Done Adulting Vol. 1 Ch. 137

“Hey, Mel,” Amanda said through her phone.

“Hey. What’s up?”

“Can you come over for a while?”

“Sure.”

“Thanks. I just could use some help with Jamie.”

“What’s wrong?”

“He’s a sad little.”

“Still?”

“Yep. He insists it’s only for one more day.”

“That’s kinda cute.”

“I think he’s trying to be funny. He always makes jokes when he doesn’t want us to worry about him. But usually they’re at least a little funny. This is just sadder.”

“What’s your mom say?”

“That he’ll get over it.”

“Well, he will.”

“Of course he will. I don’t know why he’s still in a funk anyway. It was a good visit, overall anyway. I mean, I do get it, but … still.”

“I’ll be over in a bit.”

“Thanks.”

Mel arrived a half hour later. “Where is he?”

“In the nursery.”

“Where’s your mom?”

“Back-to-school-night for the new semester. I think he’s sick of me checking on him if you wanna go see him alone.”

Mel walked down the hall to the nursery and paused at the door to listen. She heard just a clicking sound, and when she turned into the door she found Jamie sitting glumly on the carpet running two toy cars into each other.

“What’s this game called?” Jamie looked up and said nothing. “Can I play?”

“Did they send for you to cheer me up,” he said in response.

“Yeah, but I can leave.” She sat down on the carpet and put on an exaggerated sad face. “Or I can sit here and be sad, too, ya know, in solidarity. Or we can go somewhere.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere. C’mon,” she said, standing up and pulling him to his feet. “That your diaper bag?”

“Yeah.” She picked it up and looked inside, then opened his dresser and picked out a pair of pajamas, stuffing them in.

“I’m spending the night somewhere?”

“Yeah. With me. It’ll be fun.” She put the backpack on and picked Jamie up onto her hip to carry him to the living room. “Can we borrow your car,” she asked Amanda.

“You’re going somewhere?”

“Yeah, Jamie is going to spend the night with me.”

“I … guess I’m okay with that.”

“Good, because we weren’t asking permission, were me, Jamie,” she said with a wink to Amanda.

“Apparently not,” he said.

She got him buckled into the car and started toward downtown. “You wanna get some pizza?”

“Sure.”

“How about to go this time?” Mel dialed from the car and ordered, and it was ready when they got there. She started to get him out of the car, but he assured her he’d be okay alone for a few minutes. It felt a little weird when she left, though, and he imagined some concerned bystander breaking a window and calling the cops for neglect of a little. He was glad when she got back.

“It always smells best in the car on the way home,” Jamie observed.

“We can just go straight to my room. Unless you want to meet my family.”

“Not really. I mean, not tonight.”

“Don’t feel bad about it. I wouldn’t either right now.”

Jamie liked Mel’s house. It was an unusual design built into a small hill so that the kitchen and living room were on the main floor, bedrooms a half-flight of stairs up, and the family room and Mel’s bedroom a half-flight of stairs down. It gave everyone in the house a space of their own. Mel got Jamie out of the backseat, and he followed her and the pizza to her room, negotiating the stairs carefully. She grabbed a towel from her closet and laid it on the bed, put the pizza on top of it, set Jamie on the bed, and went to get drinks and napkins. When she come back, Jamie had flipped the TV on and was scanning for something worth watching. There was hardly ever anything good on in this dimension either. Mel sat down behind him so he could sit between her legs and lean against her while she leaned against her pillows.

He opened the pizza box, and she pulled a piece out and held it in front of him. He leaned out and took a bite, then she took a bite.

“Good?”

“Mhmm,” Jamie said.

“Shoot.”

“What?”

“Forgot something. Hold on.” She got up and left, and when she came back her dad was passing by the door and looked in.

“He’s a bit smaller than most of your boyfriends,” he said.

“Better looking too. ‘Night, Daddy.”

“‘Night, pumpkin.” She closed the door behind her.

“What’d ya forget?”

“A beer,” she said, showing him the bottle, “and an extra cup.”

“I’m not supposed to.”

“I won’t tell if you won’t.” She pulled her nightstand over so he could reach it and sat back down again, then poured him just a little bit. He finished it quickly, wanting it to hit him fast.

“So,” Mel said when they’d had their dinner. Jamie was buzzed but not nearly as far gone as the day in the park.

