Date: Thu, 24 May 2018 02:56:28 +0200
From: cluelesspretzel@post.com
Subject: eight-inches-part-one

Just a week ago I bought myself a new car, and it was about twenty years
old. I don't have much money at the moment. Between working a shitty job at
a local café and trying to have a social life (going out to festivals
and splashing cash on things I really don't even need), I could barely
afford it.

As of starting university I've made a countless amount of new friends, it's
so exciting because I was always so quiet in high school. There is someone
in particular though who I live next door to in my university halls, his
name is Will, and I guess he's my new best friend. We've made sure we go
everywhere together, he bought my car with me, he comes shopping with me,
he comes to class with me, we're inseparable and it feels like we've known
each other for longer than we've been alive.

We're that close, that when he has nothing to do and I'm working on the
weekend, he'll wake up at 6am, just to walk to work with me in the freezing
winter mist, and sit in the café all day as a customer, waiting for me
to finish my shift at 5pm. My manager joked that he's my boyfriend. It
would actually seem that way but we're both straight. Sure, he's everything
I'd look for in a girl, we get on so well it's almost impossible, but I
wouldn't ever really consider loving him, in that way.

The day I got my car we drove for about 100 miles, from our university
campus in Liverpool, right to some tiny island in Wales called
Holyhead. There was no reason why we did, well, it was excuse to spend time
out of halls.

It took me about 3 days to decide what car I wanted to buy, and when I did,
I set an alarm for 9am, bolted out of bed, threw on my 3 day old boxer
briefs that deserved to be washed before the weekend, a cheap tracksuit on
top, and knocked on Wills door. I whispered loudly `Are you awake?'  and I
got no reply. Just 12 days into University, we kept sleeping in on a
lectures, so we installed the rule that we would always leave our door
unlocked for each other, so that when one of us is awake, we would barge in
on each other, open their curtains and give them a shake to get them up and
out the door. As I knew his door was unlocked, I pretended he was missing a
lecture to get him up.

When I opened his door, he was fast asleep with the room in total
darkness. I walked over slowly to his bed and leant over. It seemed that
last night he was probably having a wank, his hand was stuffed in an empty
tissue box, and his used ones were on the floor next to his full bin. A
tragic sight of a single teenage virgin to be honest, but entirely
relatable. Even though our friendship was new, stuff like this didn't
embarrass us. Because I'd only really been friends with a few people that
were quiet like me in high school and college, I'd never talk about stuff
like sex or wanking off, so opening up like this is so cool, especially
with a guy who was so relatable.

I shook his shoulder while saying `Hey, you're gonna miss the lecture, it's
in 5 minutes'. He groaned and shifted in his bed and said `Oh shit,
okay'. His short black hair was misshaped by his pillow overnight, and was
greasy, but I knew it'd be cause mine was too, and I knew he was low on
deodorant, so I gave him a half empty can of Lynx and some dry shampoo to
get up and get his shit together and get out.

Little did he know, I'd spent my morning burning CD's on my PC (I even
downloaded half of the songs of his Spotify playlist, and half the songs
off of mine, so we have our fair share of stuff to listen to), figuring out
how to get somewhere scenic in just a couple of hours driving, and
transferring £350 from my savings account to my debit card account, so I
can buy a car and a full tank of fuel.

I guess you could say I was pretty excited for our first `road trip'. He
knocked on my door after 5 minutes of getting ready and helped himself
in. He sat on my bed while I was sat at my desk on my PC, he span my chair
around and held both of my knees to stop it, I was now facing him.

`Harry, It's a Saturday, we don't have lectures on Saturday, I'm going to
need a good excuse before I kill you' and I unlocked my phone to show him a
photo of a clapped out Honda Civic. His grip on my knees tightened as he
saw it. He looked at me and said `Are you actually fucking doing it? Fuck!
You're getting a car! We can go anywhere!' It was the answer I expected and
I couldn't wait to get in my car with him and go wherever we want.