I sat curled up on my bed, staring at the wall. Unwilling tears fell from my eyes like diamonds chipping from a cave wall. Holding the phone in my hands, I silently waited for the promised call.
"Hey, worthless," said a man from the door, "get up." I ignored him. "Stop crying and get up. You've got chores to do."
"Leave me alone, Dad," I said, sniffling.
"Don't speak to your father that way. Now get up or I'll get the wrench." I groaned and reluctantly rose from the bed. "Good. Go mow the lawn."
I hated mowing the lawn, and he knew it; the bugs, the heat, not to mention the noise. He knew mowing the lawn was torture for me. He just wanted to see me suffer even more than I already was.
I reticently started up the mower, swatting away nuisance bugs in the meantime. I glanced up a few times at the living room window to see Dad smiling at my frustration. I glared.
Hummmmmmm... Why didn't he call?
Hummmmmmm... Did he forget my number?
Hummmm... Maybe he doesn't like me after all.
"Hey, Mikey!!"
Huh?
I turned to see the familiar tall ravenet waving eagerly at me from across the street. I smiled broadly and waved back, almost letting go of the mower. I motioned for him to come over, and he did.
"Whatchya doin'? Mowing the lawn? I hate mowing the lawn. I can tell you do, too. Sorry I didn't call, I fell asleep. It's so warm! I sometimes fall asleep in the heat. Don't you think it's really warm? It was probably worse in Hurricane. That's really far away, you know. You do know, you lived there! I'm gonna stop talking now, haha. Maybe. I talk a lot. Especially when I'm talking to someone I like. I like you a lot. You're really pretty. Thank goodness you're not homophobic. Or maybe you are. Are you?"
"You exhaust me," I said. "But I like you."
"Haha! Yeah, I realized it would be too late to call, so I looked up your number in the phone book and found your house instead! Phone books are kind of stupid, right? At least they're good for booster seats for shorties like you!" He pat the top of my head teasingly.
"You're only a few inches taller than me, you know," I said, but didn't make him move his hand.
The day had just gotten a lot better.
~~~~~~~~
"Whatchya doin'~?" Sean said, laying his head on my lap. I lowered my book to see his face—he looked flushed.
"Nothing. What's up with your face?" I replied.
"Oh, it's a... A sunburn, yeah." He stuttered out. Surprisingly, he stopped talking there.
"Okay, what's up, Seannie Bonnie?" I said, closing my book and putting a hand on his chest. "You're way quieter than usual." He didn't respond, but averted his eyes. "Sean."
Still not saying a word, Sean lifted a finger to his bottom lip and stared at an even taller, black man wearing a yellow shirt and bleached-blue jeans, standing aloof in the field.
Jack, my best friend since grade 7.
Oh no.
"Sean, did you - did Jack - why - when - how -" I stammered, but Sean interrupted me.
"I'm sorry, Mikey! I really am! He just came onto me and started flirting and he was really pretty and I'm so so sorry please forgive me!" He shot out, clearly close to tears by the end of his mini-rant.
I was honestly speechless. Did Jack know Sean was already with me? Why did Sean let him? Did he feel bad? Did Jack feel bad? Was he watching? Did he realize? Does Sean know Jack was my best friend? A million questions swarmed my mind but I could only focus on one.
Why?
~~~~~~~~
"Hey," I said, sitting next to Jack.
"Hey," he said in response, not looking at me. We sat in silence for a few minutes, each munching away on our respective pb/j sandwiches. Eventually, I spoke up.
"You know that boy wearing the blue shirt?" He was walking around, making friends, as it came easy to him.
"Yeah." Jack said, looking where I was pointing. "That's Sean. He's cute, yeah?"
"He's my boyfriend," I said, monotone. Jack took a hard swallow of his sandwich and coughed.
"Is he, now?" He said, failing at making his voice sound aloof. "That's cool. Yeah, cool. Really super-duper cool. Chill. Awesome. Easy. Nice. Yeah." I could see his face flushing, though he tried to hide it by taking a few more bites of his sandwich.
"He told me you kissed him," I said. When he turned back to face me, I looked away.
"Did he...?" He said. "Look, Mike, I'm sorry. It was bad of me."
"Sorry doesn't fix this, Jackson."
"Mike, I didn't know you were dating!"
"ARE YOU FUCKING BLIND?!" I shouted. "DO YOU NEED A CANE?! OF COURSE, WE'RE FUCKING DATING!!!"
"Mike-"
"I can't believe you don't understand it's YOUR duty, as my BEST FRIEND, NOT TO KISS MY FUCKING BOYFRIEND!!"
"Michael, people are stari-"
"I don't care. You RUINED my relationship, Jackson! YOUR idiot good-for-nothing unobservant ass put me and Sean on the rocks, because you KISSED MY FUCKING BOYFRIEND!!! Don't ever talk to, text or even LOOK at me or Sean ever again, because we are OVER!" I stood up and started to grab my things, punching Jack hard in the gut before I walked away.
"Thanks for that," Sean said as I walked him out of the cafeteria. "I mean it. He kinda just came on me. Don't take that the wrong way. Or do, I don't really know. That was awkward, though, everyone was staring. You're okay with that? Wow. So I guess you and Jack aren't friends anymore, huh? That's good. A shame, though; he was really pretty. I mean, not as pretty as you—not nearly."
"It's alright, Seannie Bonnie," I said. "Let's just get home. I'm not in the mood for school anymore, and my dad won't give a shit whether we skip." He nodded and we went to our respective lockers—somehow, probably how he found me in the first place, right next to each other.
😗✌
