"Look who I found."

"Sup baby face, oh you a bit tired still. Haven't had your milk."

Aaron walked in putting a cup on the table. 

"Come on get ready we gotta meet them."

Alan checked his phone.

"Not for like another hour dude whats your deal?"

Aaron plopped down and started the TV. 

"Get...

The next morning Alan's mom woke up before the boys. They snored, and she crept around it was 7am. Her coffee machine was timed to start brewing thirty minutes before. She poured it into a thermos, and got into the car. She knew that only by the time she got...

The interior of the party store was bright. Rows of different chips, and candies sat perpendicular to a line of refrigerators, all brightly lit.  PBR ,  Miller Lite , and  bud light all sat next to each other, and the highbrow stuff a little further away. 

They circled around before...

"I like him"  Imogen Howe yelled in Alan's ear. The music loud enough that you couldn't have normal conversations. 

"He's nice, brings out a different side of you"

Alan wanted to say something like "Yeah, but you should seem him when he's drunk." 

But he didn't just smiled and danced. Nodding...

He’d surprise Aaron, just like the old days. Bust into the party. What’s up! He was halfway done with the tall boy. 

He played some pop playlist out of a small Bluetooth speaker. “Tonight’s gunna be a good night.” Played out of it. 

He laughed in his head, he hadn’t heard that...

Alan was washed with anxiety. His face reddened and he felt like his heart beat was in his throat. 
He had two options, one was tell Aaron where he was, in some ways it was likely the only place to go. Or just not say a word, and pretend his...

His mom was happy to have him back. She wanted to see more of him. She was torn though. She would tell her friends at the Zumba class.

"Its nice to have him back, but I just hope he finds his thing though."

"Just enjoy this time, boys always leave home so...

In the parking lot they pulled up,  Imogen Howe had already changed the sign "Party today, open late.".

"Wow man it hasn't started yet?" Jack said.

"No, not yet, but Imogen needs help, its what I've been doing you know." 

"But I uh, my image man, you don't go to parties early."

"Man...

"I was thinking of making lasagna, you know your favorite. I know you have that dance thing tonight, so I'll make it earlier."

The words felt like a just a noise. 

All Alan could he was "Jack is here.".

He pulled the car into the lot of a tire shop. The guys...

Alan was listening to a podcast about relationships.

"In some ways if you stay in a bad relationship just for their like hapiness, your kind of killing yourself."

"Yeah, totally agree." The other podcaster responded.

Alan nodded he never thought of it that way. Not that he really had a relationship before, he...