I knocked once on the door, hoping that nobody would hear & I could go home. Not today I guess.
"Hi Rory," Caleb beamed the instant he opened the door. I had to admit, Caleb was really cute, with a melting smile. But that smile was on the face of an obnoxious, overly prepped boy. An obnoxious, overly prepped boy who had asked me to come over about a million times. I figured I'd get it over with so he would stop, at least for a while.
"Hey," I replied, walking past him & into his house.
I looked around the room, which I took to be the living room. It lit a very dim bulb in my head. It looked familiar. I knew I had never been here before, but the shape of the room, the house, the stairs, etc. It just looked familiar. I glanced around & saw pictures of Caleb when he was younger. In most of the pictures, however, there was an old man with an Air Force uniform on. I assumed it was his grandfather, the picture looked to be from WWII times. In some of the pictures that were more up-to-date, there was a younger man who stood in a Navy uniform. I assumed that was Caleb's father.
"I take it you support the war, too?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You live in a military family, right?"
"Well, yeah I guess, but..."
"So then don't you support the war?"
Caleb walked to the kitchen & grabbed a can of soda before coming back & answering me.
"I support the troops," he said as he sat down on a chair.
I scoffed while still picking up different picture frames.
"What?"
"You didn't answer my question," I retorted.
"I said I support the troops."
"I asked if you support the WAR."
I didn't hear anything at first. I felt like turning around to see what he was doing.
"No, I don't."
I scoffed again.
"We're talking about the one in Afghanistan, right?" Caleb asked.
"Yeah. I think we all agree that Iraq was a fucking failure."
I sat down on the couch.
"How come you wanna talk about this?" he asked.
"I can leave if you want," I said, crossing my fingers he'd say yes as I kept looking at pictures, never turning to face him. Caleb was a real cutie in some of these.
"No, I'm just curious."
"So am I. I wanna know why you don't support the war."
From the reflection of one of the pictures, Caleb was fidgeting. He clearly didn't like the aspect of the war, or war in general. It was making him uncomfortable. I smiled.
"Well I did at first, like everybody did. But we've been there too long Rory, it's time to get out already."
"You do realize that the guy who murdered 3,000 is still out there, right?"
"It's been nine years."
I turned my head.
"You want him to get away Caleb? He murdered 3,000 innocent people. Men, women, children. We went in there to root him out & give him whatever he deserves. Torture I hope. The minute we leave he'll just kill more fucking people."
"You don't know that Rory."
I laughed.
"Caleb, imagine something you really really want, but right now, you can't have it because something, or somebody else is in the way."
I gave him a second to think of something.
"Got it?"
"Yeah."
"Ok, now that that obstacle is out of the way, aren't you gonna take what you want?"
"I suppose..."
"That's what those bastards are gonna do. They're gonna grab the moment we let them go."
Caleb didn't say anything.
"You in a military family?" he asked after a moment.
I scoffed. I hated it when people changed the subject. But for some reason, it didn't bother me so much with Caleb. Ironic.
"Define family."
"People around you who love you no matter what, they're always there for you...ya know."
"No Caleb, I don't know."
Silence.
"Oh. Who do you live with?"
"My uncle."
"Well that's family, isn't it?"
I didn't answer him.
After a few more awkward moments I was done looking at all the pictures.
"That your dad?" I asked, referring to the younger of the two men in most of the pictures.
"Yeah. The other is my grampy."
I snickered.
"Grampy?"
"Yeah, my grandpa. I call him grampy."
I smiled.
"So what's your uncle like?"
I stopped smiling.
"Ya know the fun-loving, happy, energetic, caring, understanding & compassionate uncle that every kid loves having?"
"Yeah?"
"Well I don't have that."
I turned around & sat down in a chair facing Caleb.
"So you don't like him that much?"
"That's a huge fucking understatement."
Caleb looked down, embarrassed.
"What's your dad like?" I asked.
"I love my dad. As much as he loves everything military-related, he completely respects my choice not to go into the military. He sometimes joins me at city marches for gay pride. He's really good friends with my mom. They divorced three years ago because she couldn't stand the constant moving everywhere. But they share me & they still get a long great. They talk every other night or so over the phone."
"How long have you lived here in Seattle?"
"Four years."
"Wow."
"Yeah, I got lucky. Just as my parents divorced, my dad was offered a new position, which he took & he won't have to move until I graduate."
"Where have you lived before?"
"Well when I was born, we were in Helena. Then when I was two, we moved to Los Angelos & when I was four, we lived in Miami. Two years after that we turned up in NYC & eight months after that we moved to Detroit. Three years later we moved to Austin. And then three years after THAT, we lived in Honolulu. I moved here to Seattle the next."
"Cool."
Caleb & I talked about life & whatnot for most of the time I was at his house. After a while, we played video games on his Xbox360 for a couple hours. By the time I looked at the clock, I realized I had been there for over five & a half hours.
"Hey Caleb."
"Yeah?"
"I gotta get goin'," I said.
"Oh c'mon, we're almost done with this level."
"Can we save it?"
"I guess..." he pouted as he turned back to the screen. We were laying on our stomachs facing the television while we played. Even though it was a pout, it was still a cute pout.
I looked back at the clock.
"How long til we finish?"
He looked back over at me & beamed.
"Couple minutes maybe."
I was going to be late getting home. And I wasn't in the mood to break Ray's rules. I glanced back at Caleb. He had a big stupid, desperate-almost, pleading look on his face.
I rolled my eyes. Stupid puppy-dog didn't usually work. Caleb seemed to be another exception to my peeves.
"I'm leaving right after."
We finished the level & I said goodbye.
As I was practically running home, I smiled. Caleb wasn't SO bad. Yeah he was a motherfucking pain in the ass, but hey. He listened, he was understanding, he was nice. I shrugged. Maybe I'd want to get to know him better.
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