“Honey, can we talk to you about something?” Mom yelled from the living room.
I hadn’t even walked into the house all of the way before Mom was already starting to pester me. Releasing a heavy breath, I slammed the front door and dropped my backpack. All I could think was, “Really? Today was just not my day.”
While most kids would be excited their summer was starting and that school was over, I wasn’t. Nope. Not me. Of course I was excited about not having to wake up at the fucking ass crack of dawn. I didn’t have to deal with old bitches who were rude as shit to kids because they had nothing better to do with their own miserable lives. I was also relieved that I didn’t have to do shitloads of homework just for the teacher not to grade it the next day, after I had stayed up all night working on the motherfucker. Studying for tests and thinking, “I might actually have a chance,” only to go in the next day, reading the questions and wondering, “Where the fuck was I when we learned this?”
School has been pretty easy for me. I’m decent in school. And by decent I mean average. I don’t really have to study all that much. So that’s at least good. I’m on the baseball team and I’m really good at that, not to toot my own horn. I play pitcher for the school’s varsity team. I made the team when I was just a freshman, which is pretty amazing.
And since then I’ve kind of been the leader of the school. Guys have wanted to be best buds with me and girls have wanted to be on top of me.
Growing up so far I haven’t really been able to make too many choices. Actually, I hadn’t been able to make any of them. Whether I liked it or not, Dad signed me up for baseball. He didn’t care if I liked it or if I was happy. All that mattered was he played it growing up, so his son would, too.
Mom has just kind of gone with the flow. I’m more like her. I take things with a grain of salt. I don’t let things get to my head. I just want to have fun.
My girlfriend, well, ex-girlfriend, as of today, Tonya kind of decided one day we were dating. And just like that day, today, she had decided she was done with me. Kind of chewed me up and spit me out like I was a piece of gum or something. We had dated for about four months. She decided there was someone more popular than me. I couldn’t believe that was actually her reason.
***
“Gabers! Can I talk to you for a minute?” Tonya asked as she wound her red, curly hair in between her fingers.
“Yeah,” I said as I closed my locker door. As I walked over to where she was standing with all of her friends, I knew something was up. They were all staring at me. Like giving me sympathy or something. I stopped in front of her. “What’s going on, Ton?”
Looking up at me, she smiled and grabbed my hand. “I thought we could go talk in the auditorium. It’s free this period. I just want some quiet.”
“Uh, yeah, sure.” I started to get a little nervous. Tonya had wanted to have sex for a while. Well, actually since we started dating. I, however, wanted to take things slow. We had done some things, but we hadn’t fucked yet, and personally, I didn’t want to with Ton. I was a virgin, which some would be surprised about, because when anyone thinks of the jock in high school, they don’t think he’s a virgin. They don’t think he’s good in school. All that comes to mind is partying and drinking. Drugs and sex. Like they’re being taught how to act like rock n’ rollers.
Grabbing for my hand, Ton smiled. “Great.” Looking towards her friends, she said, “Later, guys,” and started to pull me off in the direction of the auditorium.
“Later,” they all said. “See ya, Gabe,” some said, and I wondered why their voices were so sympathetic.
Pushing people out of the way and knocking into some, I said, “Ton, calm down. We have all period to talk.” I emphasized talk, because that’s all we would be doing. Maybe a little make-out session, but other than that? Talking.
I almost slammed into Ton when she stopped in front of the doors. Releasing her hand, I placed my hands on her hips and spun her around. As she giggled, I said, “Chill. Okay, Ton?”
She just shrugged her shoulders and pushed out of my arms.
The doors closed behind us and there was complete silence. Ton’s back was to me and I started to wonder why she wouldn’t turn around. Releasing a breath, I asked, “Do you want to go sit down or something? You were in a pretty big hurry to get here.”
Still, she didn’t say anything. It was like I was invisible. A ghost. A figment of her imagination.
“Ton,” I pushed out.
Spinning around, she looked up at me. Her face was blank. Showing no emotion.
“What the fuck’s going on?” I said, a little bit louder than normal. She was acting real strange and I kind of started to get pissed off.
“There’s someone else,” she whispered.
I tilted my head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean there’s someone else. I don’t want to date you anymore.”