Lucky Number 25

Chapter 5: Please Don't Doll Me Up

After the incident with my grandmother, I went straight to the school office and told them to knock our home phone right out of the school's phone book list. No more embarrassing grandma moments for me. Turns out, I had to buy my grandma 2 boba drinks in order to calm her down, and lucky me, it did.

Once I drove home, my oh-so-smart grandma was passed out on the whole back seat. Her chubby body took the whole back seat, and poor me, I had to lug her into her downstairs bedroom onto her bed. I never fully situated her body on the bed, so her upper part was on the bed and her lower part was cramped underneath her. Forgive me grandma, but you were the one who passed out for no reason.

Satisfied with my work (not really), I - *You are my sunshine...my only sunshine...* - oops, ringtone for Tessie. I already knew what Tessie wanted to rave about. She'd been driving me cashews throughout the whole day.

I pressed the death button 'answer'.

"No Tess. I am not going to the homecoming dance."

"No."

"Just No. Go away!"

"Eck. Completely No. Stop bothering me!"

"For the last time Tessie! No is the final answer!" I shouted, running a hand threw my brown waves.

She was about to use one of her excuses again when I just decided to hang up.

"So...what's got your bra strap on the verge of breaking? I heard the whole conversation." Grayson suddenly walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge to pour himself a glass of orange juice.

"Tess wants me to go to the dance next Friday. And you honestly know how much I hate attending those sweaty rooms. And you know about my last dance with my last..."boyfriend"...in junior year." My spine shivered at the memory.

~FLASHBACK~

In junior year of high school, I had a boyfriend named Caylen. Overall, he was sweet and generous, but I just felt he didn't like me that way. On our 10-month mark anniversary, Caylen half-heartedly asked me to the junior homecoming dance. Of course I agreed because I'm a great girlfriend. On the day of the dance, we had to sit on the bench near the bus stop waiting for a ride because Caylen's car was in the auto shop being fixed and also his parents were at work. Suddenly he asked out of nowhere.

"Did you buy me any jewelry from Kay's for me?"

I jerked my head at him and opened my mouth. "Umm...no, was I supposed to? And besides, why would you want jewlery?"

"No...but it's just that every kiss begins with Kay."

I stared at him for a few seconds before he spoke up. "Fine, I'll admit it! I'M GAY."

My eyes widened and realized what he said. Gay. My boyfriend is gay. The one I've been dating for nearly a year. But I also realized that I've never had a gay friend before. This could be my chance. I quickly spoke up before he could run away, scared after his confession.

"Wait! So that means we have to break up now because you know..(nervous laugh)..you're interested in guys, right? But we can still be friends though."

"Yea..by all means. I'm sorry I kept this a secret from you, Al. It's just that I realized I was batting for the other team when I saw your...uh...brother a couple months ago." He nervously blurted out, obviously not controlling what he said.

"You're...you are...you have affection towards my brother? I..I don't think that's going to work out very well. I've got to go, it's awkward. Bye,...friend." And with that, I got up from the bench and ran towards my house as fast as I could with my heels on.