Are You Christian - 3. Chapter 3

When the weekend rolled around I found myself feeling lonely. Stacey did get to go on her date after Mom let her go. She said that it was great that she was already making such an effort to make things work here. Stacey just wanted to get to know her hot tour guide and it annoyed me that I was now stuck here late in the afternoon on a sunny day doing nothing.

“Christian you know we could set up an art room for you.” Dad said walking into the living room to find me holding a sleeping Grace in my lap and flipping through the television channels.

“Where would it be?” I asked curiously and he just shrugged.

“It would be wherever you want it to be.” Dad answered finally. Then he sat down on the other end of the couch. I was surprised that he didn’t have to work on a Saturday. In Baltimore he worked everyday of the week most of the time. Even some on Christmas. That never really bothered me though since my parents didn’t know when to stop working and with out him here he couldn’t interrogate me.

“I guess my room would be a good place as any.” I shrugged thinking about it. I didn’t want anyone to watch me paint and my room would be the most private.

“Have you hung any of your finished ones up around the house yet?” Dad asked and I knew he was just trying to make conversation with me. He didn’t really know how to communicate with kids at all. He talked to Grace like an adult even if she couldn’t understand a word he said he didn’t do the gushy baby talk that mom, Stacey, and I always done with her.

“Does it look like it?” I asked smiling over at him and he looked around before he turned back to me.

“Christian can we talk?” Dad asked seriously reaching for Grace, but I moved her out of his reach.

“She’s alright dad.” I offered and he let his hands fall back to his lap. His arm was still bandaged underneath his t-shirt. It really was scary to learn that he was shot. It was just like one of those crime television shows where the newly convicted prisoner shoots his lawyer in this heated struggle. It happened right outside a courtroom. Right in front of the local news cameras and I watched it with Mom happen live. “Sure, we cal talk.”

“Alright then.” Dad responded smiling at me. “How’s school?”

“Everything’s alright with school really, I haven’t been there long enough to know for sure though.” I answered him and he nodded. “How’s your new job?”

“Pretty quiet in the office.” He offered smiling. “Just like mom wanted.”

“Yeah, but I think here you have a better chance at getting shot.” I reasoned thinking of the part of the United States we were now in.

“Probably so.” He sighed absently rubbing the bandage on his arm. “Are you making friends?”

“I don’t know dad.” I answered then I maneuvered Grace so that she looked more comfortable. She was actually snoring slightly and when the short silences fell between Dad and I you could hear her.

“How about that boy Jonathon?” Dad asked curiously, “Mom said his dad’s church is the church she wanted to attend.”

“He’s pretty annoying.” I answered rolling my eyes. “The dumb football jock type.”

“Oh, those.” Dad stated laughing slightly. “Well you’ve never had trouble with people so I’m sure you’ll get some friends soon enough.”

“Yeah.” I said not really knowing if I was going to or not. I am too different from everyone here. I could see that just seconds after arriving.

“Well let me put Grace to bed.” Dad said standing up and taking Grace from me ending our short talk. Grace was going to be the excuse for me not having anything better to do, but now that she had fallen asleep I knew that Dad would be worried about me if I didn’t busy myself with something else. The television was barely used in this house. Mom didn’t like it at all. She told us that most of the shows depicted fantasy life-styles that make people strive to be, but they end up failing and that’s why she stays so busy.

“Dad, I’m going for a walk alright?” I asked after he reappeared from Grace’s room.

“That’s fine.” He responded and then he disappeared into the kitchen. I was going to have to make sure Stacey stayed home more often so that I wouldn’t be having these awkward moments with our parents. I didn’t know exactly where I was going to walk to. I just picked a direction after I got to the end of the sidewalk and took it. As I was walking I did look around to see that this town really was buzzing. You could never tell though unless you were actually out in it. People were mowing their lawns and kids were playing completely unsupervised and people were swimming. It did make me feel more peaceful. I didn’t have to worry if I was going to get mugged or someone offer me drugs. Our neighborhood was pretty clean back home, but I just didn’t see that happening here. I didn’t really want to walk too slowly because I didn’t want people to think I was watching them even if that was what I was doing. Then when a long haired little dog came barking after me I stopped walking and looked to make sure there wasn’t any larger dogs following it.

