Fight for This Friendship
Great I thought, another year of school has just begun and I was already volunteered to help with the new school year town parade float for my school M. Collins High. I was just about to knock on the door to the school storage, where Mr. Trolley told me to meet the other student who would be “assisting” me, when the door opened and I couldn't believe my eyes! Standing in front of me was Luca Ferguson! The Golden Boy of our school was going to help me build the float! Whoa, I did not see that one coming.
I raised an eyebrow at the boy in front of me. He just stood there gawking at me.“Shut your mouth. You’ll catch flies” I told Luca as I slid past him and through the door. He just smirked. Mr. Trolley then walked in. Thank goodness, things were getting awkward.
“You two have to go into town and pick up supplies and such. I have a list for reference.” Handing the list to me, he shoved Luca and me out the door.
“And Miss O’Connor, please get along with Mr. Ferguson. I don’t want to be dealing with anymore issues as it is.”
In Luca’s car, heading into town, silence was all that could be heard between us. The radio was gently playing in the background, Luca was humming ever so slightly to whatever song was on but neither of us would have said anything if we knew what was to come.
“So Riley...” Luca trailed off. Wow he used my first name, that’s a first.
“Yes?” I replied, suspicious of why he was trying to be friendly.
“We’re going to be working together Riley. The least we could do is try and get to know each other. Yeah?” I rolled my eyes, careful to hide it from Luca. I mean, it’s not like we will be talking to each other for the only things that I will probably say to him will be “Pass the tape, please.” “I suppose so...” I sighed.
So that’s what Luca and I did. We shared things about ourselves to each other. It was surprising how easily we could talk to each other, about everything and anything. We were both clearly disappointed when it came time for Luca to drop me off at the O’Connor family home.
“Thanks Luca! I had a great time getting to know you!” I told him when I got out, talking through the open window.
“My pleasure” he replied with a wink.
Unlocking the door to my house my mom was already sitting in her rocking chair diagonally across from the door. I’ve only seen her in that chair a few times when I’ve come home, all of which I’ve been in trouble. Uh-oh... I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?
“Why were you with that Ferguson boy?” My mom snarled. Whoa, what's all this about?
“You mean Luca? Oh, he and I are just friends; we’re doing the pep rally school float together this year! Cool, right?” I told her, still confused.
“Listen Riles, I understand that you have to stay in contact with that boy because you work together, but he’s no good. I don’t want you hanging out with him. I have heard things about him and his reputation is not good” She bullied me. I quirked an eyebrow.
“Umm, why Mom?” I asked politely, not wanting to make her upset even more.
“Because I said so. That’s enough now go finish your homework so you have this weekend off” She barked.
Strange, don't you think?
The next morning I woke up to the sound of vibrating. Grabbing my phone off its dock, I saw Luca calling. Great! I’m supposed to be staying away from him and now he’s calling me! Ugh!
“Hello?” my morning voice spoke groggily.
“Riley! Oh god! Did I wake you? I hope not. Sorry if I did but this is super important. Last night when I came home, my dad told me someth-” I cut Luca off of his ramble before he ran out of breath.
“Luca” I breathed.
It seems as though Luca’s parents had the exact same feelings of me as my parents do of their son. They had the exact same problem. Luca's and my friendship.
“Hold on Riles, let me finish” he whined.
“Luca! Listen, if it’s about not talking and hanging out with me, I get it, my mom said the same thing. I don't know what it’s about or why she feels like that but I don't like it.”
“Whatever, the bigger problem is what are we going to do?” Luca snapped at me.
The problem was, I didn't want to end our blossoming friendship, but we would end up going against our parents’ wishes. Guess I’d leave it up to Luca to finish.
“Truthfully I don’t really want to go against my dad and cause more trouble, but then again I like you Riley, you're easy to talk to, you are fun to be around and you get me, y’know?” Luca voiced my thoughts.
“Maybe we should try not seeing each other, other than when needed. Then maybe we’ll grow apart?“ I told him, though it came out more of a question.
“Yeah, we’ll try that. Thanks for what we had before, it was actually the most fun I’ve had in a while.” he recalled. That’s sweet. It also helped that It was the most fun I’ve had in a while also.
“Ditto on that one Luca.” I laughed.
And he hung up, triggering more crazy and exhilarating events to come.
Avoiding each other at the school was the easy part. The float part was tough. We each had our IPods plugged in and we would work on opposite sides of the room. Although that never really worked out in the end. We would end up distracting each other and start messing around. Once we had a confetti fight which was hard to explain to my mom without giving away I was with Luca.
About a week before the parade I was invited by a few friends to go bowling on a Friday night. I might add that Luca was also invited much to my mother’s disappointment. The five friends and I had loads of fun. We laughed and shared memories from over the summer. Pictures were taken. Actually a lot of pictures were taken now that I look back at it. Some even ended up on Facebook. Oops!
“Riley-Anne Mae! Get your butt down these stairs this second!” My mom called from the living room.
Once I was in view of my mother I knew exactly why she was glaring at me. In her lap sat the family laptop, the screen facing me. My Facebook was up and so was a picture of Luca and I. I guess I forgot to logout last time I was on.
“Care to explain?” my mom snarled.
“Come on Ma! We were out with friends! We had to act like we didn’t hate each other's guts! I lied through my teeth.
“You better be right Riles.” Ma slurred off her tongue.
Today is the day of the parade! Whoopie (Note the sarcasm)! A whole day with Luca in front of our parents. Every time we spoke to each other our moms and dads would stare. When Luca went to get some cotton candy for us, his dad kind of studied me like a book. It was weird if I do say so myself. Luca handed me my bag when he came back and my mom shrieked.
“What are you doing? Fraternizing with the enemy are we?” Ma assumed.
“Ma, chill, it’s cotton candy, did you want some?” I spoke calmly, by this time we received a few stares.
Luca was fuming. One thing i learned about him was that he had a short temper. Then there was yelling and a few curses and after about 15 minutes Luca and I had finally told our story to our parents. Their facial expressions changed, matching each other. Once our families were calm, Luca began asking: “We had no clue what went on between you two”
“But we would like to have your blessing of our friendship” I finished.
They complied, nodding slowly but still agreed now that they were both fully educated on how close Luca and I actually were. Hugs went around and Luca and I were finally allowed to spend time with each other without feeling broken.
