The Side Ways [mileven]

chapter 3 - the water

Jonathan and I were walking to his car so we could drive home from the Wheeler's house. We had finally stayed over for a while for the first time in a few days. All of us had been oddly busy doing stuff involving family or just running around in general.

"How was the game?" Jonathan asked. "Pretty good. We weren't able to get as far into it as I wanted to, though," I answered. My brother nodded as we arrived at the car. Jonathan ran to the driver's side of the car to get in while I was already shutting my door.

As we buckled in, I asked "What's for dinner?" I hadn't ate at the Wheeler's. Jonathan was pulling out of the driveway when he replied with "Pork chops." I smiled. "Yum." "Yum is right." Jonathan returned the smile.

"So, how was your day? Like, at school?" I asked him. He narrows his eyes a bit. "Uh, good! Good, good," he responded. I furrowed my eyebrows at him. "You sure? You seem a little unsure of yourself," I countered. Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah, totally fine. Just typical high school stuff. Test, pop quizzes, etcetera," he said. I didn't even noticed that he had just pulled into our driveway. Either we made slow conversation or Jonathan decided to go over the speed limit.

"Alright," I finally said, ending that conversation. I always thought that it was better for me to stay out of high school stuff. It all seems so extreme, and I'd rather just deal with it when I have to, myself.

Jonathan and I got out of the car and started to head into the house. I went in first and smiled at my mom who was in the kitchen. "Hi, mom!" She smiled back at me and gave a small wave. "Hello, sweetie! How was your day?" "It was pretty good," I said with more volume in my voice as I walked back to my bedroom to throw my backpack onto my bed. "That's good," I heard her voice call from the kitchen. I smiled as I plopped onto my bed. I really didn't spend that much time outside of my room. I liked to read, draw, color, and listen to music. If I'm not with the boys, Mike, Lucas, or Dustin, then that's most likely what I'm doing.

I heard a knock on m door. "Come in," I said, my nose still burried in the book I was reading. The door opened and I looked up to see it was just Jonothan. "Hey." I said looking at him for a second before looking back inside my book. "Hey," he began to say. "How about you put the book down for a second." I slowly set the book down next to me, starting to feel a bit uneasy.

Jonathan sat down on my bed next to me while chuckling. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble or anything..unless you have a reason to be." That's when I started to laugh.

Jonathan just looked at me for a while and said nothing. I stared back at him with a confused look on my face. Jonathan's mouth curled into a smile and he started to wiggle his eyebrows. I laughed some more. "What are you doing?" I asked, still having no idea where this is coming from. "There is a rumor about you going around town," Jonathan said in a western accent. I rolled my eyes. "Rumor? About me?" I asked, thinking that Jonathan is just trying to be funny. "Yes, about you. Something about you having a...girlfriend?" Jonathan asked, the smirk still plastered on his face.

Oh, come on!

"W-What?" That was all I could say. Jonathan's face lit up. "So, it's true?!" "What? No..? No!" I was saying. "How did you even find out about that?" I asked. "Lucas told me when you ran upstairs at the Wheeler's to get your coat and backpack, but you wouldn't be so worried about it if it wasn't true." My mputh dropped in shock. "But it isn't!" "Is!" "Isn't!" "Is!" "Isn-"

"Whoa," my mom exclaimed opening my bedroom door. "Calm down, boys! I don't know what this is about, but no matter what it ws, it doesn't matter now. Dinner's on the table," our mom said. We smiled. We were about to rush to the table when.. "And Hopper will be joining us for dinner, too. He's in the dining room right now." We both started to slow our pace. "Speaking of new girlfriends..you and Hop can double date..." Jonathan whispered to me. We both started laughing. "What was that?" "Nothing." We both responded at the same time. I looked back up at Jonathan. "I still don't have a girlfriend, though..." "Sure you don't, bud," Jonathan replied, walking ahead of me out the door to go into the dining room.