Breaking Code

"Shit," he said out loud.

He slowly sat up, wiping the sleep from his eyes, a reddened imprint of the couch covering a good majority of his chest. He flicked his phone back open and clicked the okay button, the first unread text message popping open -- it was Jesse with a simple Yo dude. He clicked next, this one was from his ex, he let out a sigh as he read through it -- a half-hearted apology, surprise surprise. This time he clicked delete, the message disappeared and the last one popped up, this time he smiled as he saw the sender, it was Lacy, a simple smiley face -- he checked the time it was sent, 7:12 AM this morning. She must've sent it before she left for class. He hesitated for a second and then flipped the phone shut, lightly tossing it on the coffee table and standing up, he gave himself a quick smell, definitely time for a shower -- he'd figure out what was up from the rest of the day while he washed yesterday away.

***

It turned out to be nothing, 6 pm had rolled around and he had only left the house once, a quick trip to the grocery store an few hours earlier. He had definitely not made the best of this sunny Thursday. He grabbed a few things from the fridge, it was about time to make dinner and eat by himself, something that was definitely going to take some time to get used to. His ex took this opportunity to break her way back into his thoughts for the first time all day, a sudden mental flashback to the grocery store, all the times they used to go there and wander the aisles for hours, trying to pick out the perfect meal... and the cheapest. A small, almost foolish memory that now left a sour feeling at the pit of the stomach. It was usually the small things that hurt the worst, or so he guessed. It was the worst time to be thinking about that stuff, after all he was sober and alone.

Ehrrrrr!

His phone suddenly came to life, shimmying its way across the counter as it vibrated. He set down the knife and wiped his hands on the towel that lay next to the cutting board, the smell of garlic had taken over the kitchen. 1 New Message was displayed in small yellow text across the black background, probably just Jesse, he thought, remembering that he had never gotten back to him earlier, hadn't text anyone back for that matter. But it wasn't him, it Lacy again, this time just a Hey.

What's up? he replied in perfect punctuation, something Jesse was always giving him shit for. 'Who does that?' he would joke.

Not 2 much, u? Lacy didn't suffer from that same problem.

Cooking dinner.

What r u doing after?

He took a second to think, nothing was the only thing he had planned for the night, so he sent it out - adding a you? at the end of it.

Same.

He hated that response. What was he supposed to say back to that? Cool? Was he supposed to invite her over? His Guy Code siren was flashing, that seemed like something he shouldn't do. He still didn't know how to feel about last night, that was definitely on the line, at least to him. He had never had the "is your sister off limits" conversation with Jesse, so he couldn't be sure, but usually those kind of talks were only brought up as a last resort -- after you had already committed the crime.

Want some company?

Sure. He played it cool. In all honesty, the whole Guy Code thing aside, he couldn't think of any reason he'd rather sit alone in an empty house.

U Sure?

Yeah. When are you coming over?

He placed the phone down, still open, as he quickly chopped the rest of the garlic and threw it into a pan -- butter following it in. He clicked the stove on medium.

When do u want me?

Anytime. he replied, completely aware of the subtext. Have you eaten yet? he quickly followed it up with.

Nope.

Dinner should be done in 30 minutes. He glanced over at the pan, the sound and smell of garlic cooking continued filling the kitchen.

Okay. :)

He placed the phone down and got back to work.

Dinner was just coming off the stove as their was a light knock on the door, and then it opened, Lacy stepped inside wearing a cute pink hoodie and gray sweats, definitely going for the comfortable look. He liked it. He noticed she had a Redbox DVD in her hand.

"Good timing."

"Smells awesome," she replied, kicking off her shoes and walking towards him.

He grabbed a couple of plates from the cupboard and plated some food. It had turned out better than he thought it was going to, considering he had rushed it a little. But he had always liked cooking, ever since he was a young kid. He was always trying to come up with a great recipe from scratch, usually just burning a bunch of random stuff in his mom's favorite pan.

"So, I grabbed a movie on my way. Thought maybe we could watch it?" She slide the small see-through case across the counter. "I hope you haven't seen it?" she added.

He peered down, seeing Zombieland 2 written on the disc in large bold letters.

"A girl after my heart," he said with a laugh.

She shared the laugh. "I take that as a no?" She was anxiously biting her bottom lip.

"Nope. I have definitely been meaning too, though."

"Okay, good," she smiled again.

"Wanna eat this in the living room or....?" he asked, grabbing out some silverware.

