Foreign Love

IV - Lupi

Chapter 4: Lupi

As we were leaving home, I saw our neighbours' daughter, Cheryl, leaving her house. That girl is 167 cm of pure trouble.

She's been into me since we were kids. The only reason I became friends with her in the first place was due to her huge doll collection. Her mother worked for Mattel, so she had her fair amount of Barbies and I made sure to play with every single one of them before she sold them all.

I actually enjoyed spending time with her. She probably was, at some point, my best friend, but then I found out I preferred her brother's company, who was three years older than me.

Watching him from my window, as he got undressed every night before I went to sleep became my favourite hobby during puberty, which I now realize was totally creepy and definitely not alright. But then he turned 18, college came and he moved to Ottawa.

I used to talk to him a lot about music. We saw Gaga grow together and watched her music videos on MTV and I have a feeling he was gay, or at least bisexual. Too bad he was too old for me back then and now he was out of town.

Cheryl tried to kiss me during truth or dare that same year, so I had been ignoring her ever since.

She waved at me from her yard.

I don't know why, among all the boys in school, she chose me to be her crush. I can see her being seen as attractive by boys who like girls: she's ginger, slim, has amber eyes and big boobs. For sure not ugly, but still, a girl. She was very much a female version of her brother; if I found him attractive, then she must be, too.

I waved back at her.

"Hey, Tom! Haven't seen you in a while," she said. I wonder if she knows how inconvenient she is. My parents went to the garage to get the car and I had to stay there, playing it cool with Cheryl.

Kill me right now.

"Yeah, the snow scared me." I tried my best not to be rude, but still, I sounded as cold as the snow over my house's roof.

Deep down I knew that this behaviour wasn't taking me anywhere: she'd still be into me at the end of the day. Unfortunately.

"We should hang out more often, like the old days," she said.

The car came.

Finally, my torture is over.

"Yeah, definitely, I'll text you." She opened a smile from ear to ear as I said it. Poor girl. "Ok, see you," I said, dismissing her in the quickest way possible.

I got into the car. She turned around and walked back to her front door. She waved at me again and entered the house. My mother chuckled.

"That girl is so into you," she said. "She left her house just to say hello, you know?"

I hadn't noticed it, but now that my mother stated it out loud, it made sense.

"I know, right? She scares me sometimes, " I said as I buckled my seatbelt.

"Oh, come on, she's pretty. You should give her a chance" My father said.

I forgot to mention, but I'm not out to my parents. I know they'd accept it, but I'm still not ready to have that conversation with them.

"Uhum".

I heard that parents always know about their son's sexual condition and, in my case, it was not that hard to do so. I mean, no straight teenager would show so little interest in girls.

My parents whispered something to each other when I put my earphones on. I hated it when they did it. I sent the request to Andrew and enjoyed the 'trip' to Toronto.