“Rebekah, I have something I have to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“I’m bad at relationships. I don’t really know what to do.”
“I thought it was just me,” she replied as she laid her head my shoulder.
“I’m going to make mistakes.”
“I hope so.”
“I’m going to disappoint you.”
“I know.”

“I didn’t see you at the dance…and you’re still alive so Jeannie didn’t kill you.”
“We didn’t go to Homecoming,” I replied as I closed the passenger side door of Jason’s car. “We went to our own.”
“Where?”
“At her house.”
Jason nodded and then motioned for me to continue.
“We just slow-danced.”
“Meaning, the two of you talked while moving in circles in the dark.”
“There were lights set-up, kind of like what would be set up if we went.”
“Well, let me tell you: You were quite the discussion. So was Nick’s knockdown punch to Paul, but the Magic Eight Ball is all on you and your junior high girlfriend.”
“Is that going to be the preface to every conversation about Rebekah? That she’s in the eighth grade?”
“You don’t want to hear the worse of it.”
“There is, like, a three year age gap between us.”
“That’s Ike an eternity, Strad.”
I folded my arms. “No one says this about Davina or Nola.”
“They’re in high school. I could have sworn we had that conversation.” Jason took a deep breath and then tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Alright, I did say I would be with you on this and I did state—right in front of Jeannie, I might add—that you wouldn’t do a thing with her sister.”
“Thank you.”
“Not that you would know what you could do.”
“I’m not going to answer that,” I replied as I looked straight ahead.
“Your dead-eyed stare out the window tells me everything I need to know.”
“Nothing like that happened. It was a nice and quiet. The just the two of us.”
I’m sure Jason would have rolled his eyes if he hadn’t been going over fifty-five.

“Okay, well, just be prepared for a few stares and glances from a few people.”
“Meanwhile, Paul is like able to get away with everything?”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. There was a round two at the dance. Paul’s been expelled.”
“Sounds like he got off easy,” I replied.
Jason shrugged his shoulders.

I would never want to be expelled—too much to explain to the next school and I would eventually get bored of watching Bob Barker and Ricki Lake. In addition, I’d never hear the end of it from my parents…BUT the thought of having to endure a rumor mill that was actually going to be about me gave me a sick feeling in my stomach.

I could have stopped her. I should have done something other than kiss her in front of three-fourths of the town but we were in the moment. When someone locks their eyes on you and you’re able to read each other’s thoughts in that one second, you sally forth—completely oblivious of the repercussions that would occur.
Like one’s floating on a fluffy cloud of sugar, rainbows and full-filled dreams.

I was still oblivious to it all, jauntily shipping across that cloud until I got into Jason’s car and he had to bring me crashing down to earth.

“I will stand by you, Strad. I will honestly tell everyone nothing happened.”
“If you say that then they will believe the opposite,” I said as I wanted to slam my hand on door frame.
“You are learning, grasshopper.