I Can't Do This Right Now

Written in response to: "Write a story with a character making excuses."

Funny

Alexis groaned as the phone rang. Talking to someone was the last thing she felt like doing. However, she picked it up nonetheless and checked the caller I.D.: Stella, one of her friends from school. “Hello?” she asked.

“Hey Alexis!” Stella said from the phone.

“What do you need?”

“Oh, I’m hosting a party at my place this weekend and wanted to know if you could come.”

Alexis panicked. No, she did not want to go. In fact, that was probably the last thing she wanted to do this weekend.

“What time?”

“Oh, probably like eight Saturday night into Sunday morning.”

“Oh, I wish I could come but I’m going to a concert down in Atlanta that day.”

“Dang, that’s a bummer. Well, at least send me some videos from the concert, all right?”

“Uh, okay?”

“That’s all I needed so I’ll talk to you later, okay?

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Stella hung up the phone, and Alexis finally went into full panic mode. She had absolutely no tickets to see any concerts at all in the upcoming weeks, let alone any in Atlanta, which was three hours away. She also had no money to afford to buy any tickets. She was digging herself a hole. She had to find some concert now, or else Stella would figure out that she was lying. This was not good.

Opening up her laptop, Alexis immediately went to Google for tickets. The first ones she found were for a K-pop group called Stray Kids. Alexis had never even heard of them, but she found one of four remaining tickets way up in the very back. It was only seventy-five dollars, which was better than she expected. Sighing, Alexis bought the tickets. She could only hope that the concert would be good. This was a mess. How on earth was she supposed to come up with seventy-five dollars; she was a broke high school student! Maybe she could ask her mom? There wasn’t any way that she would give Alexis the money she needed, though. Or maybe there was…

“Hey, Mom?” Alexis called, exiting her room.

“What do you need, sweetheart?” her mom asked.

“My friends and I are helping with a fundraiser at school for, uh, new textbooks. The only problem is that we’re fifty dollars short. Do you think you could help us? Please?”

Her mom raised an eyebrow. “And when do you need this money?”

“Tomorrow.”

Her mom sighed and looked deep in thought for a moment. “Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”

“I guess I just didn’t think we would need any help. I don’t know.”

Shaking her head, Alexis’ mom began to dig through her purse and wallet. “I don’t think I have quite enough money here. Let me stop by the bank real quick and then I’ll get it to you. You better show me what my money is going towards once you get it, though.”

Alexis nodded eagerly. “Thank you, Mom!”

“Of course. I’ll be back soon.”

Alexis was happy; fifty dollars were paid for, and she knew she could find the other twenty-five. Now, she had another problem. What was she supposed to do about these “textbooks”? She shook her head. That was a problem for later. Right now, she needed to worry about how she was going to get to Atlanta without her parents finding out. She obviously couldn’t stay there; she didn’t have the money. Her lack of money was really causing her some problems. She would have to come up with something.

***

“Mom, I’m heading over to Stella’s tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow morning!” Alexis called to her mom. Nothing had seemed like a better excuse than saying she would be hanging out with her friend who kind of wound up getting her into this mess in the first place.

“Ok, be safe. I love you!” Alexis’ mom replied.

“I will; love you too!”

Alexis got in her car and started the long drive down to Atlanta. On the way, she listened to a few of Stray Kids’ songs. They weren’t really her type of music, but they were okay, she supposed. Before long, she arrived at Truist Park, where the concert would be held. She was about an hour early, which was nothing compared to the hardcore fans. She was pretty sure they were called “STAYs.” A cute name if you asked her. The fans were crazy, though. Most of them had these weird light thingies, and several had posters. Alexis saw a concerning amount of posters that said something along the lines of “Bang Chan marry me!”

After fighting through the crowds, Alexis finally made her way to her seat. Next to her was a girl with one of the light things. “Hey!” the girl said.

“Oh, um hi?”

“You a big STAY, I assume?” the girl asked.

Alexis shook her head. “Not really. I just wanted to check them out. I’ve been dying to get to a concert lately, so I thought this seemed like a good choice.”

“Oh, well you definitely picked a good one. I’ve seen SO many videos of previous concerts from this tour on YouTube and I literally cannot wait. Stray Kids is the best! My bias is Hyunjin, by far.”

“What’s a bias?”

“Like, your favorite member.”

“Oh, okay.”

They talked for a little while longer. Alexis learned that the girl’s name was Harper, and they exchanged numbers before the concert started. Before long, eight men appeared on the stage, who Alexis assumed to be the band. Alexis took several videos of certain songs, along with a few pictures. To her surprise, she actually somewhat enjoyed the concert. Was it the best concert she had ever been to? No. Was it still decent? Yeah. She said goodbye to Harper and made her way back to her car. It only took her thirty minutes. The amount of fans at the concert was crazy. Once she finally made it to her car and out of the parking lot, it was past midnight. She stopped at a Buc-ee's to fill up on gas and get a snack before starting the drive back home.

At about four A.M., Alexis arrived back in her hometown. Not knowing what to do, as she obviously couldn’t go back home at four in the morning, she decided to call her cousin, James. “What on earth do you need at this time?!” he exclaimed into Alexis’ ear as soon as he picked up.