“Oh Bandit get back here!” Jonathon screamed, it surprisingly stopped the little dogs charge and it turned around and trotted back up to where Jonathon was standing. I didn’t really want to be noticed by him so I started walking again. “Christian come here and talk a minute!”

“Alright.” I said and I knew he couldn’t here me. When I entered his yard I started getting nervous. I knew there was a possibility of me running into someone from school. I just didn’t want it to be the one person from school that I thought was annoying.

“I don’t got all day!” Jonathon pushed impatiently and I sped up my pace until I was close enough to Jonathon to satisfy him.

“Hi.” I greeted as strongly as I could with out trying to sound annoyed.

“How’s it going?” He asked taking my hand and forming it into a fist then patted his fist against mine. It was completely awkward, but I didn’t jerk my hand away.

“I’m just fu… I’m just bored.” I stammered catching myself.

“Well I was just about to take off to go join Matt and Kate do you wanna come along?” Jonathon invited casually as he picked up the little dog and opened his front door.

“I don’t think so.” I responded watching as he placed the little dog down inside the house and then closed the door.

“You can’t make friends walking down the road you know.” Jonathon stated amused, “And you don’t play sports so the only way for you to make friends is to come with me.”

“There are more than two ways to make friends.” I countered studying him. He really was turning out to be the football jock type.

“This isn’t Baltimore.” He said grabbing my arm. He started dragging me towards the road again. “I won’t take no for an answer, besides I’m doing you a favor.”

“I don’t want you to though.” I argued taking my arm from his hand and stopped walking.

“I know you don’t really like me, but Matt and everyone are good people.” Jonathon reasoned a little upset. “So maybe you’ll find out that I’m not as bad as you think I am.”

“Oh?” I asked not really wanting to have this deep of a conversation with someone I barely knew. Especially someone who just happens to be the son of the preacher who’s church we’ll be attending bright and early Sunday morning.

“So come on.” Jonathon pleaded slightly, “You didn’t just walk a half a mile for no reason.”

“And what if I did?” I asked sarcastically and he smiled.

“Everything happens for a reason.” He answered then he started walking finally confident that I was going to follow him. I didn’t believe things happened for a reason. I do believe that one thing does lead to another. A lot of separate instances only connected to the instant that happened before. I did start walking with Jonathan though.

“I showed mom the card and we’re coming to your church tomorrow.” I revealed and he smiled.

“My dad’s a bit boring most days.” Jonathon admonished, “But afterwards everyone stays to talk and don’t dare leave first, because who ever does gets talked about as soon as they leave.”

“Really?” I asked raising an eyebrow. Going to church was one thing. I had accepted and prepared myself for that, but talking to and getting to know these people was completely different. Nothing about this town was impartial though.

“No, not really.” Jonathon answered laughing slightly. “Well I’m kidding about the gossiping.”

“I can’t believe you just called your dad boring.” I stammered a little amused by him.

“Well I know pretty much every story the bible has to offer so I don’t really like hearing them over and over again.” Jonathon explained and I bet he never told his father how he felt about that.

“I guess it would get kinda boring after awhile.” I agreed as he turned me up the sidewalk of a house that I passed on my way up to Jonathon’s house. Jonathon then banged on the door instead of politely knocking and within seconds Matt and Kate appeared.

“What causes you to do that every time you stop by?” Matt asked then I saw him look over at me.

“I don’t know.” Jonathon answered shrugging then looked to where Matt was looking. “Oh, I ran into him on the way over and decided to drag him along.”

“That’s fine.” Matt offered smiling. “Hi Christian.”

“Hi.” I greeted then Kate stepped out on the porch.

“Honey you have baby drool on your shirt.” Kate said looking me over and I looked down to see that Grace really had drooled on me.

“Oh well.” I shrugged not really caring.

“Well we’re going to the fair you’re only going to get dirtier.” Matt responded following Kate out the door. He turned and shut it then we walked side by side down the road.

