First Impressions 4/?
Me again! Here is chapter 4...
Sadly it might be a while before I post anymore because I have school to focus on as well, also because I keep getting distracted by the Olympics!! :D
Shutting the door behind them, they headed outside to Greg’s car. When they got outside they were chilled by the September night air. They walked towards the car, enjoying the comfortable silence between them. James took a moment to look up at the sky and smiled at the brightness of the stars above. He stopped and tapped Greg’s shoulder, “Look,” he said once he had Greg’s attention. “Aren’t they beautiful?” he asked, pointing up at the sky.
Greg smiled at seeing James so happy, “Yes, they are.”
“When I was little, my brothers and I used to hang out together all the time and during the summer, we would stay out until after dark.” James smiled at the memories. He looked to Greg, then back up at the sky. “We used to look up at the stars and they would try to teach me the constellations they learned in school. It was great.” He finished.
Greg looked over at James, about to say something, when he noticed the unshed tears in James’ eyes. Confused and worried, Greg decided he could wait to satisfy his curiosity about James’ brothers. After a minute, James looked back at Greg and smiled, “Ready to go?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah.” Greg replied as they continued towards the car.
When they reached the car, Greg stopped and held the door open for James to get in. James blushed deep red. Wow, he thought. Greg’s a lot sweeter than I would have expected from what people had told me.
“Thank you, my good man.” He said with a fake English accent.
Laughing, Greg replied, “You’re most welcome sir.” matching James’ teasing accent. He shut the door and walked around to the driver’s side and got in. “Ok, where to?” he asked. James gave him the directions and they were on their way.
About halfway through the drive Greg decided couldn’t wait any longer to satisfy his growing curiosity about James’ family, more specifically his brothers. He was rather surprised he had made it as far as he had. Normally, he would have just begun asking questions the second something interesting came up, but he was quickly finding out that he didn’t want to act his normal abrasive way around James. He didn’t want to force James into talking about something that may upset him just so he can put an end to curiosity. Unfortunately that feeling only went so far, and soon he could not stand not knowing anymore. But that didn’t mean he could try to go about his questioning kindly, right?
“James, can I ask you something?” He treaded lightly.
James turned his head to face Greg. “Sure Greg. Go right ahead.” James answered with a smile.
“Ok, well it has to do with earlier, when you were telling me about your brothers…” Greg trailed off.
“Ok, what about it?” James asked in encouragement for Greg to continue.
“Well I noticed when I looked over at you that you looked upset by something. I guess I just wanted to ask if you were alright.” Greg said with a shrug.
James smiled, guessing that what Greg really wanted to ask was about his brothers. “Thanks for the concern but I’m alright, sometimes when I look back at memories of my brothers and I, I get a little sad.” James started. “I guess I should start off by telling you that I am the youngest of four children.”
Greg’s eye’s widened a bit, being an only child he couldn’t really imagine having siblings let alone three older ones.
“My oldest brother is Jonathan and he is about your age. Next comes Michael and he is two years younger than Jon, so about 26. Then Peter who is a year younger that Michael and then there is me. Like I had said earlier we used to hang out together when I was little, even though they were a lot older than I was. When Michael was in high school he started to get into some bad things. He started hanging out with the wrong crowd, always getting into trouble. He and my parents were always at each other’s throats. Then in his final year of high school, he started doing some drugs, I was only ten.”
By now they were parked outside James’ apartment building, but neither of them moved to exit the car. Greg could see that James once again had tears in his eyes but he was fighting to keep them in. Greg felt a flash of guilt at making his friend so sad. If I’d have known he would be so sad I wouldn’t have asked. He thought to himself as James took a pause to gather his thoughts.
“Michael went off to college and at first it seemed like he was turning himself around. But then he started to miss classes, slack off in every possible way, and talk back to the professors. My parents were furious when he finally decided to drop out of school. They had the biggest fight that I ever remember them having. In the end Michael just walked out of the house, onto the street, and I haven’t seen him since. He’s out there somewhere on the streets and we have no clue where.” James finished, his voice breaking a bit.
Greg just sat there a minute looking at his friend while he processed the new information. Jesus he thought, no one should have to watch something like that happen especially at that age. “I’m so sorry James.” He said once he found his voice.
“It’s ok Greg.” James replied, smiling at his friend. “You didn’t know.”
“Yeah but still…”
“It’s fine. I promise.” James said reaching over to touch Greg’s arm. “I should probably go inside so that you can head home.”
“I’ll walk you in.” stated Greg. James blushed at this but made no argument against it. They both got out of the car and walked into the building. They went up to the fourth floor and stopped at a door with the number ‘12’ on it.
“Thanks for the ride and for walking me up, you didn’t have to though.”
“I know but I wanted to.” Greg said smiling.
James opened the door and turned around to look up at Greg. “Good night Greg. Maybe we’ll bump into each other tomorrow.” He said trying to hide the hopefulness in his voice and failing miserably. Just as he was about to shut the door, he heard Greg’s reply.
“Looking forward to it…Jamie.”
Before James could say anything more Greg was already headed down the stairs to his car.
James blushed dark red and smiled, shutting the door behind him.
Jamie?