Battle of the Sexes

9. Talking About Talking

"So, I heard a rumor in 7th period," Harper told me during dance practice that afternoon.

"Oh, really?" I was pretty sure I knew what she was talking about.

"Yeah, apparently you and Carter sat by each other in government?" We were early to the gym and we weren't around anyone so the fact that she was pretending to be clueless, made me laugh. I had texted her, Sophie, and Lilly, during sixth period when I was sure no one was paying attention to me. They had all assured me that sitting by him was the right thing to do.

"We did."

"Yeah, and apparently you guys didn't talk to each other the whole time." I hadn't been the one to tell her that, so at least I knew she was being serious about the rumor.

"That's not true. I picked his pen up for him when he dropped it. He said 'thank you' and I said 'you're welcome'."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess my source forgot to tell me that vital piece of information," she said staring at me blankly. She could only keep the straight face for a couple of seconds before she broke out into a grin again. "You guys do need to actually talk to each other about something though, if you want to convince people you like each other."

"Well, what exactly am I supposed to talk about him about?" I honestly had no idea.

"What do you talk to him about when you guys hang out?"

"Our fake relationship or what the girls are doing." More people were walking in now so I made sure to keep my voice down.

"That's it?" She asked. When I nodded in response she added: "Just talk to him about what you talk to us about then."

"Recently that's also been all we've talked about." She made of show of rolling her eyes.

"You know what I mean. Talk about what we normally talk about." And in that moment I could not recall a single conversation I had ever had with my friends. It was like when you're taking a test and you know that you know the right answer you just can't remember what it is.

I didn't have time to ask Harper for help because practice was starting. She was captain so she had to go to the front of the gym with the coach. I tried to think of conversation topics during practice but it was harder than it seemed.

I texted Carter after practice declaring an emergency meeting at my house at 8.

——-

"Tatum, a boy is here to see you," My mom called at exactly 8.

"A boy?" my dad asked from the living room. If I didn't go to Westwood, I would have been more offended at how surprised they both sounded. My dad followed behind me as I walked to the front door.

"Carter, these are my parents. Mom and Dad, this is Carter Grant." My parents hadn't gone to high school here, but by the way both of their eyes lit up at his last name I could tell they knew exactly who Carter's dad was. I let them talk for a couple of minutes before excusing myself and Carter.

As we walked to my room, I realized, for the second time since getting to know Carter, just how vulnerable I was going to have to be. He had just met my parents and now he was going to be inside my room. I hadn't even seen his room yet, but my house didn't have any extra rooms, like a media room, for me to take him to.

"So, what's the emergency?" he asked, once we were in my room.

"I might have been exaggerating just a little," I said. "But we have nothing to talk about." His left eyebrow raised slightly as he squinted his eyes at me.

"If you don't have anything to tell me then why am I here?" I realized what he thought I meant.

"No, I mean our emergency is that we have nothing to talk about. Like in class today."

"Oh, that." He had noticed it too. I didn't know if that made me feel better or worse about the situation.

"Yeah, that." To prove our terrible skills at being conversationalists, there was a long, awkward silence. "What do you talk to your friends about?"

Judging by the look on his face, I could tell he was struggling as much as I was earlier. I had determined that the reason I couldn't figure out what I talked about with my friends is because we didn't have to try to talk. We also were able to talk about anything. That's why we were friends.

"Honestly, I really don't know," he answered after a minute.

"Me either." There was another awkward silence.

"Tell me about yourself," he said. I didn't know where to start.

"My favorite color is purple." It was the first thing that popped into my mind.

"Mine's gold." I blinked.

"Is metal allowed to be someone's favorite color?" My response came fast, which was good for us. But it came a little too fast and my brain didn't have time to catch up. I wasn't sure if he would know I was joking.

"I didn't realize it needed permission," he answered. His smile calmed my fears. "Whats your favorite book?" He was eyeing my bookshelf. I felt exposed. I glanced back at it and pointed to the top two shelves. It was too hard to pick just one.

"All of those. What's yours?" I wondered if he even liked to read.

"'The Outsiders,'" he answered without missing a beat. I glanced back at my bookshelf, again. There had been no way he had seen it. I walked towards it and pulled out my copy of 'The Outsiders' from where it was wedged in between two books on the top shelf.

"It's a classic," I said. "Have you watched the movie?"

"Only a few hundred times," he answered. It had been required reading in middle school, some of the fun english teachers let the students watch the movie after they had finished, my class was not as lucky. I ended up watching it later that summer. Almost everyone had liked it but not as much as me, or so I thought.

"Well, at least we know one thing we have in common." That was a good sign but I doubted we could have more than a few conversations about it. We proved this point by exhausting that conversation topic after about fifteen minutes.

After that conversation was over, I told Carter I would see him at school the next day. I figured it wasn't a good idea to push my luck with my parents. I didn't know how much longer it would take for their shock to wear off and for them to remember I had boy in my room. I knew they trusted me, but I didn't want to test it too much in one night.

——-
Authors note: The Outsiders is one of my all time favorite books, too. So, I had to give a special shoutout to a book that helped shape me.
Also, don't judge but I have seen the movie about 400 times, and that is not an exaggeration. After I read it in 7th grade, I watched it every night before bed for over a year.
Let me know if you have any weird movie obsessions?