2024-12-04 - Setting Up Ari For Success

[TXT to Ari] Callie: Got a bed yet?

[TXT to Callie] Ari: not... precisely

[TXT to Ari] Callie: Explain.

[TXT to Callie] Ari: i mean the twins have a couch

[TXT to Callie] Ari: and i am on that couch

[TXT to Ari] Callie: Okay. So you need a bed. You have your own room, I assume?

[TXT to Callie] Ari: yeah, there's the spare bedroom

[TXT to Ari] Callie: When are you free from work? We're gonna go get you what you need.

[TXT to Callie] Ari: i'm free now! ya boy's first day out of orientation!!!

[TXT to Ari] Callie: gonna borrow a truck, meet me at the parking lot

[TXT to Callie] Ari: 🧡 omw!

California pulls up in a beat-up pickup truck, sunglasses perched on her nose. Her hair is pulled up in a wild bun with strands stuck out around her face. She's wearing jeans and a simple tee shirt because they're probably going to get sweaty on this outing.

When Ari gets in the truck, she tosses him her phone. Facebook marketplace is pulled up. "Search for a bed, and let's go pick it up."

Dressed in his usual gig, which is a plain t-shirt and jeans with layers overtop, Ari looks like he's freshly showered judging by his hair. He jogs over to the truck and opens the door, hand immediately lifting to grab the phone tossed to him.

But first, he buckles up. Safety first!

"Thanks for this," he says, already scrolling through the entries for beds nearby. Scroll scroll scroll. More scrolling. He's probably being too picky, he realizes, so he goes back up to the top. "Uh, there's one thirty minutes away once we get to the mainland for a hundred bucks." Though Ari pauses. "Is that too low? Do you think it's a scam?"

"No problem. Family helps family." Callie leans over since they are stopped, looking at the item. "It's low, but it might not be a scam. Might be something worse, like bed bugs. But we have seen that shit before, so we check it out, any red flags and we're out."

She grins over at him. "Be picky tho, we're gonna get you something comfortable that you can use."

Ari's shoulders hike upwards, and he ducks his head, cheeks heating up. "Thanks. It's good to be back with you guys. It's... a lot better than before." Given that he doesn't speak much about his time prior to arriving at Spellbound, he might be understating things.

When he's told to be picky, Ari nods at Callie and takes the phone back, scrolling some more. It's a few minutes before he finally says, "Okay... a little further out, and for two-hundred and fifty."

"Cool." Callie looks at the location and makes a left. They drive in mostly silence, and when they arrive, there is a lot of furniture on the porch. Maybe someone is moving. Callie clambers out of the truck, shoves her hands in her pockets and takes a few steps forward.

She glances at Ari, and then nods at him. "See what else they got here, you need dressers too." She arches her brow. "Don't you?" There is a pause. "What else do you need, we should get as much as possible while we're out and about."

The ride passes smoothly, and not once does Ari's anxiety rear its ugly head to make him fill the silence with chatter. He just leans against the window, looking out of it at the sights he wasn't really able to appreciate while being driven back to the park in the dark when he first arrived.

Once they arrive, he passes Callie her phone back and then, feet soon on solid ground, he sweeps an appraising eye across all the furniture up for grabs. "I don't need much," he admits. "Just a bed." Everything else can wait, with his needs prioritized. "Well... maybe a dresser for the closet?"

He shoves his hands into the pockets of his coat and hesitates, before finally pushing himself to step onto the porch and introduce himself to the guy doing the selling.

"I mean, if they have what you need here, we should get it. If you spot something that will work for you, don't hold back." Callie squints hard at Ari, prepared to make her point with a swat on the arm.

The man is doing the selling on behalf of his elderly mother, who is moving in with him. She has a lot of things that she doesn't need at the new house. Callie stands behind Ari, there for support, tucking her hair behind her ears, it's out of control.

"Hey, so, can we get a discount if we buy more than one thing?" Never hurts to ask.

