-Still at the house-
Callie sat down with an embarrassed expression. “Okay, I’m sure you all have heard me scream way too much.” She paused as she saw an evil smirk in Joey’s eyes, he slowly opened his mouth to retort. “Don’t even think about it Joey,” Callie said, pointing a finger at him.
“So we have to find our building of sorts. That won’t be too hard,” James said, with an exasperated tone. From his position at the table he groaned and rubbed a hand over his face.
“Yep and in a month too!” Sarah said, groaning as Joey scooted closer to her. “Don’t you have any where to go?”
“Nope, I’m leaving tomorrow for my hotel room,” Joey said, putting an arm around her. In turn she stood up and walked out of the room. “I think she likes me guys,” Joey said, getting groans for a response.
“Nick... Well, he’s attractive.. And very cocky. Maybe I should start from the beginning. Well, about an hour after we opened the envelope and everyone was doing their own thing I was in the kitchen making myself a sandwich. James was on the phone with his girlfriend. I think. Nick strutted in....”
Michele stood at the counter as she spread mustard on a piece of wheat bread. Nick stood by the refrigerator, he appeared to be looking for something. James sat on the other side of the counter and was facing Michele. He had the phone to his ear and would occasionally nod his head or sigh. Michele finished making her sandwich and began to return the ingredients to the refrigerator. Nick was still there, but when Michele came to the refrigerator he shut it quickly. She ignored this rude action and reopened it. Nick moved from her and went over to where James was sitting.
“James. I need to talk to you,” Nick said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Okay, Nick. Let me get off the phone.” James quickly hung up the phone, all the while Nick looked at him in disgust. When James finished hanging up the phone he turned to look at Nick. “So what do you want to talk to me about?”
“First, next time you have one of your little friends over and he brings one of his friends with him, let me know. Cause I’ll make sure I’m out that night. Second, can you tie up the phone line more? You know, the rest of us have people to call as well.” Nick said, growing madder by the second. Michele, unnoticed by them, sat at the opposite corner and quietly ate her sandwich and took in what was going on.
“Okay, I’ll try to be more considerate from now on,” James responded, standing up from his spot and went to his room. Nick rolled his eyes at James’ retreating figure.
“And make sure to tell your skank friends that too!” Nick yelled as he too returned to his room.
“All I could do was sit there. I mean this outburst from Nick came from nowhere. James had told us all that Joey was staying with us for 2 days and also that Stephanie would come over in the morning. Nick even said it was okay. I’m just glad that James was so calm. After Nick’s outburst I went to James’ room and asked him if he had any clue what just happened. He was more confused then me.”
Sarah sat on the sofa. Her elbow propped against the armrest and her eyes were glued to the TV set. She was so into what was on TV she didn’t notice Callie entering the room and sitting down next to her. When Sarah finally noticed her, she looked at Callie from the side of her eyes. “Can I help you Callie?”
“OH, I just wanna watch some TV.... But now that you mention it, I was wondering how your date went last night,” Callie asked.
Sarah quickly wiped off the shocked expression from her face and turned to answer her. “Well, David was a nice guy. I don’t think I’ll be going on a date with him again though.”
“Oh, where did you two go?” Callie asked, moving so that she was completely facing Sarah and sitting Indian style.
Sarah leaned against the sofa’s armrest and began picking at the cushion that she was sitting on, ”well, he picked me up from here and we went to a club. We only stayed for about 2 hours. After that we went to dinner at some restaurant on the beach. It was nice and all, but I didn’t feel a romantic connection if you know what I mean.” Callie smiled in response and slowly shook her head. “So, Callie... I heard that you and Josh went off somewhere last night. Can I ask where?” Sarah asked her, giving her a smirk.
Callie looked down and blushed slightly before answering, “we just went out to a movie.”
“Just a movie huh?” Sarah said, shaking her eyebrows up and down. At that moment, Josh strolled into the room and sat down on a chair that was next to the sofa. The girls cracked up.
