29 Stories of You and Me

4-Calm Summer Days

You: Well no, they just think I'm gonna go do bad stuff
Me: Bad stuff? What bad stuff?? No one's bringing drugs
You: ...
Me: WHAT BAD STUFF COULD YOU DO? Bury a body?? A blood ritual?? Yes, Lin, we're gonna summon satan.

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As the last few days of school winded down with lots of stress due to finals for everyone, I gradually began to have more free time on my hand as well. Although I had already messaged Lin several times one-on-one, I also kind of wanted to hang out with him in real life...

But that wasn't the only reason! It's not like I liked him or anything, hahaha that'd be weird and stupid. No way, definitely not. I just wanted to plan a small gathering with Allie and Bob...but I also wanted Lin to come, despite the fact we weren't that close! Of course, it'd have to be at the park in my neighborhood, or else there'd be no way for my parents to allow me to go anywhere else.

I was definitely close enough friends to invite Bob and Allie, but part of me was worried that Lin wouldn't want to come. He had known Bob for many years, since elementary school in fact, but he had never met Allie before.

But once again, I was insistent on seeing Lin.

I asked him again and again, telling him to check with his parents, see if there was any way to get him a ride without getting him in trouble. All of us had strict parents, so we knew we couldn't just say that we were going to go hang out with members of the opposite gender and hope to get away with it.

So we started brainstorming. How could we get around our parents' strict standards for who you can hang out with, without exposing ourselves?

Allie and I had it easy: say it was for her birthday (June 11th), somewhat of an early celebration because we were busy in the following week or something. Bob's parents didn't care too much about it so they agreed to his request to get a ride pretty easily as well, not minding where/when/who he was going with. Lin was the one who had to go through slightly more effort than the rest of us.

I grew more and more frustrated with him each time I asked. His mom wasn't even convinced when he claimed it was boys only, saying she wanted "proof" and things like that. That was when I started making jokes out of frustration about us summoning Satan, but Allie and Bob never agreed to it. I was disappointed (;'༎ຶД༎ຶ').

The solution he came up with, in the end, was to have a fake conversation with Bob about our little meet up to make it seem like it was 100% male populated.

(The whited out names were names of other boys.)

When he showed the screenshot of the fake conversation the two of them had had to his mom, she didn't question it too much. So, she agreed to drive him over, as long as he was fine with being dropped off an hour or two early (his brothers had swim team in my neighborhood so it was more convenient). He agreed and Allie offered to head to the park early to keep him company. I had begged them to let me come over early as well, only to reflect on the fact it wasn't their choice; I was the one volunteering at a camp till noon.

By the time camp had finally ended, I told my dad to drive as fast as possible. For my parents, I had fed them the lie that Allie had already been waiting for me at the park (true) and the other girls would be arriving any second (false).

When we passed by the park's entrance, I saw Allie sitting under the shadows, her black shirt blending in nicely. My dad dropped me off and asked if I was going to walk home (I was) and then left without another word. I quickly ran up to Allie and hugged her, also giving her the birthday gift I had worked on for a few days.

"Where's Bob and Lin?" I asked.

"They're on the other side of the hill. You said they needed to hide," Allie said. 

We texted them to walk back, as Allie and I made our way towards them. Because of the fact my parents didn't let me hang out with friends very much, this was a very big occasion for me. The weather was perfect too; sunny with some stray clouds floating around.

We walked from the park to the neighborhood shopping center (about a 1 mile walk) and planned to eat something for lunch. Our original plan had been to buy pizza...

<When all your friends hate eating for some reason.>

When we actually got to the shopping center, I had a sudden impulse to go to McDonald's. No one else really complained so we just ended up going to McDonald's. Their fries were always the best when they were still hot instead of cold.

After we ate McDonald's, we walked back to the park and playgrounds. We took turns spinning each other on the spinny wheel (and almost puking).

Another memorable part of that day was during the end. I began asking Lin a question.

"Who do you have a crush on?"

He refused to answer (as he did online when I asked him the same question). At one point, I started throwing mulch at him. Lin scooted away to avoid the dirt and wood combo that came flying towards his face.

By the end of that playdate, I still hadn't figured out who he liked.