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It was Wednesday, Aff's favorite day of the week. Well, besides the weekend maybe, because that meant no school and no people to judge them and their friends for crimes they'd never committed (had even been proven innocent in court for, but apparently a lot of high schoolers didn't care what the court had to say). But Wednesdays were special.
Right after school, Aff would get to collect Cameron from his English class and drive them both back to Diamond's Liquor. Then they'd spend the afternoon working and, because Wednesday was usually the slowest day of the week and their Dad had allowed it, do their homework with Cam as long as there wasn't anything else to do.
So between sweeping the floors and restocking some shelves, the two would sit together behind the counter, doing their best to understand the math problem of the week or to get through a Spanish text neither of them actually knew all the vocabs for. But it helped a great deal with catching up (who knew court dates could force you to miss so many school days) and even Cameron's grades were slowly starting to get better again.
And in the evening, once the shop was locked up for the night, they'd wait for Sasha and Jamie to show up and have a proper date night. Or, as much of a proper date night that four more or less broke teenagers could have. Aff's Dad didn't didn't mind if they took some snacks and drinks from the store, as long as it was all in a reasonable range, and Jamie always brought the weirdest movies to watch.
Most nights, Aff would pile them all up in their truck afterwards and drive them home, but on rarer occasions the others got to stay the night, and that was even better. If they were all a bit tired the next morning because they'd stayed up all night talking, well... the teachers didn't pay a lot of attention to them anymore, so it was fine.
Today was such a sleepover day, and Aff had been looking forward to it since the agreement had been made in their group chat. Granted, Jamie still pretended to have better things to do at times, but they all knew they'd just show up twenty minutes late with a a small collection of DVDs and maybe some liquor, and claim that their plans had been cancelled last minute. So it was all good.
Either way, right now, Aff was still standing outside Cameron's English class, waiting for the teacher to finally end the lesson. They were anxiously tapping their foot on the floor and checking the time on their phone again, when the bell finally rang and the sound of chairs scrapping back and desks being closed erupted from inside, and the door finally opened to the first students pouring out.
Aff stood to the side, letting everyone pass. Cameron had some extra work he'd been meaning to turn in, so they knew he'd take a minute or two longer. But when he finally came out, the smile lighting up his face when seeing Aff definitely made the wait worth it.
“Hey there,” he greeted them, as if they weren't waiting in the same spot every Wednesday.
“Hey! Are you like, ready to head out? Did you get it all settled?” Aff asked, feeling themself immediately mirroring Cam's expression. That smile was infectious.
Cameron rubbed the back of his neck, almost self-consciously, and gave a half-hearted shrug. “Sure, I guess? I'm not sure if it's going to do much for my grade, but at least she let me try, you know?”
“Yeah, I mean, that's good,” they agreed, as they both started to walk towards the parking lot. “I'm sure it's gonna be really good though. Sasha helped you, right?”
“Yeah, I had no idea she was such an English nerd before,” Cam chuckled. “But anyway, enough about that. I don't want to talk about homework for, like, at least another hour.”
“Oh yeah, no, sure, that's cool,” Aff agreed quickly, and then fell quiet for a few minutes, before Cameron struck up a conversation about the football game the coming Friday, and whether or not they were all going to come see him play.
The conversation kept going for a while, jumping from one topic to the next until they actually made it home to the shop. Aff was still feeling giddy, jumping out the truck with a grin and quickly heading inside, knowing that Cameron would be right behind.
“Hey Dad, I'm home!” they called out, dropping their backpack behind the counter and instead picking up the apron they wore for work. A second later, Samuel came out of the storage room in the back, smiling as well as he saw them both.
He pulled Aff into a brief hug, one hand staying on their shoulder even as he pulled back again to greet Cam with a brief nod. “Good to see you two, how was school?” he asked. “Got a lot of homework?”
“Nah, it's fine,” Aff told him quickly. “We totally got the shop covered for the rest of the day, dad, don't worry. We'll be super fine, one hundred percent.”
“True,” Cam added, already pulling his math homework out of his backpack. “No worries Mr. Flowers, same procedure like every Wednesday.”
“I know, I know,” the man sighed, finally taking his own apron off, before focusing on Aff again. “You know I got this appointment in the city today, so I won't be back until later tonight. I worry, 's all.”
Aff faltered a bit at that. They hated how much that lie about the party, all those weeks ago, was still affecting their relationship. But with what had happened, they really couldn't blame their father. It was partly the reason they were taking so many shifts lately, not only as a way to make up for being a horrible child that night, but also for building trust again.
“No, that's fine, I get it,” they replied, with a little less intensity in their voice. “But we're gonna be okay, I swear. We'll just be here all afternoon, and then the others are gonna come by, and by the time you get back we'll all probably be asleep anyway. That's okay, right?”
Their dad was more gentle when he answered, patting Aff's shoulder with an affectionate look. “Of course, you kids have fun. I'll worry regardless, but that's just my job.”
“Sure thing, dad. Love you,” Aff muttered, watching as he went to get his jacket and finally made his way to the door.
“Love you too! Now, Cameron, you take care of he- I mean, them, you hear me?”
“You got it, Mr. Flowers. We'll take care of each other,” Cam called after the man, as he walked out with another smile and a wave. As soon as Samuel was gone, he turned back to Aff, gently nudging their shoulder. “Hey, you okay? You got kinda quiet there.”