Alexis racked her brain for excuses to make. “Uh, I was out with a friend and she just dumped me. Wanna go to Waffle House?”

Alexis heard a sigh from the other side of the phone. “Why do you always seem to have problems? Yeah, I’ll come. The one near my place?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Be there in ten.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Alexis turned around and headed to Waffle House, which luckily was not all that far from where she was when she called James. After just a few minutes she arrived, and James pulled in just as she was getting out of the car. “Hey, Lex!” he called.

Alexis smiled. “Hey!”

The two walked in together and grabbed a table, ordering their drinks. (Alexis ordered a chocolate milk while James ordered a Coke. At four A.M. There was seriously something wrong with that boy.) “So, what loser dumped you?”

“Ah, it was Stella. We went out to the mall with Belle, but then she invited Belle over to her house and not me, and it would’ve been embarrassing to go home after that.” Alexis really didn’t like lying to her favorite cousin, but what could she do? She had gotten herself into a predicament and was almost through with it. She only really needed to worry about the textbooks now. “Don’t tell my parents.”

“I won't; don’t worry. That’s kinda crappy though.”

“Tell me about it.”

Alexis and James continued to talk for several hours, catching up on things since they hadn’t seen each other in a while. James had always been one of Alexis’ favorite people, so she was grateful for any time she got to spend with him, even if it was because she had gotten herself into a mess trying to ditch a party. Once it reached 8 A.M., they finally decided it was time to head home. Alexis said bye to James and got in her car. However, when she turned the key, nothing happened. She tried again and got the same result. “Ugh, what is happening?!” she exclaimed.

James saw her dilemma and came over to see what the problem was. “Looks like your battery died,” he told her after some examination.

Alexis groaned. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Give me a minute. I’ll call AAA and see if they can sort it out.”

James walked over to his car and got on his phone. Alexis just sat in her car, frustrated. She was tired, still worried about money, not sure what she was going to do about those textbooks that she had told her mom she was getting, and now the battery in her car was dead! Never had she wished that she had gone to a party as much as she did at that moment. She sighed. James made his way back to her car. “They should be here in a few minutes,” he told her. “I can pay for it since I’m the one who called them, not you.”

“Thank you so much, James,” Alexis said, giving her cousin a small hug. “What would I do without you?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe be stuck in a Waffle House parking lot all alone with a dead car battery and no help on the way?”

Alexis lightly smacked him. “Not funny, James.”

“It kinda is though,” James replied, laughing.

Alexis rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as James continued to laugh. After just a few minutes, a lot sooner than Alexis had expected, the AAA people came. James talked to them, and they got her car fixed up quickly. “Okay, bye for real now, James,” Alexis told her cousin, getting in her now-working car.

“Bye.”

Both of them drove off towards their houses. When Alexis finally arrived home about thirty minutes later, she was absolutely exhausted. It was only then that she realized she had gotten no sleep. “Hi, Mom,” she said to her mom, who was making herself breakfast.

“Hi, sweetie. Did you have fun last night?”

Alexis nodded. The concert and Waffle House actually had been a lot of fun. “Yeah. I didn’t get much sleep, though, so I’m heading to bed.”

“Ok, sleep well.”

Alexis trudged into her room and collapsed onto her bed. She changed into more comfortable clothes before snuggling under her blanket. She was out in minutes.

***

Alexis woke up around lunchtime. She rolled out of bed and made her way into the kitchen, tearing open the pantry in search of food. After making herself a sandwich, she hurried back to her room to figure out what to do about the “textbooks” she told her mom she was raising money for. She also sent a few of the pictures of the concert to Stella. Almost immediately after, Stella called her. Alexis groaned but picked up anyway.

“You didn’t tell me you liked K-pop!” Stella squealed. “I’m not a big boy group fan, but I love girl groups! Oh my gosh, I have a K-pop friend! Aaaah!”

Uh oh. “Oh, uh yeah, I just discovered them recently but I think they’re pretty good. They’re the only group I really like, though.” Alexis supposed she was going to have to become a Stray Kids fan now.

“Ooooh, I need to show you some other groups! Can you come over next week?”

Alexis groaned internally. Not going over to Stella’s house was the whole reason she had gone to the concert in the first place, and now Stella was inviting her over again? “I don’t know. I might be busy. I think I have plans to go shopping or something, but I can check.”

“Okay, text me if you can!”

“Will do.”

“Also, I hope you had fun at the concert!”

“I did. It was amazing.”

Stella sighed on the other side of the phone. “I’m jealous. Well, I’ve got to go, but I’ll talk to you on Monday, okay?”

“Sounds good. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Alexis hung up. She was going to have to make plans to go shopping next weekend. Maybe she would go with her mom. But that was a problem for later this week. First, she needed to get the textbook situation figured out. She decided to do the obvious: check Amazon. She found a few that actually looked like something her school would buy and took screenshots of them. She decided that she would edit the pictures later that week but wait to show her mom, since realistically it would take forever for actual textbooks to come in. Maybe her mom would forget by then anyways. Alexis leaned back in her chair and sighed. This had been a mess, and it didn’t look like her predicament would change any time soon thanks to Stella. Oh well. Next time, she decided, she would not be making any excuses. Going to the party would be way easier.

Posted Apr 25, 2025
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