Chad

 

            Chad fumbled with his keys.  The light above his door had been burned out for months now.  Chad kept meaning to replace it, but… there really was no particular reason he didn’t replace it.  Chad finally located the right silver key, had it in his fingers, then dropped the whole bunch of them.  They clinked in the wet brown snow.  Chad bent down and made another attempt at it, this time - success.  He walked in and flipped the switch to his immediate right.  Nothing happened because the light had burnt out last week.  Chad fumbled with his keys.

            Chad lived in the lowest floor (basement) of a big house.  He had his own outside door around back.  This opened into a small area which had an archway leading to the basement and a door leading into Chad’s apartment.  He always kept his inside door locked since the basement was connected to the upstairs.  The girls upstairs probably would never come down and root through his stuff, but Chad didn’t know any of them too well.  And his few encounters with them hadn’t gone well.

 

            “I think this is your Vogue.”

            “Thanks.”

            “I flipped through it.  I hope you don’t mind.”

            No response.

 

            And then there was that time they wanted to borrow a 3 ½ inch floppy.

 

            Chad finally made it into his apartment.  He was feeling a little bit tipsy, but not drunk.  It was still too early for bed.  He decided to call his friends to see if any of them were at home.  Chances were very good they were.  But first, he had to take a piss. 

            Chad stood at the toilet for quite a while.  It had been several hours since he went, and he had been drinking.  Chad thought about the long walk down to his friends.  Then he thought about the long walk back.  He considered just staying in and watching television.  But he really didn’t feel like doing that.  He considered just spending the night down there, but he really didn’t want to do that either.  Chad finished and went over to the mirror.  He looked all right.  He thought about what he had to drink and it hadn’t been that much.  Chad figured he could make the short drive without much of a problem.  And he would be more than fine to drive back.  Back here to his snug little bed, and he could sleep in late tomorrow. That sounded real nice to him.  He started singing.

            “Snug as a bug.  Snug as a bug.  Nuts in a lug.  Balls on my face.”  He then whipped off his glasses, feigned polishing them, put them back on and tapped his head in an “I’ve got the brains” manner.  He was in a mood.

            Chad picked up the phone and dialed the number.  As he waited for it to ring he started moving to a beat that wasn’t there.  Busy.

            “Busy.”  Chad hung the phone.  “You’re busy.  I’m busy.”  “You’re busy?  I’m bouts ta get busy.”  He pushed play on the remote.  He tried to begin dancing to the Miles tune, but it was a failed attempt.  He needed something more catchy.  Chad continued to bop as he bent down to look through his collection.  He didn’t have much patience, pausing in the Bs and going straight for “Baby You’re a Rich Man”.  He started to move.  The word grooving went through his mind.  He turned up the stereo a little too loud, began rubbing his butt on the furniture, and touching his nipple to the beat.  Halfway through the song he restarted the track and picked up the phone redialing his friends.  This time there was an answer.  Chad put the receiver up to the speaker for a second or so. 

 

            “Hey!”Chad shouted, then began turning down the music.

            “What.”

            “What are you doing?  Who is this?”

            “Not what you’re doing.”  Chad recognized the voice as Jack.

            “I was thinking of coming down.”

            “Ok.”

            “What are you guys doing?  Who is there?”

            “Just me and Toby.”

            “Where’s Joel?”

            “Went up to see Dave.”

            “Oh yeah, that was tonight.  You guys aren’t going.”

            “Listen, this is boring.  Are you coming?”

            “Yeah.”  Jack hung up on him. 

 

Chad grabbed his coat and was about to leave when he noticed a little piece of paper on the table.  It had a girl’s number on it.  He was going to call her tonight.  He had forgotten. They had a nice conversation yesterday.  It was about likes and dislikes and ended with her telling him about a party she was going to tonight.  She had given him the address and said she was going to be there most of the night.  Chad remembered she said, “You should come” and Chad had responded with something that made it sound as if he would.  But along with the address she had written down her phone number.  Chad hadn’t thought about this until now.  He was pretty sure that the party was not at the house where she lived. So there was really no reason to give him a number.

 

He picked up the small piece of paper hoping that holding it would help him remember the exact tone of the conversation.  He couldn’t figure out if this was her number or the number of the house where the party was.  She was smiling an awful lot.  And she was pretty.  She was way too pretty to be interested in him.  He thought this way to save himself any embarrassment, but at the same time he was thinking that there was a very good chance that this girl was interested in him frictionally.  Chad looked at the address and thought about the distance.  It was quite a ways off.  And he couldn’t drive there since he would definitely drink more if he saw this girl.  And leaving his car in a strange neighborhood would be a pain.  He would have to go back and get it in the morning…

 

He debated walking to the party, then walking down to Jack’s, since Jack’s was on the same side of town.  Or he could drive to Jack’s and walk to the party, then spend the night at Jack’s.  Or with this girl.  Could you imagine if he went to this party and ended up sleeping with this girl.  Chad looked down and said, “What do you think?” as he poked his crotch.

 

“Atsa onea spicy meata ball.”  This was all very complicated.  He decided to stick with the original plan and go see Jack and Tobe.  They would get a kick out of the fact that he thought a girl was interested in him.