“Hmm?” Aff jumped slightly at the contact, but seemed to refocus quickly enough. “Yeah, sure. Anyway, how about you start on math homework, and I will restock a bit before I join you.”
Cameron chuckled, knowing very well where this was going. “Nah, how about I help you first and then we start maths together, because there's no way I'm letting you copy.”
“But you're not even going to get paid for this.”
“I get to spend time with you, don't I.”
As expected, the shop stayed rather quiet that day. A few customers came in, but they all knew what they wanted and no one spend more than a few minutes in the shop (people didn't tend to stay and browse anymore, at least not when Aff was on shift. But at least they came at all. At least the middle schoolers hadn't thrown eggs at the store front in three weeks).
At point seven, with the store clean and stocked up and all their homework done, Aff locked up, and the two of them headed upstairs to the small apartment instead. Sometimes Sasha was early, and spend the last half an hour or so in the shop with them, but today they were still on their own, which gave them the privilege to choose snacks for the group.
“Okay, whatcha got?” Cameron asked, waiting for Aff to raid the kitchen cabinets.
“Uh, okay, so,” they started to mutter again, looking through some cupboards and shelves as they talked. “We got, like, two bags of doritos, and there's probably some salsa in the fridge from last week... I also know that my dad bought like a bunch of frozen pizzas because they were on sale, so we got those.”
Cam grimaced a bit, but made sure Aff couldn't see his reaction. Sometimes he really wished they could do this at his house instead. He wasn't actually complaining, just being here with the others was the most important thing anyway, but it could have been even better if his parents didn't suck as much. Or Sasha's, for that matter.
He didn't know too much about Jamie's parents. They seemed to have a good enough relationship with their mom, but still didn't like bringing people over when she was home. So they always ended up at Aff's place, which was small and a little bit crammed, and there were still some boxes they and their father had never bothered to unpack, but it was homely. A save haven, really, especially since he and Sasha tried to spend as little time with their parents as they possibly could anyway.
So instead of wishing for something that wouldn't come true anyway, Cam took the doritos that Aff was holding out, picked up some drinks, and dutifully carried it all into the living room. Just as he was setting stuff down again he heard the doorbell ring, Aff sliding down the corridor and hurrying down the stairs again a second later... and then downstairs, he could make out Sasha's and Jamie's voices after the door opened. Instead of running down as well he waited upstairs though, claiming the best spot on the couch while he still could.
Sasha was the first to join him again, rolling her eyes at first when she saw him spread out in front of the TV already. “Should have known I would find you like this,” she muttered, but walked over to kiss him anyway when he opened his arms for her with a smile. Cam didn't even try to reply anything, seeing as he was quickly getting lost in their little make out session. His hand was just starting to wander up her shirt when he heard someone clear their throat behind them though, and only then did he break apart from her again and turned his head with a sheepish grin. “What?”
“How rude of you to start without us,” Jamie told him, managing to hold the disgruntled facade for all of three seconds before simply coming to join them on the sofa. They both got an uncharacteristically chaste kiss before the witch started to unpack the bag they had with them, placing a few different movies on the coffee table in front of them.
“So what's it gonna be today? I got the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Lesbian Vampire Killers, or the first Final Destination movie.”
Aff came back just as Jamie was listing their choices, and wrapped their arms around them from behind before getting a better look at the covers. To all of their endless delight, Aff was a total noob when it came to movies, and even the classics were able to draw entirely new reactions out of them.
But before Cam could suggest Final Destination, Sasha made a disapproving noise, a slight scowl on her face. “I don't know about you, but I'm not in the mood to watch teenagers die due to paranormal circumstances. I think I've had enough of that for the next few years.”
“That's fair,” Jamie admitted, looking down again as well. “It's all I brought with me, though.”
“We could log into my parent's Netflix, I'm pretty sure they're both busy tonight,” Cam offered, pulling Sasha a bit closer as he did so. She leaned into him easily, and he slowly felt her body relax again.
“Yeah, Netflix sounds good,” Aff agreed, climbing over the back of the couch now to worm their way between Jamie and Cam. It worked somehow, despite how freakishly tall they were getting, but after about a minute of shifting around and some complaining here and there, they found a position that was comfortable for all of them. “Are you sure your parents won't notice? You know, it would suck if you'd get in trouble again, so, only do it if you're like absolutely sure.”
“Yeah, sure, it's gonna be fine,” Cam assured them, sounding maybe a little bit more confident than he really felt. But his father was supposed to work late, and his mom had told him she'd be out with friends herself, so he just hoped none of them would change their plans last minute.
Everyone else seemed convinced, so within a few minutes they had Aff's old ass laptop up and running, and connected to the TV. After that it only took a minimal amount of more bickering before they finally settled on a movie, a mindless horror comedy that they could make fun of along the way. It was exactly what all of them needed at the moment.
Aff ended up being right, too.
When Samuel came home eventually, close to one am, he found all four of them fast asleep in the living room. Still in their day clothes, all of their accessories, hats, and glasses carelessly piled on the coffee table, along with some empty dorito bags and soda cans. And the situation on the couch wasn't any better, it was hard to tell where one body ended and another begun.
Deciding that he would leave them to regret those sleeping positions in the morning, the man just did his best to cover everyone with a blanket and then headed to bed himself. If there was anything he was thankful for, in these last few trying months, it was the three strange children currently sleeping in his apartment, and whatever it was that Aff saw in them.
They were happy, after all, and that was all that mattered.