Teenage Dirtbag

Ch. 17

I slept in on Saturday, not getting out of bed until it was almost noon. When I finally made my way downstairs I was surprised to see Marcel sat at my kitchen table with my Mother. I silently cursed myself for not getting dressed before I came downstairs and walked into the kitchen attempting to look cheery.

            "Well good morning sleepyhead," she said as I walked into the room, "if you didn't get up soon I was going to have to come drag you out of bed."

            Marcel stood and walked over to me, wrapping me up in a hug as he whispered good morning in my ear. "Morning," I said quietly, "have you been here long?"

            "Only like twenty minutes," kissing the top of my head he released me from his arms and took my hand, "I brought you something," he said with a smile.

            "Oh yeah," I asked with my brow raised.

            "Mmhmm," he grinned proudly as he pulled me to the back door and opened it. In the middle of the backyard were several large pumpkins, various carving tools lined up next to them. "Forest doesn't open until five, so I though we could do the pumpkins first."

            "Aww, Marcel," I quickly pulled him down so I could kiss his cheek, "this is great. Let me go get dressed real quick and I'll meet you out here okay?"

            He nodded, "I'll get started on carving the tops out."

            "Okay, I'll be right back," I quickly ran inside and stopped when I saw my mother staring at me, "what?"

            "He is the sweetest boy," she said fondly.

            "I know, I have to go change. Have a good day at work," I said as I ran up the stairs to my room. I quickly put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, grabbing a hoodie I put it on as I made my way back downstairs.

            Stepping into the backyard I pushed my sleeves up to my elbow's as I took a seat across from Marcel. "Do you want to carve the tops out or scoop out the guts?"

            "Ya know, I hate to be a 'girl', but I'm not scooping anything out of these pumpkins. I'll carve them all day, but I don't do pumpkin guts."

            He laughed, handing me the pumpkin he had started on, "no worries, you can be a girl anytime, I don't mind."

            "Thank God," I took the pumpkin and finished the carving at the top, taking it off and setting it aside so he could take all the seeds out. We worked in silence, glancing up at each other every few minutes to smile at one another. Soon all the pumpkins sat in front of us empty and awaiting faces.

            "Which one's do you want," he asked as we looked at the four pumpkins in front of us.

            "I want...the two on the left," I answered after looking them over for a few minutes.