“Is everything within walking distance?” I asked as we turned into what looked like to be someone’s lawn.

“Well yeah if you take short-cuts.” Kate answered smiling slightly. “Just don’t get into Chief Lunger’s lawn or he’ll arrest you for trespassing.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind.” I stammered having no idea where Chief Lunger’s house was. Then after we entered the back yard there was a large field and across the field was the carnival part of the fair. I did remember my wallet this time before I left the house. This would be the first fair that I’ve ever been to.

“Gavin and Lacey should be at the Carnival by now.” Jonathon said as we kept walking. I was starting to sweat in this heat. I was also the only one not wearing shorts. “Since this year their moms volunteered to do the church booth.”

“I’ve never been to one of these.” I stammered and they all looked at me in disbelief.

“Don’t they have fairs and carnivals in Baltimore?” Kate asked as we stepped over a metal fence and was now officially at the carnival.

“They do, but I never went to one.” I responded and she shrugged.

“Matt come on I want to do some booth shopping right now!” Kate ordered slightly dragging him towards the rows of booths that were set up.

“Guess we’ll see ya later then.” Jonathon said patting my shoulder.

“Alright.” Matt offered before he finally let Kate drag him off into the crowd. It left Jonathon and I paired up. I at first thought Jonathon was leaving with them, but he never followed.

“Since you’re new to one of these what do you want to try first?” He asked turning to stand directly in front of me.

“Well what is there to do?” I asked carefully, I was wondering if this was where Stacey had been spending the day with her new friend.

“There’s games and rides and stuff.” Jonathon explained happily. “Come on we’ll just do whatever you see I don’t like standing around.”

“Fine.” I offered as he grabbed my shoulder and pushed me in the direction he wanted me to go. This time I let him since I didn’t know where the hell I was going. Even if I didn’t like being pushed or grabbed. Jonathon was just a big touchy person. It’s how he reacts with people. It was another annoying habit that he had. First we saw this little game booth that had small goldfish bowls out in the middle of it stacked into a pyramid. All of them contained a small orange goldfish and he stopped at it.

“I want to play this.” He said taking out his wallet. It looked impossible to get a ping pong ball into those small holes at the top of the bowls.

“You get three tries for a dollar.” The man said and he handed him three balls. I stood back and watched his first attempt bounce off a the top of one of the bowls and I smiled. This was just a cheap trick to get people out of their money. Then his second attempt flew over the entire pyramid causing me to laugh.

“That was the wind.” He stammered slightly embarrassed.

“The ping pong balls are too large anyway.” I responded shaking my head. I knew the person in charge had to hear me, but he didn’t say anything. Then when he threw the third ball it bounced off the top of the fish bowl pyramid and landed inside one of the bowls on the bottom.

“We have a winner!” The man in charge of the game exclaimed then he handed him a small plastic bag containing a orange goldfish in water.

“Here.” Jonathon said attempting to hand me the fish.

“I don’t want it.” I countered pushing it away slightly. “It’s your fish.”

“I don’t like fish.” Jonathon argued, “So take it.”

“What makes you think that I like fish?” I asked looking down at the fish. I thought fish were the most useless pets a person could have. Especially these little orange goldfish.

“Just take the goldfish.” Jonathon pushed then grabbed my hand placing the top of the bag into it.

“It’ll die before I get it home.” I stated rolling my eyes. “Sir, can’t you just take it back?”

“No.” He answered quickly walking away to someone else who wanted to play.

“Well isn’t this just inconvenient.” I growled looking down at the little goldfish. When I looked back up I saw Stacey walking my way happily and I was thankful to see someone that I actually liked being around. When she got to where I was standing she looked down at my new pet and smiled.

“You won that game?” She asked and I held up the goldfish for her to see it better.

“No Jonathon did.” I answered pointing to him. Stacey looked at me weirdly for a second, but didn’t ever say anything.

“Well here I’m going home soon so I can take it.” Stacey said and I shoved it into her hand.

“Thanks.” I offered smiling, “But where’s your date?”

“Oh he’s trying to win me an enormous pink fluffy rabbit.” Stacey answered laughing slightly. “I bet he’s spent twelve dollars already.”

