FicWad

When I woke up the next day, the first thing I did was look outside my window. Usually Iz would have something written in the window to give me a good morning chuckle. They were usually cute harmless dorky jokes he would put up. When I went to check there was nothing in the window and nobody in sight. A bit worried I pulled on my clothes and headed over to his house. Iz's mom was outside trimming up her front garden when she noticed me.

"Hello dear." She casually waves at me.

"Hi Ms. Isbell. Is Jeff around?"

"You just missed him. He went out with William about 20 minutes ago. I'll tell him you stopped by though when he comes home." She hesitates for a moment.

"Would you like to come in for something to eat? I noticed that your mother hasn't come back from her recent trip."

It was very rare that both Bill and Iz would go somewhere without me. I understood that they needed their male bonding time and just shrugged it off. I smile at Iz's mom and nod my head.

"Great. I'll go get cleaned up and I'll make a good homemade PB&J sandwich for you." Izzy's mom shows me into the house. What a sweet woman.

"You might want to get cleaned up before lunch dear. You can use the bathroom upstairs if you'd like." She calls from the kitchen.

"Thanks!" I call out before I go up the creaky stairs.

Izzy's house was pretty normal for a broken family. His parents had gotten divorced a few years back, but he never really talks about it. He has 2 younger brothers Kevin and Joey and also younger sisters that I haven't met. He's the oldest of the kids and surprisingly the leader of the pack. With Bill and I, Izzy seems to fall behind and just goes with the flow.

I walk down the twisted hall toward the bathroom. I've been in Izzy's house before, just never his room. His mother never allowed us to go play upstairs in his room. Now that I'm a bit older I can understand, but that's still no reason we couldn't play outside or anything. So I've always had a thing for seeing what Iz's room really looked like. I had snuck into Bill's room a few times. Usually my visits were so he could show me his hidden records he had bought with the money he stole out of his mother's purse, but Izzy's room was a complete mystery still. I've only ever seen what the window to Iz's room would show me. It was kind of a huge deal to me to see his room. Izzy obeyed his mom pretty well for a 14 year old. I always thought it was because he didn't want to give her a hard time and also set a positive example for his younger siblings. Izzy was cool in that. That's why he never seemed to do anything wrong. He had a heart. In a way you could say Izzy was the perfect child...ughh not saying he's perfect or anything.

I thought about it...Izzy wasn't home. His mom was making lunch...so why couldn't I just peek in? Like I said, I'm a trouble maker, so it's not out of character for me or anything. I'm not supposed to obey his mother. One peek. Just one little innocent peek. Izzy's room was right next to the bathroom, so even if I heard somone come up the steps, I could easily slip out and make it seem like I was finishing up in the bathroom.

I slowly open the slightly ajar door. I take my peek. Seemed pretty normal. He had a desk, a bed, a drawer. Just common things. I walk into his room. It kind of smelled like freshly baked cookies in there. Weird. I take another glance around the room. It was a good size. I never had a huge room so this was pretty cool. The walls were a light blue and he had posters up. I had never seen these before. He had some pretty cool shit up on his walls. Aerosmith. Led Zeppelin. Bob Dylan. The list could go on and on. I wonder where he got all that? His closet door was open revealing his clothes. The jeans he had on yesterday were hanging from the doorknob. He had a lot of clothes for a dude. A lot of clothes I've never even seen him wear actually.

I go and check out his desk. It was really clean for a boys room. Organized and well put together. There were pieces of paper scattered on the desk with words written on them. It wasn't something he would have put up on the window either since it was written in a normal size. I take a closer look at the scattered sentences. There was a title on the page. Think About You.

I said baby you been looking real good
You know that I remember when we met
It's funny how I never felt so good
It's a feeling that I know I know I'll never forget

There wasn't much in this heart of mine
But there's a little left and babe you found it
It's funny how I never felt so high
It's a feeling that I know I know I'll never forget

Honey now you're my best friend

I felt a slight jump in my heart. I never knew Izzy wrote this kind of stuff. I could imagine Bill writing little love notes or doodling some sort of lyric, but Izzy was always the quiet one in our group. I stared at the piece of paper, losing my thoughts. I came to the conclusion that Izzy must like some girl. It would explain why he seemed so distant lately, and probably why he was out with Bill today. I felt my heart drop a little...Not because I like him or anything weird like that.

"Nice that you let yourself in." I hear a distinct chuckle.

I feel my body grow tense and the blood drain from my face. Fuck...I turn to see Iz standing in his doorway. I quickly throw on my corniest smile.

"Hi! I was just leaving to go...ughh fuck...ughh wash my hands for lunch! Your mom ughh let me in to ughh eat..." Fuck I keep stammering.

He immediately looks toward my hands to see the crisp piece of paper.

"Hey don't read my stuff." In a second he was standing in front of me grabbing the paper from my hands. I start to get nervous.

"I really didn't mean to Iz...ughh nice room..."

"Yeah well...my moms been wondering what you're doing and now I'm wondering too. What else did you see or snoop for?" Izzy seemed to be ticked off and well...that was a new emotion.

"I'm sorry Iz...I really didn't mean to..."

"Whatever." He looks over to his closet and quickly closes it tight.

"Why are you so uptight Iz? I just came over to see where you were and now you're acting all pissy."

"You snuck into my room!" He raises his voice.

"I didn't mean to!!" I compete with my voice.

Just then Bill steps into the doorway. He walked in all high and mighty until he noticed me. His eyebrows raise and then relax.

"Hey...ughh what are you doing in Izzy's room?"

"I was just leaving...sorry I bother you guys so much that you don't even include me anymore..." I push my way past Bill and head down the stairs.

I feel my eyes start to swell up with tears. I don't know why but I was really upset. For some reason I got insulted from Izzy being a little freaked out that I was in his room. We were friends weren't we? And the fact that Bill just seemed equally freaked out doesn't help. I guess I'm scared that, just like my so called 'family', they'll want to leave me too...Things are already starting to get weird anyways...