"Tangled Youth" Chapters 17-20
Chapter 17-20= http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2725691/17/
Tangled Youth
Chapter 20
Erin’s house was a creamy yellow, and didn’t sprawl halfway across the block. The front yard was covered in grass, but it wasn’t the kind of grass that looked like it had been manicured to perfection for hours. In the yard, there was a little plastic tricycle on its side, so Boone supposed Erin had a little sister. He stepped over the tricycle and to the front porch, ringing the doorbell. He was surprised that he was so nervous, but he really wanted her to like him.
A middle-aged woman with sandy-blonde hair opened the door. “Hi, you must be Boone!” she said. “I’m Erin’s mom, you can call me Susan. Erin will be down in a second.” Just then, Erin came out of her bedroom.
“Hey,” she smiled at Boone. She was wearing a light blue shirt, a denim skirt, and sandals.
“Hey,” he said back.
“So, I see you’ve met my mom. Mom, this is Boone, Boone, this is my mom Susan.”
“Hi,” he said to Boone’s mom.
“So,” Erin started. “You wanna get going?”
“Sure. What kind of food are you in the mood for?”
“Whatever you want,” she said agreeably, leading Boone to the door. “Bye, Mom!” She called as she closed the door.
“Have fun!” Her mom called after.
“Sorry about my mom,” Erin blushed after they had reached the driveway. “She can be a little -“
“She seems really nice,” Boone said earnestly. He wished that his mom contained even an ounce of Erin’s mom effortless affability.
“Oh, okay,” Erin looked surprised. “Cool. So, where are we going?”
“I thought we’d go to this diner by the pier. They have chicken and hamburgers and salads and stuff like that.”
“Sounds good!” She chirped. Boone held the car door open for her as she stepped inside the car. “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome,” he answered, sitting on his side of the car, putting on his seat belt, and turning on the ignition. “So, one week of summer school down.”
“Yeah, I know. It wouldn’t be that bad if those guys Jerry and Fred weren’t in it, though.”
“Guess not. Most people at our school aren’t that bad. It’s just that it’s summer school.”
“That’s what I suspected. So, what else are you doing this summer?”
“Um,” Boone stopped at a stoplight. “I’m doing this internship at my mom’s company. And I just got back from Australia.”
“Oh, wow!” she exclaimed. “That sounds really fun, where did you go?”
“We all went to Sydney, and then me and Shannon and my step-dad went to the Great Barrier Reef.”
“Shannon?” Erin wrinkled her nose in confusion.
“Oh, that’s my sister.” He corrected himself. Somehow, he had just assumed that Erin knew who she was.
“So your parents are divorced? You have a stepfather”
“Yeah,” he answered.
She seemed to sense that he didn’t really want to talk about it. “Are we listening to Bright Eyes?” She referred to what was currently wafting from the car stereo.
“Yeah,” he smiled. “You know them?”
“Yeah, I love them, but I’m surprised you’ve heard of them. Not many people have, especially in LA. I grew up in Oregon. We move around a lot.”
“Oh. So, do you have a little sister? I saw a tricycle in your yard.”
“Yeah, my baby sister Marie.” She grinned. “She’s three. She’s so cute.”
“I used to wish I had a baby brother or sister.”
“You have a little sister,” she pointed out. Yeah, but it’s not exactly the same when you want to have sex with said sister, he thought.
“Yeah, but she’s only a year and a half younger than me.”
“Do you guys get along?” She asked as Boone pulled into the parking area of their destination.
“Usually. We’re pretty close, I guess. But we also fight about everything.”
”I see,” replied Erin, getting out of the car and smoothing out her skirt. “So she goes to St. Gabriel’s as well?”
“Yeah,” Boone said, leading Erin towards the restaurant. After they had been seated and looked at the menus, they ordered.
“Okay,” said the waitress, who looked like she had received numerous amounts of Botox and dyed her hair bleach blonde just a few too many times, finishing writing down their orders. “Here, I’ll take that, honey,” she said to Boone, whisking away his menu. Boone wasn’t quite sure, but he could have sworn he saw the waitress wink at him before leaving.
