Reese's Job
I opened my drowsy eyes and rubbed them awake. I glanced back at Reese, his arms wrapped around my waist and his head resting on the pillow beside mine, snoring softly and his hair sticking out in crazy places.
By now, Lois had replaced all their pillows and blankets (the ones tha she gave to charity) but Reese still found his way into my bed every night.
"Reese...Reese, wake up," I whispered, shakin him gently.
"What?" he murmured, stirring slightly.
"Do you love me?" Reese smiled and murmured,
"Mm-hmm."
"Really?"
"Yeah," Reese said and opened one eye.
"Do you love me?" I smiled and nodded. "Good.
I was walking home from school, swinging my backpack back and forth, one earphone from my iPod dangling from my ear.
"Hey, Maria!" someone cried and I saw it was Craig pulling out of his driveway.
"Hi, Craig," I said, smiling. "Where are you going?"
"To the Circus Burger. I heard Reese was working thre and just wanted to make sure."
"Oh yeah! Reese is working there, he told me! You don't mind if I tag along, do you?" I asked, walking up to the passenger seat side.
"No way! Come on!" Craig cried, and I got in next to him.
"Thanks, Craig. I really wanted to go see Reese at his new job," I explained as Craig drove onto the road.
"Yeah, me too! So, uh, how are you and Reese doing?" Craig asked, smiling at me and I blushed.
"Umm...good, I guess. Oh, hey, turn up here!" I said, pointig up ahead and Craig turned to the Circus Burger parking lot at the last minute. We got out of the car and walked inside.
"Hi, Reese!" I chirped, bouncing up to him at the counter.
"Oh, hey, Maria. What are you doing here?" Reese asked.
"I tagged along with Craig so I could come see you." I glanced up. "Nice paper hat."
"Shut up. Do you want anything?"
"Uhh...no. Just a Diet Coke."
"I'm guessing that's to go" Reese guessed, pressing a button on the cashier.
"Yeah. Unless I want to look like a loner. Well, that depends. When do you go on your break?"
"Not 'til 4:30." I glanced at the clock: 3:15.
"Okay. To go then. Craig, did you want to order?" I called over my shouder and he stepped forward, knocking me out of the way.
"Hey, Craig," Reese said. "What do you want?"
"I want you to listen very carefully. My blood sugar's dangerously low, so I don't want to burn up any calories repeating myself. I want the Jumbo Clown Burger with the Big Top Fries. No pickles, a slice of onion-make sure it's center cut!-and extra tomatoes. Now let's do the patty well on one side and medium on the other. And make sure they open a fresh package for my bun! If it's stale, I bail! Hehehe...seriously!" Craig cried and I stared.
"That's $5.45 and free refills on the soda," Reese said, handing him an empty cup.
"I've heard that one before. Turns out, it's just for today!" Craig cried and I frowned.
"Well, yeah. Obviously."
"Don't give me any of that, Missy! I'm your ride home!" Craig said and I rolled my eyes. "Now are you gonna sit down and drink that with me or stay up here with Reese?" Craig asked as Reese handed me my Diet Coke.
"I'll just stay up here, I guess," I said, hopping onto the counter and Reese put his hands on my hips.
"Just call me when you're ready to go, okay?"
"Okay," Craig said and went to sit down.
"What a sack!" a girl from behind the register cried and Reese and I both turned.
"That's a pocket transaction if I ever saw one," Richie said, coming up from behind me.
"Oh...yeah. Right," Reese said and took his hands off my hips to shove the money in his pocket. Richie patted him on the shoulder and then walked by and the other two went back to work. Reese pulled the money out of his pocket and stuck it back in the register. He saw me smiling at him.
"Shut up," he said and I smirked.
"I didn't say anything."
"But you were thinking it."
"Oh, so you can read minds now?"
"No, I just know you." I raised my eyebrows as he wrapped his arms around my waist and put his chin on my shoulder.
"You do?"
"Yepp."
"What's my favorite color?"
"Purple."
"What's my last name?"
"Gonzalez."
"Who-"
"-has really nice tits? You do."
"Reese, you're such a perv!" I cried, and then adjusted my shirt. "But I do, don't I?" Reese smirked and glanced at them.
"Oh yeah. Amazing."
"I know," I said, smiling and then leaned over to kiss him. I knew Richie wouldn't care unless there was a customer, which there obviously wasn't.
"Alright, Maria, it's time to go," Craig said, suddenly appearing in front of us just as our make-out session was heating up (ooh la la).
"Umm...okay," I said and removed Reese's hand from my waist and hopped down.
"You know, I could get used to you working here," I said, looking back at Reese with a smile and he smirked back at me before I left.
Just before I got in th car I made a heart with my fingers and mouthed, 'I love you'. He smiled at me and I scrambled into the passenger seat of Craig's car.
When I got home, my mom was in full-out worry mode.
"Where have you been? Who was that man? Are you okay? God, how irresponsible are you?" she cried, her voice shrill.
"Circus Burger, Craig Feldspar, I'm fine, and apparentally very," I said, answering one question at a time and Mom glared at me.
"Not funny."
"Well, which question do you want me to answer first?" I cried.
"Where were you?" she asked, more calmly this time.
"At the Circus Burger."
"Why?"
"Reese just got a job there and I wanted to see him." Her jaw clenched at the mention of Reese's name.
"At Circus Burger?" There was judgement practically dripping off every word.
