Remove them. (Jim's Story)

"Hey Jim, put these earrings somewhere safe, yeah?"

Jim shrugged, while his sister undid her new set of jewelry before the mirror. "Yeah, sure." The TV set was back on motor-sports as he rested a foot on the table. Crystal, meanwhile, carefully began to remove the earrings from her lobes.

"Besides," she joked, looking at him through the reflective surface, "don't you normally love wearing my earrings?"

The brown-haired, runner-bodied young man turned to her and nodded. "Yeah, duh." He sat up with a new look of interest over his features, his eyes fixed on his sister's ear decorations. "Could you pass them to me?" he asked, finally.

Crystal smirked. Playing along, once out of her ears, she stepped to the couch and dropped them into her brother's hands. Without protest, he took them, raising them to his own. Then, flipping a portion of her own brown hair over a shoulder, she grabbed her handbag and made for the door.

"Toodles, bro," her voice theatrically lilted, "have fun!" Before she closed the door, she paused, then poked her head back in. "Oh, and good luck with your date with Marianne."

Jim looked up just as she closed the door.

"Hey, it's gonna be as smooth as ice," he assured after her. "As smooth as ice!"

Once the earrings were on his ears, he blinked. Sitting awkwardly on the sofa, he stared at the front door.

Why exactly did he want to put these on so badly again?

Suddenly, a phone call split the silence. Tearing himself away from his self-induced coma, he fished through his pockets, and took out his cellphone.

"Crap," he cursed as he saw the name on the screen. Muting the TV, he picked it up. "Heey, Marianne, waszuup!"

"Hey Jim. You here, yet?" the voice on the other end chirped.

"What?" Jim mirrored lightheartedly. "No, I'm still at home. We still in for 4:30, right? Did you forget?"

"Oh," Marianne said, "no, didn't you remember? We had to change it to 3:15 because you said you wanted to go see that light show later, so..."

The girl's voice was drowned out as Jim's eyes widened. A slack-jawed expression overtook him in overdramatic fashion, and his phone slowly hovered away from his ear.

Ohhh shhhiiiit.

Ohhh SHHHIIT.

OHHHH

"Shit!"

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" Jim stood up, feeling his pockets for his keys. That's when he realized -- or remembered, rather -- that Crystal took the spare car. He was planning to wait for his mom to come back from work so he could take hers; he even struck a deal with her about it, cleaning up a third of the house as a dreary prerequisite.

That gotdamn brick-ton of a dresser, moved for nothing.

"It's--it's just--I'm...er... I had to help my mom with something so might be a bit delayed!" Spinning up the most immediate story he could, the young man jumped to the window, and pulled aside the curtains. Nope, still not here.

Great.

He remembered Marianne was still on the phone and brought it back to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Yes?" a voice returned.

"Marianne? I'm real sorry to ask you this, but do you think you can wait a little longer?"

"It's okay, Jim, really, it's fine," Marianne said, with surprising calmness. "I'll just wait for you."

"You will?" Jim breathed a sigh of relief. Then gutturally recoiled. "Really?"

You see, this was not only a date. This was their first date ever. And for Jim, well; this was also his first real chance at a girlfriend. He had been preparing for this day all his baby-bottomed life.

If he was lucky, he could even finally get laid... and stop all his guy friends from poking him like some cactus about it.

"Yes, really."

Blink. "Well. Uh. Shoot. Snap. Guh...reat!" Yes. There we go. Words. English. "Awesome! See you in a bit then!"

After a candy-sweet affirmation from Marianne, they hung up, leaving Jim staring at a flower pot. In tandem, he was suddenly realizing he needed to get to downtown as fast as possible -- with no car in viewing distance.

At least, none that were his, anyway.

He tornadoed to the window again. Billowing curtain.

"Damn it!"

This meant only one thing.

...No, he was not going to just up and steal one, don't be ridiculous.

No.

He was... going to... ah screw it, he'll just call an Uber.