Eight Boy (Jeremy Shada)

nine

He had picked me up early that morning and there I was at 8:48am sitting on his bed trying not to fall back asleep.

"Come help me pour the flour into these jars." He was very bossy this morning. "Fucking fuck," he cursed as he had spilt some over his desk.

Fucking fuck. How original.

He sat back down in his chair leaning over with his head in his hands.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I squatted down in front of him.

"Maddison."

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked hesitantly.

"No," He replied shaking his head.

"Good because neither do I," he chuckled slightly at me. "Whatever it is I'm sure you guys will get through it." I placed a hand on the side of his leg. I was supporting him instead of letting them fall apart so I could have him.

"She's treating me like shit, I don't know how to get through it," he sighed, I could hear the struggle in his voice.

"Well looks like you're not kinda together anymore," I playfully joked to try lightening the mood. It didn't work.

"Paisley I-I lied. She is my girlfriend."

"Why?" I breathed out in disbelief.

"Why what?" He looked up at me.

I decided to seat myself on the floor. "Why did you lie and why is she your girlfriend?"

"I only lied because I didn't want her to scare you the other day. The girls she sits with are no help either. She's my girlfriend because I-I like her... I love her?"

"Do you? Do you really?" I didn't mean to sound so forceful.

"Well she's one of the only girls that have really tried to get my attention." Um hello I stare at you all the time in class, "I mean she likes me a lot so I thought if I got into a relationship with her I'd like her just as much... And I do... I did. At first I did but now everything's different. She's treating me like shit and I don't know what to do about it," he managed before placing his head back into his hands.

Who'd have known? Boys really do have feelings.

"Jeremy listen. First of all you don't get into a relationship unless you like that person just as much as they like you okay? Secondly talk to her about how she's treating you, maybe there's something wrong. Give her a few days, a week or two I don't know... and if you truly are treating her right and she still hasn't changed then maybe you don't need her. Just by looking at the two of you I know you deserve a lot better, you're smart, good looking and although sometimes you don't seem it, you're really caring." This time I grabbed onto one of the hands that was cupping his face.

I felt weird, I hope he couldn't sense that I was trying too hard to make him feel better because really all I knew about him was that he was one of the top students in the grade and he's extremely attractive, well to me anyway.

He looked at me not breaking his stare, "do you really think I'm too good for her?"

"Well from how I see things, yes but I don't know much about her. She's not really bright, not very sporty, I mean she has a good body but that can only get you so far. Maybe she has a good personality, God lets hope, but from how she's approached me, I don't like it but hey maybe that's her being protective over something that's hers," I stated making him chuckle again. "I'm being serious," I affirmed.

A smile grew across his face, "I know, I know you're just... I don't know."

Our eyes locked and I could feel the tension building. I didn't know what else to do so I dipped my thumb in the spilt flour and drew a cross on his forehead while saying "Simba" then began singing Circle of Life. He burst out laughing and I watched as he put his hand into the bag of flour.

"Nooo," I laughed before getting up and running to his bed. "You wouldn't wanna get it in your sheets would you," I practically screamed diving under the covers. He pulled the blankets off then put the handful of flour in my hair.

"That's what you get," he said smugly.

"Whatever." I laid down in his bed. "Now you'll have to change the sheets."

"They were in need of a clean anyway, if you get what I mean," he cheekily smiled.

"Jeremy yuck!" I shouted shutting my eyes tight.

"There's the door to my bathroom if you wanna see what you look like." He pointed to one of the two doors I hadn't noticed before.

"What's the other one?" I asked as he opened the door to the bathroom.

"Oh, my wardrobe, c'mon I'll show you another time." He pushed me towards the mirror.

"I look like I have an extreme problem of dandruff," I muttered while trying to pick lumps of wet flour from my wavy, brown locks. Once again Jeremy laughed at my own comment.

"Hang on I have to snapchat this," he noted while taking out his phone and getting a photo of me. He captioned it "she said she liked flours!"

"You're putting it on your story?" I questioned.

"Yeah? It's funny!" He smiled.

I just nodded. I got a gut feeling that it probably wasn't the best idea.

By the end of the day we had filled the jars with the flour beetles and flour and had secured the cotton lids over them.

"Okay so you'll need to come back next Tuesday, to see the growth after a week. I'll record every two days until then, just for accurate results," he offered while putting the jars onto one of the free shelves above his desk.

"Sounds good," I nodded falling onto one of the bean bags.

"How long until I have to have you home?" He questioned turning around to face me.

"Still another two hours" I answered glancing at my watch then back to him.

"Okay let's go somewhere" he insisted walking towards the door.

"Where?" I asked curiously following.

We walked for about 15 minutes until he found a bridge hidden by overgrown plants.

"Thanks for today Paisley." His walking pace began to slow.

"Finally, someone thanks me for my presence." Again he laughed at what I had said. I've never seen him laugh this much, let alone smile this much. "Why do you keep laughing? I'm serious."

"Because you're funny Paisley, I like you, you're really cool to be around."

My cheeks flushed bright red and I couldn't stop staring at the ground to hide my uncontrollable smiling from him.

"I like you too Jeremy," I managed trying to not sound too awkward, "and don't worry things between you and Maddison will get better, I'm always here to talk." I admired him as he looked the other way.

"I appreciate it, I appreciate you", he half smiled.