“That’s cute.” I stated and she nodded.

“It’s stupid, you can buy them if you can’t win them.” Jonathon offered and Stacey turned to him.

“The man at the game has offered him a chance to buy it, but he wants to win it anyway.” Stacey responded a little annoyed by Jonathon’s outburst. “Well I better get back, I just saw you over here and wanted to say hi.” With that she turned and left me with Jonathon again. At least I was no longer stuck with that damn goldfish.

“Alright I want to play this.” Jonathon said after looking around and walked a few feet to where there was the same type of game except the prize was a live rabbit.

“You aren’t playing that game.” I countered as I grabbed his arm and attempted to pull him away from it.

“Just why not?” He asked pulling away from me.

“Because we can’t deal with a rabbit.” I answered, “Do it later.”

“There may not be anymore rabbits if we do it later.” Jonathon whined turning to look at the person in charge of the game.

“You’re hopeless.” I huffed shaking my head. “You’re carrying it around if you win it and I hope it poops on you.”

“Fine, we can do it later.” Jonathon caved and I wondered if he was the most immature person in this crappy town. Then I followed him to this basketball shooting game where Stacey was and Adam was still trying to win that huge stuffed rabbit that he promised her.

“Oh hey!” Stacey greeted after seeing us.

“Hi, again.” I offered then watched as the ball missed.

“Shit!” Adam groaned then grabbed his wallet again. “Again.”

“I don’t even want the rabbit anymore.” Stacey offered laughing slightly. “It’s ok really, the effort is cute.”

“No, I’m getting you that rabbit.” Adam countered handing the man the money to play the game again. Then again he missed all of his chances. It didn’t look that difficult to do, but this time as there was a line starting to form behind Adam the man took down the big stuffed rabbit and handed it to him.

“Here you’ve pretty much bought twenty of these things by now.” The man said and Adam took it fuming, but Stacey had her rabbit.

“See you later guys.” Stacey offered as they walked off together again.

“Alright let me show you how it’s done.” Jonathon stated smugly then paid the man who handed him a basketball. Jonathon then aimed carefully then I watched him sink the basketball on the first try and he was also handed a large fluffy rabbit from the guy.

“Why couldn’t Adam do that?” I asked myself aloud.

“Adam isn’t all that bright.” Jonathon answered as he looked over the rabbit that looked to be about four feet tall with long floppy ears. Unlike Stacey’s this one was a light blue. “Here you go.”

“I don’t want that either.” I countered shaking my head. “Why do you play these games if you don’t want the prizes?”

“Just to do them.” Jonathon shrugged as I was dragged to a dart game. He won a smaller stuffed bear there, but wasn’t satisfied with that and went again until he popped enough balloons to win the large bear which he gave both to me. I thought it was odd that he was so excited about doing well then proudly handed over his prizes to me.

“Are you having fun?” I asked curiously as I tried to carry the three stuffed animals that he had already won.

“Yeah.” He answered smiling at me. “You look so goofy.”

“Thanks.” I offered rolling my eyes.

“Do you see anything you want to play?” Jonathon asked taking all of the prizes away from me.

“Not really.” I answered looking around. Carnival games weren’t really my thing either.

“Well come on now play this game.” He pushed as we walked up to a different game. This one you had to squirt water into this hole to fill up a balloon.

“I don’t want to play it.” I countered shaking my head. He put the stuffed animals down on the ground and sat down on the stool next to the one I was standing at.

“Come on, I bet I could beat you.” Jonathon urged patting the stool next to his.

“I haven’t even held anything shaped like a squirt gun.” I explained, mom thought toys like that were a bad influence.

“Quit being such a boring person.” Jonathon stated slightly amused by the way that I was acting.

“Stop being so annoying and I will.” I countered sticking my tongue out at him. He started laughing at me then and I looked up to see the person in charge of the game looking at me.

“Are you going to play?” He asked and I looked down at Jonathon.

“Yeah.”

