Come Down From Your Fences

Chapter 31

Maybe if he stared hard enough at the book she would think he hadn't heard her. Maybe she would think she was interrupting and leave him alone. Maybe --.

"Johnny," Sarah said, "did you hear my question?"

Mentally, he cringed, but he tried to adopt a confused look so she wouldn't catch on that he was uncomfortable.

"Huh?" he said, furrowing his brow as he kept his eyes trained on the textbook in front of him. He'd read the definition of cellular mitosis at least five times now and was pretty sure he couldn't explain it if his life depended on it. One more time couldn't hurt.

They were sitting at the kitchen table. Johnny was doing schoolwork and Sarah was just killing time after helping her mom plant flowers in the garden. He liked having her around. Growing up, he'd always wondered what it would be like to have an older brother or sister. He figured he would have been lucky to end up with a sister like Sarah. She talked to him like one of the guys, like Soda or Pony. She seemed to really value his opinion and want to know how things were going, if he had any problems, or if he just wanted to talk. She was cool. Of course, her ease around him sometimes brought about situations like this one. Not actually having an older sister made it kind of difficult to know how to talk to someone who had basically become one overnight.

Feeling her eyes on him, he forced himself to look up. She was chewing on her bottom lip - a habit that made her look younger and vulnerable.

Leaning forward, like she was telling him something top secret, she said, "Is Darry seeing anyone?"

"D-Darry Curtis?" he asked, trying to pretend he didn't know who she was talking about. He hadn't realized how bad he was at stalling until just now.

She sighed a sigh that sounded kind of amused and exasperated at the same time. "No, Dairy Queen. Just how many Darry's do you know?"

"Just wanted to make sure who you meant," Johnny shrugged, returning his attention to the book. He kept reading - the cell stuff still didn't make any sense; it made even less when he skimmed over the words without actually reading them.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sarah narrow her eyes and he got a little nervous - he'd seen that look before. He wasn't going to get out of answering her question. First Two-Bit and now Sarah - he wondered when he'd become the designated go-to guy for relationship advice.

She cleared her throat, and he carefully placed the textbook on the table, taking a moment to mark his page with a piece of paper before closing it. He was about to put the cap on his pen when she cleared her throat again and he gave in, finally meeting her gaze.

"You aren't going to make me ask a third time, are you?"

"No?" He hadn't meant for his voice to rise at the end and it wound up sounding like a question. Her answer was silent but it spoke volumes - a single raised eyebrow.

"I don't think so ... I don't think Darry's seein' anyone ..." he said slowly, his voice trailing off.

The change was immediate - a smile spread across her face and her cheeks colored like she was blushing. "Really?"

"Um ... I'm pretty sure?" He did that question thing again and winced, but Sarah didn't seem to notice.

She leaned forward in her chair, an excited gleam in her eye and Johnny had to fight the urge to back his chair away from the table. As it was, he had casually placed his right hand on the wheel in case he had to make a quick escape. "So," she started, "what type of woman does he usually date? What is he interested in? What does he like?"