“Aw gross man! You want that?”
“Ant, it’s the best pie! If you gave it a chance you’d see-”
“I gave that thing a chance and I saw it was gross!” I was being honest.
The Ham and Mayo pie was just as it said. Ham and mayonnaise, with a bunch of melted cheese in the middle of two super-thin pie crusts. Those pies were especially made in mini’s since I’m pretty sure no one’s bringing home a family-sized ham and mayo pie. I was surprised they baked it in the oven and not over a skillet on the stove.
“Well whatever man. You think it’s gross, but I think it’s good. I want the ham and mayo pie.” William told me, sure of himself.
We went up to Jackie and told her what we wanted, then found seats and waited. When she arrived with our pies, I stared at the weird looking nuts that were scattered all over the top of the pie. I decided not to knock it until I tried it, and boy, I was so glad I decided that.
Under the pecans was this super sweet, golden-brown goo almost melts in your mouth. The pecans pack a nice, soft crunch, and the crumbly crust completes the pie.
“This might actually be the best pie I’ve ever had.” I told William.
“Mm,” was all he could manage with a face full of ham and cheese. “I’m sticking with ham and mayo.”
I meant what I said. I ordered another mini pecan pie while William switched to pumpkin. After that, I ordered a mini chocolate pie for dessert while William decided on apple.
“Mom’s gonna be mad you ate all that pie before dinner William.” Jackie told her little brother warningly.
“Whatever. Anthuny’s paying for it.” William told her.
That reminded me. How much of my grandmother’s money had I just spent on mini pies?
“Oh yeah, that reminds me, Akiema told me to tell you to come over to her house this afternoon.” William broke my train of thought.
“For what?”
“To play some video games or something.” William said highly disinterested. “Anyway, my mom’ll worry if we don’t go home soon. You mind?” he said mentioning the limo outside. I knew what he meant.
“Sure, I’ll drop you off.” I said. “Bye Jackie.” I said before leaving.
The glass door closed just as she said “Wait, that limo is yours?”
I told Mr. Smith to drive us down to William’s house, then I had him drive to Akiema’s house. Well, I did until I told him to turn and drive to the jewelry store. I decided, I had gotten Rose a skin and William some pie’s, so why not get Akiema something too?
When she opened the door, I admediatly heard Sunken Hero’s sound effects in the background along with yelling from what sounded like younger siblings in the background.
“Hey! I wanted to show you something! Come one in!” she didn’t waste much time with introductions did she?
I jumped on the invitation, admediatly looking around at all the pictures and posters that hung around her house.
One was of a girl walking in the rain, another of a dog with rainbow spots all over its body, and one was of a huge, juicy-looking couple of cherries with pine trees sticking out of them. I opened my mouth to ask what all this was about, but I decided not to ask. I chose to leave the answers to my imagination.
“You were about to ask about the pictures, right?” Akeima asked me. “Well, don’t look at me, because I don’t know. Mom says these pictures are whatever your mind wants them to be, but I think she just wants me to figure out what they’re really about. Why can’t she just tell me? I hate having an indefinite answer!” she lashed out. Then she quickly shook her head. “That’s not why I asked you to come here though. To the living room!” she told me and admeadiatly got to walking.
In the living room were two little kids who seemed to be barking at each other. “I wanna play bubble fun skin!” one said. “You play the witch skin, you’re a girl anyway.” “No way! I hate the witch! I’m playing either the bubble fun skin or I’m using Akeima’s Sunken-bucks to buy one of the new skins!” the other said, heading over to the ‘shop’ tab of the game menu. She stared at Akiema’s Sunken-bucks count, which was currently at 0.
“Where’s all your bucks Keemy?” the second little kid said.
“I spent them all on something, now scram!” Akiema yelled at her siblings.
“You can’t tell us to scram.” the first kid said.
“MOM!” was all Akiema had to yell and the two kids screamed out of the room. Fast.
She turned to me and rolled her eyes before speaking. “I wanted to tell you that I sent you some Sunken-bucks earlier.” she told me.
My jaw popped open. “What!? When?”
“Like a half hour ago.”
“Why?” I interrogated her.
“Well, I saw you whining yesterday about having no skins, and I felt bad for you. I was thinking about buying this season’s Sunken hero bundle but then thought I should just send you some Sunken-bucks so you can just buy what you want. Your welcome.” she said
“And what about your Sunken-bucks?” I pointed to the big 0 on her Sunken-Bucks count.
She shrugged. “I have no more. I already got the skins I wanted anyway.”
Now I felt guilty. To my Nana for obvious reasons, but also to Akiema, since she went through all the trouble of giving me the rest of her Sunken-bucks for game skins that I already got with Sunken-bucks I wasn’t supposed to have.
“Woah, thanks. but you realize you didn’t need to do that for me right?” I told her.
“Well duh. Can’t I just do that out of the kindness of my heart?” she asked me.
“Yeah, but I already have all the skins I want.” I informed her.
“You’re mama finally let you get some?” Akiema asked me.
“Well, Not exactly. I-” and that’s when my phone started to yell NOOOOOO!, which was the ringtone I had set for when my mother was calling.
“I gotta take this,” I told Akiema before turning around and answering.
“Hey sweet pea where are you?” my mother asked me.
“Oh, at my friend Akiema’s house.”
“How’d ju get there?” my mother questioned.
“Oh, I got a ride. What’s up?” I changed the subject.
“Well, your Nana lost her wallet today. She’s trying hard not to show it but she’s really worried about finding it. She almost cried when she told me she couldn’t find it. She wondered if you saw it lying around the house somewhere.” mom told me.
“No, I didn’t see it.” I said a bit quickly.
“Are you sure?”
It took me a while to say “...no.”
“I hope you aren’t lying to me.” my mom’s tone held a warning.
“I’m not mom. I’d tell you if I'd seen it.” I said pretty nervously.
Mom didn’t notice, instead she muttered to herself it has to be somewhere and that she’ll find it one way or another. Then she said goodbye and ended the call.
I could practically feel Akiema staring at me.
“I know you used your grandma’s credit card to get those skins.” she informed me.
“So.” I said back.
“Ooh she gon’ get you.” Akiema said ‘oooh,’ like they do at school. Dramatically, and with intention to egg on something. It didn’t matter she said it that way. It sent a shock of fear through me and I just about had an epiphany. I had to find out what to do about my credit card situation, and fast.
TO BE CONTINUED
part 1:https://hive.blog/writers/@restcity/shower-boy-a-short-story-part-1
part 2:https://hive.blog/writing/@restcity/shower-boy-2