The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 11]
I added Kyle’s user name to my friends list in Rune Quest that night. I hoped to catch him online even if my mom didn’t end up calling. He never showed up, so I had to assume that he was still being forced to do homework or some other junk. To my surprise, the next day in Literature, Kyle didn’t even mention me not calling his phone.
While I was working on my story and Kyle was fiddling with his mechanical pencil, I whispered to him. “My mom wants to call your mom.”
“Why?” He tried to whisper. He wasn’t good at it. “Does she want to be my mom’s friend?”
“No,” I said back, shaking my head. “So you can come over.”
“Oh yeah,” he said like he was surprised. “Can I come over today?”
“Probably not, my mom has to call yours first,” I said, repeating myself. I don’t think Kyle was a good listener. “My mom should be at home earlier too. If you hear the phone ring, it’s probably her. Have your mom answer it. What’s your mom’s name?”
“Chrissy,” Kyle said.
“My mom’s name is Patricia,” I said back. I felt as if we were getting a few of the first steps out of the way so our moms could come to an understanding quicker.
My mom must have been excited about me having a new friend. She offered to take the call soon after getting home that afternoon. I made the first step in calling Kyle’s number myself. Again, since nobody really had a cell phone during that time, you just called a person’s one single phone number and hoped for the best. That was called their landline, and anyone at their house could have answered. For those really wondering, yes, that is also the same line that made dial-up internet connect.
The phone rang a few times. Then it picked up. There was a woman’s voice on the other end.
“Hello?” She said.
“Hi, uh, this is Mike Shepherd. I go to school with Kyle…” I said, but quickly stopped. I realized I didn’t know his last name.
“Mike? Oh, you must be the kid who Kyle wants to go and visit so badly,” she said. Her voice was high-pitched, and she seemed like she didn’t really want to talk with me directly.
“Yeah, I sit by Kyle in first period. And… I hang out with him at lunchtime,” I said, hesitating again. I didn’t want to reveal to her and my own mom that we were always at the computer lab. “But… uh, my mom wants to talk to you.”
I heard Kyle’s mom say something, but I was already handing over the phone to my mom. She was sitting at the dining table, leaning on her elbows, ready to put the phone handset up to her ear.
“Hey there, this is Patricia, Mike’s mom,” she began nicely. I could faintly hear the sound of the other side of the conversation. I wanted to stand there and keep listening, but my mom waved me away with her hand.
I heard little bits of what my mom was saying. She said stuff about how I didn’t have many friends. It was true, but a little bit embarrassing. She also said she was glad that someone like Kyle came along and ‘brought me out of my shell,’ whatever that meant. I was just in the other room, still trying my best to hear when my mom finally said her goodbyes.
I crept back to the kitchen as my mom was hanging up the phone. She smiled at me. “So, Thursday. Since Jess is going to eat at her friend’s house on Thursday, I told Chrissy that would actually be the perfect day for us. Kyle can come over and eat and hang out until it gets dark. Turns out, he also really wanted to just ride on the bus right over here when school gets out. I let his mom know to sign off something he can bring to school for the bus driver. And… I told her our address and everything for when he needs to get picked up. How’s that for your mom’s organization skills, Mike?”
I wanted to jump around, but I held myself on the ground. “Yeah. Yeah! He’ll be psyched. I should… clean my room… and the den. Uh… thanks, mom!” I added, hastily.
“Slow down there, buddy,” My mom interrupted with a laugh. “If you’re going to decide to do those things on your own, then how am I supposed to do my job as your mom?”
Kyle, of course, already knew all the details come that next day, Wednesday. Jakey ended up hearing everything that day at lunch. He was going to find out anyways since Kyle was going to come home on the bus with us. I kind of wanted to invite Jakey as well, but I didn’t know if I wanted to make my mom feed an additional friend. Jakey didn’t seem to mind either way.
“We’ll start up Rune Quest,” I said to the bigger of my two friends. “One of us will be on. We can meet up somewhere and do some quest or something.”
“Yeah, I’ll probably be around,” Jakey said back.
Fifty Shades of Grease Publishing 
2 thoughts on “The Invite”
Comments are closed.