Erin laughed. “So is it just me, or was she flirting with you?” She whispered.
“I hope not,” he answered, petrified. “She was like fifty!”
Erin giggled. “Well, I think she has good taste.”
“Thanks,” Boone smiled, and let himself look at Erin, with her perfect blonde hair and brown eyes, just like Shannon’s. Erin tucked her hair behind her ear and looked away for a second, alerting Boone of her discomfort. “Sorry.” He muttered.
“It’s okay!” She exclaimed. “So, you live on my street, right?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Like ten houses from your house.”
“What color is it?”
“White with a dark gray roof. Green shutters.”
“Oh! I know which one you’re talking about! That house is gigantic!”
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
“Isn’t there like a built-in tennis court?”
“No,” Boone shook his head good-naturedly. “But we have a pool.”
“Awesome. We don’t have a pool, but we did in San Diego.”
“Well, you can come over and swim in our pool whenever you want. We don’t use it as much as we should. My sister usually just lies next to it on the lawn chair tanning. Sometimes we swim, though.” He imagined Shannon in her new swimsuit she had shown him the other day. She had swam in it the day before, and he had watched her from his bedroom when she emerged from the pool, soaking wet and freezing cold as the fabric stuck to her body. He desperately tried to get the image out of his head.
“I might just have to take you up on that offer,” she said. “I love swimming.”
“What?” Boone said, distracted. “Oh, here’s our food.” Erin tried to maintain a straight face when the waitress smiled secretively at Boone while serving him his hamburger. Boone blushed noticeably, staring at the plate as if it were the most fascinating thing on earth. When she left, Erin burst into giggles. Boone watched her futilely attempt to contain herself, trying to disguise her laughter for a hysterical fit of coughing into her napkin.
“So,” she said after she had stopped laughing. “Do middle-aged women often hit on you?”
“Yeah,” he said sarcastically. “It’s a huge problem.”
She laughed. “You know, when I first saw you I thought you’d be a dumb jock. But I like you better now that I know you a little.”
“Well, if I was able to play sports, I probably would be a jock.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I sort of lack… er, essential sporting qualities. Like the ability to shoot a basket.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Can you serve a tennis ball?”
“Yeah, somewhat.” His mother had made him spend time as a child in the country club she belonged to, and had convinced Boone that it was a skill crucial to survival in the corporate world.
“Well, we should play tennis sometime, then,” she smiled.
“Yeah, we should. How’s the salad?” He gestured to her chicken Caesar salad.
“It’s good, thanks. You wanna try some?”
“Sure,” He tentatively took his fork and took a bite of her salad. “It’s pretty good. Want some of my hamburger?”
“That’s okay,” she was still smiling.
“What?” He said playfully.
“Nothing,” she looked away, the smile still stuck to her face.
“You’re so cute,” he accidentally said out loud. “I mean - “
“Thanks,” she said cheerfully, stealing a French fry from Boone’s plate. “So, tell me more about yourself. What are your hobbies?”
That was good question. There were many things that he somewhat enjoyed doing, but nothing that he was truly passionate about. “Sometimes I run… I like to swim.”
“Do you read?”
“Yeah, I like to read.”
“What kinds of books?”
“I like a lot of the old science fiction books. And just the popular books. Like the bestsellers. And of course, classic stuff like 1984 and Watership Down and stuff.”
“That’s the one about the bunnies, right?”
“Yeah.”
“It sort of reminded me of Animal Farm.”
“I liked it better than Animal Farm, though.”
“Me too.” Boone looked at Erin’s empty plate.
“Are you done?”
“Yeah, just about. You?”
“Yeah. You wanna get dessert? There’s this ice cream place about a block from here that we could walk to.”
“That sounds good,” she replied. After they had gotten the bill (Boone paid, following the unwritten laws of dating) and left the building, they started to walk to the ice cream place.
From the outside of the store, Boone saw two familiar faces inside. “Weird…” he started.
“What?”
“My sister and her friend are in there.” He prayed that Anna wouldn’t say anything overtly embarrassing, and that Erin wouldn’t notice that she looked exactly like Shannon.
