I miss her.

3

        When I wake up we are at a gas station about 15 minutes from my dad's house. I look into the back seat. Luke and Jaime are both asleep. Dad is out paying for the gas. When he gets back in the car and starts it up again I ask him.

        "Uh hey Dad?"

        "Yes Pumpkin?" He says smiling.

        "You know Jeremy? The one who lives down the street from Mom? Can he come over tomorrow?"

        "Donnie is coming over tomorrow, but if they get along then yes." There is an awkward silence for a while and then my dad asks, "Is Jeremy your boyfriend?"

        I sigh. "No. He has been my best friend for three years and I don't like him that way, Dad."

        "Okay, just figured I would ask."

        I pull my phone out of my hoodie pocket. No new messages. Not surprising. The light flurries of snow have grown to intense snow. I text Jeremy:

My dad says its cool if you come over. And by the way Donnie is gonna be here too.

        He replies in about a minute:

Cool. I'll be over about noon if that's cool. I'll ask Donnie for a ride.

        I laugh to myself. Jeremy likes rides in Donnie's car because he is the only one of us who can legally drive right now. Well, besides Karen but she doesn't have a car.

        We get to Dad's at around 4:45. I carry my backpack and gym bag into to the house and into my room. My dad's house is huge. He has a personal theatre in the basement. And it has five bedrooms. It's awesome.

        I do my homework for about an hour before Erika calls us all down for dinner. Friday is usually pizza day at Dad's house because Erika usually works late. But since she is here, she made us a steak and some sweet potatoes. I know which plate is mine. The one with more sweet potatoes than steak. I eat meat but only some and they have to be prepared exactly right. Most people, instead of trying to make me a perfect piece of meet just usually give me a smaller piece that looks okay. I'm used to it. I'm a picky eater, oh well.

        Over dinner Dad and Erika like to ask us about our week. The conversation of tonight went a little like this.

        Dad looked at the three of us and asked, "So kids, anything new at school?"

        Jaime starts explaining to us how much she hates her math teacher Mr. Mattis. I hated him too when I had him.

        When she finished Dad looks to the two of us. Luke offers some information, "There is a new girl. She started today. Alex made friends with her. She sat at our lunch table."

        "Oh uh yeah," I say awkwardly, "she is really nice. Her name is Rose. But she said she likes being called Henry. Uh... yeah... Luke, you talked to her to."

        "Donnie and you were between us. I didn't even really get a good look at her, besides the fact she was tall. Close to my height."

        "Well that sounds great. New friends are always fun." Erika likes to be supportive of all of us. She sometimes just comes off creepy though.

        I spend the rest of my dinner just thinking and ignoring the conversation going on around me. I get lost in thought a lot. My mind thinks logically. I am 5'4 and I weigh about a hundred pounds. I am underweight. Luke is about 5'7 I think. He weighs probably about 160 pounds. Rose was close to his height, maybe about 5'6. She isn't as skinny as me. She is more muscular. So maybe about 125 pounds? That is about normal for our age group. I don't even know why I'm thinking about this. It doesn't matter.