Cute Voice

POV: Jason

The bags under his eyes reached up itchy hands and yanked on his lashes. Jason blinked away the vision. He was so, so tired. His insides had gone to sleep on old, pimpling blankets, or curled up in sleeping bags, but his body was awake. Standing on a too-long, too-slow line to leave the bus. 

The mildew smell of the bus had become invisible to his nose, but he would occasionally smell it again. It always reminded him of the man who'd been sitting next to him on the bus before this one. Random Yet Nosy Man on the Bus? Nose Dude? What had his name been again? Jason shook his head, sending away a weird feeling that wormed into his stomach at that thought. 

The line shuffled forward and a smile suddenly slammed onto Jason's face, like a flying squirrel onto a tree. It started to strangle him. Again, Jason shook off the vision. He was tired. Really, really tired. Also, he was excited. Shelly, his mind whispered. He was meeting her. He was meeting his- he was meeting her.

Jason stepped off the bus, onto a street washed with recent rain and promise of rain in the air. It began to rain as he walked away from the bus, but nobody was wet besides for him. Jason ran his fingers through wet hair, resisting the urge to scream. He needed sleep. The rain hardened, and the ground became an ocean of sleep he needed to be floating in. 

Jason sat sharply. He was on the curb of the street and needed to think. He was tired and had only eaten m&m's and Lay's potato chips since leaving home. But he had to pull it together. He was going to meet Shelly now, and he would keep it together for her. 

Slowly, the rain lessened to a drizzle, a slight mist. Jason ordered an Uber on his phone, typing in 125 Gulls way into the destination box, stomach exploding into bees as he did so. The butterfly line was dumb, he thought. Butterflies just flew around silently and ate things with their feet (which was kind of gross.) Now, if you had bees flying around your insides, now that's anxiety. The thing about love at first sight was dumb, too. Sure, Shelly would probably be adorable and smoky hot all at once, but he loved her already. It wasn't a matter of sight. It should be called "love at first sound." Yeah, that would be better. It had a nice ring to it anyway. 

A car pulled up the curb, and Jason stood, wrenching the door open. A man looked over his shoulder at Jason. "Jason?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Gavin. 125 Gulls way?"

"That's the one."

He didn't remember the drive, just the cold feeling of the window against his forehead. 

"We're here," said Gavin. 

Jason blinked awake, and so did the bees. But his head felt slightly clearer with the catnap, and the rain had dried from his hair and clothes slightly. Through the window was a small house, with blue tiling and windows that reflected that grey sky. Scrawny shrubbery grew beneath the window, and there was a grimy pathway that led to the screened front door. It was kind of cute, like a kids painting. 

"Thanks," Jason said to Gavin, then gathered himself, and left the car. 

The walk down the pathway took somewhere between three hundred billion years and a point millionth of a second. Jason wiped his palms on his jeans. He'd changed into the other set of clothes he'd worn this morning, but he had gotten a chocolate stain on the tee-shirt. He could have sworn it was smaller this morning. How had it gotten bigger? Would Shelly think it's gross? And why was he even so nervous? He was great! He was amazing! He'd never had problems with girls once they'd seen him. Not to be egotistical or anything, but girls totally dug guys who looked like him! Shelly would be like them, no, better than them. It would be fine. It would be fine! 

Jason stepped up onto the stoop, took a deep breath, then pulled the screen toward him, and knocked. 

Nothing.

He knocked again, louder. 

Footsteps. 

Jason took a deep breath, shut out all thoughts of Nick, his father, Katie, anything he didn't want to think about now, as the door opened. A man stood behind it. Jason jumped. Well, not jumped. Jason wouldn't jump. Jumping is for little girls. Rather, he gave a kind of cool jerk backward. 

A man. A man?! Shelly's parents were together? He'd somehow always thought they were divorced. Unless...

"Can I help you?" Said the man.

Unless Shelly had given Jason her dad's address! It made sense! Her unwillingness, her obvious guilt, her mother's untrusting. 

"Shelly," Jason mumbled. 

"I'm sorry?" Said the man, brown eyebrows working downward.

"Shelly," Jason said louder. "Do you have a daughter named Shelly Brian?"

He suddenly wanted to place his hands over his ears. He didn't want to hear the answer. He didn't want to. The rain came down harder, becoming almost deafening. They streamed his face like tears he didn't cry. Weirdly, the shrubbery seemed completely dry. 

"Nope."

"What?" Jason breathed. 

"No, my last name is Tenseli. Do you mean Katie? I only have one daughter and her name is Katie."

"Katie?" Jason's thoughts churned. "Yeah, please."

The man disappeared into the house, leaving Jason with the rain. This all some joke. Shelly would call him any minute and tell her that she gave him Katie's address and that the two were having a sleepover and then she would show up and give him a much-needed hug and everything would be okay. 

A girl appeared in the doorway, coming out of nowhere. She was a blonde with brown eyes, a lot of makeup, and jeans with floral underwear on top. Jason blinked. No, it had been an illusion of the light. They were just jeans with floral designs. 

"Who are you?" The girl said. 

It was a voice Jason knew. 

"Katie," he whispered.

The girl made a buzzing noise, like he'd gotten something wrong on a spelling test. "That's me, try again."

"It's me, it's Jason."

"Oh, okay, are you from Cali or something? Because you look like a definite Cali Hottie. You know what, forget it. What do you need?"

Jason's stomach jolted. "It's me, it's Jason."

"Yeah, you said that, C.H. I know. Are you from school or something?"

"No, I-"  Did she not remember him, or had she never gotten his name? "Where's Shelly?"

The girl's expression was blank. 

A snake of rain dripped down Jason's cheek. 

Then she spoke. "Who's Shelly?"