"Wherever. Living room is fine."

"Living room it is." He slid her plate towards her and grabbed his, along with the forks and knives and followed her into the living room.

***

"That... was... amazing." Lacy said, just before sprawling out on the couch, rubbing her flat stomach slowly.

"Thanks."

"Where'd you learn to cook like that?" she asked.

"You ever heard of Alton Brown?"

"No."

"What!?" he asked in mock-shock.

"Am I supposed to?" she asked with a grin.

"You've never just watched the Food Network for like four hours straight?" He was laughing. "What's wrong with you?".

"What's wrong with me!?" Now it was her turn to play shocked.

They both laughed.

Bobby grabbed the plates and headed for the kitchen, still shaking his head. So far, so good, he thought -- if it wasn't for her, he probably would've been passed out on the couch, killing another night -- something he seemed to be doing too often lately. He quickly rinsed them off, the clatter of metal and glass cutting into the peaceful quiet of the house.

"Ready for the movie?" he hollered out into the other room.

A few seconds passed.

"Yeah."

He grabbed a few beers from the fridge and the movie off the counter and headed back in. Lacy was sitting back up, her phone in her hand, most likely texting someone. He heard the phone shut off and watched her putting it back into her purse. Nope, guess he was wrong again. He placed the two beers on the coffee table and put the movie in. He quickly sat back down, kicking his feet up and accidentally kicking his cell phone a few feet across the coffee table in the process. He felt Lacy move a little closer, getting comfortable for the movie. He reached back and clicked the light off as the blue FBI warning popped up on the TV screen.

The movie rolled along and the beers emptied as zombie after zombie was killed. It was nearing the tail end of the movie when Bobby leaned forward and grabbed his beer, taking its final sip. He placed it back, accidentally clanking it against hers. When he sat back, he lay his arm across the back of the couch, and adjusted to get more comfortable, as he did this, Lacy inched her way closer, resting her head on his shoulder -- her hand resting on the couch cushion, a few inches from his leg.

THE END splattered onto the screen in bloody special effects and the credits began to roll. Neither of them moved, neither of them said a word. Minutes ticked by, Lacy broke the nothingness by slowly moving her hand, running it along the outside of Bobby's pant leg. He noticed, but didn't look. He felt her hand slowly move from the outside of his jeans to his knee, she slid her slender fingers up his leg, towards his thigh, stopping before she got too far. Goosebumps ran up his right arm as some hard rock song blared over the end credits.

What do I do? He was being torn by two different givens. On one hand, Lacy was definitely giving him a sign -- exactly what that was, he didn't know, but it was something. And on the other, Jesse shaking his head in disappointment was an image that Bobby was having a hard time shaking himself, which was surprising given the circumstances. As a guy, could he really pass up this opportunity, but by the same token, as a guy, could he really do his best friend dirty like this?

While he was having yet another inner-struggle, Lacy had definitely made her mind up. As he glanced down at her, he saw she was looking at him. Their eyes met for a second and she leaned in, her eyes closing, her lips opening, coming in for the kill. He reached out and gently held her chin, he began to slowly lean his head towards her, their faces coming together.

Bing-dinga-ding-ding!

His awful ring tone was like a gun going off in library. It was froze both Lacy and Bobby. Bobby wasn't going to answer it, wasn't going to be that rude, especially with what was just about to happen. But it had the opposite effect on Lacy, she backed off, a warning light suddenly flashing in her face.

"You can... go ahead, answer it." She said, her worlds kind of jumbled. She scooted back away from him, staring off towards the now blank TV.

Bobby sighed as the phone went off again, the ring tone even more irritating this time. He leaned over, fumbling through the mess on the coffee table and grabbed his phone. As he brought it to his face and looked at the caller ID, a lump grew in his throat. It was Jesse. Shit.

Apparently you could see it on his face, because as he looked at her, he saw nearly a mirror's image.

He clicked talk, "Hello?"

"Dude, where ya been? I tried texting a few times." Jesse sounded drunk.

"Sorry man, didn't have my phone on me."

Jesse hesitated, almost as if he knew that was only half true.

"Oh. Well, what's up? Everyone still alive?" he asked, referring to the cats Bobby assumed.

"Yeah, everything is going fine. How's Vegas?"

"Nice, nice. It's awesome." Bobby peered over towards Lacy, she mouthed 'I'm gonna go.'

"Wait." Bobby accidentally said out loud, he cringed.

