Boyfriend by Christmas

Chapter 4

Trevor is late picking me up but Marino's is dead on Tuesday nights so we get a table quickly. I pick up my menu even though I already know what I'm going to order.

"What do you usually get here?" I ask Trevor. The car ride to the restaurant was silent so I'm hoping to start some conversation. "I always get the parmesan burger." It's a hamburger with sauce and cheese on top. Like a meatball sandwich, but a hamburger. Or chicken parm with a burger instead. It's delicious.

"I like their pasta bowls," he says. I wait for him to elaborate, tell me what kind, something. He doesn't. He just stares past me until the waitress comes back for our drink order. "I think we're ready to order food, too," he tells her.

So clearly it's just me he won't talk to.

Trevor orders the chicken parm pasta bowl and I order my parmesan burger. We both order Cokes, which could be a conversation starter, but I tried last time. I think it's his turn.

After ten minutes of twiddling my thumbs, I figure I can take another turn.

"So do you know where you're going to college?"

"UMass," he says. Nothing else.

"Oh. Which campus? I thought about going there but I want to get out of the state. My dad lives in Connecticut so technically I can get instate tuition to schools down there if I want. I'm thinking maybe I'll go to UConn. I've heard it's a great school."

"Probably Amherst."

I decide not to bother trying to keep up a conversation. Trevor is definitely not making top three.

While waiting for dinner to come, I think about the study session Garrett and I had earlier. We never have any trouble talking to each other, even if he does offend me sometimes.

Garrett is a really good teacher though. I get why he wants to become a history teacher. He could do it right now. He walked me through everything we need to know for the test Friday today and helped me make flash cards. That way on Thursday, we can study using the cards.

Sitting at our table in the bookstore, Garrett handed me a stack of index cards. "We'll start with dates and events and move on to people."

I wrote the first date on the front of a card.

Garrett laughed. "I wish writing wasn't such a good way to study. Otherwise, I'd make the cards. Then maybe we'd both be able to read them on Thursday."

"Hey! Don't make fun of my handwriting."

"I'm not," he said. "I think it's cute. It's just not conducive to studying."

I slapped him with a card. "Maybe it is though. If I memorize what the cards say, I won't have to read them. And if I memorize what they say, I won't fail Friday's test."

Garrett smiled. "You might be onto something there."

"What are you smiling at?" Trevor asks, breaking me out of a memory much more pleasant than this one.

"Just thinking about a test I have to take Friday."

He scoffs. "And that makes you smile."

Ugh. Why was this guy even on my list? "Yes, it does. I happen to like school." Okay so that's not why I was smiling, but it is true.

"I knew you were weird," he mumbles.

Luckily, our food comes so there's an excuse for the silence that follows.