School Shopping: Part V

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School Shopping

Part V

An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle

“Okay,” Mikey said with a little nod as she slowly exhaled and handed him a dull spoon, “I’m ready. Try to make it as painless as possible.”

“No,” he said, turning the page of the book that he must have read a hundred times already.

When the small hands fisted in his shirt and he found himself being shaken by his psychotic best friend. “They’re getting a cake!” she hissed, stressing this announcement with another shake that nearly made him lose his place.

“So? You like cake,” he said with a shrug as he reached up and gently pulled her hands so that he could return to his book.

“Not for this!” she hissed somewhat hysterically as she shifted next to him so that she could look over the back of the booth and watch as their fathers checked out the selection of ice cream cakes.

“You’re overreacting,” he said, deciding that he’d given her enough time to eat her food.

“They’re celebrating the fact that I have boobs!” she snapped, as she sat back down so that she could continue panicking as she rolled her baseball between her hands.

“You know that old guy that glares at me every time we walk to the library?” he asked, helping himself to her fries.

“Yeah?” she asked, frowning as she reluctantly grabbed half her burger and took a bite.

“He’s my grandfather,” he said, helping himself to the other half of her burger.

“What?” she mumbled around a bite of burger as she blinked in surprise at him.

Nodding, he finished off her burger in two bites and grabbed the one out of her hands. “My dad doesn’t know that I know so don’t tell him,” he said, finishing off her burger.

“I won’t,” she mumbled, shooting a pitying glance in his father’s direction. “How did you figure it out?”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said with a shrug, already knowing that she’d let it go and that’s what he liked most about her. She never got mad when he didn’t tell her something. Best of all, she was always there when he needed her.

“Okay, so the jerk that always goes out of his way to glare at you is your grandfather?” she said, pushing her chocolate shake towards him.

Nodding, he took a sip of her milkshake before continuing. “He wasn’t much of a father and whenever he was around he was always putting my dad down. Nothing my father did was ever good enough. My grandmother did her best and my uncles did too, but I don’t think he ever got over the way his father treated him.”

“I’m going to egg his car,” Mikey murmured thoughtfully with a frown, no doubt already planning on making a trip to the library when they got home, which was fine with him since he needed something new to read.

“My mom was in and out of foster care. No one gave a damn about her, never cared enough to try. She was all alone in the world until she met my dad,” he said, finishing off her shake only to shift his attention back to her fries.

“I love your mom,” she said, frowning down at the ball in her hands.

Nodding, he said, “My parents didn’t want us growing up like they did. So, they make sure that we know just how much they love us by-.”

“-making a big deal out of everything,” she finished for him with another look back towards their dads.

“And of course, Uncle Reese is still new at being a dad and between you and me, I think he’s still terrified of screwing this up,” he said, watching as she mumbled, “Oh,” and looked down at the ball in her hands.

“I guess a cake isn’t that bad,” she said with a nod, and it was because he cared about her so much, and only because he cared and not because he was still pissed that she’d didn’t tell him everything, that he decided that it was probably for the best if he didn’t mention the fact that his mom would most likely take a picture and have it framed so that she could always remember this day.

Then again, he probably would have put an end to this whole thing already if she hadn’t pissed him off.

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