Did I mention I have a job? I work at this little café downtown called the 'Double Dutch'. It's a coffee place where you can get little pastries and whatnot. I work with this girl named Angela Sanders; she goes to my school and she's in my class. She's this gorgeous blonde hair and blue eyed girl who I've liked for a really long time. I met her when I was with Ashton and his friends; that's how I met the others; which I'll explain later. I was 14 at the time and I've liked her ever since. I like everything about her; her adorable goofy laugh, her smile that can light up the whole town, how sweet she is, how courageous she is, and--I could ramble on for hours. Man, if I could have her, I would treat her exactly how she should be; she should be treated like the queen she is. But I swear, if I could have one chance with her I would treat her so much better than her boyfriend, Andrew. Who is now my arch rival.

~~~~~~

"Spencer." Angie spoke as she was washing dishes. "Table 6 needs a wipe down. Would you mind getting it for me?"

"Of course." I said getting a rag from the counter behind me. I went over to table 6 and started wiping off the spills and crumbs that customers left behind. It was after closing so Angie and I were supposed to clean up after everyone left and then lock up. The shop isn't that far from my house so I usually walk home; almost 2 miles I'd say.

"Alright, I'm done here. Anything else I can do?" I ask politely as I gently underhand toss the dirty dish rag in the sink.

"Nope, I'm done too. I guess we can lock up." Angie said.

We put our aprons on the hooks next to the counter then we both went in the back room and grabbed our jackets and phones from our cubbies.

Angie grabbed the keys from her belt loop and I followed her to the exit, then holding the door for her. She locked up and we stood over by the little black KIA that she drove to and from work only since her place was a bit further than mine. She's 16 with just her permit as well so technically she can't drive by herself either. In fact, I was the one that kind of showed her it was okay to drive only to certain places even if you don't have a license as long as she knows what she's doing. I figured since I do it, it probably wouldn't hurt if she did it too. I know it's illegal but still. I just don't see the point of waiting 6 months to get a card that tells you you're able to drive when it's only 2 miles and not that much traffic anyway. As long as she doesn't speed, run a red light, or in her most recent case, crash into a stop sign again, she's fine.

"Can I walk ya home next time?" I asked with perkiness.

"You ask that every single day after work and my answer hasn't changed." She laughed, rolling her eyes. "I like to practice driving anyway. It'll be good once I get my actual car....and my license."

"Angie, I've driven with you before. You're a great driver. You're not going to run over anyone and you're not going to crash into a stop sign again. You'll be fine." I reassured her as I threw her slightly frightening yet hysterical incident back in her face. It was our new inside joke that our friends and I bring up a lot just to tease her because it was just too funny at the time.

"When are you gonna quit throwing that back at me?" She half-yelled as I saw her struggle to hide her smile and look serious.

"Until you get your license, little miss NASCAR driver." I mocked.

"You can never be too safe, Spencer. And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"What're you gonna do when it starts snowing? You know how harsh the winters are here. You can't always walk home. What if you get pneumonia?" She said.

I laughed. I knew she meant hypothermia. "It's New York; the winters are always harsh. And when it does start to snow I'll wear my heavy coat and I won't get pneumonia." I scoffed. "I mean, I might get hypothermia, but not pneumonia. New York may be cold, but it's not that cold to get pneumonia."

"Okay mister smarty, I get it." She laughed jokingly, with a hint of sarcasm on her tongue. I always smiled way too big when ever she laughed. I couldn't help it. It was too cute.

Angie started putting her keys in the ignition. I didn't really want to stop talking so I asked if she had any plans tonight.

"Well it's 7 o'clock now so yeah. I still have homework to do then I'm going to bed. What about you?"

"Oh just the usual; making sure that Ashton doesn't shave the cat into a lion again." I laughed.

"Oh lord, I still can't believe he did that."

"I can. It's Ashton; always up to something stupid."

"What can we say about him? Ashton's rather....special. But what he did was actually kinda funny. I felt bad for Stirfry though."

"Well that's one way to put it." I joked. "One of the many other colorful vocabulary words used to describe my brother Ashton Machulski."

"Very true." She chuckled. "Ashton's clumsy in most cases but I know he means well."

"I suppose so. He's a good kid." I agreed.

Angie started up her car and we said our goodbyes and I put my headphones in and listened to music on the way home.

~~~~~~

I live on a street corner in a really small town in New York. The road's not very busy and it's super peaceful, just the way I like it. My house is sort of falling apart because it's so old and the white paint is chipping from the harsh winters we have here. My house is white (or was white) and black shutters and it's two stories. I live with my younger brother who I mentioned earlier, Ashton and my mom. Demon lives with us too. Or at least he did.

I walked through the garage door that was right next to my garage filled with my dads tools and projects. One of the things my dad liked to do was to make these projects for the house but he never finished any of them. He'd work on one for a few weeks but then think of something else to make and go off and make that without finishing the other project. He would repeat this kind of often.

I'm starting to see where Ashton gets his ADHD from....

"Hi sweetie!" My mom swooped in and greeted me with a kiss on the cheek as I opened the door. "How was work?"

"It was fine." I say almost everyday.

"Did you talk to Angie?" She asked waggling her eyebrows up and down.

"Yeah."

"How'd that go?"

"She still won't budge on me taking her home from work. I'd rather drive her home myself. Winter's coming soon and her car is not in the best of shape; especially for snow."

"Yeah, November is next month." Ashton intrudes our conversation as he grabs a snack from the fridge. "Which means it'll be snowing in six weeks."

"Speaking of next month, you two have a birthday coming up." Mom reminded us. "Do you guys have anything special planned for your sweet 17?"

"Who says sweet 17?" I said, chuckling a little at my moms cheesy humor.

"Well I can't exactly say sixteen anymore. You're going to be seventeen in a few weeks here. God, I feel so old." She smiled warmly, wiping away a fake tear.

"Mom you're not old." Ashton said.

"Ashton, I'm 53 years old. Which means I'll be almost 55 when you graduate; almost 60. Now that's old."

"How do you think I feel? I gotta be driving soon!" I say as if I didn't just hear what my mom said about being old a second ago. "I feel like I was 14 years old a minute ago!"

"You should be driving right now. Instead of getting a ride with Jack and Seth in the morning. You should be practicing."

"Well no one's here to teach me. Ashton is the same age as I am so he can't, not that I trust him to drive us anyway." I pointed out to my mother while earning an offended 'hey!' from Ashton. Demon is never home so he can't either. Legally, you can't drive because of your disability but you still do it anyway and you have a full time job. So you can't." I exclaimed, trying not to get heated.

"Why don't you get Jack and Seth to help you." Mom said.

"It's not my friend's job to teach me to drive." I said with a stern tone.

I'm kind of weird about asking my friends for help. See, I'm really smart. My IQ is 140 and i get everything. I'm technically almost a genius by textbook. I don't like showing people that I can't get things on my own--even if it's just one thing. I don't like it. Plus, I feel like it's a parent or an older siblings job to do that.

"Well unless you wanna get your license until you're 18 I suggest getting help from somebody who knows what they're doing." Mom nagged.

I suppose she was right. She's always right.

"I suppose so." I huffed.

I went upstairs to my room to finish any homework I had left and I immediately crashed and fell asleep into the oblivion of darkness that was sleep.