"Billy, get a move on it," Johnny yelled up from the street. I looked around my room one last time and grabbed my duffel bag.
"I'm coming." I ran down to Johnny's car. Penny, Johnny and I were leaving for our summer jobs at Kellerman's this morning. Our parents were standing around outside.
"I've got to go to work, Penny. Try and find someone rich this summer instead of your usual bums." Her mom had been pretty bitter since her dad left ten years ago.
Our mothers had been friends all their lives. My mother moved forward and gave Penny a hug, then Johnny, before giving me a kiss on the cheek. "Have fun this summer. The house will be so empty without you kids running in and out."
Johnny's dad removed the cigar from his mouth, "Don't you think you'd be better off helping Paul, here, for the summer then wearing a tutu?"
"First of all, I do not wear a tutu and no – "Johnny's fist clenched at his side.
"To interrupt, we need to get going if we want to get the cabins we want," Penny the peacemaker interjected.
We piled in the car. As usual, Johnny was driving with Penny next to him. While we pulled away, Johnny started teasing me. "Is the college boy going to be a waiter this year? Or will you spend time with us peons?"
I sighed. In the fall, my father was making "Kostecki's Painting & Plastering" to "Kostecki & Son Painting & Plastering". To prepare, I had just finished a business degree at Brooklyn Tech and helped my Dad half days. It was exhausting, and I was ready to kick back for the summer. My uncle had been bugging Johnny to work for us and to forget being a dance instructor. And Johnny had, in turn, been bugging me about going to college. Ever since I had been put up a grade to first grade, and Johnny had to repeat third grade, we were compared to each other. I knew this, but I still didn't enjoy the hassle. It's not my fault the traditional marry a nice girl, have a family, and manage a solid company were my dreams not dancing on Broadway. "No, I will be working with you. I may have been a college boy, but I don't enjoy spending times with Yalies. Finding a doctor's daughter to decorate my life is not my idea of fun. Most of them are to dumb to know the difference between a Freedom Rider and Easy Rider." Of course, I knew what I wanted, but I didn't know if she would ever see me as more than a surrogate cousin. Penny, Johnny and I had stuck together since I could walk, proving that a strand of three cords cannot be broken. Johnny was twenty-five to my twenty-one, with Penny in the middle at twenty-three. We might have our scrabbles, but I knew I could count on either of them for anything.
Penny knew that Johnny's sarcasm was getting on my nerves after six months. "Hey Tweedledum and Tweedledummer, break it up. I thought we were leaving the fighting at home with our parents. Has anyone heard who is coming back this year? Heather wrote me that she is. What about the cabins? What do you think the chance the cabins were renovated? I don't want to be interrupting you two every night to chase the rodents out. I know how both of you usually prefer to pass your evenings with girls other than me," she finished with a slight smirk.
Johnny allowed himself to be distracted and started giving her a run down of who he had talked.
At the half way point, we stopped for Cokes at a gas station. While Johnny finished paying for the gas, I walked out to deliver Penny's drink. She was stretching her legs after being cooped up in the car for a couple hours. I was admiring what the Rockettes had taught her, when I heard a wolf whistle.
"Hey doll, I can help you stretch those legs – right around me," yelled a dark haired guy from a late model Chrysler. He was laughing with the three other preppy guys in the car.
"Robby's slumming again. Man, don't you ever want a challenge? She's already traveling with two guys, why would you want to be number three?" said one from the backseat.
Penny stiffened. Despite her mother's frequent rants, Penny rarely spent time alone with a guy. Sure, she might go to dances or the movies, but it was usually with a large group of us from the neighborhood.
I walked over and put my arm around her shoulders. "Honey, we'd better get going if we are going to make it to Mom's for our engagement party."
This along with the dirty look I shot across the lot seemed to silence the jokers. The driver shrugged as he peeled out.
"Thank you so much. You're my hero. I couldn't think of a reply. I don't think I've ever heard anything so crude before." As she put her arms around me, I could feel my heard speed up a bit.
"What do we have here?" Johnny laughed as he exited the service station building.
"I was just thanking Billy for saving me from some obnoxious guys." Penny replied as she gave me a kiss on the cheek. "He pretended to be my fiancé. It was so cute!"
"Fiancé? That must of have been fun to watch." Johnny and Penny got back into the car joking. I followed a little slower wondering how I had gone from hero to cute in the space of five seconds.