Page 57 of One Little Problem
10. Romantic Moments
Brought to you by Ryan the lyrical genius and hamburgers.
Ryan
Planning for the future was a necessity. To know where you were going, you had to know how to get there. But there was time for that later. You also had to live in the moment, enjoy the now. Now was a great moment. What am I saying? I had no idea. Who cared? Not me!
The sun shone brightly. It was a hot day that was only going to get hotter, but the warm rays felt good on my skin. It felt like anything was possible as I exited the school doors for the last time as a junior. I had survived another year. Better yet, I had thrived this year. I felt positively giddy.
I met Luke by his car. I sang part of School’s Out by Alice Cooper to him. Just the part that went ‘school’s out for the summer’ or something like that, because that was all I knew.
“That’s cute, babe. Did you think of it yourself?” Luke wondered.
Me or that guy named Alice, definitely one of the two. “Yes,” I lied, nodding profusely. “Yes, I did.”
“Oh, no you didn’t.” What?! This was one of the few times I actually lied convincingly, at least I thought so. “Really thought you did for a second.”
“No, you still think that,” I informed him. “I’m a lyrical genius and you are in awe.” I had to tell him that because it seemed like he didn’t know.
“Nah,” he said with an easy grin. “You have a tell when you’re lying.”
“What? Tell me what it is,” I demanded.
He shook his head. “Probably shouldn’t tell you for my own self-preservation.”
The smile forming on my face was likely a bit menacing as he looked worried in response to it, but I could work with this. It would be fun. “Self-preservation he says,” I spoke lightly, but he didn’t relax. Good instincts. “I’m going to pester you and pester you and then, just to change it up, pester you some more, endlessly, until—"
“Excessive nodding,” he rushed to say. “It’s excessive nodding.” I barely got to wear him down!
He took away all my fun. I pouted, and he put an arm around my waist, which effectively ended the pouting. Excessive nodding, huh? “I can work on that. Yep. Yeah, I can do that.”
“You’re doing it again,” he pointed out.
Oh. I reached up with both my hands and used them to make my head stop moving. Luke just watched in amusement.
We had more important things to worry about anyway. I didn’t know what those things were, but I was excited to find out. I didn’t leave for two weeks and Luke had a week before he started working, so that was seven days to fill with making out, ridicule, and disgusting pet names.
“The important thing,” I said. “Is that school is out. Let’s do something exciting!” Hmm. “Let’s rob a liquor store.”
“Good option,” he agreed because it was probably easier than arguing. “We’ll keep that on the table, but let’s keep brainstorming.”
“Okay…” I thought about what else we could do. There was… And… Or…
If we did commit crimes, we’d probably have to wear ski masks, which canceled out the summer vibe and covered Luke’s face. But if he didn’t cover his face, then people would be able to identify him. That was a tough one.
“My brain keeps going back to rob a liquor store,” I admitted. Luke was a pie thief anyway; he could show me the ropes, indoctrinate me into a life of crime. How fun!
“Let’s not think of a plan,” Luke decided. “Let’s just drive. We’ll let fate decide what we do.”
“Yeah, that sounds romantic, babe.” Only one problem with that. “Except there’s nowhere we could drive to.” Maybe he forgot our geographic location and the lack of entertainment options said location afforded.
“Do you really have so little faith?” His green eyes were really good at being green, and they also helped him win sometimes, along with his close proximity to me, it was all wearing me down.
“Okay, fine.”
Luke had his mouth open, ready to counter whatever argument I came up, only I didn’t argue. He looked cute shocked. “Really?”
“Even if we don’t end up going anywhere in particular, which is totally what’s going to happen by the way, it’s not like we’ll run into some magical, wonderful, entertaining place we’ve never seen before—"
