Kitty

7

As we walk to his house, my backpack slung over my shoulder, we have a normal conversation, surprisingly. We talk about school mainly, the one thing we can both relate to. Although our school lives are much different from each other's. While he hates English, I hate Math; he has friends, I don't; he doesn't care for art class, it's my only freedom during school besides lunchtime.

When we reach his house, which has a tall fence surrounding it, I realize I've never seen it before. Or haven't paid attention to it. Which kind of makes sense, since our neighborhood is so big and I rarely pay attention to anything.

As he opens the gate that gets us through the tall fence, I start feeling nervous. Am I going to be alone with him? Wait, I already am. No, but I mean in his room, alone? Oh my god I don't think I can do this. Alonealonealonealone with his beautiful face and alone in his roo-

"Are you coming or what?"

"Oh! Sorry," I mutter, scurrying in after him. He quickly shuts the gate behind me and locks it, and before I can ask why, I'm slammed to the ground by some beast.

"PEANUT, OFF!" Jay yells, ripping a beige-colored creature off of me.

I sit up, feeling to see if any bones are broken. Whew, none. Good. I hate going to the hospital. It's a waste of time.

"You call your fucking BULLMASTIFF Peanut???" I say, utterly disgusted. "That is totally misleading."

"I know, right? I knew you'd love the name," he says jokingly, staring lovingly at "Peanut" who is being restrained by him, his fingers wrapped tightly around her collar.

I heave myself up, dusting my back off, only to get barreled into again.

"RESTRAIN YOUR DOG, OR I'LL HAVE ANIMAL CONTROL DO IT FOR YOU," I shriek through Peanut's tongue slapping my face.

Jay, holding back his laugh, comes over and merely says, "Whoops, my fingers slipped."

We finally make it into his house after Peanut had to be shut in the backyard, and I find myself amazed.

As soon as you walk in, there's two spiral staircases symmetrical to each other, leading to the top floor. Everything is clean and smells fresh as well. Jay leads me past the staircases and into the main floor. Everything is open and the kitchen is gorgeous, marble countertops and clean hardwood floors. I thought my house was huge.

As we both enter the kitchen, I see Jay's mom at the island, preparing some homemade pizza. Jay introduces me, and I shyly put out my hand, my dumb antisocial self trying to greet her with a handshake. She laughs and pulls me into a hug, making me feel welcome. I set my backpack down by the glass dining table, and ask if she needs help. She nods, and puts me to work, having me spreading tomato sauce on some homemade pizza dough.

Soon, all the pizzas are in her two ovens, and we sit down to talk in the living room after I let my parents know I'm staying at a friend's house for dinner. My parents freaked out of course, asking when I had made a friend.

As I'm telling Jay's mom, who I now know as Cara, about the homework we have to do, I notice a picture on their fireplace mantle.

"Yeah, we have to do a project for Physics, an- who's that?" I say, curiously examining the picture from afar.

"Ah, that's our old dog, Cash. After he passed away, we knew we had to get another bullmastiff," Cara says, slightly sadly.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that he passed away," I say, looking down.

"It's fine, hun, he's been gone for a while now. Jay was a wee child when he passed. I remember them playing together when Jay was a toddler. Jay would run around naked after his bath time, trying t-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH, MOM," Jay says, interrupting her.

I give Jay a sly look, and say, "Actually, Ms. Brooks, I would love to hear the rest of the story."

She shakes her head, smiling, and says, "Don't worry, I'll tell you some other time when Jay isn't around to interrupt."

The pizza timer goes off, and Cara gets them out of the oven, Jay and I there to savor the smell. As we head to the table, Jay's arm brushes mine, and I can't stop the rush of butterflies. Ughhh. Having a crush is an awful experience. I feel like I can't control myself. I keep thinking of him and I can't control my reactions to him.

My ears go red and I look anywhere but at him.

We sit down and grab the slices we prefer, then start eating. We hold small conversations and I find myself liking Cara more and more. She's a sweet mother. After I finish, I ask to be excused and navigate my way to the bathroom. I shut the door and lock it behind me, needing a small break socially. My introverted self relaxes as I do my business and then wash my hands. I dry them, then come out of the bathroom, hands smelling like peaches.

I go back to the table and sit down to wait politely until everyone is finished. Once Jay finishes off his pepperoni slices, he hops up to clean the kitchen. I pitch in, trying to wash the stuff that won't fit in their dishwasher. After we finish and Cara settles down on the couch with a cup of tea, I figure that's our cue to work on homework. As Jay heads to the staircase, me following closely behind him, Cara hollers over to us, asking me if I want to stay the night.

Internally, I freak out and decide on saying no, but externally, I say, "Sure, why not?"

What have I gotten myself into?