Johnny sat under the dock on the beach where the bike race would always pass through. With sand on his rear, scratches on his face, and blood leaking out of his nose. He sniffed and grimaced as a large clump of blood went down his throat.
"I can't believe you couldn't handle a few townies!" Lola yelled as she paced. "They were insulting me, Johnny, and what did you do? You got yourself beat up! Do you know how that makes me look!?"
"Lola, babe, I'm sorry. I-"
"I can not be known as the girlfriend of a weakling! That's not how my status works!" Lola huffed and crossed her arms. "I thought you were better than this, Johnny."
"I'm just having an off day, give me time to heal and I'll show those townies who's boss." Johnny ran his arm along his nose, seeing a long smear of blood on his jacket sleeve. He was going to have to get this washed before he got home or he'd never hear the end of it from his mother.
"You're job is to protect me and my honor! You can't have 'an off day', that's not how to world works!"
"Then go run off with Gord again!" Johnny snapped. "Wait, you can't. He's currently with Jimmy because he realized how much of a self-centered bitch you are!" Johnny wiped the blood that was pooling on his upper lip, huffing as he did so.
"You're a coward, Johnny! Do you know that! You're a coward and a dick!" Lola stomped her foot. "I hope you bleed out, you good-for-nothing, ass!" She cursed before storming off.
"Shit." Johnny sighed, believing that he had just made a huge mistake.
"Um...hey, boss." A voice said softly.
"Don't call me that, Peanut," Johnny said as the other boy walked over to him.
"I overheard what happened." Peanut slipped off his backpack.
"We'll be fine, she always comes back when she needs something." Johnny looked over at Peanut "I don't know why I love that girl. Dad says our family always falls for the crazy ones."
"Do you love her?" Peanut suddenly asked, kneeling on the ground next to Johnny and removing several rags, a bottle of water and an ice-pack from his backpack.
"Of course, I do! She's my girl!" Johnny protested. "What would make you think to even ask that!?"
"I was talking to my mama and you know I tell her everything and she said something about you not actually loving Lola and just believing that you have to be with her." Peanut dumped some of the water onto one of the rags and handed it to Johnny.
"Your mama's a smart woman, but she's wrong about me and Lola," Johnny stated, using the rag to clean off his face.
"That's what I said. I said 'Johnny loves Lola and they'll always be together', but she told me that we're young, things change over time." Peanut took the dirty rag and gave Johnny a clean one. "Pinch your nose with it." He said as he took a different clean rag to wrap up the bloody one.
"I know what to do." Johnny huffed, shutting his nose with his fingers and tilting his head back.
"Lean forward." Peanut moved so he was in front of Johnny and he placed the ice-pack on Johnny's face. "Mama said this is the best way to take care of a nosebleed."
"Gotta love having a doctor for a mama," Johnny said, leaning forward. Johnny rarely ever did what anyone told him to, the only time he listened without protest was when Peanut was talking about medical things. He knew what to do since his mother's been teaching him since he was really little.
"I mean, it comes in handy when we get in fights. But she thinks Imma follow in her steps but I'm too stupid for that." Peanut went back to Johnny's side and sat down.
"You ain't stupid, you just don't believe in yourself," Johnny said.
"Nah, I'm stupid. It's fine. I know who I am." Peanut shrugged. "I'm a short man with a big mouth and even bigger fists."
"You ain't that short. Jimmy's short, Pete's short, you ain't."
"Thanks, boss."
"I told you to stop calling me that." Johnny released his nose and saw that the blood had already stopped. "It's fine when the others are around, but it's just us, no need to put on a show."
"Sorry, habit." Peanut got the rag ball and put the one Johnny just finished using into it. He wrapped a rubber band around it so it'd stay together and placed it in his backpack.
"Just out of curiosity, what else did your mama say about me and Lola?" Johnny sat the ice-pack down next to him. "I just wanna know what else she got wrong." He quickly added.
"Well, she said that love's complicated. That what we believe to be love could just be out of desperation 'cause we don't wanna be alone." Peanut reached back into his bag and pulled out a bag of chips. "Want some?" He asked as he opened the bag.
"Sure." Johnny reached into the bag and got himself a handful. "Sour cream and onion, the best kind of chips there are."
"Absolutely." Peanut chuckled.
"What else she say?" Johnny asked through a mouthful of barely chewed chip.
"She said that some people latch onto someone, claim them as theirs so that they will always have someone. She said that some people use the word 'love' when they don't mean because they believe that they'll eventually actually feel it."
"Did she say what love is supposed to feel like?"
"She said it's different for everyone, but there's a few similarities. Like, having the same interests, but understanding that there's differences, like…" Peanut tried to think of an example.
"Like how we both like sour cream and onion chips or the same hair gel brand," Johnny said. "And how I like milk chocolate and you like dark."
"Yeah." Peanut nodded his head.
"What kind of a freak likes dark chocolate anyways?" Johnny teased.
"It's good." Peanut protested.
"It's too bitter."
"You're bitter." Peanut lightly pushed Johnny by the shoulder and Johnny pushed back, both of them laughing.
"What else?" Johnny asked when their laughter slowed.
"She said that you're happy whenever you see the other person. That you're excited to hear they're comin' over or something like that."
"Oh, I get it." Johnny stopped for a second, a look of confusion on his face for a moment before he shook it away.
"She said that you'll also get little butterflies in your stomach when you're close or your chest warms up, like, it's just some funny feeling in your body you get." Peanut continued. "She also said that a kiss feels like magic. That there's little sparks and shit. What do those sparks feel like?"
"Huh?"
"The sparks from the kiss? You've kissed Lola plenty of times and you love her, what are those sparks like?" Johnny opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. He went through his memories and tried to find what Peanut was talking about.
"It's...fine." Johnny lied. "I should probably get home, gotta clean my jacket before mama sees." Johnny stood up, seeing that Peanut was doing that same.
"Want me to walk with ya? I ain't gotta be home for another hour." Peanut offered.
"No, I mean, sure, I mean…" Johnny watched as Peanut packed everything up. "I have another question."
"Fire away." Peanut chuckled, slipping on the backpack.
"Did you mama say anything about loving someone that same as you?"
"Like how?"
"Like, a girl loving a girl or a boy loving a boy. Like, Jimmy and Gord, can they love each other?"
"With how attached to the hip those two are, I wouldn't be shocked." Peanut laughed. "All mama said is that it doesn't matter who or what the other person is, as long as they care for you and you care for them, who cares?" Peanut adjusted the straps of his bag. "Why do you ask?" Johnny didn't say anything and grabbed Peanut by his jacket, pulling him into a kiss. The kiss only lasted a moment but felt like a lifetime before they parted. "I...I should probably head home early, got some homework to do." Peanut's voice was higher and Johnny released his jacket.
"Yeah, I need to get going too...bye."
"Bye." Both boys took off in opposite directions, both having the same thought as they sped away.
Sparks.