"Wow," Brian Patterson said, his eyes taking in the vast, cluttered
expanse of his attic, "I always forget how much junk we keep up here."
He gave himself a brief moment to reconsider his current course of
action, then finished climbing the stairs to make way for his three
friends to follow.Justin Davis, Brian's best friend, was next to
ascend into the messy space. His skinny chest coughed twice at the dust,
then adjusted his glasses. "I changed my mind. I thought this was going
to be way easier and a whole lot less depressing. Which of your parents
are hoarders?""I think it's a combination of the two," Brian
guessed, watching as the two large brothers, Sam and Eric brought up the
rear into the cramped space."So, what are we looking for again?" Sam asked earnestly.Brian
had to love the brothers. They weren't the sharpest, but they were
always willing to lend a hand when he needed it, and with their muscular
frames, they were always ideal when any heavy lifting was required.
"Anything that might be valuable. My mom said I could sell some of the
clothes up here that we've kept in storage forever. But she also said
there might be a few antiques I could pawn off downtown.""And why do you need this extra cash again?" Eric asked."Cause
of the girl, dumb dumb, remember?" Justin responded jovially, gently
wrapping on Eric's skull with his knuckles. "The one he works with and
wants to ask out. If she says yes he wants to take her to an expensive
restaurant to show her he's not the loser we all know he is."This
caused all four of them to laugh as the word 'loser' was sort of an
inside joke in their little clique. If possible, all four of them would
have tied for 'Most Likely Never To Accomplish Anything in Life' in
their senior yearbook. They had all barely graduated four years ago but
each had no aspirations for higher learning or the American dream.
Instead they had each settled into simple jobs with little to no
responsibility, little room for advancement, and never enough money to
live on. They could each make the paychecks stretch though, as they each
still lived at home. In situations such as this, where the need to
impress on a first date was seen as a priority, they had to get
creative.This is …