“We can use this as our base,” he said enthusiastically.
“Perfect,” I said, leaning over the table with a pencil in my hand. Realizing I hadn’t seen his father, Buck, yet. “Hey, where’s your dad anyhow?”
“Oh, he’s never home this early. It’s just us,” he smirked, almost sorry for disappointing me, as if I had been hoping to meet his dad.
I just smiled and shrugged turning back to my drawing, just in time to shield his view of my giant swallow. We were completely alone. My best friends dreamt of this situation. Both Sienna and Sarah had pretty steady boyfriends in junior high, and they had done their fair share of sneaking out to be with their boyfriends. But to be in Reed Johnson’s home, completely alone, just the two of us? Even if I still had my reservations about his character, my heart was still racing.
I was so deep in my own imagination that I hadn’t noticed Reed answer his phone. I was jolted back to reality when he started laughing with whoever was on the other side. “Sorry, it’s Sean. I’ll just be a minute,” he whispered, walking to his living room. I heard parts of the conversation over the next few minutes as he was explaining what he was doing and who was at his house. “No, dude. It’s nothing like that – we’re lab partners, that’s all. … She’s cool, man. I swear. You two would actually get along.”
I wasn’t sure if I was happy to hear him defend my coolness or offended by his categorization of me in the lab partner box. He was back in the dining room soon after. He sat back on one of the chairs, tilting it backwards some, chewing on the cap of a pen and watching me work while I pretended to be oblivious to his studying of my hands. I could tell he wanted to say something, but for some reason was quiet. Finally, I had to break the awkward silence.
“Hey, is this what you were envisioning? Sorry, I just sort of started mapping the entire thing out,” I said, looking up and settling my gaze right at the pen cap bobbing up and down on his lip as he chewed.
“Oh, no, this is great! Sorry… I was just trying not to stop your flow,” he stopped, and it seemed like he wanted to say more. Chewing a bit longer, he finally pulled the pen from his mouth and continued. “Sean and a few friends are going to stop by for a bit. They’ll just be hanging out in the living room, watching ESPN. We can keep working, they won’t interrupt.”
“Sure, sounds good,” I said, closing my lips tightly and putting on the best ‘I’m fine with it’ smile I could. I wasn’t fine with it at all. The last time I was in the presence of the two of them, they were high-fiving over their description of how unattractive I was. Being trapped with them again was not high on my to do list. I decided to focus my energy on the project. Maybe, just maybe, I could completely finish the drawing and start actually building the model so I could avoid having to socialize with his friends.
Reed was standing at the head of the table, watching me plot out urban farming squares when the doorbell rang. Without a word, he jogged over and opened it. I heard Sean first, the familiar ‘Boom’ that I knew was followed by a knuckle bump with Reed. Vomit was creeping up on me and I knew I was frowning. I heard a few more voices as the footsteps came around the corner and saw Reed whispering something in Sean’s ear, presumably reminding him that I was here.
“Noles, what’s up man!” Sean said, holding a hand up for me to slap. Completely succumbing to the pressure of the situation, I did. As if I had always done that with him, and we had some sort of relationship. Truth be told, I had known Sean since seventh grade, but we never really talked. “Hey,” I said, smiling on the outside.
Pretending, that’s what I was doing. I was disgusted at myself for it, but here I was doing it anyhow. Noles? Since when am I Noles?
“This is Devin and Cole. They’re on varsity with me… juniors. They took the little freshman under their wing,” Reed said, laughing it off like he was embarrassed. As absurd as it was, Reed was the one taking the upper classmen under his wing. Though he was not quite 15, he came to Coolidge with such confidence. I know a lot of it came from his name and his father and his brother, but there was also a certain amount that was just his. He owned it, and he was a leader the instant he stepped foot on our campus.
“Mind if we hit the fridge?” Devin, the biggest of the bunch, said. He was clearly a lineman or some type of defensive player. He was built like a college player. I heard the clanking of glass in the kitchen as the fridge door shut. Then I heard the distinct sound of bottle caps snapping. Curious, I rounded the table, pretending to need to work on the other side just to catch a view of what I suspected. All four boys were holding Heineken beers, leaning against the counter, one of them sitting on top of the kitchen island. It was clearly a regular activity, they seemed so comfortable and at home. I was far from 15, several months shy to be exact, and had yet to really kiss a boy, let alone drink a beer. My palms were sweating, I was so nervous at the situation. Work, busy yourself, Noles! I thought to myself, smirking at my silently said nickname.