AUTHOR'S NOTE: All characters in this story are at least 18 years of age.
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III: CUMMYPANTS
When he awoke Saturday morning, he threw open his eyes quickly, and froze. He could hear Eric's voice calling for him. "Daveeeey! Daaaavey!" He heard knocking at the back door, which, fortunately, he had locked before going to bed the night before. Otherwise, David was sure, Eric would already be in the house. The knocking stopped, so David thought, Oh good. Maybe he'll just come back later. I'm not ready to get up yet. What time is it anyway? Then he was startled to hear knocking at the front door, with Eric continuing to call his name. (Well, actually, the name "Davey". Who decided it was OK for Eric and Katie to call him "Davey" anyway? His name was David. David, not Dave, and certainly not DAVEY.)
Eric continued banging on the front door, but David was just not ready to deal with Eric yet today. He lived just a couple blocks away, so he knew it would be no big deal for Eric to come back later. When the knocking at the front door stopped, David rolled on his side and closed his eyes.
*Bang-bang-bang-bang!* on the bedroom window. "Daveyyyy!! Davey, you up? I know you're home, I see your car here. It's Eric. Let me in! Daveyyyy!!" *Knock knock knock knock*.
Ugh! Are you serious? Well, there was no way Eric would believe that banging on the window had not awakened David. So David sighed and shuffled out of his bedroom to the front door. When he opened it, Eric said, "Hey, there you are" and charged right in before David could effectively block his path. "Hey," said Eric, "how come you had the back door locked? I thought you said you were gonna leave it open."
"Well ... you mean, uhh ... all the time?"
"Yeah, so me and Katie can get in? Remember?"
"Well ... but ..."
"It doesn't matter, we'll get a key made today. Hey, get dressed and I'll come with you to the store. I see you haven't been out yet to get the cigarettes and ashtrays and all that stuff. We have some other stuff to get, too, then we'll go pick up Katie. We're gonna stay over tonight."
"Stay ... over? What do you mean? Stay over where?"
"Here," said Eric, pointing to the living room floor.
"What, you mean like ... you and Katie are ... you're gonna spend the night here tonight?"
"Yeah. Her mom thinks she's stayin' at a friend's house tonight, and my mom doesn't really care what I do, so we're all set, and we're gonna spend the night here. I brought my video game system. It's in this bag. We'll hook it up to your TV later." With that, Eric set a backpack down on the living room floor.
"Why does ... her mom care if you two ... you know ... spend the night together? You're of age."
"Dude, she's paranoid Katie's gonna get pregnant and then she'll have to take care of another kid at the house. Katie's sister got knocked up in high school and that's two more mouths to feed at the house, you know ... So she's like 'You're not havin' sex with someone 'til you're out of the house and on your own and can take care of yourself, blah blah blah'."
"Ummmm. Eric. I-I-I-I ... Uh, I really ... I don't think that's a good idea, you guys spending the night here."
"Oh, come on."
"But ... I mean ... I really ... I don't like ..."
"Come on, it'll be fine. What's the big deal?"
"Well, it's ... I mean ... you ... uhhh ..."
"Come o-o-o-o-on. Hey come on, get dressed, we got runnin' around to do."
After David stood stupidly in the same spot for a moment, Eric snapped his fingers. "Davey. Come on. Get dressed. Let's go."
"Ummmm ... OK."
David and Eric went to a hardware store and made a copy of the key to his house, to give to Eric. It gave him a terrible sinking feeling to hand over the key, knowing that now Eric could come and go as he pleased, letting himself into David's house any time, and from Eric's behavior so far, that could likely mean ... ANY time.
Next they stopped at a gas station for two cartons of smokes and 10 lighters. The total cost made David turn pale. It was excruciating to have to hand over that much money for items he himself derived no benefit from and which were sure to make his house and his car stink thoroughly, very soon.
Though David didn't know it yet, the most expensive stop was yet to come. In the grocery store, where David thought they were just getting candles, ashtrays, hot pockets, frozen burritos, and chocolate bars, it turned out that Eric grabbed dozens more food items. David could hardly nudge the cart another foot before Eric was putting something else in. To make matters worse, he was on the phone with Katie the whole time, telling her what he was seeing and asking what she might want. When they finally got to the checkout, Eric said, "Gimme the car keys, Davey. I'll meet you at the car." Stuck in the checkout aisle with a cart full of groceries, his wallet, and a whopping bill forthcoming, David watched Eric stroll out of the store, still chatting with Katie on his phone.
When he got to his car, he saw Eric sitting in the passenger seat smoking a cigarette, listening to the car stereo, and still talking on the phone with Katie. David opened the trunk and loaded the groceries in; naturally Eric stayed put and didn't offer to help.
Next it was time to swing by Katie's house and pick her up. On the way there, David thought he might have one last chance to talk Eric out of the idea of the teens spending the night at David's house ... a seriously bad idea. But Eric stayed on the phone with Katie, and David never got a chance to bring the subject up, as he didn't want to be rude and interrupt Eric's conversation.
On the ride from Katie's house to David's, naturally the kids cuddled in the back seat while David drove. Eric had put the radio on a station the teens liked, and at one point Katie blew smoke up into the front seat and shouted, "Davey, turn it up!"
Back at David's, the teens didn't carry a single thing into the house except the backpack Katie had brought along. Eric took her to the front door, saying, "Check it out, we have a key," while David grabbed a load of groceries from the trunk. The teens started setting up the living room to be their recreation area, hooking up the video game system, while David went back and forth carrying in all the groceries and other supplies. It took him quite a while to get everything placed. He ended up having to take out what was already in the freezer so he could completely rearrange things and get all the new stuff in.
About the time he got the freezer door closed, he heard Eric call from the living room. "Hey Davey. Break out a couple of those hot pockets, I'm hungry."
"Me too!" said Katie.
"Ummm! OK!" After taking out half the freezer items to get to the hot pockets, then replacing everything, David heated up two for each of them and carried them into the living room. As he handed them to the teens, they each said, "Can of soda, too", so David went back to the kitchen for that.