'Cause it's a good life so why y'all trippin'
The good life slippin' away

Amber pushes the door open as I pull out the waffle iron. Gerard is mixing our waffles in a big clear bowl. Every once in a while he’ll walk across the kitchen and grab another ingredient and add it. He has a weird method but Gerard’s waffles always turn out the best.

“What’s good Ways?” Amber giggles as Frank enters the house, shutting the door after him. They both look a little out of breath like they ran here or something.

“Fucking great,” Gerard answers giving the redhead a smile. He refuses to look at Frank. What the hell is going on between them?

“How are you Amber?” I question as my brother hands me the bowl of batter. I pour the first waffle onto the iron. Frank hops up onto the counter, the redhead standing between his legs.

“I’m wonderful. Thank you for asking Mikey.”

“You stay at Frank’s last night Amber?” Gerard asks.

“How’d you know?” the dark haired boy asks.

“Half of what she’s wearing is yours dude,” my brother answers back apparently over his earlier issues with Frank.

Amber laughs, “Yeah I probably need to bring some more of my clothes over there, huh?”

“Why do you stay at Frank’s?” I question. My anxiety instantly kicks in. That was a dumb question. I should have just kept my mouth shut. Just as I’m about to start hyperventilating Amber answers me.

“Night terrors dude. I don’t sleep well by myself. I stay at Frank’s when I’m out late,” she responds as if it’s nothing too important.

I make a mental note to look up exactly what night terrors are. As the timer goes off I open the iron and use a fork to get the waffle out. Gerard pulls four plates out of the cabinet as I divide the waffle up into sections.

“Do you have whipped cream?” Amber asks moving away from Frank to look through our refrigerator. Mom’s not been shopping in a while and the shelves look pretty empty.

“What the hell do you need whipped cream for?” Gerard questions going to stand behind her as I pour more batter.

“You don’t eat waffles with whipped cream?” Amber looks at my brother like he’s got a hole in his head.

“No….” Gerard answers, scratching the back of his head; he kind of looks like a monkey. This causes me to laugh.

“It’s not funny Mikey,” Amber responds pulling a bottle of whipped cream out of our refrigerator. I don’t even want to know how long that’s been in there.

Amber walks around putting a little bit of the white cream onto each of our pieces of the waffle. Before she puts it back into the fridge, Amber holds the can above her lips, squirting a whole bunch into her mouth. She’s got a look in her eyes that I’ve never seen before…like she’s up to something.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Frank says obviously knowing what she’s going to do.

Trying not to laugh Amber walks over to the tattooed boy. He gives her a stern look. Amber leans over rubbing her tongue, along with most of the whipped cream in her mouth all over Frank’s cheek. He doesn’t look amused.

“You’re such a freak!” he squeals trying to push the redhead off of him.

Amber and I laugh at Frank’s reaction. He reaches across me as I get out our second waffle. He wets a paper towel and cleans his face off. “I don’t understand why I’m friends with you.”

“Because you love me,” Amber says in a singsong voice before eating her part of the waffle. Gerard stares at his a little longer before putting the end of it in his mouth. He chews slowly.

“That’s actually fucking amazing!” he says before shoving the rest of his food into his mouth.

“Told you so!”

For a while we all eat in silence, passing around the can of whipped cream. Something tells me that Amber has forever changed the way Gerard and I eat waffles.

“So,” Frank says finally breaking the silence that was filling the room. “What are we going to do today?”

“Gerard and I were gonna watch movies and play some video games. I was thinking Nightmare on Elm Street. You two are more than welcome to join.”

“I’m fucking down dude,” Frank responds getting off the counter and flipping through a sketchbook Gerard left out on the dining room table.

“I shall stay until three then I’ve got to kidnap your brother and drag him to Newark,” Amber answers.

“Newark?”

Amber nods but doesn’t elaborate any further. I don’t press the issue. The thing I find to be interesting is the fact that Gerard agreed to go to Newark…he hates the city. Maybe Amber is just extremely persuasive. Whatever it is I just think its good to know my brother is actually doing something and not just sitting around moping. Working Gerard means a Gerard with a lot less chance of getting drunk.

“That’s nice…it’s good to see someone can motivate him,” I respond.

“Amber, these are all of you,” Frank says still flipping through the book on the table.

The redhead walks over. She rests her chin on Frank’s shoulder looking down at Gerard’s drawings. She doesn’t seem freaked out by it at all. My brother shifts his weight awkwardly from one foot to the other. He’s usually pretty private about his art.

“These are awesome Gerard. Why me though?”

“Why not you?” Gerard answers. “I spend more time with you than any other girl. Actually you’re the only girl any of us hang out with. You just always seem to be fresh on my mind.”

Amber shrugs before taking Frank and Gerard’s hand, pulling them up the stairs towards my room. Once there Amber scans over our collection of movies pulling out various ones. “Lets watch movies motherfuckers.”

“Fuck yeah,” I answer taking the case from her before heading back downstairs to where our TV is set up in the living room.

Putting in our movie I plop down on the couch in between Gerard and Amber. She rests her head on my shoulder, sighing as the movie starts. Life is good.

Notes