The Riveting Lives of Russell and Sal

Chapter 7

Why did I agree to going out with Sal? Russell wondered as he drove home from Youth Group. He hated him. And as far as he could tell, the feeling was mutual. Why would Sal even want to hang out with him, if all he did was pick on him?

And then he remembered the fun he had when they were playing that zoo game. So much he had forgotten all about that paper. He never forgot to do schoolwork.

Annoying as Sal was, Friday night would be anything but dull. He hoped his parents would let him go. What would he tell Sal if they wouldn't? Russell pulled up in his driveway and parked, then chewed his thumbnail all the way to the front door. He unlocked it and stepped inside, thumbnail back in mouth. The sound of the TV came from the family room, so Russell wandered in there to find his mother on the couch. It was now or never. He cleared his throat. "I'm home."

"Right on time." His mother grabbed the remote, and turned down the volume. "How was Youth Group?"

"Alright."

"Did Pastor Dave-"

"CanIhangoutwithafriendtomorrow?" Russell asked in one word.

His mother tilted her head, brow furrowed. "What was that?"

Russell took a calming breath. "A friend... He invited me to hang out at the mall tomorrow, after school. Can I go?"

His mother gave him a hard stare. "Don't you have your SAT's on Saturday?"

"I've been studying all week, and I can study again after the date-"

"Date?"

"Hanging out! After we hang out." Russell chewed his thumbnail, mentally cursing Sal for saying "date" so many times earlier. Which this certainly was not.

"Which friend?"

"A new one. Sal. The guy I worked on that group paper with."

"Ah." His mother didn't sound thrilled with the idea of him hanging out with Sal. She had yelled at him when he came home late that one night, and almost took away his laptop. But Russell had other homework he needed to use his laptop for, which earned him a lecture on procrastination from his father. Thankfully they let him stay up an extra hour that night to finish it all.

Russell went back to chewing on his thumbnail right when his father walked in.

"Russell! You're 17 years old. Stop sucking your thumb."

"I'm not sucking it, I'm chewing-"

"Knock it off." He took a seat on the couch next to his mother. "What's this about a date?"

Russell found himself feeling hot, and had to force his hands to remain at his sides. "There's no date. I want to hang out with a new friend tomorrow. Can I?"

"Aren't your SAT's the next day?" his father asked.

"I've been studying really hard. And it'll only be for a few hours. Please. I haven't socialized in a long time."

"You just came back from Youth Group," his father said. "There's plenty of kids there to socialize with."

Russell bit back a snippy retort about the second oldest kid being a 15 year old girl. "None of them are my age."

His parents shared a look, then his mom looked back at Russell. "Alright. But be home by 6."

His father pulled out his wallet, and picked out a few bills, handing them over to Russell. "Don't spend it all in one place," he said, smiling.

It wasn't often that his parents would give him money. Russell returned his smile, and took the bills. "Thank you."

His father patted his shoulder. "Have fun."

Russell turned around and walked towards his room, grinning the entire way. He shut his door behind him, but instead of going to his desk, he leaned his back against the door, sliding down to the floor like a giant pile of mush. It was happening. He was going to spend the next night hanging out with Sal, and the thought made him sick to his stomach. But in an oddly good way. Almost as though he had some sort of crush or something.

Russell managed to get back to his feet long enough to go sit at his desk where his laptop lay, and he opened it to go on Nolapets to feed his virtual creatures. Mostly out of habit at this point. But where else was there to go? The only other site he'd really been on was BeFriend, but his parents banned him from it. All on the off-chance he'd come across some pervert.

He wondered if Sal had a BeFriend profile. So he opened a private window, and logged into the site. Surprisingly, he had a notification. Odd, since he only had 11 friends on there, many of which only added him because they knew him in some way. Probably to make their friend count impressive. He checked the notification, his jaw dropping.

Sal Rondello viewed your profile.

That answered his question.

"What was Sal doing, looking at my BeFriend profile?" Russell wondered aloud. The boy hadn't even sent a friend request or liked any of his pictures. Thank God Russell had his profile set to "friends only" so Sal couldn't see any of his lame posts from last year. 16 year old Russell was an embarrassment. He hovered the mouse over Sal's name and hesitated. Sal might be able to see if Russell had checked out his profile. Did he have that setting off? He checked to make sure his settings still had that option turned off before clicking Sal's name.

Sal's profile contained nothing but a picture. And it wasn't because of privacy settings. He was a member since last week. The day he viewed Russell's profile. So what, did he make an account just to stalk him or something? Pathetic. Just for that, Russell went ahead and saved Sal's profile picture to print out later. Two can play that game.

Russell stared at the image until someone knocked on his door. He quickly closed it, and switched back to Nolapets. "Come in."

It was his mother. "Why aren't you in bed? It's 9:30."

"I was getting ready to," Russell said.

"Lights off in 5 minutes."

"Okay." Russell rolled his eyes when his mother left the room. "What 17 year old goes to bed at 9:30," he grumbled to himself. He grabbed a flashlight from his nightstand drawer, and a pen from his pencil cup. From his bookshelf, he grabbed a book and a notebook. Instead of doing what his mother asked of him, he spent the next hour reading by flashlight, stopping every now and then to take notes.