“Oh, okay,” she shrugged. “C’mon.” Boone followed her into the store.
“Boone!” Anna waved them towards their table. “Shan, look, it’s Boone! What are you doing here?” Boone hesitated, but Erin obviously did not understand why this was so awkward. Shannon half-smiled at them. “Hi!” Anna exclaimed to Erin. “Who are you?”
“Uh,” Boone’s manners came back. “This is Erin, we’re on a date, and this is my sister, Shannon,” he waved in their general area. “And this is her friend, Anna.” Boone added, looking at the ground, “She’s also my ex girlfriend.”
“Oh, okay. Hi, Shannon.” She held out her hand to shake Anna’s. Oh god, thought Boone.
Anna looked amused. “Oh god,” she voiced what Boone was thinking. “Ew.”
“What?” Erin looked as if she had soiled someone’s family honor.
“Oh,” Boone said. “It’s just that Anna’s the friend, not the sister.”
“I’m the sister,” Shannon finally said something. “Hi, Erin.” She held out her hand. This was moment where Shannon would decide whether or not she liked Erin, and Boone squinted, trying to read his sister’s expression. “Cute shoes!” She said. Boone breathed a sigh of relief. “We were heading to a party and decided to get something to eat first.”
“Sorry, I’m still getting these really disturbing thoughts about us being siblings. Seriously! Ew, much?” Anna continued. “Fuck, that would be gross. I mean, remember when -“
“Anna!” Boone reprimanded, right as Shannon kicked her under the table.
“I mean, remember when you’re having fun on your date?” She tried to rephrase what she had said before unsuccessfully. “I mean, have fun!”
“Thanks!” Erin chirped, and turned towards the board that listed the ice cream flavors. “What kind of ice cream are you getting, Boone?”
“Rocky road,” he heard Shannon say under her breath.
“Rocky road,” Boone told Erin. He wanted to get out of that ice cream place fast, before something even more humiliating happened.
Eventually, they did make it out of the store alive, and they walked leisurely back to the car down the street, comfortably eating their ice cream. When they reached the car, it was getting cold, and Erin, who wasn’t wearing a sweater, started to shiver. “Here,” he took off his jacket and gave it to Erin.
“Thank you,” she replied, putting it on. “Ooooh, it smells like laundry soap.” She commented.
Erin sat in the car, and Boone closed her door, walking around to the other side of the car and sitting down himself. He backed out of the parking lot. “You can look through my CDs if you want and pick something to listen to.”
“Thanks,” she picked up his CD case and flipped through it. A few minutes later, Boone heard the familiar opening lines of his favorite Bright Eyes song waft through the car. When they reached her house, Boone opened her door for her again (girls seemed to really appreciate that, he noticed, and walked her to the door.
“So,” he said as she fumbled with her keys. “That was fun.”
“Yeah, it was.” She stepped closer to him. He moved even closer, until their lips were almost touching.
“So I think we’re supposed to kiss now,” he murmured.
“Yeah, I think so, too.” Her voice was just above a whisper. Boone kissed her on the lips, and she kissed back, pulling away tastefully after a few seconds. She smiled.
“I’ll call you,” he said. “Bye.”
“Bye, Boone. Have a good weekend.”
“See you in hell on Monday!” He started walking back towards his car.
“I look forward to it!” She laughed, and walked inside of her house. Boone sat back in the car, and started the ten second drive home. If I had a real father, he thought, I’d tell him about the date. But he didn’t have a real father, so he went back to an empty house and fell asleep while reading in bed.
The next morning, Boone was sitting at the kitchen table, eating cereal. Shannon shuffled in, wearing her boy short underwear and a big t-shirt. He could tell that she was getting something to eat as well, because he heard the sounds of cereal clinking against the sleek white porcelain of the bowl. She headed to the refrigerator, and put milk in her cereal. She reached the table, looked around for a moment, and then plopped down in Boone’s lap.
“Uh, Shannon?” He said. “What are you doing?”
“Someone did something with the other chair,” She replied, gesturing towards the lack of chairs at the table. She slurped some milk off of her spoon gracefully. “So, how was your date last night? Hannah was pretty.”
