"So how is it", Lenny asks me.
"The marriage life. If I'm being real honest, you can read as many books about marriage. You can get all the advice from people who've been married for years. But one thing is for sure.
You'll never truly be ready for marriage", I tell Lenny.
Davey with his arms folded starts to chuckle.
I turn to face Lenny directly and start saying, "take it like this. You remember how as a kid we used to share a bed with one of the guys during a sleepover. And you never got used of that feeling the first few times right?
Now imagine this! You have to share a bed with someone who feels a little bit like a stranger to you. And it's not once in a while on certain weekends, but rather everyday. Trust me you never get used of that quickly enough".
Davey adds on with, "but the sex makes it a little better".
"Yeah of course it does. But sex only lasts a couple minutes, while the sleeping in the same bed takes last hours on hand everyday", I respond with.
"Well not everyday though. It really depends with what you've done during that day that determines if you're sleeping in the bed or the dog box", Davey exclaims.
"Yes and there's that. My advice is you talk stuff out before sex and not the other way around. You really don't want your woman giving you the cold shoulder for the entire week.
So just say you're sorry, even if it isn't your fault or even if you don't know what the actual heck you're sorry for", I say all of this.
"Point being...", Davey exclaims. "Your wife is always right no matter what", Davey and I both exclaim.
Lenny starts to look at us both with empty eyes. "Is that all", he asks us. Davey and I look at each other for a few seconds. I soon turn to Lenny and tell him, "then there's the actual living together part. All the weird shit you used to do when you were living on your own, you'll be doing them in front of this person now".
Davey starts counting on his finger as he says, "that includes your habits like late night snacking, farting at any given time, burping with no filter, late night outs and of course living the toilet seat up".
I add on by telling Lenny, "no matter what, don't let that last habit become a constant. The arguments started from those situations never end well.
Plus they start bringing up old shit from months ago that they have being saving up for ammunition against you all this time", Davey exclaims.
Lenny sat there with his eyes wide open.
"Marriage needs a lot of patience and swallowing of pride. But in the long run it's all worth it", I assure Lenny. After I said that, it seemed to put Lenny at ease.
"So what, you're planning to pop the big question on Leilani", Davey asks Lenny. "Not yet, but soon", he responds.
"Oh my advice on that. The best proposal is the one the don't see coming.
So you take her out to nice public place and make it seem like it's just a casual date.
Then you pull the ring out of nowhere and boom! You drop the question", I tell Lenny.
"Plus she can't say no because it's a public place, so she doesn't want the embarrassment. Well it depends with the type of girl", I add on all of this.
"I'll keep that advice to heart", Lenny exclaims. "I just need the money to by the damn ring. It really sucks that the money from our app isn't coming in the numbers I was hoping for", Lenny exclaims with a heavy voice.
"Yeah! Plus we've spent most of the money we've accumulated on doing up that office space", Davey points out.
"Listen guys", I announce to them both, "I know the Blip app has been on a go slow for a couple of weeks. But trust me, once we get the right sponsor for this thing the numbers will be doubling".
"We need to stick to this till the end my dear friends", I tell them. "Speaking of friends. Where's Trevor", Davey asks me. "He said he was out with some old friend of his", I tell him.
"I thought you were Trevor's only friend", Lenny asks with a confused voice. "You and me both Len. But I guess I'm second helpings when it comes to that", I exclaim.
"But I never knew Trevor for having the most friends growing up", Davey points out. "I never knew any of you guys for having any friend besides me", I tell Davey and Lenny.
"What are you trying to say", Lenny asks me. "None of you guys would even be here right now if I never acted like the anchor holding down this friendship", I exclaim.
"Well for your own information, I would be right here since this is my place"; Lenny says as he points around the sitting room. I roll my eyes and say, "you know what I mean. I'm the originator of this crew. Yall should be thanking me everyday for forming this crew, Leilani and Trevor included".
"Okay maybe not Leilani. She actually grew up to be pretty fine. So I'm sure she wouldn't have any problems making friends in the long run", I correct myself. "Hey watch what you say about my woman", Lenny says with a sharp tone.
"Okay! My bad Mr Possessive", I tell him with a laugh and my hands raised.
"Well I'll thank you Mr Originator. Not everyday though, but still thank you", Eric exclaims as he walks back into the room. "Damn how long does it take you to use the toilet", Lenny asks Eric.
"If it's number two, a very long time", Davey exclaims. "Wait! You were taking a shit in my toilet", Lenny exclaims in a shocked voice. "Sorry man. Nature calls", Eric tells him. He slaps Lenny on his cheek and takes a sit.
"Why are your hands still wet", Lenny exclaims as he wipes his face.
"But real talk. Thank you Jahmal for everything you did for us in the past. Especially for me, when I thought I was going to go through my entire high school life friendless", Eric tells.
"No problem bro", I tell him. "See this is the kind of thanks I'm talking about that the originator deserves", I tell both Lenny and Davey.
They both just roll their eyes at me.
10 years. ..
It was my first year at a new high school in this new town. And in the couples months of being there, I hated the whole experience.
I mostly hung out by myself because I was labeled the outcast of my stream. I asked a few too many questions in class and got put into the zone of class geek.
It's not my fault that I had a love for all matters regarding research and finding new information.
I soon got used of the lonely lunch breaks under the oak tree near the field. I figured if that was going to spend my entire high school life alone, best make the most out of it.
But it all changed in the library one particular day.
There I was deep inside of some history textbooks, sitting by myself. I could sense everyone else in the room had their eyes and giggles set on me. But I just ignored them.
Out of nowhere, a random kid through his books in front of me and sat there.
"Hey! Are you the guy into all that research stuff", the guy asked me in a out of breath voice. I put the textbook down slightly and exclaimed, "yes".
"You're a really hard person to find. I've been running around the whole school looking for you. But I should've figured a person like you would be in a place like this", he said to me, afterwards taking a big inhale to catch his breath.
I didn't know how to feel about what this guy had said to me. I've never really had someone run around looking for me, or even come up to me to make conversation. I kinda felt honoured.
"Why would you even be looking for me", I asked him. "Well! I have this little homework assignment I need to finish. But I'm not the best when it comes to researching and all that junk. So I figured why not ask the research kid, he can surely help me out with that stuff", the guy said to me.
I started to laugh and exclaimed, "this is a prank right. You're joking with me".
"The only joke here is this poor excuse for a homework assignment I've written up so far", the guy said to me.
"Listen research kid. If I don't pass this assignment my stepmom will be on my ass okay. I'm supposed to be this genius at everything, but I have my shortcomings. And homework assignments are one of them. So please research kid, I desperately need your help", the guy started to beg me.
I put the textbook down and looked at this guy. By his facial expression I could tell he was being dead serious. I grabbed the stack of his books and pulled them closer to me.
"Okay, let's see what we can do with this", I exclaimed to him.
"Man thanks research kid. Actually no wait, how rude of me. What's your name", the guy asked me as he reached out his hand to shake mine.
"Uhm. It's Eric", I told him while I shook his hand. "I'm Jahmal. Nice to meet you friend", Jahmal replied with a smile.
This was honestly the greatest moment of my life, but I didn't want to ruin it with my awkwardness. So I played it cool and said, "let's get to work"
But I knew from that moment on that this was the beginning of a long friendship.