Chapter 4

I picked up the phone, knowing that she would be on the other end.

"Eddie, it's Angie."

"Oh," I stumbled for words, "Umm, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing alright," she paused, "how are you?"

"Ok," I said. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds before she spoke again.

"Thank you for the card," she said.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get you something nicer Angie..."

"Oh no, its perfect, it's just that..."

"What,"

"Well, there are some wishes you can't grant."

"I know, I don't make a very good genie do I?"

"You'll just have to wait until I make my wish in order to find out," she said with a laugh.

"I guess so." I relaxed a bit. "How's school going?"

"It's ok, I'm doing well in all my classes but I still don't have much of a social life," she said sadly.

"Well, you're not alone there; I haven't had a date in ages either."

"Really," Angie said with a mixture of surprise, sympathy, and relief. "Those girls don't know what they are missing."

"You tell them that," I said jokingly.

"I just might."

"So, did you figure out what you are going to wish for?"

"I have a few ideas; you don't mind wearing pink spandex do you?"

"What? No, I am not going to do anything involving pink spandex, thank you very much."

"Buy you said I could wish for anything."

"Well, almost anything. It has to be something I would actually be willing to do."

"Oh," Angie said sounding slightly crestfallen. "Well, we'll have plenty of time to talk about it during spring break." I could hear Angie's mom quite loudly in the background.

"What do you mean, we can talk about it over spring break," I didn't receive an answer. "Angie, are you there?"

"Sorry about that. Listen, Eddie, I can't talk right now but I'll see you soon, ok." I heard the other end of the line go dead. Hanging up the phone, I thought about what Angie had said. She would see me over spring break. I went to a private college so my spring break was the week of Easter just like most high schools, but it still didn't make perfect sense. Angie was certain that she was going to see me during break. I checked my calendar and saw that it was only three weeks away. Whatever was going on, I would find out soon enough.

I sat down at my desk to start my homework and was about halfway through when John finally came back from the bathroom. He was still a little green, but looked considerably better otherwise.

"I am never eating clams again," he announce on his return.

"It was that bad, huh," I asked.

"Man, I puked up stuff I don't even remember eating. No Hooters girl is worth that."

"So when are you going back?" I asked with a smile.

"Day after tomorrow, I think?"

"You never learn, do you?"

"I guess not," he said when the phone began to ring again. "I got it." I was about to get back to my homework when John interrupted me.

"It's for you, and this time it is your mom," he said before turning three shades greener than he already was. John threw the phone at me and made another mad dash to pray to the porcelain god.

"Hi, mom."

"Hello honey, is everything alright there? Your roommate didn't sound very good."

"He's not feeling to well mom," I could hear John heaving loudly in the bathroom. "He ate some bad clams or something." I shut the door to block out the noise before continuing, "What's up?"

"Oh nothing much, I'm just calling to make sure that you will be coming back home next Friday."

"I guess I will be. Is someone going to pick me up or do I have to take a bus?"

"I'm sure a bus won't be necessary. I don't have anything to do that day, so how about I come at four o'clock."

"Sounds good, I'll be done with class by then. Is there anything planned for that week?"

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, we're going up to the cabin for a couple of days. Your father and I thought it would be good to get away from civilization for a while."

"That sounds like so much fun," I said sarcastically.

"You'll survive."

"That's about all I'll be able to do."

"Oh, quit you're whining, I'll see you in three weeks."

"Alright, see you later, mom, bye."

"Bye honey." I had hit a new low. My family doesn't have a whole lot of money but my grandparents had a little bit of land and had two cabins built on it. They gave one to my parents and one to Angie's once they didn't use them anymore. Ever since then, it has been a torturous experience whenever my parents decide to go. No TV, radio, or computer. It's a small blessing that it even has electricity and real plumbing. I went through six novels and my pysch textbook the year before just to stay sane. Angie's words about having time to talk about it came back to me. What did she mean by that? Obviously, we wouldn't have time now that I was doomed to go to the cabin. I pushed those thoughts out of my head and decided to do some of my homework since there was no way that I would be getting back to sleep after two phone calls, not to mention the poetry John was sharing from inside the bathroom.

I got through all of the work that I had to do for the next day by eleven o'clock and decided that that was enough for the night. I wasn't ready to go to bed just yet though, probably due to the abortive nap I took early, so I got up to stretch my legs. I checked in the bathroom to see how John was doing and, much to my surprise, he had actually fallen asleep with his head resting on the toilet.

"John," I said, receiving no reply. "John, wake up," I nudged him and he opened his eyes. The look of confusion on his face was so funny that I couldn't help but laugh a little at his situation.

"Huh," was all he managed to say.

"Come on, get up. You know your bed is going to be more comfortable."

"What time is it? How long was I asleep?"

"I'm not sure how long you were out but it's a little after eleven right now. Your looking better, you've got some color back."

"Thanks, lend me a hand?" I reached down and helped him off the floor. "Never again," he said. I grabbed a towel from our room and tossed it at him.

"You mean 'until the next time' right?" He looked blankly at the towel.

"What's this for?"

"John, your my buddy and I love ya, but man, you stink! There's no way I'm letting you back in the room smelling like that. I gotta sleep in there too, you know." He shot me a weak smile and closed the door. I waited outside until I heard him turn on the water before stepping outside for some fresh air. It was rather chilly, but the cool air helped me clear my head and my thoughts drifted once again to what Angie had said over the phone. Did she mean that she was going to call me? Or was her family going to their cabin as well? I thought about it for a while, until the tingle in my fingers told me it was time to go inside. I made my way back to my room and John was already asleep in his bed. I left the door open a crack while I shucked off my clothes, I didn't want to turn the light on and wake John, shut the door and crawled under the covers.

I woke up early the next morning, feeling more rested than usual, and decided that taking a nap in the middle of the day might be a good habit to pick up if it helped me sleep as well as I did. The clock read 6:30; John would still be asleep until 10, when his alarm went off. I had three hours until my first class started so I got dressed and headed to the cafeteria for an early breakfast. The cafeteria food at my dorms wasn't all that bad and, since it didn't even open until 6:30, I got the freshest of the food. With my stomach happily full and my roommate still asleep I didn't have much to do except study. So I grabbed my backpack and headed for the computer lab at the library. The library lab was different from the other labs on campus in that it's open 24 hours and has some private computers tucked away into little desks. I liked those the best since I hate it when people can read what I am typing, and John liked them because he could download porn without anyone noticing. I picked the one farthest from the few people who were in the lab at that time and pulled out the book for my modern sexuality class.