"What?" Jesse asked.

"Nothing."

A small patch of silence, which at this time could definitely be considered awkward.

"Dude, did my sister ever stop over the other night?"

"Yeah, for a few minutes. Why?" Bobby replied, Lacy was now on her feet and heading towards the kitchen. Bobby waved for her to stop.

"Just making sure. Forgot to tell her I was leaving," Jesse laughed. "Well, I'll let you go, man. You seem busy. Just calling to check in."

They exchanged goodbyes and hung up the phone. Bobby flipped his phone shut and threw on the couch.

"Wait!" he hollered out, as Lacy had made her way into the kitchen.

"Where you going?"

"Home. I forgot I have homework to do."

"Bullshit. Don't give me that fake line." Bobby wasn't buying it, that was stuff that happened in terrible romantic comedies.

"Sorry." She was putting on her shoes. "I just think I should go. I'm not mad, don't worry. I should just go."

What could Bobby say? Nothing. She was right, the best thing for her to do would be to leave, get out of there before things went any further. But he didn't want her to, not now.

"You sure?" Was his weak attempt at stopping her.

"Yeah. I'll text you tomorrow or something." Things had definitely taken a nose dive and quickly. Kind of funny that it was all because of her old brother, Bobby's best friend, calling.

"Okay." Bobby didn't know what to say. He was still in shock. That might've been a new personal record for things going from really good to shit.

Lacy gave him a half-hearted wave goodbye and walked out the door. He stood there, knowing why she had done it, part of him glad she had, but part of him wishing she hadn't.

***

An annoying Hawaiian-themed alarm woke Bobby from a pretty crazy dream he was having. He just lay there for a moment, half confused as to why he had even set an alarm, half dead from sleeping on a couch for the past week. Why he had slept there instead of the comfortable bed that was less than twenty-five feet away was beyond him. Actually it wasn't, that was just another chapter of Guy Code. You didn't sleep in another man's bed when he wasn't home (and especially if he was home), no matter if you changed the sheets or not. Just not cool. Finally, after taking just about as much ukulele as he could, he reached over and grabbed his phone, clicking the off button. That's when he noticed it was Sunday, the past few days going by in a haze of cheap beer and Playstation 3, and realized the reason he had set the alarm was to pick up after the bomb that had gone off in the apartment. He glanced back at the time, 3:00 PM, who sets an alarm for 3 in the afternoon he thought, Jesse would be home in three hours -- time to bust out the broom and get his lazy ass to business.

Visions of those cleaning montages from movies, complete with terribly corny music played through his head as he cleared the coffee table of the dozen or so beer bottles, each crying out in a loud glass-to-glass scream as they crashed into the bottle bin together. Vacuuming was next, this involved sucking up a large pile of Cheetos dust and a few swipes at the cats, who just couldn't understand what the hell was happening and what-in-the-fuck was making that God-awful noise. With the living room done, he moved onto the kitchen, which was by far the worst room -- this had it all, old smelly dishes, over-flowing trash and what he believed was a pile of cat puke a few feet from the oven door but wasn't one-hundred percent on that.

"Seriously?" Bobby asked the cat that was currently sniffing. Please don't eat that, oh wait... the cat caught one whiff of it and ran off.

Bobby busted his ass, trying to get the rest of the apartment clean, time was running low and so was his motivation. He cruised through the dishes, trying his best to not think about Lacy as he washed up from the night she had come over. He didn't know if it was sweet that he thought of her over something so minor or just gross that it had been three days and he still hadn't washed those plates yet. Probably the latter, he thought, shaking the thoughts from his head as fast as he could and continuing on.

A quick glance at the stove's clock revealed it to be 5:29, quite possibly the fastest two and a half hours of Bobby's life. Jesse would be arriving in thirty minutes, give or take a few, which gave Bobby time enough to take a shower and maybe throw in a load of laundry. As he dried off his hands and headed towards the bathroom, he felt like he was Jesse's stay-at-home girlfriend, a thought that caused him to laugh out loud as he grabbed for a towel and turned the water on.

