14 years ago. ..
"Is there anything else besides writing in that book that you do during your free time", I ask Jahmal. "Of course. It's just you always walk in on me writing in my book", J replies. "Still dude, it really feels like one unhealthy obsession", I tell while I take a seat next to him. "It's my obsession okay Trevor", he tells me with a smile.
J and I were sitting outside at the back of the classrooms with our backs against the wall. At the time we had no lesson, so we decided to make the most out of our free time.
"Build a time machine. Really J", I exclaim while looking at one of the pages in his book. "Hey! I wrote that when I was eight. And keep your eyes to yourself", J tells me while pushing my head away. "You had one creative imagination when you were younger", I tell J in a sarcastic tone.
"That could of been the case then. But I'm definite that it's gotten a little higher on account of this", J exclaims as he pulls out a blunt from his shirt pocket. "Dude! You came with one of those to school. And you put it in your shirt pocket. What if it fell out of your pocket in front of a teacher", I ask in a panicked voice.
"Chill man. I'm much smarter than that. Anyways, do you want to light this bad boy up and take a few hits before our next class", J asks me as wiggles the blunt in front of my face. "Uhm. I don't think that's a good idea. I mean we've got algebra coming up, and I don't think mixing weed and that will go so well", I tell him.
J looks at me with a slightly disappointed face and asks me, "are you gay or have you always had a pussy then an actual pair of balls".
I rub my head and exclaim, "fine. Just a couple hits okay". J pulls out a lighter from his back pocket, and fires up the blunt.
"Where did you get the lighter from", I ask him as he takes a pull of the weed. He coughs a bit as he exhales some smoke. "Stole it from my dad. He's got a lot of them, so he won't miss this one", J tells me as he hands me the blunt. I take it from him and take a hit. After I exhale and cough a bit, I ask J, "and the weed. Where'd you get it".
"From Eddy", he replies. "Wasn't he just suspended from school", I ask J. "I got it before that. Now are you going to pass the weed, or you wanting more than a couple hits", J asks me with a sharp tone and with his hand stretched out.
"Sorry, my bad", I tell him as I hand him the blunt. J takes a long inhale and lets the smoke come out through his nose. He starts coughing again, and I start patting his back. "This is some really strong shit", J exclaims while looking at the blunt with wide eyes. I take the blunt from his hand and exclaim, "damn right".
I take another hit, and this time I don't cough. "Hey! This stuff won't make my eyes crazy red right", I ask J after exhaling. J looks up in front with empty eyes. He turns to me and says, "probably not, so you should be fine".
After about ten minutes we finish the blunt and start feeling the effects real quick.
"I don't get it", J announces. "Don't get what", I ask him.
"Us", he says. Like how do we fall under the category of nerd/geek. I mean you just have a little appreciation for Marvel comics and do a well in class, and you're all of a sudden a nerd/geek", J asks me.
"I don't know man. Maybe if you get rid of these TV screens you might get out of the category", I tell him while poking his glasses. "Leave my glasses alone", J tells me as he fixes his glasses back in their place.
He rests his head on the wall and remains silent.
Suddenly he turns to me and announces, "the English language is really broken you know that". "What do you mean', I ask him. 'Like certain words are broken. Some words mean two things. Glasses could be what I'm wearing or the thing you drink from", J says. "Orange could be the fruit or colour", I exclaim.
"Date is a specific day and a fruit", J says. "And the cherry on top is red. It's a colour but also the past tense of read, but the messed up part is you can read read as read, instead of reading read as read", I state.
J looks at me with wide eyes, and I look at him with a confused look.
We both start laughing like crazy. "What the actual f*ck", J exclaims while laughing. We keep laughing uncontrollably and when our laughs start to reach their end J happens to rest his head on my shoulder.
I rest my head on the wall again and we both seat there in silence.
"Why do you sometimes call me by J", J asks me. "I don't know, it's quicker", I tell him. "Yeah but nobody else calls me that expect for my girlfriend. It's weird", J exclaims. "Well I can stop it if you want me to", I tell him. "Nah it's cool. I'm used of it, so if you stopped it would be weirder", J tells me.
"Cool", I exclaim. "So you and April are pretty serious right now", I ask him. J's eyes shoot open as he states, "shit scares the hell out of me. I'm the class nerd dating the hottest girl in our class". "Come on man. Don't let fear hold you back from doing something worth the effort. I'm telling you and April are getting hitched", I tell J.
J lifts his head from my shoulder and puts the lighter back in his pocket. "You're right. I definitely need to marry that", J states. He gets up and says, "I need to pee and probably wash my face before we head to class".
"Meet you in class", J says to me with a finger pointed. I give him a thumbs up. He snaps his finger and gives me a thumbs up too. He walks off, and as he walks I think to myself, "my J. Ain't any friend like him in this world".
Today. ...
"What you think", J says with his hands stretched out. I look around the dirty empty office space and exclaim, "you mean this shit show. Looks like what you'd expect from a shit show. Like someone took a shit in it and forget to wipe".
"So this place is going to be the our new place of operation for project Blip", I ask J while wiping off some dirt off the wall.
"That's right. This is going to be project Blip's HQ", J tells me. "Can we come up with a better name for this HQ other than project Blip once we buy this place", I beg J.
"Well, that would have to be now because I've actually bought the place today", he tells me. "Wait how. Didn't we use most of our money on office supplies", I ask J in a confused voice. "Yeah well I happened to have some spare money laying around, and I managed to buy this place at a really cheap price.
All I had to do was twist the previous owner's arm by pointing out the many health risks this place has. You can thank April for giving advice on that part", J says all this.
"Smart! But couldn't you have at least paid the guy to clean up this mess", I ask J. "That's were you come in. We're going to start cleaning up this place before the rest of the guys are freed up to come and help out", J tells me. I laugh and look at J and notice that he's actually being serious.
"What right now", I ask J. He grabs two brooms from the floor and hands one to me. I grab it and say to myself, "I guess so".
I head off to one side of the room and start sweeping from there. J sweeps from the other side.
"Oh please be careful how you handle any sharp objects in here. We really can't afford tetanus shots at the moment", J tells me.
I laugh and tell him, "I'll remember that".
As we're sweeping I look at J and think to myself "ain't any friend like him in this world