“Three dollars.” He said and we both handed him our money and I sat down. When a bell rang we started squirting and of course by the time I figured out how to aim the game was already over. Jonathon was handed a stuffed zebra toy and we got up.

“How in the world are we going to pack all of your junk around?” I asked looking at the pile on the ground.

“It’s not my junk it’s all yours.” Jonathon answered, “And we’ll divide the load.”

“What do you mean it’s my junk?” I asked after he grabbed two leaving me the other two to carry.

“I mean that I’m giving you them, because I don’t want them so stop complaining and just accept them.” Jonathon responded and I had to walk faster to keep up with him.

“But why would you do that?” I asked curiously, he was definitely unique I give him that. Completely unreadable and I doubt that he even knew himself what he wanted to do until he was actually doing it.

“Do you want to start riding rides?” He asked completely ignoring my question. “Because if you are then we have to purchase tickets.”

“Sure.” I answered at least thankful that he wasn’t looking to play anymore games. Then he stopped and did a quick look around the carnival until he found what he was looking for.

“How many rides do you think you’ll wanna go on?” Jonathon asked looking over at me.

“I don’t really know.” I replied shrugging slightly. “Are they safe?”

“What kind of question was that?” He asked laughing slightly. “Do you think they’d put you on something unsafe?”

“Well you never know.” I offered and he started laughing harder. As I looked closer at some of the rides they didn’t exactly look safe. They weren’t even all that clean or grand to look at. Some of them were even rusted or had chipped paint. So no, I didn’t think they looked that safe.

“Well I need to know if you’re going to ride rides, because I don’t want you to be bored.” Jonathon said after a short pause.

“How considerate.” I joked sarcastically and he sighed impatiently. “I’ll ride whatever you ride, damn.”

“There you go cussing in front of me again.” Jonathon stammered a little surprised that I done it again.

“You just bring them swear words right out of me.” I responded blushing slightly. Here I was cussing around the son of the preacher that mom was dragging us to go see. After that Jonathon turned and walked towards a ticket selling booth and I followed him. Then after we bought some tickets to ride the rides I followed him to this ride that looked pretty intense.

“You have to be pretty brave to ride The Screamer.” He said smiling over at me.

“I’m not brave enough.” I responded and he started laughing.

“It’s just fast.” Jonathon said as we waited in the line to go on it. There were a lot of people waiting for this one so I knew it had to be bad.

“Well good thing I haven’t eaten anything today.” I grimaced feeling nauseas just watching it. The people riding it was screaming so that’s how it got it’s name.

“You haven’t ate?” Jonathon asked surprised. “It’s past lunch.”

“The only meal I really eat is Dinner.” I responded shrugging.

“Well after a few rides we can eat.” Jonathon said, “We’ll probably not see Matt and his boss anymore today.”

“His boss?” I asked smiling up at him. “Kate right?”

“She’s so controlling.” He explained as we stepped closer to the ride. The seats on the ride seated two people so at least I wouldn’t be sitting alone. That made it better I thought.

“Well most girls are I guess.” I shrugged not really knowing since I never had a girlfriend.

“Have you had a couple?” Jonathon asked as the ride started up again. We would be on the next round and I was starting to get nervous now.

“No I haven’t.” I answered feeling embarrassed slightly. There was a reason I didn’t have any girlfriends, but he didn’t need to know anything about that. I also hadn’t had any boyfriends either though. The place we used to live wasn’t all that friendly towards any large differences. This place is even more closed minded since I couldn’t even have any piercings.

“Your parents not let you date either?” Jonathon asked and I actually thought about lying and say that they didn‘t. I could date if I wanted to, but I was just too scared to find out who there was for me to date. I didn’t really have anything in common with the people that I used to hang out with though other than painting.

“Oh, yeah they let me date.” I answered as the ride ended. I was at least thankful that I didn’t have to answer anymore of his questions. I just didn’t want to ride the ride either. It looked extreme and this would be my first thrill ride and I wanted to live to ride some more.

“Alright it’s two tickets for this ride.” Jonathon said and then it was our turn so we handed our tickets to the man in control of the ride and stepped up on the platform. I followed Jonathon to a seat. He let me in first then he sat beside me. Then we lowered the safety rail and he snapped it shut. I made sure it was fastened two or three times while we waited for the ride to start.

