Page 13 of Taking Care of You
I can feel Crystal’s eyes on me before I get to her car. I know she’ll have tons of questions and I’m trying to prepare myself for them. Jenna is gone, so there’s no buffer time for me to think.
Sliding into the passenger seat, I close my eyes for a brief moment, then look over at her. “Uh, what was that?” Her voice is high and excited, like she can’t wait for the tea.
I just shrug. I have no idea what that was. The friendship between me and Ethan is still a mystery. I don’t want to hope that he’s really serious about it. “We’re working on a project in English. He asked me to come to his house so we can start working on it.”
“And you’re going?” Her voice gets higher with her disbelief.
“Yeah. He’s not coming to my house. My mom would probably say some shit about me sucking his dick to make him be my partner for this assignment.”
Crystal cringes, knowing the kind of fucked up shit my mom says to me. She’s heard more than her fair share of my mother calling me a whore. I’m sure she doesn’t want to hear more.
She nudges me and says, “Well, have fun. It’s good to see you’re making other friends."
Deciding to voice my concerns, I turn to her and ask, “Why me, though? He can hang with anybody. Everyone loves him. I’m just…me. There’s nothing interesting about me that would make him want to be my friend.”
I’m not trying to put myself down, I'm just being honest. There is nothing interesting about me. I’m quiet. I keep to myself and I haven’t opened up to anyone besides Crystal in years. I’m not the walking advertisement for friendship. I don't even like people like that.
She lets out an exasperated breath. “Koby, you’re amazing. I’ve been telling you for years. You’re a lot of fun. I love hanging out with you. Maybe somebody else sees what I see. Or maybe he thought you needed someone else besides me. Either way, you’re a good friend. Let someone else see that.”
Can I allow him to be my friend, with no questions? Does he have ulterior motives? Is he using me as a joke or a bet? God, I hope not. I don’t think I’d recover from that. Not from him.
Sighing, I lean back against the passenger seat. “Thanks, Crys. I’ll try, okay? I don’t think I can do more than that.”
She nods and puts her car in gear, a loud screeching noise coming from under the hood. We both cringe as she pulls out, the rumble of the car filling the interior with more noise than the radio. “I think it’ll be okay. Ethan’s not like the rest of them,” she practically shouts. She lets out a frustrated breath and adds,“Remind me to tell my dad to fix this piece of shit again before we end up on the side of the road.”
I laugh and relax into the seat. The rest of the ride is spent in silence, with me thinking about what I’m going to do about Ethan. We have the English project to do together, so we’ll at least speak for the remainder of the semester. Will we still be friends, though? Maybe in the time we’re doing the project, he’ll see that I’m not that great a person to be around. He’ll realize he made a mistake and I’m a waste of time. That will make the project awkward, but I think I could handle it.
When we pull up to Crystal's house, her father is in the driveway, looking under the hood of his own car. She pulls up along the street and puts on her pouting face so she can try to convince him to fix her car. I laugh at her and get out to walk home. I wave at her father, who shouts ‘hi’ over the noise of Crystal’s car while walking down the driveway to have her open the hood.
I wonder what I’m going to find when I get inside my house. Hopefully, my mother isn’t drunk on the floor. Maybe she’ll be locked in her room or—something I shouldn’t hope for, something I told myself to stop hoping for—she’ll be my loving mother, the one that would have lunch ready for me and ask how my day was. I haven’t seen that mother in years. She’s too far gone to come back and be that mother, and I don’t think I’d trust her if she did.
Opening the door, I hold my breath, hoping she’s not around. The living room and kitchen are quiet, so I walk on light feet to my room, shutting the door as quietly as I can. If I don’t make any noise, she won’t bother me.
Tossing my backpack on my bed, I plop down beside it, pulling out my books to get started on my homework. I tug my phone from my pocket, surprised to see a text from Ethan. I check the time and see that he’s probably still at practice. Ibriefly wonder why my phone didn’t vibrate, but it probably did and I didn’t notice with the shaking of Crystal’s car.
A smile stretches across my face as I open the text.
Ethan: You really wanna come to the game, creep?
Okay, fine. At this point, ‘creep’is a thing. I won’t ask him to stop again. Surprisingly, I really do like it. I’ve never had a pet name before, even if it is weird as hell.
My fingers moving across the keyboard, I quickly send him a message back.
Me: Yes, I’ll be there. I haven’t been to a game in a while, though. What side is the fifty-yard line on again? I want to make sure I’m following.
I knowwhere the fifty-yard line is. I’m trying for a joke, even though I’m not really good at them. Hopefully, he takes it for what it is.
Since he’s probably still at practice, I don’t expect him to text me back immediately. I pull my books closer and get started on my homework. We’re not too deep into the school year, but my AP classes don’t care about that. Calc and Bio have me swamped.
By the time Ethan texts me back, I’m knee-deep in equations and I’m glad for the break.
A laugh burst from my lips when I read his message.
Ethan: Everyone knows the fifty-yard line is on our side. Damn. I’ll have to teach you everything, huh?
I grin,glad that he knows I was joking. I’m also glad he texted me back.
Shoving my books away, I lie back on the bed, holding my phone above me. I can’t go for a witty response, because I am not witty. So I just try for normal.