As the hot water rained down, pelting his skin, the sound of the water hitting the shower floor was the only thing that separated Bobby from total silence. That, plus lack of TV or music caused his mind to wander. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what road it was heading down and at what speed. Lacy. He hadn't thought too much about it since it happened. And by that, he meant he had only thought of it a handful of times a day, the rest of the time was spent drunk and roaming through LittleBigPlanet with his black video game controller. He understood why she had done it, a moment of weakness, rocked back to reality when her big brother called his best friend and stopped things cold -- but he was a little shocked she hadn't even texted, not even a "hey". No calls or live appearances was understandable -- but a texting was about as least personal as communicating got, right there with email, no reason she couldn't have done that. He hadn't because, well, he was waiting for her to. The shower finished up, his mind still stuck in her neighborhood, he dried himself off, wondering what he should do, if anything, about it.

"I'm home!" A loud voice called from the kitchen. It was Jesse and that was the second time he had interrupted Lacy and himself. Maybe that was a sign?

"Hold up!" He called back out, throwing on some clothes and heading out of the bathroom.

Jesse stood at the door, a large suitcase at his feet, one of the cats in his arms as Bobby rounded the corner.

"What's up man, how was your flight?" Bobby asked, running his hand through is short, still-damp hair.

"Too long. You know. Lacy not here?" Jesse seemed sincerely surprised by that.

"No.. why, was she supposed to be?" An uncomfortable feeling crawling its way up Bobby's spine.

"Nah, just thought she'd wanna welcome big brother home." The cat leaped from his chest and onto the floor, scurrying its way towards the living room. "Probably would've helped if I told her I was leaving in the first place," he finished with a laugh.

"Yeah." Bobby was hoping the subject would change and do it quickly.

"Anyways, dude, what are you doing tonight?"

"Nothing..." Bobby never had plans, well not recently. He knew where this conversation was headed.

"Me, you.... Rocky's. You down?" Jesse asked as he grabbed his suitcase, walking passed Bobby and towards his room.

Yep, he was right. Jesse practically lived at the bar. It definitely wasn't in Bobby's top ten, but what was going to be his excuse for saying no? He followed behind Jesse, stopping at the edge of the living room as Jesse passed and stepped into his bedroom.

"Come on, man. You don't have an 'ole lady anymore... no excuses, dude," Jesse yelled out from his room.

Asshole, Bobby thought jokingly. He got him, there wasn't a damn thing he could say to stop this from happening. Jesse was one of the most persuasive people he had ever met, sometimes he wondered if he even wanted to be friends with him in the first place, or had he just convinced him of that too? Bobby smiled to himself, it quickly fading as Jesse stepped back out of his room, this time dressed in something completely different. Damn, that was fast.

"So, what's it gonna be?"

"What do you think?" Bobby answered sarcastically.

"That's my man, right there." Jesse headed for the fridge, cracking a "warm up" beer.

You say that now... "I'll take one of those, let me just go freshen up." Bobby said, killing off his thought and heading off towards the bathroom. He slapped on a quick layer of deodorant and a couple squirts of whatever the hell the cologne in the medicine cabinet was. He smelled okay, that's all that mattered.

Bobby was back out in the kitchen in a few seconds, cracking his beer open and taking a large sip of it.

He needed to drink a good dozen or so of these to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling he still hadn't been able to shake, no matter how hard he tried. He also couldn't get Lacy off his mind again, which was definitely what was causing the first problem. Another big sip, and then another. He glanced over toward Jesse to see him messing with his phone.

"When we headed out?" Bobby broke the silence.

It took a few seconds for Jesse to look up from his phone, "Uhh... I don't know, half hour or so. Might as well start early." He gave a half-hearted laugh before returning his attention back to the phone.

"Okay..." Bobby started, an idea popping to his head, a completely stupid idea that was sure to only make things worse. "... I'll meet you there, I gotta make a quick run." He finished, hoping Jesse would go along with it, knowing he would.

"Yeah, sure. Thirty minutes, Rocky's. See you there." It helped that he was only half paying attention.

Bobby kicked on his shoes and grabbed his hoodie from the coat rack, sliding it over his head and he exited the apartment. It was definitely cooler that night, he could almost see his breath as the day began to turn to night. He walked down the walkway, his pace a little higher than normal, the idea hanging in his head like a broken wind chime. Why was he about to do this? Should he text first? These are questions you'd usually like to have definite answers to before just driving over to a girl's house and finding out where things stand face-to-face. But that wasn't Bobby's style, well thought out, planned, never. He fired up his car, a quick shift to drive and he was off. Luckily she had mentioned her address the night things went south, before they had gone that way -- it would've been pretty awkward to have to ask now 'where do you live',' oh why you ask,'' well I'm headed there now, that cool?'.