“Oh, my aching head.” June slowly gets out of her bed and stumble towards the bathroom.

She pops two aspirins in her mouth, before sitting on the toilet and do her morning business. She had too much to drink last night. She couldn’t help herself, all the guys were drinking, and someone gave her a mixed drink. One drink leads to a second one and then the third one. By the time she had her fifth drink. She passed out in the living room.

June finishes washing her hands and doing her business. She heads towards the kitchen and fixes herself some coffee. She grabs some pop tarts from the cabinet and bites into them.

She glances towards the sink and notices the dishes needed to be done. She wonders if the rest of the house looked like the kitchen. She knew Larry and Mike wouldn’t let any of their friends who were drunk drive last night.

June finishes breakfast and goes and checks out the rest of the house. There were at least six people who had spent the night. Some of them were nude and sleeping either with someone or by themselves.

She also notices that the dining room and living room needed to be cleaned up. She heads back to her bedroom and changes clothes. She hopes Larry and Mike will be up soon.

Once June is dressed, she heads back to the kitchen and takes the trash out to the garbage can. She was glad today was Sunday. June could already tell, it was going to be another hot day. Sweat was sliding down her face.

She walks into the house “ah! Cold air.”

As she stands in the laundry room and enjoys the A/C. Today, she was going to spend the day inside the house. June heads towards her bedroom and gathers her dirty clothes. She wonders if Protemp is going to call her and Larry to work this week.

She separates her underwear, bra’s, nightgowns and camisoles from her other clothes. She gathers up her jeans, coveralls, t-shirts and such and carries them to the washer. She puts them into the washer and gets it going. When June walks back into the kitchen, Larry and some of the other people who spent the night were in there, waiting on the coffee to brew.

“Morning everyone.” June stands in the doorway to the laundry room.

Jordan looks at June “how are you feeling this morning, after all those long Island iced teas and Irish Bomb shots you drunk last night?”

“I woke up with a massive hangover, but its slowly going away.” June felt the aspirin’s she took, finally kicking in.

“So, what are your plans for today?” Mike looks over towards June while drinking his coffee.

“I need someone to run me up to Walmart, so I can pick up some packing supplies and stuff we can cookout on the grill tonight.” June needed
some mailing supplies to ship a few items off and pick up dinner for tonight.

“What are you thinking about getting?” Sam comes walking into the kitchen.

“Hamburgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, maybe some steaks if they are on sale. Along with tubs of potato salad, macaroni salad and the ingredients to fix a salad.”

“If you need us to contribute to the cost, I can help you.” Troy and his partner Masoud come walking into the kitchen.

Troy was your standard white male. He was still well built and had varied tattoos that covered his body. He used to be in the Marines until they found out he was gay.

Masoud, on the other hand, was born in Saudi Arabia but raised in Chesapeake. His family was in the import and export business. They came
to the United States when he was eight years old and became citizens. Their business was in Portsmouth, Va.

Masoud played on Norfolk, Tides team for a while. He left to pursue a coaching job with Maury High School. He and Troy try to keep their relationship quiet. Since Norfolk has never had a Pride parade or anything and the LGBTQ community is small. It is easy for them to keep their relationship quiet, while he taught at Maury.

“That would help, a lot.” June figured she would have to fork over the cost for the food.

“I’ll take you, once I finish my coffee.” Mike wanted to pick up a new Blu-ray player for the new television set.

Twenty minutes later, June and Mike were heading towards Best Buy at Military Circle. Mike had taken the back way off Virginia Beach Blvd towards Best Buys.

“Okay, why are we stopping here?”

“I was going to get a new Blu-ray for the living room.” Mike leads the way inside Best Buys.

Mike knew where he was heading, so June just follows behind him. She knew Mike made good money working for ADP as customer support.
She had basic computer skills. She could turn it on and use the word processor and surf the web. That was as far as her computer skills went. She stops to look at a few games that were on sale for her Xbox unit. She picks out a few to purchase, while Mike picked which Blu-ray unit he wanted.

“You ready?” Mike looks over where June was standing.

“Yep, I’m ready.” She had a few games in her hands as she followed Mike towards the front.

“You know the guys are going to wonder why we are taking so long.” June was standing behind Mike at the checkout line.

“They can wait.” Mike sets the Blu-ray he was buying on the counter and gets the extended warranty for it.