“I’m not promising anything, but I’ll try not get sick.” I stammered as the ride started slowly.

“I have nothing to worry about it’s the people around us.” Jonathon said laughing at me. The speed intensified quickly and I hated it. Then the rotation started and people started screaming. I was trying not to slide in the bucket to where I would be right up against Jonathon, but I didn’t have much choice.

“Shit!” I screeched as the speed intensified again. I could hardly keep my head steady and I couldn’t make out anything in this blur. It was a fun enough ride though for a one go around. Jonathon was laughing and he was watching me in the seat probably thinking that I was about to throw up all over the place, but when the ride ended I was relieved. I had survived my first thrill ride.

“Now when you step off your legs will be weak for a couple seconds.” Jonathon warned as he stepped off the ride and I could see that his knees buckled a little. When I stepped off I couldn’t really find my balance either and had to lean against the bucket. “The ride cuts off circulation to your legs a little.”

“I noticed.” I stammered a little amused by that. It didn’t take long for the strength to return and we stepped off the ride and then we rode a few other rides and I started to enjoy myself a lot more. Jonathon really wasn’t that bad of company even if we did have to drag stuffed animals the whole time we were there. I did notice though that even is if he was a football jock here in a small town not many people approached him. I even saw people from school and none of them came up to talk to him. I wondered if he had many friends at all or if people didn’t want to talk to him because of who his father was.

“Are you hungry yet?” Jonathon asked holding his stomach. “Because I’m starving.”

“Yeah, I guess I could eat.” I responded not really hungry.

“Well then let’s go eat.” He said and I looked around and didn’t see anything other than pizza stands to choose anything different.

“I guess it’s pizza.” I shrugged and Jonathon stopped walking to look around.

“Yeah, but some places have seating areas. I don’t like to walk and eat.” Jonathon explained as we started looking for those stands, but we didn’t find any. “Crap where are they?”

“Maybe there wasn’t enough room.” I offered not really knowing anything about it. We finally did pick a pizza stand to eat from. Jonathon bought a whole pizza where I just wanted a slice and he didn’t let me pay for it. My parents were the rich ones. His father was a just a preacher and his mother didn’t really do anything at all. I wanted to pay for half at least, but he never took my money.

“Well let’s walk to the park to eat it’s just right over there.” Jonathon recommended then looked at me.

“Whatever works.” I shrugged and he smiled and started walking towards the park.

“The park is where we play roller hockey, you should really start coming to those we’re always short of players.” Jonathon explained in his endless excited way.

“I can’t skate at all.” I revealed again using that for my excuse for not wanting to do anything with them. After we got to the park we sat down at a vacant picnic table and he opened the box of pizza.

“You’re gonna eat.” He said looking at me.

“What if I don’t want to?” I asked crossing my arms.

“Then you just let me waste money on you.” Jonathon answered looking a little disappointed.

“I am going to eat if you let me pay for my half.” I explained and he shook his head.

“You’re the person that I’m breaking in.” Jonathon countered through a full mouth of pizza. “So eat the only free meal you’re getting from me.”

“Fine.” I caved grabbing a slice and started eating. “We forgot to get something to drink.”

“Crap.” Jonathon groaned noticing as well. “Be right back.” After he said that he stood and jogged from the picnic table leaving me alone in the park. There was a lot of people here most of them eating and there was people with kids taking a break from the carnival. I don’t know how long I have spent the day with Jonathon, but the sky was turning orange and that meant that it was getting late. I knew that mom would have been home by now and hopefully Stacey told them that I was at the carnival since she had seen me. When he returned he had two bottles of water with him and I tried to keep track on how much money he had actually spent on me today and I wasn’t liking it.

“Thanks.” I offered taking the water that he handed me and I opened it taking a drink. It wasn’t exactly cold, but it didn’t really bother me.

“What does your mom do?” Jonathon asked curiously as we started eating again.

“She’s a psychologist.” I answered and he looked surprised.