“So.” He scooched down so he could recline more against Mel, and she played with his hair.

“Wanna tell me what’s up?”

“I’m just feeling sorry for myself.”

“That’s okay. Can I feel sorry for you, too?”

“If you want.”

“Wanna change into some PJs?”

“Mhmm.” He sat up and she pulled his shirt off; he swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and she took his shoes and pants off, leaving his socks. She knew his feet got cold easily.

“Why don’t you lie down on your tummy first?” He turned around and lay flat, and she took a tube of hand lotion from the drawer of her nightstand and began to massage it into his back. “You feel like a tangled-up rope back here.”

“Mhmm.” She worked her way down to his hips, and he moaned as her hands worked loose the too-tight muscles. She kept going until she reached the soles of his feet and pulled his socks off.

“Did I make Jamie Bear sleepy?”

“Yeah,” he said weakly.

“Do you wanna sleep or talk?”

“Talk.”

“I’m listening.”

“I’ve been thinking about things since Cheryl left.”

“You’re not quite over her after all?”

“What’d Manda tell you?”

“That you and her were sort of an item before you left, and that when she left the other night that you kissed her, um, not like friends.”

“Amanda can talk a little too much sometimes.”

“She just worries about you. One of her jobs.”

“I know.”

“So?”

“You leave your dimension and say goodbye to the only friend you ever had and see if maybe your feelings aren’t a little intense.”

“So then you’re not in love with her?”

“Is that what Manda said?”

“She said she wasn’t sure.”

“I’m not in love with her. I just miss her. I’m sure I’ll feel better about it in a few more days. I just feel … I guess just like people feel when your best friend moves far away. We’ll keep in touch, but there’s still a hole there.”

“It’s weird, isn’t it? Friendship,” Mel said.

“How so?”

“Just out of all the people in the world, you just sort of pick out a few and say, ‘I wanna hang out with that one.’ And no matter how many you have, there’s always room for more.”

“And they’re not interchangeable,” Jamie added. “When one is far away, that hole doesn’t get plugged by another friend. It just stays a hole.”

“You didn’t lose her though.”

“No, I didn’t, which is why I’m just bummed and not depressed.”

“I know it sucks,” she said sympathetically.

“Fucking sucks.” He sat silently for a few moments. “I get angry about it sometimes.”

“About what exactly?”

“That I couldn’t do it. That I couldn’t just be a normal human. Have friends. Get married. Live a regular life and be happy … Cheryl said I got cheated in life, while she was here she said that. I think she was right. But I didn’t help. I just wish I could’ve been normal. Grow up normally, be a normal adult. Now it’s too late.”

Jamie was making Mel sadder for him than he seemed to be for himself. She hadn’t spent time with Jamie when he was in this kind of mood, and it made her marvel at Amanda’s and Becky’s fortitude. All she wanted to do was make it better in whatever way she could, and that she couldn’t was frustrating, adding to sharing in Jamie’s funk.

“Why is it too late,” she asked.

“I think I’m never going back there.”

“I don’t know much about where you come from. Or what it’s like living there. But if you don’t mind me saying, you’re really good at living here.”

“Maybe.”

“Not ‘maybe,’” Mel stated emphatically, “I know. You get better at it all the time.” He sighed. He didn’t want to talk any more. There wasn’t much to say. He just wanted to live in the present, and in the present, he was with Mel, and that was enough. It had to be. If his relationship with Cheryl had taught him nothing else, it had taught him that happiness, lasting happiness, is found only with others.

“It’s in the past anyway,” Jamie said, “A long time ago it seems. Maybe it’s time to just let it go for good.” Everything except Cheryl, but he’d let go of the what-might-have-beens with her, too. He had the dearest of friends, and that was what mattered.

“Is there anything I can do to help,” Mel asked.

Jamie turned back over and crawled into Mel’s lap so he was resting his head on her thigh. “Just be my friend.”

Mel winced at how sweetly painful his words were. “Sweet Baby Bear,” she cooed. “Always, always, always.”

“Thanks for coming to get me.”

“You can always ask to come sleep over.” Jamie responded by nestling in deeper. She pulled the blankets up to cover him and laid back against her pillows while she rubbed his back waiting for him to fall asleep.