Our Summers

Chapter 4

***

   Pace laughed, almost choking on his ice cream.

   I threw him a glare. "What?" I asked rudely, not bothering to hide my annoyance at his action.

   Anderson was laughing now too. "Gee, I didn't know that was your type."

   I scowled at him. "I didn't know okay. I just caught him making out with another guy behind the gym. You can imagine my anger. He lied to me. I only get to go to prom once and he'd ruined it."

  They were both doubling over in laughter. "Stop it! Besides, he's still better looking than the both of you."

Anderson looked up. "Yeah sure, why don't you go ahead and date him?" He continued laughing.

The two of them laughing at my disposal got me infuriated. Why was I always the center of a joke? Everyone else was laughing at me now too.

"You guys are so annoying! " I said. "It wasn't like I intended for that to happ-"

   "We know." Anderson said cutting me off rudely. "That's why it's even funnier. "

   "How did that even happen?" Pace asked throwing me of guard. He never really talked about these subjects.

  They had both stopped laughing now and was waiting for my answer intently.  My whole family was looking at me too. I could tell everyone found this at least mildly funny. It was one of the few things that I liked about my family, they weren't so close minded. It was kind of annoying though, when the joke was on you.

   "He pursued me." I said almost gagging. "Being so attractive, I admit I was kind of flattered. Every girl in our school seemed to have a crush on him. I had some guys ask me to prom a bit earlier, but when he asked me, I accepted his offer. It wasn't like I wanted something serious anyway, it was just prom, the prospect of having someone good looking was just fun."

   I finished my ice cream, not knowing what else to say.

   Everyone had on amused faces. I didn't think they expected me to be so calm about it.

   "It's okay Gee. It's not you, it's him." Anderson said chuckling. "Besides you could have always just asked me."

   I stuck my tongue out at him. Even though I knew I went to school in New York, and he went to one here in California, I know his offer, although late and said in a joking manner, was genuine. It meant a lot, because under our circumstances I knew how hard that could have been to make it happen.

   "In your dreams, Anderson." I said playfully.

   Anderson feigned a look of being hurt and I smiled. I knew that whatever would happen, he would always have my back. We were loyal to each other like that.

Pace was staring silently among the others, listening to our conversation.

  I looked at my dad who looked so uncomfortable upon hearing me talking about boys. I wanted to laugh at his expression.

It was funny how in all of the places in the world, I'd seen John Stanners here. But maybe it just gave my family another perspective of me.