Stole My Heart

11. Gee, thanks Mom

It's Monday, and I'm in math class. After Saturday night, I have been avoiding Taylen. I hung out with Seth at break, and I wanted to poke my eyes out, but I wasn't ready to face the storm. Taylen asked last week if she could move seats because of the guy who sits by her smells. She moves and sits beside Jae, which is behind me to the right.

As the bell rings, Seth and Gavin walk in. They have a class in a different building, fourth hour. If I remember correctly, they have it with Taylen. Mrs. Laura is not in the room yet. Seth walks over to me and quietly says, "I got her number, I'll give you it later."

I look at him. I am confused. I suddenly realized he was talking about Taylen.

"Nice," I say. We do our handshake, and as he walks away, I slap his butt really hard.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Taylen squirm and look away. Jae and Alex see her and start laughing. After hearing them laugh, Reese turns to see what all the commotion is about. As soon as he sees it, he starts laughing too. The rest of the class is so confused about what the heck is going on.

Everyone starts laughing because they are still laughing. Taylen is hiding her face in her hair. Mrs. Laura comes in and shushes everyone. When class is over, I don't go to my locker. I go straight to the gym.

Instead of sitting on the wall like they usually do, Jae, Taylen, and Alex are sitting on the concrete table. The triplets and I are standing a few feet away from them with some of our teammates. Taylen tries to stand up, but her foot gets stuck, and she falls. My instincts take over. Without even realizing it, I'm rushing over to help her.

I picked her up and set her down on the table. It is then I realize she is staring at me like I ought to be committed. She doesn't even act like she is in pain. If I did not see her grab her knee when she fell, I would have thought she was ok. I slowly back away.

She looks at her hands and dusts them off. They're a bit scrapped but do not look like there is any gravel stuck. Then she carefully rolls up her incredibly tight jeans. Her right knee is scraped and is bleeding.

Taylen grabs the pink backpack she carries and pulls out another small bag. It is white lace. She opens it and pulls out a q-tip, a napkin, a tiny packet of triple antibiotic ointment, and two bandaids. She dries the blood with the napkin and then grabs her water bottle and pours a bit over it. She dabs it dry with the napkin again. Then she puts a bit of the ointment on the q-tip and gently rubs it on the wound. After that is finished she puts the bandaids on and rolls her pant leg back down. She acts like this is completely normal, almost like it's something that happens everyday.

I discover that I am still standing here, staring. I walk back to my friends, bright red.

"You like her, don't you?" Drew asks.

"Nah, bro," I reply, hoping I sound believable.

"Oh yeah, she fell asleep laying on him the other day. He has been avoiding her," Mason decides to chime in.

They all look at each other and then at me. They give me a knowing look. Deciding I need to get out of there, I walk back into the gym. I lay on Dad's couch face down until lunch is over.

I do my college work in sixth hour and I get so bored. I am relieved when the bell to go to Coach G's rings. As I am walking, I almost run into Taylen. She gives me a look.

"Is your knee ok?" I ask.

"Yeah, thanks," she replies.

She lingers for a second to see if I'll say anything else. When she realizes that I'm not going to, she sighs and rolls her eyes then walks on. Basketball practice comes, and I am enjoying it. Coach made us run for our performance the other day. We were doing terribly. Bad passes, unrealistic shots, anything you could do wrong, we did it. We still won, surprisingly.

After running for almost an hour, we switch to passing drills. We work on those for about half an hour. Then we work on shooting for another half hour. Dad dismisses us right before we are all about to pass out. He sure knows when we are fixing to fall off the edge.

I drive home, exhausted. When I get home, I immediately head for a shower before anyone else. After I get out, I lay on my bed without clothes for about half-hour. I finally put shorts on and go downstairs to see if I can help Mom.

"Need any help, Momma?" I ask her as I kiss her cheek.

"Yes, please. Will you cut this lettuce?"

I get the cutting board and start cutting lettuce. When I am done, Mom walks over.

"Babe, you know I would love to watch you eat this dinosaur-sized lettuce, but I would like to eat small enough lettuce that I don't have to open my mouth all the way," she says with a giggle.

I pick up a piece of lettuce and put it in my mouth. Mom was right. I cut it too big. I say nothing as I pick up the knife and continue cutting the lettuce. She stands over my shoulder to make sure I get it right. Once it is to her liking, she grabs the knife from me and cuts the tomatoes.

"Go tell them it's ready."

I holler, "Supper is ready!"

Mom walks up behind me and smacks my butt somewhat hard, "Ouch, Momma," I fake being hurt.
"I coulda done that," she replied.

We sat down to eat. Dad says a quick prayer, and we start eating.

"How was everyone's day?"

"Good," we all say at the same time.

"Peter, did you ever talk to your girl?" Auston asks.

I turn red. "Who is your girl?" Dad asks.

"No one."

"Who's his girl?" Dad asks, looking at the other boys.

"Taylen Sanders," Mason replies.

"Oh, Jason's daughter. I like her," Dad says.

"She's not my girl!" I yell and slam my hands down on the table, standing up.

"Lower your voice and sit down," Dad says as a warning.

I huff and roll my eyes as I sit back down. Mom squeezes my thigh to say stop. I quickly eat the rest of my dinner and excuse myself. Not even fifteen minutes later, Bryson comes into my room. I'm lying face down on the bottom of my bed.

"Hey little dude, you ok?"

I ignore him. I'm not even mad, I just don't wanna talk. Bryson doesn't take the hint. He sits on the corner of my bed. We sit in silence until Mom comes in. She motions for Bryson to leave. He squeezes my knee as he does so. Everyone in this family is so touchy, it's starting to rub off on me.

Mom takes Bryson's seat on the corner of my bed. She pets my hair over and over again.

"Wanna tell me about Taylen?" Mom asks, carefully.

"No," I reply back.

"How about you do it anyway?" she says with hope but also a bit of a warning.
I think I'm more scared of Mom than Dad. I almost want to laugh at that.

"She's just this girl."

"Clearly, she is somebody if you get this worked up about it," Mom reasons.

I swear you can't get anything past this lady.

"Ok, she is a grade behind me, but she is almost two years younger than me. She's super sweet, and she hangs out with some of the same people I do. I had eyed her a few times, but we officially met when I went to Alex's a while back. Then when Dad made us go to that cookout last weekend, it was at her house."

"I thought Dad said it was like an hour away?"

"It is. I think that it was just her dad's house."

"Oh, so did you talk to her today?"

"Not really," I know she is going to say something about it.

"Why on earth not?!? You seem to like this little lady."

Yep, there it is.

"I have been avoiding her," I say sheepishly.

"Why?" She is honestly confused.

"She fell asleep while laying on me. It's awkward."

"Are you kidding me? I suddenly am remembering what it is like being a teenage girl. Boys, UGH!"

"Mom, what are you talking about?"

"She fell asleep on you, meaning she trusts you. She probably likes you, and now she feels rejected because you have been avoiding her."

"That doesn't make sense."

"She likes you. Trust me. Now go get your chores done and go to bed. You look like death."

"Gee, thanks Mom."

She leans over and kisses my head three times. "I love you."

"I love you too."