“It’s Erin.”
“Oh, right, well, Erin was pretty.”
“Yeah. It went well. Surprisingly well.”
“Well that’s good.” Shannon said, settling herself into Boone’s lap. “The party was crap. I had to save Anna’s ass from the lands of alcohol-induced coma.”
“That’s nice,” Boone said sarcastically. “All in a day’s work, huh?”
“Yeah. What kind of cereal are you eating?” She looked at Boone’s bowl. “Raisin bran,” she shook her head. “It’s all about the Fruit Loops, Boone.” She shoved a spoonful of it towards Boone’s mouth.
“I don’t want your damn cereal,” his voice was strained. This was so uncomfortable. He either wanted to take her cereal and throw it on the floor and then push her against the wall and make out with her and touch her all over until she could barely breathe, or he wanted to eat his cereal in peace. There was nothing in between that sounded at all appealing.
“Fine, health freak.” Just then, Sabrina walked in.
“What’s going on?” Sabrina squinted her eyes.
“Don’t have a cow, Sabrina, there wasn’t another chair here, so I just sat here.” Shannon explained nonchalantly.
“Shannon, can I talk to you?” She replied dangerously.
“Oh, come on, it’s not a big deal!” Sabrina looked livid. “Oh, fine.” After they left the room, Boone strained to hear what they were saying in vain.
“What happened?” He asked when she came back, looking at the floor.
“Nothing,” she sat flatly, dragging a chair from the other room to the table. “She said to stop… I don’t know. She just said not to… what was the word? Uh, tease you, or something.” She shrugged, but her eyes looked like her feelings had been hurt.
“You okay?” He asked.
“I’m fine,” she smiled wanly, and took another bite of her soggy Fruit Loops. Was Sabrina catching on? Boone had a feeling that she might be, from the jealous, biting looks she gave them when they were happy, when they were joking around… but maybe he was just being paranoid. And Boone was pretty sure that Sabrina would like Erin. Maybe then she’d realize that Boone wasn’t interested in Shannon in that way. He smiled uncertainly, not even believing his own thoughts.
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Tangled Youth
Chapter 20
Erin’s house was a creamy yellow, and didn’t sprawl halfway across the block. The front yard was covered in grass, but it wasn’t the kind of grass that looked like it had been manicured to perfection for hours. In the yard, there was a little plastic tricycle on its side, so Boone supposed Erin had a little sister. He stepped over the tricycle and to the front porch, ringing the doorbell. He was surprised that he was so nervous, but he really wanted her to like him.
A middle-aged woman with sandy-blonde hair opened the door. “Hi, you must be Boone!” she said. “I’m Erin’s mom, you can call me Susan. Erin will be down in a second.” Just then, Erin came out of her bedroom.
“Hey,” she smiled at Boone. She was wearing a light blue shirt, a denim skirt, and sandals.
“Hey,” he said back.
“So, I see you’ve met my mom. Mom, this is Boone, Boone, this is my mom Susan.”
“Hi,” he said to Boone’s mom.
“So,” Erin started. “You wanna get going?”
“Sure. What kind of food are you in the mood for?”
“Whatever you want,” she said agreeably, leading Boone to the door. “Bye, Mom!” She called as she closed the door.
“Have fun!” Her mom called after.
“Sorry about my mom,” Erin blushed after they had reached the driveway. “She can be a little -“
“She seems really nice,” Boone said earnestly. He wished that his mom contained even an ounce of Erin’s mom effortless affability.
“Oh, okay,” Erin looked surprised. “Cool. So, where are we going?”
“I thought we’d go to this diner by the pier. They have chicken and hamburgers and salads and stuff like that.”
“Sounds good!” She chirped. Boone held the car door open for her as she stepped inside the car. “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome,” he answered, sitting on his side of the car, putting on his seat belt, and turning on the ignition. “So, one week of summer school down.”
“Yeah, I know. It wouldn’t be that bad if those guys Jerry and Fred weren’t in it, though.”
“Guess not. Most people at our school aren’t that bad. It’s just that it’s summer school.”
“That’s what I suspected. So, what else are you doing this summer?”
