Page 68 of August
AJ smiled and said, “Cool. I just think it’s cool.”
“Do you know any other words?” Adele asked. “Everything iscoolwith you.”
“I know the wordasshole,” AJ replied to her.
“Hey,” Elisa said and glared playfully at him.
“Why do you want to go back Friday night?” AJ asked his sister, returning to the previous topic. “We can just driveseparately on Saturday and grab lunch at the place between here and there that we found before.”
“I’m hanging out with someone Friday night. I already made plans,” Adele said and looked away from him.
“Who?”
“None of your business, AJ,” Adele replied.
“Is it Tucker? Are you two together again?”
“What? No. I told him no before dinner.”
“Before dinner, I heard you giggling in your room. Did you giggle at him when you broke his heart?” AJ asked.
“No, I talked to him first, but then I was on the phone with someone else. Why don’t you mind your–”
“Hey, why don’t we just finish the dishes and watch a movie together or something?” Elisa interjected.
“Can I skip it?” AJ asked. “I’d like to see if Wendy wants to hang out this week. Justhangout. I’m hoping if she sees that I’m a good friend and can handle rejection well, maybe she’ll see that I’m a good guy and might want to let me call her or something when we’re at different schools.”
Adele cleared her throat, and Elisa had no idea how to handle this situation.
“Honey, you can go upstairs and call her, but maybe Wendy’s right.”
“About rejecting me?”
Elisa chuckled and replied, “Not exactly what I meant. I mean that she’s going to a different school hours away from you. You’re also both eighteen, and that kind of relationship at eighteen is hard. You’re going to be in soccer and class a lot, and she’ll be in class and activities, too. You’ll be making new friends, and you might even meet someone at school whom you might like. She could, too.” She looked at Adele, who gave her an expression that told Elisa that she couldn’t believe she had just said that. “Or not. She might not.” Elisa nodded. “I don’t know. You also have to be respectful of her feelings, honey. If she said she doesn’t think the two of you should go out, that’s her answer, okay? If she changes her mind later, she can let you know, but if she doesn’t, that’sokay, too. You need to be a good friend to her if you can, or move on if you can’t.”
AJ nodded slowly in realization and said, “Yeah, okay. I should’ve asked her out last year when I first wanted to, but she was always around other girls.” He looked at Adele. “Why do you always hang out in groups like that? How’s a guy supposed to ask one of you out when you’re always together?”
“My cousin said she can make it,” Myra let them know as she walked back into the kitchen.
“Really? Cool,” AJ said.
“Cool,” Adele mimicked.
“Okay. Both of you, go upstairs. Get out of my hair.” Elisa laughed.
“Want to play Call of Duty with me?” AJ asked Adele as they walked.
“You just want me on your team because I’m better than you,” Adele teased.
“Yes, that’s why,” he said, meaning it. “So, do you?”
“Yeah, sure,” Adele replied as she laughed.
When they went upstairs, Elisa let out a massive deep breath.
“Everything okay?” Myra asked. “Should I not have offered to take him this weekend?”
“What? No, that’s fine. That was actually really nice of you,” Elisa said and took a few steps toward her. “He’s been so into soccer his whole life, but he’s likely not going to play professionally. He’s good, and he might be able to transfer to a better school after this year, but his coaches tell me that might be it, so he needs something else to be excited about. If this is that something, I’m happy to let you take him and show him stuff.”