Once Mike was done, June steps up and pays for her games. The games themselves were single-player games that she waited till they were marked down to buy. She wasn’t a gamer like Larry or any of the other guys. They head towards checkout.

Once June was done paying for her games. She follows Mike out to his car and they drive over towards Walmart. Mike manages to find a parking spot, close tot he store.

June picks out the meats and side dishes she was planning on purchasing for the barbecue. She spotted some steaks on sale, and pick a few out. Mike loved steaks and she knew Sam did as well. She also pick out some big potatoes to make bake potatoes with.

Once June as everything they needed for the barbecue. Her and Mike start heading towards the cashiers.

“Hey, give me a few minutes.” June walks over to see the clothes that were on clearance.

Mike just watches as June goes through the racks of clearance items. He spots her picking out at least six outfits that would fit her.

“So, how much is this going to set you back?” Mike knew June normally didn’t buy new clothes. She either buys them at yard sales or thrift
sales.

“Thirty dollars total. Everything was marked down.” June now had a few more summer dresses and blouses.

“Alright, let's check out.” Mike gets inline for one of the cash registers manned by a store associate.

“You know Mike, Walmart should be ashamed at having all these self-checkouts.” June hated them. It made shopping so impersonal and boring. She liked talking to the cashiers when she checked out.

“I have to agree with you, but companies are finding they can save money, by replacing people with machines. This store is lucky that they haven’t gone completely over to robots that stock the shelves and unload and load the trucks yet.”

The cashier that rings them out was around June age. She didn’t miss any item and handle the clothes June bought carefully. Mike looks at the total and couldn’t believe how much everything came too.

“Here.” June hands Mike all the cash she was given and the cash she had from yesterday.

“Thanks.” Mike hands the cash to the cashier.

“Have a nice day.” June follows Mike.

“You too.” Angela watches as the two people walk off.

As they were walking back to Mike’s car, June stops “damn! I forgot the packaging material I need.”

Mike looks back towards June “we can go back in and get them.”

“No, I’ll just come up here tomorrow with Larry and get them.” June could kick herself forgetting the packaging material. She had several purchases from hers and Larry’s website that needed to be sent off.

When they arrive back at the house, the guys inside come out and help bring the bags in. They take the bags into the kitchen.

“Thanks, guys.” June goes about putting everything away and prepping the steaks for the grill.

After she finishes in the kitchen, she goes and checks on her clothes. She transfers her delicates to the drier and set it. She puts the rest of her laundry into the washer.

The clothes she bought, she takes to her bedroom and tries them on. They were a little lost on her but other than that. They fit her and gives her more choices to wear.

She spots the other violin sitting under her desk. The case was in a little better shape than the other one. She picks it up and opens it. The violin inside looked well-constructed and was strung. There was a nice bow already inside the case.

She looks over towards her desk and rummages through her junk drawer. She knew. she had some rosin from when she played in school. She nearly had to empty her drawer, before she finally finds the small green rosin she still had.

She checks the bow and tightens the hairs on it. Whoever stored the bow, had made sure the strings weren’t tight. She picks the violin up and rests her chin on the edge of it. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She hasn’t played in so long, as she slowly pulls the bow across the strings.

A sweet rich sound erupts from the violin as the bow glides across the string. She plays a few warm-up cords that she uses to play in high school. She made a few mistakes, but it sounded good.

June stops when she hears clapping noise coming from her bedroom door. June opens her eyes and looks towards her bedroom door. She notices that Larry, Troy, Mike, and Masoud were standing at her doorway clapping.

Her cheeks turn red from embarrassment. She didn’t know she had an audience listening to her.

“Ah, she’s blushing guys.” Troy was enjoying teasing June.

“I was just seeing if the strings were any good.” June loosens the bowstring and put it back into the case.

She wipes where her chin had rested on the violin. She loved how it sounded when she played it. She had never heard anything so sweet that she has ever played. It sounded like the notes came from the violin. June places the violin back in its case and locks it.

“That sounded remarkable.” Larry didn’t know, June could play a musical instrument.

“Thanks.” June puts the case back down on the floor near her desk.

“You should practice more. I think you’ll go far.” Mike liked what he heard.

“Maybe.” June gets up and heads towards the group.

They head towards the living room and order some lunch for all of them.