“Um,” Boone stopped at a stoplight. “I’m doing this internship at my mom’s company. And I just got back from Australia.”
“Oh, wow!” she exclaimed. “That sounds really fun, where did you go?”
“We all went to Sydney, and then me and Shannon and my step-dad went to the Great Barrier Reef.”
“Shannon?” Erin wrinkled her nose in confusion.
“Oh, that’s my sister.” He corrected himself. Somehow, he had just assumed that Erin knew who she was.
“So your parents are divorced? You have a stepfather”
“Yeah,” he answered.
She seemed to sense that he didn’t really want to talk about it. “Are we listening to Bright Eyes?” She referred to what was currently wafting from the car stereo.
“Yeah,” he smiled. “You know them?”
“Yeah, I love them, but I’m surprised you’ve heard of them. Not many people have, especially in LA. I grew up in Oregon. We move around a lot.”
“Oh. So, do you have a little sister? I saw a tricycle in your yard.”
“Yeah, my baby sister Marie.” She grinned. “She’s three. She’s so cute.”
“I used to wish I had a baby brother or sister.”
“You have a little sister,” she pointed out. Yeah, but it’s not exactly the same when you want to have sex with said sister, he thought.
“Yeah, but she’s only a year and a half younger than me.”
“Do you guys get along?” She asked as Boone pulled into the parking area of their destination.
“Usually. We’re pretty close, I guess. But we also fight about everything.”
”I see,” replied Erin, getting out of the car and smoothing out her skirt. “So she goes to St. Gabriel’s as well?”
“Yeah,” Boone said, leading Erin towards the restaurant. After they had been seated and looked at the menus, they ordered.
“Okay,” said the waitress, who looked like she had received numerous amounts of Botox and dyed her hair bleach blonde just a few too many times, finishing writing down their orders. “Here, I’ll take that, honey,” she said to Boone, whisking away his menu. Boone wasn’t quite sure, but he could have sworn he saw the waitress wink at him before leaving.
Erin laughed. “So is it just me, or was she flirting with you?” She whispered.
“I hope not,” he answered, petrified. “She was like fifty!”
Erin giggled. “Well, I think she has good taste.”
“Thanks,” Boone smiled, and let himself look at Erin, with her perfect blonde hair and brown eyes, just like Shannon’s. Erin tucked her hair behind her ear and looked away for a second, alerting Boone of her discomfort. “Sorry.” He muttered.
“It’s okay!” She exclaimed. “So, you live on my street, right?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Like ten houses from your house.”
“What color is it?”
“White with a dark gray roof. Green shutters.”
“Oh! I know which one you’re talking about! That house is gigantic!”
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
“Isn’t there like a built-in tennis court?”
“No,” Boone shook his head good-naturedly. “But we have a pool.”
“Awesome. We don’t have a pool, but we did in San Diego.”
“Well, you can come over and swim in our pool whenever you want. We don’t use it as much as we should. My sister usually just lies next to it on the lawn chair tanning. Sometimes we swim, though.” He imagined Shannon in her new swimsuit she had shown him the other day. She had swam in it the day before, and he had watched her from his bedroom when she emerged from the pool, soaking wet and freezing cold as the fabric stuck to her body. He desperately tried to get the image out of his head.
“I might just have to take you up on that offer,” she said. “I love swimming.”
“What?” Boone said, distracted. “Oh, here’s our food.” Erin tried to maintain a straight face when the waitress smiled secretively at Boone while serving him his hamburger. Boone blushed noticeably, staring at the plate as if it were the most fascinating thing on earth. When she left, Erin burst into giggles. Boone watched her futilely attempt to contain herself, trying to disguise her laughter for a hysterical fit of coughing into her napkin.
“So,” she said after she had stopped laughing. “Do middle-aged women often hit on you?”
“Yeah,” he said sarcastically. “It’s a huge problem.”
She laughed. “You know, when I first saw you I thought you’d be a dumb jock. But I like you better now that I know you a little.”
“Well, if I was able to play sports, I probably would be a jock.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I sort of lack… er, essential sporting qualities. Like the ability to shoot a basket.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Can you serve a tennis ball?”
