by Wiley, John
She nods. “Well, if I take your room I’m not going to give it back if you decide to come back again.”
“I’ll make sure there’s a clause in my sublease agreement saying I can come back,” he grins.
Joey and Cheryl burst through the door, shivering like they hiked home from the North Pole. “Have you seen the snow?” Joey asks. “It’s really coming down.”
Rhys looks out of the window at the huge flakes.
“I can’t believe you did this!” Cheryl yells at Joey.
“What did I do?” he laughs.
“Tricked me into graduating in December; not only did I possibly get frostbite at graduation –”
“Didn’t make you wear sandals in December,” he mumbles.
“But now no one can come to my graduation party because of the snow.”
“Didn’t make you schedule your party for tonight…” he walks upstairs to get out of the suit.
***
But despite the blizzard, and the fact that the party was the Saturday before finals week, it’s a huge success. Lostprophets are blaring on the stereo as people watch Max doing a card trick in the living room. Rhys is in the kitchen playing bus driver with Marion, Liam, Joey, and Cheryl when there’s a knock at the back door.
“Who knocks at a party?” Rhys moans as he walks to the door. “Must be a nerd.” He opens the door and stares at something on the back porch.
“What is it?” Joey asks.
Rhys runs outside into the night. The game comes to a stop and everyone gets up to see what’s going on. When they get to the door they see Rhys with his arms wrapped around Erick, and Erick trying to push him off.
“OK, OK, I missed you too,” Erick says, finally giving into the hug.
“Can we come in now? It’s freezing!” Jennifer yells from the parking lot below.
“Yeah, come on!” Erick yells.
Moments later Jennifer and Annie are inside huddled around an air vent, melting the ice off of them. “What are you doing here?” Rhys asks as he follows Erick inside.
“I took a couple weeks off for the holidays, so we decided to stop by for Cheryl’s graduation.” He walks over to her and hugs her. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” she says.
“And he’s introducing me to his family,” Jennifer says, proudly.
“She’s so excited,” Erick rolls his eyes.
“Oh my God, Cheryl! Come here!” Annie yells. She grabs Cheryl’s hand and pulls it to her face. “Why didn’t you tell us you got engaged?”
“Sorry, I guess I forgot,” she blushes. “But I put it on Facebook.”
“Congratulations,” Erick says, shaking Joey’s hand. “So what are you guys up to now that she’s graduated?”
“Going to NYC in the new year to see about opening an art gallery.”
“Cool, cool,” Erick says.
“And Rhys is coming with us,” Cheryl adds. “Going to be a famous Broadway star,” she beams.
“I doubt that,” Rhys says.
“Yeah, I’ve heard him do karaoke,” Erick smirks.
“Jerk,” Rhys laughs. “But not wrong. But yeah, I’m going to take a stab at acting again, but at the same time, I’m not entirely sure it’s what I want to do anymore. But I’m young yet; I have time to discover myself.”
“I’m in the same boat,” Erick says. “Being a paralegal isn’t really all I thought it would be. I’m thinking of going back to school for teaching; even though it’d take a while, it is what I’ve always liked best.”
“I was surprised when you switched from teaching in the first place,” says Rhys. “What about Gene, what’s he up to?”
“Still at Olsen and Miller,” Erick says. “He’s actually moved up to office manager, and he hopes to go to Florida to visit Beth and Marjorie during her spring break.”
“Oh, and you’ll be happy to know that Adele’s dad fired her!” Jennifer says with a laugh.
“She was pretty rotten,” Erick admits.
“This is all well and good, but I’m way too sober, considering I graduated today!” Cheryl says.
“Ooh, let’s all do shots and then play red rover in the snow!” Rhys yells.
“Only if I get to hold your hand,” Liam says into his ear.
“You’re such a dork,” Rhys laughs.
“I’m a California girl, I don’t want to play in the snow,” Jennifer moans.
“It’s OK, I have some socks you can use as gloves,” Rhys says. “And then you put plastic bags around your socks so your toes don’t get wet.”
Jennifer looks at Erick incredulously. “Seriously?”
“Come on,” he pulls her to him and kisses her. He leads her outside and is followed by Cheryl with a bottle of liquor, who acts as a pied piper for everyone else.
Rhys and Joey wait for everyone else to leave before stepping out into the snow storm, shutting the door behind them.
“Wait! I don’t have my feet bags!” Jennifer yells from the parking lot, below.
Rhys and Joey laugh at Jennifer as they walk down the stairs and join one of the lines.
Everyone in the other line joins hands and starts swinging them back and forth as they chant, “Red rover, red rover, send Rhys right over!”
Joey and Liam take a step away from either side of Rhys to give him room to build momentum. After a quick survey for the weakest point in the human chain, he takes a deep breath and takes off.
The End.
PS…
Rhys, unfortunately, didn’t break through the other side. The game went on for about five more minutes until Tiffany slipped on the ice while trying to prevent someone from breaking through, and bruised her tailbone. Luckily, she didn’t feel any pain until the next morning when she woke up and all of the alcohol had left her body. She had to sit on a gel donut for the next three weeks.
Special Thanks
I just wanted to say a quick thank you to my family (especially my parents) for supporting me whenever I got stuck and wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue trudging through the lives of Rhys, Erick, and Joey. I’m glad I stuck with them, and I hope you are also.
Also, thank you to Brandon Ulman and Joan Wiley for helping me proofread this – I really hope I caught all of the mistakes! Your words of encouragement and support mean a lot.
Finally, thank you to everyone who took the time to read this.
About the Author
John Wiley is currently a barista that hates both the smell and taste of coffee, but he’s really good at making it. In his free time is enjoying experiences to add to his blurb in the future, and working on more stories. You can connect with him at twitter.com/heckyesitsjohn
This is his first book.