One Of The Girls

Chapter 9: Josh

After we finished up our conversation on Bee's front porch and said goodbye for the night, I rushed back to my bedroom and waited. I sat on my bed, pretending to be on my phone in case Bee could see me through her blinds, but really I was watching her window. She might flicker her lights at me tonight. Maybe I should turn my lights off so I can her's a little better?

No, then she would think I'm already asleep.

​This is dumb.

​The tradition is dead. She's not going to signal Goodnight.

​Twenty minutes have gone by, and I'm about to give up when it happens. Her lights flash off and on, and I fall over myself reaching for my lamp. I flash my lights back at her, and when I'm done, I get the best night of sleep I've had in two weeks.

-

​Bee hops in my car Monday morning, and I find it hard to hide my happiness. It fades, however, when I realize she's on the phone with none other than Alex Fasolino.

​"Yeah, that sounds really fun, Alex," she says, "Yeah, I'm getting in the car. No, I don't have a car. Oh yeah, Josh and I carpool because we live next door," she looks at me and gestures for me to drive. I pull out of my driveway a bit ticked that she's finally in my car again, and I can't even talk to her. "Yeah no, he doesn't mind. Okay, see you too." She laughs at something he says, and I want to know what it was. Is Alex funny? I always just thought he was stupid.

​"What was that?" I ask, smiling.

​"Oh, just Alex. He asked me to go the beach with him this weekend. Emily is going, and Amanda and Ron, and it sounds like its gonna be really fun!" she tells me, gushing with excitement.

​"Sounds..." I keep my actual opinion to myself, "Fun."

​She's quiet for only a minute before bursting, "Do you remember when we used to take family trips to the beach every summer? Your family and mine?"

​I smile at the memory, "Yeah, I do."

​"And we built that giant sand castle that one Summer and we played with our Hot Wheels in it?"

​"Yeah, and we tried to leave it over night, but the tide wrecked it," it was huge. Maybe I just thought it was big because I was small back then, but I like to think it was huge.

​"Yeah, and you cried like a baby the next day when we saw it was gone," she laughs.

​"Shut up, it was beautiful."

​"It was."

​We spend the rest of the ride to Noah's reminiscing.

​He opens the back door behind Bee and takes a seat. He says nothing about Bee's renewed presence, but smiles at her and tells her, "Good morning."

​"Top 'o the morning to ya," she says, like a dork.

​When we get to Drew's, he handles the situation a little less delicately.

​"Bee?" he asks when he opens the door, "Is that really you?"

​"In the flesh," she whips back, sarcastically.

​"Did you and Josh make up?" Drew asks while he's getting in.

​"Yeah," she says cheerily. She smiles at me, and I smile back because Bee's smile is contagious.
​Drew breaks my happy moment by asking, "So, you broke up with Alex already? It's only been a day!"

​I'm gonna kick him out of my car.

​Noah elbows Drew in his side, and he starts to laugh. He thinks he's real funny. We'll see how funny he thinks he is when he's walking to school.