“Yeah, somewhat.” His mother had made him spend time as a child in the country club she belonged to, and had convinced Boone that it was a skill crucial to survival in the corporate world.
“Well, we should play tennis sometime, then,” she smiled.
“Yeah, we should. How’s the salad?” He gestured to her chicken Caesar salad.
“It’s good, thanks. You wanna try some?”
“Sure,” He tentatively took his fork and took a bite of her salad. “It’s pretty good. Want some of my hamburger?”
“That’s okay,” she was still smiling.
“What?” He said playfully.
“Nothing,” she looked away, the smile still stuck to her face.
“You’re so cute,” he accidentally said out loud. “I mean - “
“Thanks,” she said cheerfully, stealing a French fry from Boone’s plate. “So, tell me more about yourself. What are your hobbies?”
That was good question. There were many things that he somewhat enjoyed doing, but nothing that he was truly passionate about. “Sometimes I run… I like to swim.”
“Do you read?”
“Yeah, I like to read.”
“What kinds of books?”
“I like a lot of the old science fiction books. And just the popular books. Like the bestsellers. And of course, classic stuff like 1984 and Watership Down and stuff.”
“That’s the one about the bunnies, right?”
“Yeah.”
“It sort of reminded me of Animal Farm.”
“I liked it better than Animal Farm, though.”
“Me too.” Boone looked at Erin’s empty plate.
“Are you done?”
“Yeah, just about. You?”
“Yeah. You wanna get dessert? There’s this ice cream place about a block from here that we could walk to.”
“That sounds good,” she replied. After they had gotten the bill (Boone paid, following the unwritten laws of dating) and left the building, they started to walk to the ice cream place.
From the outside of the store, Boone saw two familiar faces inside. “Weird…” he started.
“What?”
“My sister and her friend are in there.” He prayed that Anna wouldn’t say anything overtly embarrassing, and that Erin wouldn’t notice that she looked exactly like Shannon.
“Oh, okay,” she shrugged. “C’mon.” Boone followed her into the store.
“Boone!” Anna waved them towards their table. “Shan, look, it’s Boone! What are you doing here?” Boone hesitated, but Erin obviously did not understand why this was so awkward. Shannon half-smiled at them. “Hi!” Anna exclaimed to Erin. “Who are you?”
“Uh,” Boone’s manners came back. “This is Erin, we’re on a date, and this is my sister, Shannon,” he waved in their general area. “And this is her friend, Anna.” Boone added, looking at the ground, “She’s also my ex girlfriend.”
“Oh, okay. Hi, Shannon.” She held out her hand to shake Anna’s. Oh god, thought Boone.
Anna looked amused. “Oh god,” she voiced what Boone was thinking. “Ew.”
“What?” Erin looked as if she had soiled someone’s family honor.
“Oh,” Boone said. “It’s just that Anna’s the friend, not the sister.”
“I’m the sister,” Shannon finally said something. “Hi, Erin.” She held out her hand. This was moment where Shannon would decide whether or not she liked Erin, and Boone squinted, trying to read his sister’s expression. “Cute shoes!” She said. Boone breathed a sigh of relief. “We were heading to a party and decided to get something to eat first.”
“Sorry, I’m still getting these really disturbing thoughts about us being siblings. Seriously! Ew, much?” Anna continued. “Fuck, that would be gross. I mean, remember when -“
“Anna!” Boone reprimanded, right as Shannon kicked her under the table.
“I mean, remember when you’re having fun on your date?” She tried to rephrase what she had said before unsuccessfully. “I mean, have fun!”
“Thanks!” Erin chirped, and turned towards the board that listed the ice cream flavors. “What kind of ice cream are you getting, Boone?”
“Rocky road,” he heard Shannon say under her breath.
“Rocky road,” Boone told Erin. He wanted to get out of that ice cream place fast, before something even more humiliating happened.
Eventually, they did make it out of the store alive, and they walked leisurely back to the car down the street, comfortably eating their ice cream. When they reached the car, it was getting cold, and Erin, who wasn’t wearing a sweater, started to shiver. “Here,” he took off his jacket and gave it to Erin.
