Nick leaned back in his uncomfortable wooden chair and took another sip of his drink. It was another Saturday night at Ed and Jack's house. Which meant sitting around, drinking and talking about whatever random bullshit came to mind.
The three of them went way back. Nick had known Ed—technically Edwin, but he preferred Ed—since middle school and Jack since college. They were all in their mid-twenties now. They were good guys. Ed a bit of a loudmouth, Jack a bit stubborn. But they always had his back, and he always had theirs.
It was a nice house too, if a bit small. A simple 2-bedroom 1-bath bungalow. There was a living room area to the left of the front door, a dining room area to the right. A small kitchen beyond the living room and the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom beyond the dining room. A big fireplace rested in the center of the whole house, which was great in the winter, although it did block line of sight across the otherwise open living space.
Despite the good friends and the good house, Nick had problems with the weekend routine they had fallen into. One was the seating arrangement. The living room had a futon and a loveseat-sized couch. Definitely enough seating for three guys, but the issue was both Ed and Jack had girlfriends and Nick did not. So it always ended up with the couples on the larger pieces of furniture and Nick in a rickety wooden chair borrowed from the dining room.
He didn't resent his friends for having romantic partners—hell, he was happy for them. Maybe even a little jealous. But, and this was his more major problem with their weekends together, he couldn't help but feel like a fifth wheel, especially when Jack and his girlfriend Christie started drunkenly making out or when Ed and his girlfriend Ayako snuggled up to have private, whispered conversations among themselves.
But he had nothing better to do. So he sat and sipped his drink—a hard cider with a shot of whiskey added to it. A 90s alternative rock Pandora station played in the background. Ayako had ordered pizza, which should be arriving soon. So, that was something to look forward to.
As if on cue, the doorbell rang.
"Coming!" Ayako shouted as she rose from the futon and walked to the door.
Nick craned his neck, but to no avail—the front door opened inward and toward the living room, so he couldn't actually see anything. But he heard a female voice on the other side of the door. She complimented the brand of cider that she could see on the kitchen counter—it was Nick's, but Ayako accepted the compliment.
Ayako completed the transaction and shut the door.
"Hey, a pizza delivery girl," she commented to the room, hooking her thumb at the door. "Always nice to see."
Ayako worked in IT, a predominantly male field, and tended to be more sensitive to these kinds of inequalities.
"Yeah, because that's where the wage gap comes from," her boyfriend needled her playfully. "Pizza delivery."
Ayako chuckled.
"You butthead," she insulted him with a smile. The two of them had been dating since middle school, so they had the comfortable rapport of an old married couple.
"Wait, you only got one pizza?" Jack piped up to say.
Indeed, Ayako only held a single box.
"Yeah, but it's an extra large," she explained. "And a supreme. They were having a special."
"Honey, Jack can take down half an extra large by himself without breaking a sweat," Ed explained. He wasn't wrong. Jack was a big dude and his appetite grew as he got drunker.
"Well, he's gonna have to go just a little hungry tonight," she said unapologetically as she set the box down on the dining room table.
They all rose to get their paper plates and pizza, but quickly resumed their normal seats in the living room. They listened to a Blur song in the background as they ate. Nick had just finished his drink and had risen to fix another when the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it," he offered, a little puzzled as to who it could be.
It was the pizza delivery girl. Or, at least Nick assumed her to be. She wore the uniform of the pizza place—black polo shirt, black slacks and a baseball cap with the store's logo. Her name tag said "Allison". Interestingly, she held several boxes of food.
"So, I just got fired," she declared. "And there's no way in hell I'm delivering this next order. It's yours if you let me have a drink with you."
Nick was not sure what to say. It was a strange offer. But she was very cute. Pale skin, petite build, a nice but not excessive amount of black eyeliner around her big brown eyes. But he felt like he couldn't invite her in, since he didn't live there. Luckily, her offer had been heard by the rest, and they were completely unhesitant about accepting.
"Fuck yeah!" Jack shouted from the couch, amidst cries of agreement from the others.
Ayako quickly appeared and ushered Allison in, showing her to the dining room table where she rested the warm boxes. Jack eagerly examined the spread. There was a box of a dozen wings, breadsticks, a medium Hawaiian pizza and a medium pepperoni pizza.
"Oooh, wings," he exclaimed as he dug in.
Ed and Christie had risen as well to check things out.
"So, about that drink?" Nick offered.
"Fuck yes," Allison sighed. "I need one like you wouldn't believe."
Nick led her to the kitchen area.
"We've got cider, some Bud Lites in the fridge, some whisky, Coke... probably some vodka somewhere."
"And pickle juice?" Allison queried, pointing to the open jar on the counter.
Nick chuckled.
"Yeah, it's a chaser Ed likes for whiskey shots," Nick explained.
"Ooooh, you guys are gonna do pickle-backs!" Ayako exclaimed from the dining room. "C'mon, everyone, I'll get shots for everyone."
She scurried into the kitchen and began filling up cheap plastic shot glasses with whiskey or pickle juice.
"The key is to get the good, crispy pickles," Ayako explained to their guest. "Not the cheap sour ones."
In no time, she had twelve shot glasses filled, divided into pairs of whiskey and pickle juice. Everyone in the house gathered for the round. Ayako raised her whiskey shot in toast, waiting for everyone else to do the same.
"To Allison!" she declared.
"Call me 'Allie'," she gently corrected.
"To Allie!" Ayako immediately amended.
They shot back the drinks in unison and immediately chased it with the shot of pickle juice.
Allison made a face of disgust that slowly transformed into an impressed look.
"I don't really like pickles, but it's impressive how it wipes out any taste of the whiskey," she said.
"I know, right?" Ayako exclaimed.
The others had begun to disperse back to the living room, but Nick remembered how Allie had complemented the cider earlier.
"And you're welcome to a cider as well," he offered as he popped the cap of one for himself.
