Behind Blue Eyes

10

March 10th

Today starts with me almost jumping out of bed with an odd spring in my step. Max is looking at me like I'm out of my mind, and maybe I am. That's OK with me. I wander my way over to the bathroom and begin to go nuts. I brush my teeth, straighten my hair, put some light makeup on. I'm going all out. This is actually the first time I've put on Makeup in a couple of weeks. I feel good. Really good.

David pokes his head in. He must've heard all the racket I was making. "What's got you so up and energetic this morning?"

"Do you remember Paul? That guy from group I was telling you about?"

"Yeah, the one who wanted to meet you out at that nature trail, right?"

I nod. "He wants to hang out at some minigolf place close by it."

David flashes me a shit-eating grin. "Ooooooh" he plays out.

"What? What's that for?"

"You're going out on a date. You're going out on a date." he sings to me like how a kid would when he's teasing someone on the playground.

I slap his arm. "Shut up! It's not a date. I just met him and I feel happy that someone other than you or mom or dad are asking me out of the house."

"Well, I'm happy for you. It's been so long since you've been up this early, acting this way. It's very refreshing to see it, again."

I smile at him. "Thank you."

David pulls me in for a hug. "I'm so proud of you. Seeing you like this makes me so happy, and I'm sure Mom and Dad would love it, too."

"Thanks, man." I tell him. He pulls away.

"I'm gonna hang around the house, today. If you need me, gimme a call, text or whatever. OK?"

"OK" I say.

David walks out of the bathroom and heads back to his room.

---

At around 1:00, I head to the mini-golf place. I make my way towards the main pavillion, only to hear a loud "Hey!" I whip around and see Paul with two golf clubs and two golf balls. He waves me over. I smile and head over towards him.

"You made it!"

"Of course. I've been looking forward to this."

"You have?" he questions.

"Of course! I don't get asked to hang out a lot. I haven't gotten asked a whole lot, period."

"Well, I'm really glad you could make it. I already got our stuff!"

He hands me a purple ball. "You're really lucky that my favorite color is purple."

"Whew, good thing I have super mind-reading powers."

I laugh. "That was bad."

He laughs, too. "Good, because the jokes are only gonna get worse from here."

"Oh, God, thanks for the warning."

We kick off the afternoon with two rounds of Minigolf. I won the first round while he got me in the second. We call it a tie and return our stuff to the employee. We walk over to stand in line for the go karts. They have a huge track that runs for, what seems like, miles. After waiting in line while exchanging playful glances, we settle into our karts and start racing. Somehow, even though I'm good at this whenever I'm doing this with David, he manages to beat me. Lucky bastard.

Soon after, we head inside where they have a huge arcade. Him and I play almost all of the games, from the ticket-givers like "hit the button when the light highlights the jackpot and you get free tickets" kinds of games, to the rail shooters, racing games, the Dance Dance Revolutions, the classic cabinets like "Street Fighter"and "Pacman" and finish it all off with a couple games of skee-ball. We get about 5,000 tickets, each, and go to cash in our prizes. We each get each other stuffed animals; I get him a dog, he gets me a tiny kitten. It instantly reminds me of Max.

By 4:00, we head over to the Ice Cream stand. We both get Mint chocolate chip flavor, the best kind, and find a seat outside.

"I'm really happy w-w-w-we did this" he tells me.

"I am too. My brother and I used to do these kinds of things all the time, when we were kids."

"How come you stopped?"

"Just didn't feel up to it, anymore. At least, not at the time. I remember the last time we did anything like this, we went to Cedar Point when I was twelve. We were there for a few hours and we left. These people from school saw us and started picking on us, mostly me."

"How come?"

"I was never that popular. They were picking at everything, from the way I looked, to the way I talked, even to the way I was standing. I was petrified. I became so self-conscious that I hated even leaving the house for school." I take a deep breath. "Sorry, it's hard for me to talk about this. Digging up these memories is tough for me."

"It's Ok." He leans over and grabs my hand with his, holding it in comfort. I'm taken back, but in a positive way. It's what I need. He pulls his hand back. "I'm s-s-s-sorry, that was too far."

"No, it wasn't" I assure him. "It was nice."

He bashfully smiles. "Just know that they can't hurt you a-a-a-anymore. It's in the past, and I guess the past never leaves y-y-you, but you can always c-c-chip away and keep moving forward. You can stand tall, be confident, and p-p-proud."

I smile at him. "You make it sound so easy."

"That's b-b-because it is" he smiles back.

We eat the rest of our ice cream and soon realize that it's time to part ways. It sucks, I just want the day to stretch out the day a little bit longer. He walks me over to my car.

"I had a really nice time with you, t-t-t-today" he says.

"I really did, too."

"Hug?" He asks me. I don't say anything and wrap my arms around him. I can feel the tension of him asking that wash away. We hold for a few seconds, but it feels like much more than that.

We pull away. "I'll see you Friday?" he asks.

"See you Friday" I smile.

I get into my car and start it. Before I pull out, he looks at me, smiles and waves goodbye. I give him a wave back and mouth "bye". He's so sweet.

I drive home and sit in my car before I fully shut the car off and go inside. I don't know what I'm feeling inside, I haven't really felt something like this... ever. I like it. No. I love it. After a few minutes, I head inside and relax. Today might be one of my favorite days I've had, yet. I really need to rethink the 31st.