“I bet she’s fun to live with.” He stated laughing slightly.

“You have no idea.” I responded shaking my head. “I don’t know what all she’s probably diagnosed me with by now.”

“Well I’d hate for her to have to talk to me.” He said and I looked up at him. He didn’t really sound like he was joking, but a little while later his smile returned. I wondered if he was hiding something. If he was, he wasn’t doing that good of a job at it. He didn’t really hide his emotions behind false smiles or laughs either. Earlier when I annoyed him by not wanting to follow him around he let me know that. Here he wasn’t laughing when he said that my mom would have a time figuring him out. I was starting to see some complexity with him and I was actually looking forward finding out all there was to know about him. After the pizza was gone he crushed the box and stuffed into a nearby trash can.

“I don’t really want to do anything else.” I said as we started walking back towards the carnival.

“Me either, I have to be home soon anyway.” Jonathon responded, “So do you want to start back home?”

“Yeah.” I said and he nodded.

“Well it was nice to finally break you in.” He said patting me on the shoulder. We still had the four stuffed animals that he had given to me as I looked at them. We looked completely stupid dragging these things around all day, but it didn’t phase Jonathon at all. After we crossed the metal bars that we crossed this afternoon we started across the field. I didn’t really know what he meant by breaking me in, but if that meant that I fit in I was looking forward to it. When we reached the highway that ran through the middle of the town he stopped and turned to me.

“What?” I asked after he didn’t say anything. He kept looking at me not really smiling.

“So, do you like me now?” He asked finally then he handed me the stuffed animals that he was carrying.

“Sure, but if the reason you did all that was to make you like me then…”

“It wasn’t.” He interrupted smiling. “I wanted to do it and I really do hate stuffed animals.”

“Fine.” I said shaking my head. “I’ll consider you a friend now and not just a dumb football player.”

“Alright then.” He said laughing slightly. “See you in the morning.”

“Yeah.” I offered then he turned and started jogging off back home leaving me to walk the short distance back to my house. When I got back home I dragged all of the stuffed animals into the house hoping that no one would see them before I got them up to my room and tucked away, but Stacey was playing with Grace in the living room floor.

“You finally getting back?” Stacey asked raising an eyebrow. “Looks like you had a pretty lucky day.”

“Oh.” I stammered quickly. “What do you mean?”

“Those prizes.” Stacey pointed out and I looked at them.

“I didn’t win these.” I countered and she put Grace in the play pen.

“So you mean to tell me that your little friend Jonathon gave you everything he won?” She asked stepping closer to me.

“He doesn’t like stuffed animals.” I explained trying to play it down. Even if the gesture had me confused.

“Mom put your goldfish in a bowl in your room.” Stacey said still looking amused by me standing there with Jonathon’s prizes. “Are you hungry?”

“No, Jonathon got me…” I trailed off not really wanting to say it.

“Got you what?” She asked and I rolled my eyes.

“He bought us pizza.” I answered not wanting to think too much on it. “Look…”

“Do you have a crush on him?” She asked interrupting me.

“What did you just say?” Mom asked stepping into the room.

“Shit.” Stacey and I whispered at the same time. Mom knew that I was looking into alternative lifestyles, but she didn’t know that I had committed to one yet.

“Jonathon.” I answered before she started pushing me for answers. “And no I don’t.”

“He is really cute.” Stacey offered and I looked at her.

“He’s also the preacher’s son!” I screeched becoming extremely embarrassed by the turn of events. Why did mom have such good hearing?

“Well anyone can be gay.” Mom explained, “But dear the preacher’s son you better be careful.”

“Fine. I don’t like him anyway.” I offered rolling my eyes. “I’m tired so I’m going to bed.”

“Don’t forget to feed your fish.” Mom reminded and I sighed. “Goodnight, I love you both.” Then I walked over to Grace and bent down and kissed her on the forehead after dodging her grabbing hands. I didn’t want to think about Jonathon or what we did as anything other than a person showing another person that this town wasn’t all bad. When I finally was ready for bed I fed the little goldfish that was sitting on m windowsill then got into bed wondering what in the world tomorrow was going to be like.