Dylan walked back from the mall, keeping the box safe as he did. Making sure he didn’t damage it as he went. On his way he noticed a familiar face across the road, it was Kelly, his best friend since Preschool.
Kelly was a tall boy, being 6’1 and 16, still growing, he wasn’t looking up to anyone... physically.
Kelly made eye contact with Dylan from across the road, they stared into each other’s eyes, Dylan stopped in the middle of a road before snapping out of his weird trance and getting to the sidewalk. Kelly ran up to Dylan and asked, “Hey Dylan! What you got there?”
“It’s just some old lamp I bought... I thought my Grandma would like it,” Dylan lied,
“Yeah, sure.” Kelly responded, “you bought it because you think that there’s a Genie inside it, didn’t you. Even I’m not stupid enough to realise that,”
Dylan laughed nervously, he was right, “hehe...” he chuckled awkwardly, “yeah... you’re right. I know it won’t actually have a Genie in it but do you wanna stop by my house to see... maybe we can play video games afterwards.”
Kelly smiled, looking into Dylan’s eyes, “yeah, totally. That sounds great,”
Dylan and Kelly made their way to Dylan’s house, walking together, at one point Kelly offered to hold the box, Dylan said “no it’s fine I’ve got it,” and smiled back.
They arrived at Dylan’s front door,
“Do you mind?” Dylan said, looking again into Kelly’s eyes, he held the box up for Kelly to take it. Kelly did so instinctively.
Dylan placed his hand in his pocket and fiddled around looking for his house key. Finally, he found it.
Dylan took the keys out of his jeans pocket and lifted it to the door. But before he could place the key in the keyhole, the door unlocked and opened inwards. Standing by the door was a girl, no taller than Dylan (who was 5’7) with auburn hair and freckles on her face.
“Huh!” Dylan exclaimed in shock, then in seconds it all came flooding back to him, “oh! Nova,”
“That’s my name!” She said cheerfully in a playful tone, she grabbed Dylan and hugged him firmly. She pulled away from the embrace after 4 embarrassing seconds of hugging to greet Kelly,
“Hey Kelly! I don’t think I need to introduce myself.” She smiled at the end,
“Nope, you did a good enough job of that already,” Dylan said, embarrassent mixed with sarcasm in his voice,
“Well I’m sorry, I just wanted to give my boyfriend a nice welcome,” she frowned and stomped off upstairs in a typical teenage girly manor, more dramatic than Hamlet.
“So. Boyfriend, huh?” Kelly said to Dylan. Dylan turned around awkwardly, scratching the back of his head,
“Yeah...”
“When did you plan on telling me?” Kelly said in a somewhat accusatory tone,
“What!?” Dylan said, a little shocked at the remark, “I was gonna tell you! I just forgot to say anything on the walk here. I mean, I forgot she was even here so calling me a good boyfriend is a stretch...”
“No. I mean... why didn’t you tell me at school?”
“Oh. Well, we only started going out on Friday night. I managed to convince my parents to let her stay the night.” Dylan chuckled at that thought.
“Oh...” Kelly looked down, “so you two...” he said knowing Dylan would know exactly what he was eluding to,
“What!? No!” Dylan said, a little shocked, but he calmed down quickly, “dude... we haven’t even made out yet,” he said, “I mean... we kissed but that’s as far as we got,”
Both boys looked up at each other and made eye contact, they quickly looked away to make it less awkward. But before either of them could make it worse,
“Are you two gonna stop makin’ out and come up here, I’m gettin’ really bored!!” Nova yelled from upstairs,
“She’s in my room,” Dylan chuckled, he was blushing. Weirdly enough, so was Kelly.
They made their way upstairs and navigated their way to Dylan’s room. Nova was laying on the bed, her body language showed frustration but as they walked in it shifted suddenly to upright and happy, as well as the cheerful expression on her face.
Dylan’s room, from the perspective of the door, had a double bed protruding from the left wall forward. In front of that bed was space to walk around but against the right wall were two drawers next to each other. A TV was positioned on the left drawer while the right had a selection of scattered Papers with homework, essays, and some decent looking sketches. Dylan wanted to be a Graphic Designer as his future job. He also had a large amount of posters all over his walls, all 4 of them. They were from games and movies and TV shows that Dylan watched, not one of them had a lewd image of a girl like a stereotypical teenage boy’s bedroom.
The three sat in the end of Dylan’s bed. Dylan sat on the right, furthest from the TV, Nova sat right next to him, snuggled up. And on the left was Kelly.
Dylan and Kelly had controllers in hand playing a fighter game. Nova shouted as Dylan made any move... except she couldn’t figure out who was who.
“Damn!” Kelly said, chuckling,
“Good game, dude,” Dylan said, holding out his hand for a high five. He went to high five him, but before he could, Nova had wrapped her arms around Dylan’s waist,
“Can I have a go??” She said, without Dylan even fighting back she’d resorted to giving him wide eyed cute little stare, the same kind a pet would use to beg.
Dylan looked at Kelly, who was trying to hide his obvious chuckling, and signalled if he could give up the controller. Kelly said, “Nova?” She let go of Dylan’s waist in order not to snap her neck as looked at Kelly, but kept one hand on Dylan’s hand,
“Yeah?” She said, her eyes still adjusting from her begging face. He put his hand out and offered her the controller. She snatched it right out of his hand and her face lit up. She bounced a little on the bed in glee.
“Has anyone said that you’re like a cat?” Kelly said, smirking at his comment. Dylan smirked back at the incredibly accurate remark, Nova clearly heard it but chose to ignore it.
Kelly sat back and watched Dylan try to explain to Nova how to play the game, as he did sit back, he felt something kind of sharp hit his back, he winced slightly and sat upright again, looking at what he had laid on. A box. The same box he carried in and threw on the bed for him to inevitably lay on it. He sighed sarcastically to himself. He pulled open the tab from the box, and fulled open the top of it, he saw covered in a very good looking cloth was the shape of a lamp.
He lifted the cloth off the lamp and saw its golden glory. It looked amazing. It didn’t look like a plastic fake or e en a metal fake. It looked like the real deal. He touched it. It shined, as his finger touched it, it squeaked so silently yet so audibly. It was magnificent to see. He placed four fingers on it to hear that sound again.
He rubbed the lamp.
Kelly suddenly became cold, his body seemed to cool extremely quickly, he looked at his fingers, they were turning a warm blue. He watched as his fingers turned to a glittery mist right in front of his eyes. Then his hands, his arms, his torso. And suddenly. He was gone.
The lamp landed upright on the bed.
“Where... where did Kelly go?” Nova asked,
“No you need to keep focus if you want to beat me,” Dylan said, keeping her eyes on the game. He looked back quickly, just to glance at whatever had distracted Nova. But she was right, his quick glance became a lengthened look as he tried to figure out where Kelly had disappeared off to.
“Do you think he felt left out?” Nova said,
“No. He wouldn’t just leave without saying anything. I mean, he was there, wasn’t he?”
“Last time I looked he was. But it’s just that box and that weird looking lamp...”
“Lamp!?” Dylan said suddenly,
“Is that seriously what you went all the way to the mall for? Did you even get any snacks,” Nova said, frustrated. But Dylan was far from focussing on that point. He grabbed the lamp. It looked the same as when he saw it in the store, not even a scratch. Other than maybe some fingerprints on the top of it.
“Oh shit.”