The MAN Project

When I realized The MAN Project wasn't so great in some aspects.

We sat and stared at each other and then broke out into laughter.

"That was a close one."

I looked back at her and smiled. "Very."

She got down from the tree which was pretty impressive that she could climb in the short amount of time she did.

"Wanna stay for dinner? My moms making her famous meatballs."

I thought it was very skillful how she hadn't laughed while saying it seeing that her moms meatballs weren't even meat. The whole Ross family had been vegetarians ever since I could remember. If it hadn't been for me sneaking Steph some when she was at my house she probably would never have even tasted a cow - a frightening thought.

"Sure, I can handle no meat for one meal."

"Doubt it." She said laughing again.

Me and her... while if you want me to be grammatically correct - her and I wiped the dirt off our pants and headed in. 

As we were walking Steph started to speak again - breaking a beat of silence - "Hey Brad, who was your first crush?"

I held my breath for a moment, but forced myself to start breathing again quickly so she wouldn't notice. It was obviously her. We had been best friends for forever and I started liking her when we were both six years old. About the time of second grade it changed to love. 

"I don't remember." A total lie on my part.

I looked to her face to see if my answer wasn't what she had hoped. Why would she ask me that? 

"Mine was William Banks." Steph said - holding back laughter. 

William Banks was a total chick magnet in the first grade because his dad owned a Dunken Donuts so he would always promise to bring his girl friends glazed donuts. So obviously all the girls wanted him. In first grade all the boys were pretty jealous of him because he had all of the girls waiting at his hand and foot while none of us got any. Sharing was a real problem then, but it came back to bite him in the butt because his dad's store went bankrupt, and when he couldn't get the babes what they wanted - they all left him. This had been in about the fourth grade. Now he was a total nerd who was on the Academic Challenge Bowl Team and the 'Engineering Squad'. He smelled like butt and needed desperately to buy some Proactive.

We both looked towards eachother and laughed again. It was cool how we could just glance at eachother and know what the other was thinking. 

When we reached the porch we rang the doorbell really fast like a million times - "Ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong!"

Mrs. Rider raced to the door, like she always did, as if someone were being murdered and ringing the doorbell for help. She would always say it was just her instinct, but we felt now she just played it out for us for a laugh. 

"Oh its just you two... dinners done hunnies." She said in a sweet voice. Mrs. Rider was like my second mother. When my parents had to go out of town for work or needed an emergency contact - they would always call her. I'm not real sure how to describe her without comparing her to the mom from Mean Girls. They were basically the same except Mrs. Rider didn't do botox or breast implants that were as hard as rock. She wore bright pink sweat suits, and let Steph do whatever she wanted, but not because she didn't care, because we all knew Steph wouldn't do anything close to bad. She had platnum blonde hair, with ice blue eyes like Steph's. I really could tell her anything, but I usually just told Steph. 

We all walked into the dinning room where her mom's 'meat'balls were sitting in a big platter. 

"I'm guessing dad's at work", Steph said. She used to keep it to herself how sad she was that her dad was never home, but no she just made it public whenever she could. 

"Steph, he's on business trip for a case right now... you know that."

"For how long?"

"A few weeks."

"How many?"

"Like four... or five."

"FOR OR FIVE WEEKS! FOR A STUPID CASE! HE KNOWS I'M HIS ONLY DAUGHTER RIGHT?! HE'S MISSED LIKE MY WHOLE CHILDHOOD AND SOON I'M GONNA BE IN COLLEGE - SO EVEN WHEN HE IS HOME HE WON'T SEE ME! DOES HE REALIZE THAT!?!?" Steph had lost it. 

She usually would eventually, but not that quick. If she didn't leave the room with her mom quickly - it would get worse.

"Common Steph, let's just go upstairs."

Her mom and I caught each others glances and knew I had to remove her from the table.

We ran upstairs and Steph collapsed on the floor. Her face laid flat on the capet of her room.

"Why does he hate me?"

"Steph, he doesn't hate you, he wants you to have nice things so he works hard to earn money for you - his way of doing that just requires him to be away a lot - that's all."

"A lot, more like all the time."

"Common Steph - sit up and look at me."

She slowly sat up. "Yes..."

"See your room?"

"No... haha" I was happy she was making a joke - she wasn't as bad as I had thought.

"Well - it's huge. Would your rather live in a one room hut made of straw?"

"Definetly not." She started to smirk.

"That's all I got."

"What?! Hahahaha, your not going to say how my dads work paid for this house or anything cheesy like that?"

"Actually... yes, yes I was."

"Wow your dumb." She giggled like she was four and she had just smashed me in the face with a pie.

She stopped laughing for a moment. "You're a great friend you know Bradly Stevens."

"Thanks." Once I said that she leaned over and hugged me tight. 

She laid her head on my sholder and softly spoke -"Never stop being my friend - I love what we have. Don't ever leave me for some other girl that will never be as good as me for a friend." 

My heart skipped beats from the words she had said, but I also felt bad too. Tomorrow I would crush her best friend's heart and not plan any get-togethers with her for the rest of the school year. The MAN Project in that moment in time seemed like a death sentence for me and Steph's relationship, not a blessing.