
Slipping my hand into my back pocket, I find my phone inside and take it out, so I don’t crush it to death when I drive over to Violet’s apartment.
“Have fun with your girlfriends, gentlemen.”
“Bella’s not my girlfriend, dumbass,” Xander points out.
“Okay, I’m leaving now.” I grab my set of keys to the apartment as well as the keys to my truck.
If I had to choose between texting and calling someone, I’d choose calling in a heartbeat. When Violet and I were dating, it took a little while for her to get used to the fact that I wasn’t a huge texter.
I don’t know what it is. I find texting to be an easy way out sometimes. I know we can send voice recordings via text message now, but it’s not the same as talking to someone on the phone.
After I get settled in my truck, I press Violet’s name on the phone app on my touch screen. It rings for a few seconds until I hear breathing on the other line.
“Hi,” she says.
“Hey, I’m on my way.”
“Okay. By the way, I thought we could make something for dinner at the apartment. I’m not sure what yet, but I know we’ll figure it out.”
“What if we make taco bowls?” I ask as I back up out of my parking space and drive out of the complex.
“What would go into these bowls?”
“Ground turkey, diced potatoes, shredded cheese, tomatoes, guacamole, and sour cream. I keep seeing videos all over Instagram of people making their own version, and I’ve been wanting to make one for weeks.”
“I just bought some fresh ground turkey and a bag of yellow potatoes a couple days ago. I definitely have cheese, tomatoes, guacamole, and sour cream. Let’s do it.”
“Sounds like a plan. Do you have any candy, or do you want me to see if any stores have any leftover bags?”
“I have two big bags of candy, so I think we’ll be okay.” There’s a brief moment of silence until she asks me something. “What are the guys up to tonight?”
“Noah and Xander invited Dani and Bella over to the apartment. That’s all I know.”
“Ah, okay. Well, I’ll see you in a bit then.”
“Yup.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.” Hanging up the phone, the touch screen returns to my navigation app.
My drive over to Violet’s consisted of seeing people dressed up as cartoon characters, superheroes, and horror movie characters.
At this moment, I’m sitting in my truck and pulling up her name in my Messages app.
Me
I’m here
She likes my message.
Violet
Wow, you texted me. Who are you and what have you done with Grayson Becker?
Me
You know, I could turn around and go back home
Violet
You could, but I don’t want you to
Me
Nice save
Locking my truck, I head upstairs to the second floor where Violet and Sage’s apartment is. Once I arrive at her door, I knock on it right where my fingers are bent with the fist I formed from one of my hands.
The door swings open, and Violet smiles at me. Her blonde hair is in a low ponytail, and she’s wearing a white tank top with gray sweatpants.
“Hey,” she greets me.
“Hello there.”
“You can come in. I promise I won't bite.”
She guides me inside, and I see an orange bowl full of mostly chocolate candy sitting by the front door.
“Besides taco bowls for dinner, what are our other plans for tonight?”
“Um…I thought we could watch a non-scary Halloween movie. Have you seen the one with Eddie Murphy where he’s a realtor trying to sell a creepy mansion?”
“I don’t remember. If I have, it’s probably been several years.”
“Okay then, it’s settled. We’re watching it.”
“Alright.”
“It’s one of my favorite Halloween movies of all time!”
“I could tell by the enthusiasm in your voice.”
“Sorry, was it too much?”
“No, not even close,” I assure her.
“Okay, good. Oh, I cut up the potatoes in thick slices and put them in the chopper. I didn’t season them because I don’t know if you like seasoning your potatoes differently than I do.”
“What seasonings do you use for your potatoes?”
She points to each individual jar of seasoning as she says what each one of them is. “Salt. White pepper. Garlic powder. Onion powder. Paprika. Fresh herbs if I have them, or dried herbs if I don’t have the fresh stuff.”
“Let’s season these diced potatoes, then.”
I’m putting the final touches on the ground turkey that has been cooking away in a medium-sized pan. The potatoes have been in the oven for almost thirty minutes.
Violet diced some tomatoes, while the ground turkey and potatoes have been cooking. She took the shredded cheddar cheese, guacamole, and sour cream out of the refrigerator a couple minutes ago.
After the ground turkey is browned and fully cooked through, I turn off the stove and move the pan away from the heat. The oven dings, which means the potatoes are done.
There are two bowls next to me: an orange one and a yellow one.
“Do you have a preference on which bowl you want?” I ask her.
“I’ll take the yellow one.” She grabs both bowls and moves them closer to the oven, so she can put a serving of potatoes in each one.
She grabs the bag of shredded cheese because the hotter the food is, the better it’ll melt onto the potatoes. She moves swiftly over to the other side of the kitchen where the ground turkey is.
Before she gets ready to scoop the meat into the bowl, she sets up a station of diced tomatoes, guacamole, and sour cream to garnish the taco bowls.
When she makes it to the last step of sprinkling the tomatoes on top of everything, her eyes go wide. “Can you get me the dried parsley out of the pantry?”
I see a spinner of various seasonings on the shelf that’s at eye-level and spin it around until I find the parsley. I hand it over to her, and she sprinkles it evenly over the top of the contents in our bowls.
“Your taco bowl, sir.” She picks up the orange bowl, kindly shoving it closer into my face.
“Thank you.” I grab two forks from her silverware drawer and two napkins from her napkin holder on the kitchen table. Placing the bowl down in front of me, I inhale the delicious steam dancing around.
When Violet walks over to the table, she notices I haven’t eaten anything yet. “You don’t have to wait for me.”
“I don’t have to, but I want to.”
We shovel as much as we can on our forks.
She puts her fork against mine from a small distance. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.”
We eat the food at the same time. My immediate physical reaction is rolling my eyes and slumping my body in my chair. She rolls her eyes and throws her head back.
“Goddamn,” I say.
“Goddamn is right.” She takes another bite of dinner and swallows it. “What seasoning did you use for the ground turkey?”
“The same as what we used on the potatoes, plus chili powder and cumin.”
I watch her as she takes yet another bite of her taco bowl, and she ends up with sour cream all over her lips.
I hope you don't think I’m staring at your lips for all the wrong reasons because I swear I’m not.
“Is everything okay?” she asks, her eyebrows lowering themselves.
A lump travels down my throat. “You’ve got sour cream on your lip…” I trail off as I show her where it is on her face.
She firmly runs her thumb across her bottom lip a few times. “Did I get it?”
“Yeah.”
I had two options here.
One: wipe the sour cream off her lips for her and suck it off my finger.
Two: show her where it was on her face and have her do it herself.
Option one would’ve been what Noah told me not to do. I went for option two, which was safer and not stupid.
You’re welcome, Noah.