“Thank you,” she replied, putting it on. “Ooooh, it smells like laundry soap.” She commented.
Erin sat in the car, and Boone closed her door, walking around to the other side of the car and sitting down himself. He backed out of the parking lot. “You can look through my CDs if you want and pick something to listen to.”
“Thanks,” she picked up his CD case and flipped through it. A few minutes later, Boone heard the familiar opening lines of his favorite Bright Eyes song waft through the car. When they reached her house, Boone opened her door for her again (girls seemed to really appreciate that, he noticed, and walked her to the door.
“So,” he said as she fumbled with her keys. “That was fun.”
“Yeah, it was.” She stepped closer to him. He moved even closer, until their lips were almost touching.
“So I think we’re supposed to kiss now,” he murmured.
“Yeah, I think so, too.” Her voice was just above a whisper. Boone kissed her on the lips, and she kissed back, pulling away tastefully after a few seconds. She smiled.
“I’ll call you,” he said. “Bye.”
“Bye, Boone. Have a good weekend.”
“See you in hell on Monday!” He started walking back towards his car.
“I look forward to it!” She laughed, and walked inside of her house. Boone sat back in the car, and started the ten second drive home. If I had a real father, he thought, I’d tell him about the date. But he didn’t have a real father, so he went back to an empty house and fell asleep while reading in bed.
The next morning, Boone was sitting at the kitchen table, eating cereal. Shannon shuffled in, wearing her boy short underwear and a big t-shirt. He could tell that she was getting something to eat as well, because he heard the sounds of cereal clinking against the sleek white porcelain of the bowl. She headed to the refrigerator, and put milk in her cereal. She reached the table, looked around for a moment, and then plopped down in Boone’s lap.
“Uh, Shannon?” He said. “What are you doing?”
“Someone did something with the other chair,” She replied, gesturing towards the lack of chairs at the table. She slurped some milk off of her spoon gracefully. “So, how was your date last night? Hannah was pretty.”
“It’s Erin.”
“Oh, right, well, Erin was pretty.”
“Yeah. It went well. Surprisingly well.”
“Well that’s good.” Shannon said, settling herself into Boone’s lap. “The party was crap. I had to save Anna’s ass from the lands of alcohol-induced coma.”
“That’s nice,” Boone said sarcastically. “All in a day’s work, huh?”
“Yeah. What kind of cereal are you eating?” She looked at Boone’s bowl. “Raisin bran,” she shook her head. “It’s all about the Fruit Loops, Boone.” She shoved a spoonful of it towards Boone’s mouth.
“I don’t want your damn cereal,” his voice was strained. This was so uncomfortable. He either wanted to take her cereal and throw it on the floor and then push her against the wall and make out with her and touch her all over until she could barely breathe, or he wanted to eat his cereal in peace. There was nothing in between that sounded at all appealing.
“Fine, health freak.” Just then, Sabrina walked in.
“What’s going on?” Sabrina squinted her eyes.
“Don’t have a cow, Sabrina, there wasn’t another chair here, so I just sat here.” Shannon explained nonchalantly.
“Shannon, can I talk to you?” She replied dangerously.
“Oh, come on, it’s not a big deal!” Sabrina looked livid. “Oh, fine.” After they left the room, Boone strained to hear what they were saying in vain.
“What happened?” He asked when she came back, looking at the floor.
“Nothing,” she sat flatly, dragging a chair from the other room to the table. “She said to stop… I don’t know. She just said not to… what was the word? Uh, tease you, or something.” She shrugged, but her eyes looked like her feelings had been hurt.
“You okay?” He asked.
“I’m fine,” she smiled wanly, and took another bite of her soggy Fruit Loops. Was Sabrina catching on? Boone had a feeling that she might be, from the jealous, biting looks she gave them when they were happy, when they were joking around… but maybe he was just being paranoid. And Boone was pretty sure that Sabrina would like Erin. Maybe then she’d realize that Boone wasn’t interested in Shannon in that way. He smiled uncertainly, not even believing his own thoughts.
Please comment, and tell me what you especially liked or didn’t like! Thanks!