Running With Bears

I'm halfway through running the ethernet cable up to my bedroom when my phone buzzes. It's Kai.

"Dude, you gotta come over. Lena's gonna be there."

I groan. Lena, who I've been lowkey crushing on since seventh grade. Lena, who thinks of me as the quiet guy in AP Bio. Lena, who would definitely never look at me twice if she knew my room was a WiFi dead zone because my dad refused to let me "properly wire" anything.

"Can't," I type back. "Dad's making me do this myself because apparently paying someone is 'throwing away perfectly good learning opportunity.'"

The learning opportunity is me in the basement, holding a flashlight between my teeth while trying to fish cable through holes that definitely weren't made for someone with hands this size. I've already gotten the cable stuck three times. My dad keeps yelling helpful things like "You're bearing down too hard!" and "It's not rocket science, Jay!"

Bear with it. That's what I keep telling myself. Just bear with it.

I finally get the cable through to the first floor and I'm literally running up the stairs because I've already wasted forty-five minutes on this. Kai texts again: "She's asking about you, bro. Don't make me weird."

Panic mode. I start running the cable faster, not really caring if I'm drilling neat holes or not. I'm bearing down on the drill with way too much force because I just need this to be DONE. I need WiFi, I need to get ready, I need to not be the guy who showed up looking like he just spent an afternoon fighting with home improvement projects.

The cable keeps getting caught on everything. I'm sweating. I'm frustrated. I'm thinking about how Lena's probably at Kai's right now, laughing at something funny someone else said, someone who doesn't have to run cable through a house that was built when people thought "internet" was a made-up word.

And then it happens. I'm running the last bit of cable along the baseboard, feeling like I've accomplished something actually impressive, and I hear it.

"Jay? What on earth are you doing to my house?"

My mom is standing there, holding a plate of cookies, looking at the cable trail I've left like it's some kind of crime scene. I realize I might have made... several holes. In places that probably didn't need holes.

"Just... running some cable?"

She sighs. "Your father's going to have a bear of a time fixing that."

I stare at her. Did she just say bear? Is that a thing people say?

"Mom, did you just say 'bear of a time'?"

"What? It's a perfectly good expression." She sets down the cookies. "Also, you might want to hurry. Kai's mom called. Said something about you needing to get over there before everyone leaves for the bonfire."

My heart literally stops. The bonfire. I forgot. The real plan, not just hanging out at Kai's.

I'm running down the stairs now, grabbing my hoodie, leaving the cable hanging halfway up the wall like some weird electronic ivy. I don't even care anymore. Let my dad deal with it. Let him bear the burden of home repair for once.

I get to Kai's fifteen minutes later, breathless, smelling like sawdust and desperation. Lena's there. She smiles at me.

"Hey Jay," she says. "What happened to you?"

And for some reason, I start laughing. I tell her everything. The cable. The bear of a time. The running. The holes. And she laughs too, actually laughs, and I realize something important.

Nobody else had to literally run cable through their house to get here. Nobody else made their dad's weekend worse by trying to install WiFi at top speed. But nobody else is here with Lena, listening to her laugh at their ridiculous story.

So yeah. Worth it.