An Abundance of White Blood Cells // [WATTYS 2017]

NINE

"So what are you guys up to?"

"Watching two bees have sex."

Lena, Rose, and I were sitting outside in the grass. It was Saturday and I didn't have any school work, so we decided to have a day in the sun. By that, I meant that Lena and Rose were laying on towels in the sun and I was sitting in the shade of the only tree in my backyard, talking to Nate on the phone. Right now we were all watching two bees having, what we assumed, was sex. They both had the bottom parts stuck together and were just kinda jumping around on the ground.

"I don't think bees can have sex." Nate chuckled.

"Oh, honey bees can," I said. "I think these two are honey bees."

Lena's head popped up suddenly up from the ground. "Give me the phone." She said.

"Why?" I mouthed.

"Just give it!"

I gave her a weird look. "Nate, my friend Lena wants to talk to you for a sec."

"Okay?" He sounded confused.

I handed my phone to Lena, who put it on speaker. "Hey pizza boy, it's Lena. Do you have work next Wednesday night?"

"Uh...no...why?" Nate sounded cautious.

"Well, me and a couple friends are going bowling that night and for once, Sloane has a guy that she can bring." Lena smirked mischievously.

"Lena!" I scolded. I went for my phone, but she jerked it away.

"So are you up to it?" Lena grinned

"Why not?" Nate replied.

"Okay, give the phone back." I said, holding my hand out.

"You're welcome." Lena winked.

I took my phone back and took it off speaker. I apologized a couple times, which led Nate to tell me there were no apologies need. I told him what time to be at my house and we talked for a couple more minutes. "Okay, well, I'll call you later. I have to go beat the living shit out of Lena." I joked.

"Get a good kick in," Nate chuckled. "Bye."

"Bye."

***

Over the span of the next few days Nate and I did a mix of talking on the phone and hanging out for a couple hours. When we did hang out it was either in his room playing video games, or in the She-Shed talking. We mostly talked about him, which I was fine with, because it meant I didn't have to lie about my cancer.

He had a huge family. He had an older brother who was engaged and in his final year of med school, following in his dad's foot steps. His mom was a kindergarten teacher, I'm assuming that's where Nate got his inspiration for his wanting to be a teacher. Most of his aunts and uncles were either a teacher, doctor, or lawyer. I guess you could say that he had a driven family.

They had this family reunion that happened towards the end of July where they had an annual sling shot contest. They had a giant sling shit probably the height of a mobile home. They would launch water balloons at people holding towels who would try to catch the water balloons with out popping them.

When Nate wanted to switch the conversation over to me, I just told him he knows my whole family. Both my parents were only the only child in their families. Three of my four grandparents were dead, both of Dad's parents, and Only Mom's dad. Gramma was still thriving. I didn't have cousins or anything. Just Mom, Dad, and Gramma. I told him that Dad's an electrician and Mom was a baker but decided to quit so she could spend more time with me. I left out the reason that made her want to spend more time with me.

It was memorial day on Monday, so Nate decided to come hang out with me for awhile. After we talked for awhile we fell asleep in the She-Shed. We were both on our sides, facing each other. I woke to him staring at me. "Why are be-e-e-ing creep-p-p-py?" I yawned. I stretched my arms and legs and made the sound that sounded what I thought a baby T-rex would make. Once I finished stretching a moved a little closer to Nate, so my face was inches from his collar bone.

He chuckled. "I'm not being creepy, I just woke up too." He wrapped his arms around me and we just laid there for awhile. Don't judge me, because you know you do this too, but...God! He smelt amazing! I took a deep breath and sighed. After awhile, I felt something vibrating near my...lower area. I felt myself blush as I said "Well somebodies happy to see me." Nate blushed as he reached for his front pocket and pulled his phone out. "It's my mom." He said, rolling onto his back and pulling me a little closer,

"Hey mom....I'm just hanging out with Sloane," He looked at me, smiled, and kissed hair. "Oh, yeah...sorry, I forgot...I'll be home in a few minutes...okay...I love you too mom...okay, bye" He hung up and put his phone back in his pocket. "My family is having a Memorial day barbeque." He smiled. "I spaced it."

"I guess you have me to blame." I giggled, I went to kiss his cheek, but he turned just at the right second, so now we were just kissing. We slowly rolled, so I was laying on my back. He pulled away a little, a smile growing on his face. "Do you wanna come?" He cocked his eyebrow. My eyes widened. "Really?"

Nate sat up. "Yeah, I mean, I've met you're parents, and you've met mine."

I laughed. "Okay, A. I did not meet your parents, they caught me mauling your face. B. you just met my parents when we were in the kitchen getting water."

"And I felt it went very well," He pulled me up. "Come on! I really want you to meet my family! They'd love you!"

"Isn't that like a..." I paused. "a girlfriends job, to meet the family?"

Nate got a mischievous look on his face. I knew what he was doing. I knew what he was doing, and I was letting him. He pulled me onto his lap and wrapped both his arms around me so his intoxicating smell was surrounding me. He got real close to me. I knew what he was doing, and I knew what I was gonna say. "Sloane...you wanna be my girlfriend?" He waggled his eyebrows

I smiled, shrugging.

"Thar's all I get, a shrug?" He said.

He started tickling my sides, I started laughing so hard. I tried to move his hands but they just kept tickling. I tried to say stop it, but my laughter prevailed. I wrapped my arms around his neck and placed my mouth on his, which stopped the tickling. I kissed him only once and pulled away.

"Yes, I will be you're girlfriend." I grinned, feeling a surge of happiness go threw my body, along with the shivers the kiss gave me.

"Alright," His trademark smile was the biggest I'd seen it. "Let's go."