Immediately, Ari's fingers begin to drum against the outside of his thigh, a quick tap-tap-tap against the rough fabric of his jeans. He looks over at his big sister and nods, putting on a brave face for this stranger-danger situation.

It's fine. People are, on the whole, totally normal. The horror stories he's heard about buying things online are outliers.

And that's true. This is a totally normal interaction. The guy even offers to take off a couple hundred bucks if they buy the lot, but Ari shakes his head. "Sorry, uh, it wouldn't all fit in my room," not without being incredibly crowded, and that makes him feel sweaty and itchy. Just the thought of it.

But there is a nice, if rather plain, IKEA style bed with a mattress that looks safe, and a tall dresser that he's pretty sure will fit into his closet. This is, of course, where the issue of money comes up. "Uh, soooo..." Ari looks over at Callie, a tight smile on his face.

He hates asking.

Callie is already pulling money from her back pocket, peeling bills from the folded pile. She holds it out to the guy and grins in his direction. "So hey, I'll throw in another twenty if you help us get it loaded on the truck, yeah?" She asks, glancing between Ari and the man.

"We can stop for pizza on the way back." She asides to Ari, winking.

"And then when we get back, we can get help carrying all this stuff up to your apartment." The man takes the extra twenty and nods at Ari. "Let's get the mattress first. Are you sure you don't want the bed frame? It's pretty simple, keep you off the floor type of deal."

Ari's weight shifts from one foot to the next, an awkward shuffle as he watches the money appear. "Thanks," he says, voice maybe a little thick with emotion, and then she's offering up more money for help with loading, which does make some of his worries fade.

And then his stomach grumbles when Callie mentions pizza, which is a whole other thing he wasn't even thinking about that she alleviates. All he can do is say, "Thanks," again, and then relent and nod along, adding, "Sure, we'll take the bed frame too."

The very least he can do is literally pull his weight, by helping the guy load up the back of the truck with the furniture he picked out. Callie was definitely right, this is sweaty work, but with the assist it only takes a couple of minutes to get everything into the truckbed and tied down properly (safety first!).

While the guy returns to his porch, Ari puts his hand on Callie's arm and squeezes it, lightly. He doesn't say thank you again because he's worried he might get punched for it, but after a moment he does pull his big sister into a hug.

Except, whoops, yeah, sweaty, so he withdraws quickly with a "Sorry!"

Callie laughs, and she sounds like she's pleased with their haul, and she hugs Ari back hard. "I never pass up a hug, I can always get a shower."

She makes sure that the items are tied down, and then she makes her way to the truck. "Lets get out of here, get some pizza, maybe some beer, and get back to the park. We can smack your brothers to come help us unload."

"You'll pay me back in some form or fashion at some point."

"Pizza!" Ari enthuses, sounding very much like a little kid again as he hops back into the passenger seat of the truck. Once he's settled, he pulls out his phone and starts texting Reggie and Wash to make sure they'll be available to help haul stuff inside, though that's a drive and a ferry ride away.

In the meantime, he nods. "Yeah. Just gotta get my first paycheck and I'll pay you back. Plus, I'm gonna make family dinner for us all this weekend! I already have the recipes picked out."

How he's going to get the groceries is anyone's guess. Probably make puppy eyes at another sibling for it.

"Money comes and goes, Ari. You'll pay me back by just being here. Use that first paycheck to get some sheets and some other shit that you might need. If you can't swing everything you need, let me know. I'll help." Callie turns her head, studying Ari. "You might not realize it, but I kind of save my shit. I don't need a lot, and when one of us needs something, all of us need something. Don't forget it."

She lets out a breath. "We will figure it out, all of it, you got that?"

"Okay," is Ari's answer. Simple. Uncomplex. His big sister lays it down and he's willing to accept it at face value without argument. They take care of one another.

Eventually there will be pizza and beer and some siblings wrangled into helping them move furniture into Ari's new room. But for now they have the drive back to themselves, and a new understanding between them.

Maybe things are gonna be okay, out here. Ari allows himself to be hopeful.