“What am I supposed to say in these things. Oh my god! I’m pregnant with Satan’s child! Is that okay with you all?” There was a long pause. Sarah’s face contorted, like she was in deep thought. She rested her forehead on her right hand and slowly looked up from under her lashes. “Okay here’s the shit on me. I’m not clicking with these people. I don’t really like all of them either. There’s these two southern hicks. And there’s the quiet lesbian. Another is Mr. Look- the- phone- is- attached- to- my- ear- and- I- love- my- girlfriend. Another one of the guys has a stick shoved up his ass that occasionally he removes it so he can hit on a 2-cent whore at the local club. And lastly there’s the Olsen Twins, all sugar and no spice. Ms. I’m- so- perfect and Mr. Can- I- get- in- her- pants. It makes me so sick! Hey, I met him first! He was soooo into me before he meet this chick. I could have been Ms. Perfect. Do I hate her? Maybe. She has been ‘nice’ to me, so far. Do I dislike her and hope she falls off a cliff? What do you think?”
James flipped through a local newspaper as he made his way down a Malibu street. Jason walked ahead of him, occasionally slowly down to talk or look at an attractive lady. Michele walked next to James. Her quiet mannerisms almost made him forget that she was indeed beside him.
“Okay so what exactly are we looking for?” Jason asked, turning around so that he was now walking backwards.
“15676 Hatteras Street. We should be close to it,” James answered, barely looking up from the paper.
Michele walked in silence, at times looking between James and Jason. A few minutes passed before anything was spoken. Michele halted and turned to stare at something. It took a few seconds for them to realize that she had stopped. James put the newspaper under his arm and made his way over to Michele with Jason following.
”You stopped?” Jason asked, shielding his eyes with his right hand.
“Lunch. We should eat before we go to our destination.” Michele headed to the restaurant. Jason and James followed, the three of them entering a 50’s style dinner. Various black and white photographs adorned the walls. Red and white checkered squares covered the floor. Classic oldies blared through the old jukeboxes speakers, conveniently located at the front of the restaurant. Hot fries fillied their senses. A young man sat at a podium, tapping a freshly sharpened pencil, looking directly at them.
“Hello. Welcome to Buddies Diner. How many are in your party?” He asked in a flat tone.
“Three. Can we have a booth?” James asked, pointing at a nearby empty table for an example. The shook his head yes and the four of them walked to the booth, the young man held three menus tightly in his hand. James, Jason, and Michele scooted into the booth once they reached it. The young man slapped the menus down on the table.
“Your server will be right with you,” he said, rolling his eyes as he walked away. They each quickly grabbed a menu and began searching for something to order. Silence filled the air as they looked through the menus. A petite, brunette walked up to the table. A short red and white striped skirt and white blouse adorned her body. Before speaking she gave Michele a small smile.
“Hi! I’m Reese. I’ll be your server for today. Can I take your drink orders?” She asked looking at them, but directing her gaze at Michele. Michele was the only one who noticed, the other two were still looking at their menus.
”What sodas are they?” Jason asked, finally looking up from his menu.
“We serve Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew. Plus there’s water, milk, tea, ice tea, and various flavored milkshakes.” Reese concluded with a bright smile direct at Michele.
“Well, I’ll have a Dr. Pepper,” James said, placing his menu down.
“I’ll have water,” Jason said.
“I’ll have the same. Oh, and Reese can I speak to you- privately,” Michele said as she slid out of the booth. Reese and Michele walked to the opposite side of the room, the 2 men watched in shock from the booth. Soon a man came with their drinks. As the two women stood talking, the guys sat in silence as they drank their drinks.
“I wonder what they’re saying,” James asked in a hushed tone, as if they were being listened to. Once again the two sat in silence as they tried to make out what was being said.
“I think Reese just said she was an alien,” Jason said, giving James a weird smile.
“Um.. No.” James said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Well, I guess they know each other,” Jason concluded, giving a shrug to James.
“So, Jason, Michele, and I went looking for the building for our club. Of course we had no luck, but that’s okay. The big thing was when we were getting lunch, our waitress, Reese, appeared to be friendly with Michele. Neither Jason nor I asked how they met or even if they did in fact know one another. They talked for about six minutes. When Michele returned she had this big smile on her face and in her hand she had a small piece of paper. Later that day she quietly explained that she had met Reese at the Saddle Ranch when the roommates went a few days ago. Oh yeah! Joey left the house and is now living in a hotel room. But wait- there’s more! Joey is now shooting a supporting role in some new sitcom- which NBC is very interested in. Also, I think he’s going out with that girl Stephanie that he met at the Saddle Ranch. He hasn’t said it officially, but he hasn’t hit on Sarah in two days. And that’s something that I thought would never stop. I think Sarah’s missing it. Now she gets no attention and she’s really, really crabby. Even more so then normally. What the hell is her problem? Besides the obvious.”
