Call from Joyce
I got a call from one of my mom’s friends, Joyce. “Hey, Joe. This is Joyce. How have you been?”
“O.K.”
“OK. I…..I was just calling to see how you were doing. Nobody has heard from you in a while.”
“I’m O.K”
“Listen. Your Mom is sorry for anything that happened. She is actually glad that you walked out. Oh, and by the way, we are having a picnic Sunday. You should come by.”
“I don’t know.”
“Do it for your mom; the hell with Robert.”
“You know she tried to hide the fact that she had a son from some of her friends.”
“I didn’t know that. Can’t you just forgive her? She wants you to be there.”
“All right.” I said, reluctantly.
The day of the picnic came and Joyce was the first to greet me. My mother hesitated and looked over at my stepfather. My stepfather walked away moving on to something else. My mother then started to walk towards me.
“Oh, I’m so glad you came.” Joyce said and then she gave me a hug.
My mother took her cue and did the same. She learned from Joyce that it was ok. I felt guilty for getting mad before and I tried to make conversation to no avail. I was quickly bored. I went to the other room and I tried to call a girl I knew. She asked. “Why are you calling? Do you want to meet or something?”
“”Well, I can’t. I just wanted to talk. I just wanted to see how you were doing.” I said
She was confused. “Well, do you want to do anything?”
“I can’t today.”
“Why are you calling?” she said
“I really don’t know.” I said and hung up the phone.
Joyce came in the room.
“Who was that on the phone? Was it your girlfriend?”
“No. Not really.” “She is kind of a bitch. I don’t know what is going on with her.”
“When are you going to get your confidence? When I am done with you will be able to tell all of those girl to just fuck off, and they will still come to you. Just move on to the next one.”
I laughed.
She said “It’s too bad nobody in your family drinks or smokes.”
“Well, I do.”
“I got a joint”
“Yeah.”
The rest of the family was playing cards, so we went to the basement. I showed her how I used to smoke cigarettes when I was a kid. I opened a basement window and we stood on an old coffee table.
“Well, let’s see it.” I said. She pulled the joint out of her purse. I opened the window, while she lit up the joint. She took a hit and blew it out the window. She passed it to me. I took a hit and blew it out the window. I smiled at her a little bit. She kind of shook her head and took another hit.
I never understood why Joyce was alone. I would have fucked the shit out of her. She was so much fun, also. We smoked the joint and went back upstairs. The conversation was still shit, but I felt good. I can’t believe that I am at the kitchen table stoned as fuck. Dam, this is some good shit. I started thinking about how I was going to get with Joyce without anyone finding out. Should I be doing this? Is she really interested in me? I started looking at these people. They were just people. I didn’t see a “my” anything for a minute. Joyce looked at me and shook her head real fast. I guess she thought I was acting too stoned. My sisters smoothly got out of the situation and left with their boyfriends. Shit, usually I wanted to leave before them, but not tonight. I wanted to hang out with Joyce.
The party was pretty much over after they left. Everyone slowly matriculated to bed. Joyce was set up on the couch. I went to my old room to sleep on a sleeping bag since there wasn’t a room there anymore.
After a while, people started to go to bed. I was supposed to sleep in my bedroom, but I couldn’t. I wanted Joyce. She was sleeping on the couch in the living room. I slowly made my way down the stairs. I tried to walk on the corners, so it would not make as much noise. I made my way to the living room where she was sleeping on the couch. I shook her shoulder a little bit and said her name. “What? What’s the matter?” She said. “I couldn’t sleep.” I said.
“Is there something wrong?”
No. I think I just wanted to sleep here with you.” All of the sudden, she punched me in the nose.
“Oh shit. Why did you do that?” I said
“Joe?!?!” she said.
“Yeah”?
“Oh, my god. I thought you were Robert.”
“No.”
“That was you?”
“Well, yeah. I just wanted to stay here with you.”
“Why? What do you mean?” Why would you want to be with me?”
“I don’t know.” I said. A little bit of a pause
“You want to be with me? Is it because of the older woman thing?”
“No, not really. I have been with older women.”
“Why, then? “Listen, I am really flattered but..”
“But why not”
“Oh, you know that I have always thought that you were cute even when you wore those glasses but I couldn’t really.”
“This may be the only time we can do this.”
“Oh my God. Everyone is upstairs.”
“We can be quiet. Let’s just kiss.”
“No.” She stood up and walked over to the cabinet. I kissed her a little bit and she really did not kiss me back. I then started to kiss her neck and told her “ I want to see you some other time then.”
“Definitely.” She said. I got her number.