Jamie - The Journey Begins Ch. 31 - Still Call Australia Home?

"No one there," I called out to Ben.

I could hear him coming toward me. "What's going on?"

"I'ma going to have a look outside," I replied, while grabbing my cell off the hall stand. "Would have been searching for that later."

Walking out the front door, I was busily stuffing my cell into my pocket when I saw it. "Oh wow! Someone got a new set of wheels! Look what's parked outside our neighbors -- Steve and Jess' place. Ben - lucky guys! It's my dream truck."

"No need to yell, Jamie I'm right here."

Yeah, I was halfway through taking a deep breath to yell back to Ben. "Oh right, yeah." I let out the extra air I'd just sucked in to yell out. "Look - Steve got a new truck."

Can't say I wasn't feeling a whole load of jealously right there. There was the exact truck I was buying: Ford, racing blue with the sunroof. It looked amazing.

"Man, it must have been home-delivered. It's got a huge-ass red bow on the hood."

I could feel movement behind me as I was mindlessly talking away to Ben when I heard another voice. Stunned into silence when I saw who the other voice belonged to, I yelled, "Josh! Hey, mate!"

"Hey, you, Jamie. You like?" he asked, pointing toward the truck.

"It's beautiful! Steve and me - we'll be able to go off-roading - even the same color and all."

Both of them gave a short laugh. "He can be so clueless at times, Ben." Josh pulled something from his pocket and yelled out. "Catch!"

A key fob came flying through the air at me. Then I suddenly realized, "IT'S MINE?" as I caught it.

"Yep, all yours. I picked it up at the local dealership after detailing and predelivery for you. Enjoy." Stunned for a few seconds, I just looked between Josh, Ben, and my new truck. It shouldn't have been such a surprise - I knew it was coming soon, but wow - what a way to ... make it special, right.

I grabbed Josh and gave him a huge hug. "Thank you. Man, that's ... it's, fantastic!"

Reaching over, I grabbed Ben too, pulling him in. "You knew all about this, didn't you, hmm?"

"Who me? Nooo.." he remarked, smiling back at me.

"Yeah, I call bullshit. Thank you."

"You deserve it, really do."

I was so excited, I was like a four-week-old puppy without the wetting, well so far! "Ok, so who's coming for a ride?"

"Let's go. Head toward the lake, Jamie. There's a trail along the creek bed we can try out. My brothers and I used to ride our bikes there as kids. There's always off-roaders there."

We all jumped in. I pressed the button and it roared to life. "Ohhh yeah! I like."

I'd just synced my cell to the truck when a message came in. 'How's the new truck, son?'

Of course, my parents were in the loop too. Shit - where are Lucas and Hailey? Thought they'd be here too if mom and dad know."

"Hailey was held up at work. The original plan included those guys dropping in by chance too, ha-ha. Lucas said they'd be here in about 90 minutes. Come on, Skip. Let's go."

And yes, the following morning, Ben 'borrowed' it to go the store, via Tulsa I think...