The Thing About Boys

Chapter 2: "Well Then I Should Introduce Myself"

"Yeah right."

"I'm serious! I'm going to find her again. For some reason she didn't feel like a stranger" Peter says thinking out loud but Jackson mocks him by pursing his lips and making kissing noises.

"Just throw me my shirt." Peter asks rolling his eyes at Jackson as he swims towards the beach. Jackson grabs Peter's shirt and hoodie but stands there for a second considering his options.

"I know one way to get her attention." Jackson breaks into a run back towards the pier.

"Asshole!" Peter yells at his friend who is halfway to the pier. He has no choice but to start after him, wearing only his grey swim trunks. Unfortunately it's hard for Jackson to run in jeans causing Peter to catch up with him easily. With both of them back on the pier Jackson is in the middle of handing the clothes over to Peter when they see a police car pull up followed by the sound of a card door slamming.

"Now we are seriously fucked."

"Over there. We can hide behind that bin." Jackson points to a trash can a couple yards away from them.

"A trash can? That's such a cliche hiding spot." Peter says as he rolls his eyes.

"More cliche then being arrested for trespassing?" Jackson whispers. They both race to the trash can and hide behind it. Peter puts a finger to his lips as they hear the sound of boots clacking on the wooden planks of the pier. Jackson nudges Peter then mouths to him "jumper".

"This is my favorite hoodie!" Peter mouths back. But Jackson grabs it out of Peter hands.

"1, 2, 3!" Jackson throws the sweatshirt as far as he can in the other direction. It hits some plastic tools left by a child on the beach. As if they were bugs drawn to light, the two police officers follow the noise. Jackson and Peter take the chance and take off towards their golf cart which was hidden behind some trees in the park. But they only broke out in laughter once they had driven out of sight.

"Wait! Oh shoot!" Cat stops all of the sudden and opens her bag then checks all of her pockets.

"Did you drop something?"

"Yeah I dropped my chapstick. I'm going to quickly retrace our steps to see if I can find it. Don't wait up, I'll meet you back at the house."

"You sure you don't want me to come with you?"

"Yeah I'll be fine."

"Ok. But don't get kidnapped." Rin smiles and turns back towards the house. Cat laughs pivoting and starts quickly walking in the other direction.

5 minutes later she is back at the pier. It's quiet, calm, like nothing ever happened. She effortlessly hops over the fence again and finds the spot where she was sitting. Nothing. Sighing she heads back for the fence, but something catches her eye. She looks to her left to see a black sweatshirt on top of some plastic shovels and a bucket. Is that what I think it is? But why is it there? She looks around to see if the boys were still there, but to her dismay they were nowhere in sight. She picks it up and shakes the sand off of it. Tying it around her waist, she swings her legs over the fence and continues on her way back thinking nothing of it.

As she is about to make it to the stone wall she hears the sound of an engine behind her.

"'Don't cross the streams!'" Confused she turns around to see a familiar curly haired boy in the passenger seat of a golf cart. The other blonde haired boy beside him. Smiling she realizes that he was quoting Ghostbusters again so she responds,

"'Why?"

"'It would be bad.'" He smiles.

"'I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?'" She smiles back.

"'Try to image all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.'" Both of them start to giggle.

"What a dork." Jackson says shaking his head at the spectacle he just experienced.

"You're just jealous." Peter returns. Cat is about to jump over the stone wall when she hears him call out to her again.

"Wait where are you going? I think you have something of mine." She stops dead in her tracks and blushes. She reaches down and unties the sweatshirt from her waist and walks to the golf cart.

"I was going to keep it and make a run for it but I already have one at home." She says still blushing. He senses her joke and laughs a little. She holds it out for him to take and so he reaches out. There hands touching for half a second. But in that half a second there was a new feeling in the air. They both stop and stare at each other with a bewildered expression.

"Geez get a room." Jackson says cutting into their moment. They both snap out of it and Peter leans over and pushes Jackson causing him to almost fall out of the gold cart.

"Hey what was that for?" Jackson says laughing as he adjusts himself.

"So. . . I should go now. Nice to meet you guys though!" Cat murmurs and starts to back away from the cart.

"Hey you can't leave without telling me your name." He says in a mock whining tone.

"But I barely know you. You could be a creep." She replies.

"Well then I should introduce myself. My name is Peter Kavinsky. I'm going to be a sophomore at Riverdale High. I have one dog and a cat. And I am a die hard for horror movies. Name one and I can tell you everything about it." He smiles proudly.

"Wow did you put that on your resume?" They laugh awkwardly. Then find themselves sitting there in silence, both of them not wanting the moment to end. Sadly it comes to a halt when the sirens return and the police car lights shine through the darkness of the park.

"Bro, we got to go!" Jackson reaches over and puts his foot on the gas causing the golf cart to lerch into full speed.

"Wait!" but it was too late. Cat was quickly growing smaller and smaller until she was out of their view entirely.

"I didn't even get her name."