Francis And The Saga Of Boys From Hazelville

Chapter Fourteen

With a slight limp, I get back to the car. Dubby looks like he's lost in another world. "Hey," I say.

"What did it say this time?" He looks at me now.

"Big development."

"Do you know who he is?" He perks up like a puppy.

"No, but he said he wants to meet tonight -"

"Tonight?" he repeats back.

"Yeah, tonight. At this party, it's a blue party where everyone wears blue, but we should wear red."

"Isn't that quite dramatic? Would that be embarrassing? You're really going to stand out."

"He said even just a piece of red clothing."

"But that's not even a slow meet Francis, that's just boom - oh my gosh he's there!" he continues. "Is that what you want?"

"I don't know what I want, Dubby. I just want to trust the process." Silence. "Don't you think the process is worth trusting?"

We keep driving around the coastal area. It's beautiful.

Dubby doesn't speak until he says, "Come on, let's go to the beach." I'm not sure about beaches, the water, the sand, it's messy. But no messier than my life right now. "Like we always used to."

"Alright," I give in. It never takes much for him to persuade me, though. Maybe that's why he's the perfect best friend. He pushes me out of my shell to do things I wouldn't on my own. His charisma is intoxicating. I don't understand how only I, well his mom also, but mostly me, can see it. That makes it all the more special.

We pull up in a deserted parking lot and go down to the beach. I am still and unmoving, caught by the rhythm of watching the waves. Dubby walks along further. He turns back to me, "Come on!"

I remain still. I don't want to. But he runs back and takes me with him. "But I don't like the sand."

"It can be washed away."

"By the ocean? Then walking back, more sand will be stuck."

"Live a little, Francis," he continues. "Or are you scared?"

I go anyway, I know I'll regret it, but hey, you gotta trust the process. And we run with excitement all the way to the water and even into the water. I hate every second, but I appreciate the fun to be had.

We splash about and then just to help matters it starts raining which turns into pouring. We are in too deep now, no going back to dry, may as well enjoy it. We are paddling and swimming and it's nice. I get too deep and go over to Dubby who helps me. We grab onto each other. He stares at me too closely, and I think in another universe, another timeline, we would have been so close we kissed. But not this one.

It's freezing now, and we rush out of the water and back to the car. How do I dry off before getting in? Just trying to squeeze and ring out my hair and clothes. But it hardly makes a dent. We get in anyway. We look at each other.

"That was fun," Dubby grins.

"Yeah, yeah it was." But we are just staring at each other thinking it's crazy, not knowing where to go next. He turns on the hot air conditioning, but it'll take more than that.

I have the idea of going into the toilets and drying off with paper towels and hot air drying the clothes, which helps a little, but not enough. And my seat in the car is all damp now. Was it worth it, though? As much as I don't want to say, Dubby was right.

We start driving back. "I guess we'll have to go get a red outfit now, right?" I say. Wanting the adventure to continue. And so we stop, still at the coast, at a clothing store.

We go in and look around. There are racks and racks of items, and thankfully for me, a real fate led thing - they are organized by color! I show Dubby and grin. He rolls his eyes. I head to the red section. Now this is important. If this goes well, I wanna be earth-shattering, like yes, you choose the right person to admire. Or if it goes bad, I want to be like, you know what you're missing. I need a cool sense of style. Do I go fancy, plain, too cool for school, smart casual, dressy -

And as if reading my mind Dubby says, "That one, dressy, but not trying too hard." He points to a dress. I take it out and think, yeah, he's right.

I try it on and it fits perfectly. Dubby comes over, and he likes it, I can tell. "It looks great. Very pretty," he says with a smile. And there it is, it's the one.

He picks something white, because he's Dubby, 'white' not? He wouldn't go to a blue party wearing blue. I assume he's going. He's not going to let me go alone. Leaving, he says, "Maybe I should have got something red, huh? Then I could get a secret admirer. Is that how it works?"

"No, I wish."

"You don't need to wish, your genie has already come out to play." I laugh.

We drive back to town and things feel better than they did on the way. It feels like a long day of shift and change, but the good kind. Dubby complains about how to get his seats to dry out, but other than that, it's like nothing uneasy ever took place. Now all I gotta do is worry about this party. For sometimes you just gotta boss up, get your shit together, and make movements. At the very least, I can try.