Entry IV
Silly me, being the childish childly child I was, chose to move out to an apartment in the same city were I was raised. In fact, I only moved about four miles away from the house my parents lived in and about three quarters of a mile away from the record store. Because it was so close to the store and somewhat spacious for a one-room apartment, Shanon would always hold the little get-togethers there when she felt too lazy to make room in the store. Now, Shanon wasn't the crazy type of lady who would throw a party every birthday she could think of, but she would hold a nice Christmas (or whatever you chose to celebrate) and Haloween party every year. The first Christmas party we had was just Shannon, Tommy, me, and a few of the regulars (mainly country music folk) and we had a microwaved turkey, flake-mashed potatoes, corn-in-a-can, and a lot of discolored punch that made me sick. The next year we had a catered ham, roasted corn, some sort of grilled vegetable and fish thing, and cranberry sauce. Last year Shannon baked a turkey, Tommy made mashed and baked potatoes, Claire brought some fruits and salad (she's a vegetarian), and the regulars brought in random home-made meals for a pot-luck. For Haloween the hard-rock station would bring over some of their radio-peoples and hand out coupons for amusement parks and haunted houses to visit while Shanon would dress me up in the funniest looking costumes (funny to me at least) and we handed out candy to trick-or-treaters.
The birthdays were the most fun to celebrate out of everything else we did, though. When I turned 16 Shanon got me a fake ID so I could go with her to a night club (I still don't know how they believed a kid like me was 21) and made me dance with some random person in the club. She had a great time watching me try to dance and I was having twice as fun from the thrill of doing something so crazy (remember, this was when I was into that other business too). When Shanon turned 26 I took her to Chuckie Cheeses and made her play the most childish arcade games with me. She kept laughing about how Tommy would kill himself laughing over it. I guess he found out because the next time he came over he told me to take her to a day care for her 27th birthday. As revenge for what I did to Shanon and what she did to me on our birthdays, we took Tommy to a Hot Topic store on his 29th birthday and dressed him up in punker clothes as a treat from the both of us. What was really funny was that the guy behind the counter was flitty and watched Tommy walk out the door in the way-too-tight pants and Tommy just turned around and winked at him.
After that the three of us made a truce to not torture each other on the next years birthday cycle. Now, I still don't know how Shanon got a hold of this, but I kept a list of all the CD's I was planning to buy with my birthday money from the store and when I went to work that day Shanon had them all waiting for me in my cubicle. I couldn't talk when I saw them, it was one of those kinds of moments so I just ran up and hugged her. I guess she understood because all she did was smile and hug back. Tommy laughed. For her birthday I got Tommy to help me find her something worth keeping (since getting music had already been done and she did own the record store) so we agreed that it was time Shanon had a pet cat. Now, I know that getting someone a life-long responsibility isn't exactly a present, but Shanon always loved and adored cats like the ancient Egyptians so we figured it was time to get her the exact kind she wanted. She still hasn't named it so she just calls it "Kitty" for now. I wanted to help Shanon with Tommy's present but she said it was something personal from her to him so I made something out of wooden boards I bought. It was about the size of Tommy but a little bigger with enough room for his arms and legs to stretch out with a door that swung out but not in. I put a doorknob on it and a sign I took from a hotel that said "Do Not Disturb". He nearly killed himself laughing about it and even aired it on his radio show.
Between my 17th and 18th birthday we had hired everyone who works at the store now and had our pot-luck enchanted Christmas together. A few of the regulars suggested that now that we had more room we could throw a new year's party too. Shanon thought it was a good idea and Janet looked happier than normal when we all agreed to have it. I had to beg my parents for permission to go because I was still a minor and their legal responsibility until January 21st and they were having a huge fit thinking that they were losing their baby or something drastic like that but eventually (after Shanon joined me in begging) they allowed me to go for the full night.
