Chapter 7

It was getting dark outside as he threw some basketball hoops, it was late afternoon and he had only just gotten up. He caught the ball as it rebounded from the backboard and aiming, shot it towards the hoop again, this time landing the shot perfectly. It was chilly outside but the fresh air and the distraction of concentrating on his aim, cleared his mind.

These days it always felt too crowded in his head. So many things were going on in his life and not all those were necessarily what he wanted in his life.

He looked over his shoulder as he heard a car coming down the street, missing his ball rebound from the backboard, now rolling away towards the street. Hurriedly, he went after it before it would roll onto the street.

Picking up his basketball, he looked up as Sophie parked her car. He gave her a quick wave as she got out of her car. Happy to see her smile at him and wave back. He watched as the passenger door opened as well and Lori got out of the car too, she repeated Sophie's actions and smiled and waved at him, then followed Sophie into the house.

Carrying the ball, he went back inside. Maybe he'd have some lunch.

His daily schedules were very off from the rest of the world's. A few times he had been successful in getting up earlier in the morning, 9 or 10 am but then he found himself playing guitar til 5 in the morning and sleeping til the late afternoon again. Without anything going on, it was hard to keep up with the rest of the world.

A nice hot lunch was what he needed, even if it was after 5pm, he was hungry.

After lunch, he picked up a controller from the coffee table and decided to try out some video games. Not often did he spent his time with video games but it could be a welcome change to his other daily habits. Improving his score on Super Mario wasn't something he was very invested in but it was still fun to play the game.

A few hours later, he was stretched out on the couch, his head resting on a pillow against the armrest, his left hand in the air above his head holding his notepad. Reading the text again, he pondered on which words to use on his next line. Racking his brain for a fitting word, Richie tried writing a rhyming word but found his pen didn't work upside down, lowering his notepad, he caught a glimpse of a shape passing by his window.

Seconds later, there was a knock at the front door.

With a sigh, he put down the notepad and pen on the coffee table. He wasn't invested in what he was writing. Sometimes, as an exercise, he'd write down silly lyrics, just to find rhymes and rhythms. Most often they ended up in the trash but sometimes he kept his silly writings as memories, depending on how much he liked them. He got up and walked over to the front door, who'd be knocking at this time? Checking the time on his watch, he was right to think it was late in the evening.

As he pulled the door open, he found Lori standing there smiling bright and cheerful.

"Hey." He said, curious at what she was doing at his doorstep around midnight when she didn't say anything.
She smiled at him before she spoke. "Hey yourself."
When she didn't continue, Richie asked his follow up question. "What's up?"
Lori smiled again. "I saw your lights were still on so I told Sophie my taxi was here to take me home."
Looking over her shoulder, there was no taxi in the street. The street lights illuminated the quiet street, showing how late it was.
"I wanted to ask if you were up for a booty call before I do call a taxi home." Lori continued to explain.

A smirk formed on his face as he took a step backward from the door, giving Lori space to come inside.