Page 5 of Owen Gardner is Losing It

“Fine,” I conceded, letting out an annoyed sigh. “I’ll go in there, but it’s not going to amount to anything.”

Abigail pulled open the truck door and I slid out, running both hands through my hair. I stood beside the truck for a moment, contemplating what I might say when I went in. I hated this so much, I almost wished I were back in Mrs. Harpers’ class listening to my classmates pontificate about the symbolism inCatcher in the Rye.

If I screwed up too badly, I’d never be able to show my face inside Boomer’s again. Those old men would laugh me out of the place.

I stole a gummy worm from Abigail and ate it in two bites. “‘Kay. Wish me luck.”

Chapter three

“(What A) Wonderful World” - Sam Cooke

Iconsidered asking Xander and Abigail not to watch me interact with the blonde girl, but they wouldn’t have listened, anyway. As I pulled open the screen door at the side of the building, I glanced in their direction. Abigail, leaning against the truck, gave me a thumbs up. Xander just stared.

The girl behind the counter smiled when I came in. Abigail was right–she was even cuter up close. She had a round face, striking green eyes, and full lips. “Hi,” she said.

“Hey.” It was too soon to have a conversation, though–I hadn’t hyped myself up enough yet. So, I made my way down the candy aisle with my hands in my pockets, eyeing the men sitting at the little round tables near the back. One of them was talking about prepping for his colonoscopy.

It wasn’t exactly setting the mood.

I pretended to look at the selection of generic fruity candies while keeping a close eye on the girl behind the counter. She was softly singing along to the Sam Cooke song playing on the radio as she replaced the paper roll in the receipt printer.

God, was she trying to get me to fall in love with her, or what?

The screen door swung open and a middle-aged man came in to pay for his gas. I half-listened to them have a conversation about gas prices while absentmindedly scanning the candy.

When the man left, I knew I could no longer pace the aisles pretending to be looking for something, so I walked to the coolers in the back and grabbed a Dr. Pepper.Here goes nothing, I thought to myself as I made my way up to the register. She already had her eyes on me–was I walking funny? I suddenly became painfully aware of every step I took and the awkward way I carried the bottle in front of my chest. With each step, the counter seemed farther and farther away.

Shit, am I too high for this?

She smiled at me when I reached the counter, so that was a good sign. “You spent all that time eyeing the candy and you’re not getting any?”

Good, she was initiating the conversation. That alleviated some of my nervousness. I sat the pop bottle on the counter and slid it toward her. “I just couldn’t make up my mind, I guess.”

“You want to know my favorite?” she asked, scanning my Dr. Pepper. I just nodded. “The sour gummy frogs. I don’t know what it is about them, but they’re so much better than gummy bears or worms.”

After giving it just a second of thought, I did something impulsive and very un-Owen-like. I held up my pointer finger for her to wait and made my way back over to the candy, locating the gummy frogs, and brought them up to the counter.

“Aha,” the cashier said as she scanned the package. “I’m glad you’re taking my recommendation, but just a warning: you’re going to be addicted. I don’t know what they put in them. Crack or something.”

I let out a little laugh and looked into her eyes for the first time in our conversation. It was then that I realized I’d seen her around school before–last year. And the longer I stared at herface, the more I realized we may have even had a class together at some point. “You graduated last year, right?”

“Right,” she said, running her fingers through her hair. “You were in my 2D Art class, weren’t you?”

Indeed, I was. Finally, I could place her. We never interacted in the class, but I had some vague memories of seeing her in front of the backdrop of Mrs. Peters’ chaotic art room. With the quickest downward glance at her tight t-shirt, I said, “I hope you don’t remember any of my terrible drawings from that class. Art is not my strong suit.”

“Oh yeah? Whatisyour strong suit?”

Was she flirting with me?Say something cool. Say something cool.“Science.”Fuck. I can fix this.“I mean, anatomy. More specifically… female anatomy.”

Her eyes widened slightly, and she stared at me for a few seconds in stunned silence. The heat rushed to my face as I stammered out the next few words in an attempt to backpedal.

“I don’t–I didn’t mean–I was just-”

But she burst into laughter, clutching her stomach. “You did not just say that.”

“Unfortunately, I did,” I said, stealing a quick glance toward Xander’s truck. Xander and Abigail were both staring back at me. From their vantage point, it probably looked like I was killing it in here–like she was laughingwithme, not at me.

“You haven’t even seen a vagina before, have you?”

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