It was my first new year's party and I didn't know half the things what the people were doing. With my parents, we would just go over to some distant relative's house and watch the TV reported Time Square count down and go outside with some cheap noisemakers and silly string but at the record store they were doing all sorts of funny looking games like Yahtzee, Monopoly (Hard Rock Cafe version), Pin-the-tail-on-the-jackass, and Twister. I sort of didn't know what anyone was really doing because the only game I had heard of before was Monopoly (and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey but believe me, there was a major difference here) so I sort of stood around in the back sipping some of the Kool Aid punch that I made (the discolored one always made me sick). After about twenty minutes of sitting back like a wallflower, Janet came up to me and asked me what was wrong. I guess I was looking really ghastly because she took a step back when I looked up at her and told her I was fine. I told her how I didn't know how to play any of the games so I was just sitting down watching the TV up on a mount (instead of showing Time Square, Shanon had it set to music videos). Instead of dragging me into the games like anyone else would, she just sat down next to me and we just started to stop. Does that make sense?
"So how long have you really worked here? Shanon said you've been here since the place was a baby."
"Well, she wasn't lying. If she's the mom of the store then I'm like the godfather of it or something."
"Ha ha!"
"What?"
"Nothing. I can't believe you've never played Twister before, though."
"Me either. Looks kinda fun but at the same time too hard, you know?"
"It's easier than it looks, trust me."
"What have you been doing so far?"
"Oh, I just tried to play Monopoly. Turns out Tommy and Phillip are corporate fascists at heart. I was bankrupt in ten minutes!"
"Yeah, you definately gotta watch out for Tommy, he's trying to take over my cubicle! He doesn't even work here!"
"Take over it or get some luck in it." She winked
"Wait, what?"
"Nothing... I heard about the present you made for Tommy last year. I couldn't stop laughing! He's used it already and it didn't break or anything, how did you make it?"
"A lot of wood, a lot of nails, and a a lot of time. Same way most things are made"
"Oh wow, talk about a labor of love."
"I guess."
"So how about I teach you how to play Twister?"
"I hope that it's easier than it looks."
With that, she grabbed my hand and took me over. Left foot red, right foot green, right hand green, left foot yellow, left foot blue, right hand red, left hand green. As simple as that and it was just Janet and myself on top of each other on a sheet of plastic. When Shanon said I had the mind of a fifteen year old, she was right. Here I had an attractive girl one year my senior spread out on me and all I was thinking was that I hoped I wouldn't have to move my right foot to a yellow spot. It was Janet's turn and Shanon spun the dial. Right foor yellow and before we fell I heard her whisper my name. Everyone who was watching applauded us for lasting so long and Shanon laughed saying "When I was that age I didn't have half of that endurance! See, that's why I don't put up mistletoe for Christmas! Damned kids always upstaging us! Ha ha ha!"
I sort of caught Janet before she fell so she sitting in my lap when we were sort of getting up. I say sort of because she kept trying to fall backwards and lay down making it harder for me to get up. While we sat there Janet was trying to explain some of the new year's traditions to me. I already knew about the resolutions because my family did something like it but it was much more religious and serious. Janet convinced me into setting a resolution to cross at least three red lights next year. The next thing she tried to explained to me was the tradition of the first year's kiss at midnight. Stupid, stupid me, being as naive as I could ever be, just thought it was her trying to tell me about another tradition. Here I am, this beautiful girl right where anyone would want her, and I'm thinking about who I'm going to kiss at midnight and hoping it's not Shanon. Stupid, stupid me.
Tommy had left for a while and came back with an ice chest filled with wine coolers and flavored alcohol like Mike's and Smirnoff Twisteds. Ever since I met Shanon I had become a casual drinker so I grabbed a hard lemonade while Janet took two. I played a game of Yahtzee while she laughed with me. She kissed me at midnight while I thought about the silly resolution. It was an awkward moment, thinking something casual had happened when she had meant much, oh so much more.
I talked to Shanon about it later and she told me she could fire Janet but I told her it wouldn't be right and I wouldn't want her to do that. Then Shanon tried to explain to me that the only reason she hired Shanon was just to be a temp and for me to have someone to talk to. I was right all along. From that point, it was like a huge veil was lifted and a year of misconception unrolled. The girl had taken a point and I lead it around like a Tom and Jerry.
I just felt so... horrible...