"Yeah. It's a job to pay for car insurance, Mom, not a career." Mom shook her head and muttered something about Reese being mobile but then turned her attention back to me.
"Who was that man?"
"Craig Feldspar. He works at the Lucky Aide with Reese's mom. Come on, Mom, can't I got out and not get pestered like this? I'm not a baby anymore!" I cried and turned to stomp out of the room.
"Why can't you date someone like Mike?" I stopped in my tracks to turn around to look at her.
"Mike Anderson? Alex's boyfriend?" I asked and Mom nodded.
"Jenna was telling me al abot Alex and her smart, polite, normal boyfriend and then...I have to go out and tell her that my daughter is dating someone who's..." she trailed off.
"Unsmart, unpolite, and unnormal?" I guessed, angrily. She continued on like I hadn't said anything.
"Why can't you date someone like Mike? Or his friend Kevin Stratt?"
"I don't *love* Kevin Stratt!" I snapped and ran upstairs.
It was the next day (night, actually) and I was in my room, reading a magazine when I heard a knock on my window. I looked over and saw Reese looking in.
"Shit!" I murmured in surprise, throwing my magazine under the bed and making my way over to the window.
"You could use the door, you know," I said, opening up the window and letting him inside.
"Maria! Maria, I need your help!" he cried and I shushed him.
"Be quiet! Now what's wrong?"
"Richie said I took $400 from the register, but I didn't! And now I have to pay it all back! What do I do?"
"Well...I don't know!" I blurted out. "Did you ask Malcolm yet?"
Reese slid open the window to his bedroom and scrambled inside, pulling me after him.
"Malcolm! You gotta help me!" he cried.
"What's going on?" Malcolm asked.
"It's horrible! There's $400 missing from the register at the end of my shift and they think I took it!"
"Well, did you?"
"NO! Of course not!" Reese yelled.
"I'm Barton," a short-looking kid said.
"Who the hell are you?" I asked.
"He's my tutor," Malcolm explained and Reese groaned.
"You're kidding me! The one time I need you to be a genius, I find out you're faking the whole smart thing?"
"Reese, calm down," I said, and then Malcolm asked,
"How did this happen?"
"I don't know! My register didn't total up right at the end of my shift!" Reese explained.
"Who was there?"
"Everyone Me, Shawn, Gretta, Richie..."
"Richie? Why didn't you say so in the first place?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's Richie! He's setting you up!"
"How do you know?"
"Because it's Richie!" Malcolm cried and then turned to get his coat. "Come on."
Reese climbed back out the window with me in tow, and Malcolm and the little Barton kid behind us.
When we got to Richie's house he was watching TV on the couch.
"Hey, dude, did you get the money?" he asked.
"Yeah, you'd like another $400, wouldn't you?" Malcolm snapped.
"What are you talking about?"
"Wow. An entre colony of clafenenriasynica!" Barton cried, peering into a lava lamp and I rolled my eyes. Smart kids...
"Hey, get your own pizza, Dewey!" Richie cried.
"His name's not Dewey!" Malcolm yelled.
"So how come you've had me calling him Dewey all these years?"
"This guy's such a tool," I whispered to Reese and he nodded.
"Look we know you took the money and you're just trying to pin it on Reese!" Malcolm said.
"Yeah! And after everything my brother's done for you! All the alibi's, all the hand-outs, all te times he's helped you fake your death!" Reese cried.
"Okay, that's it. I have to meet Francis," I said at the same time that Richie jumped up from the couch.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, dudes. I wasn't even there today!" he said. "The only time I came in was to cash out! You were right there."
"Yeah, but I had a 10 minute break at 4:30!" Reese pointed out. "You could've snuck in then and taken the money!"
"Well...yeah, but..."
"You wanna play innocent? Fine! We'll just let the police decide!" Malcolm cut him off and made his way to the phone.
"Whoa! Police! What makes you think the cops are gonna take your side?" Richie shouted.
"Maybe cuz you've already been arrested like, 10 times for petty theft!" Malcolm said.
"Excuse me, one of those was for arson."
"Oh, well that just makes everything more reassuring, now doesn't it?" I asked, smirking.
"Hey, who the hell is this chick?" Richie asked, pointing over at me.
"Not the point!" I said, gesturing to Malcolm as he punched in the '9' and the '1'.
"I'm telling you, you're making a big mistake!" Richie cried, frantically.
"No, I'm not!" Malcolm argued.
"Yes, you are!"
"No, I'm not!"
"Yes. You are," Barton said and we all turned to look at him. "He didn't do it. According to this sitiation, Richie was stopped today at 4:20 today at 18th and Wilson for urinating from a moving vehicle."
"So?" Reese cried and I turned to look at Richie in disgust.
"Urinating from a moving vehice? Really?"
"So, the Circus Burger is on Walnut which is at least 25 miles away. He couldn't have gotten there during Reese's break."
"Well, maybe if the traffic was light-" Malcolm started, but Barton cut him off.
"Yeah. And maybe if a 78 BonaBille (sp?) could to 300 miles an hour. Otherwise, it's impossible."
"Hey, way to go, Dewey!" Richie shouted.
"Let me see that!" Malcolm shouted and took the ticked from Barton.
"Is he right?" Reese asked.
"Yes. He's always right! I'm sorry, Richie. Come on, Reese, let's go." I squeezed Reese's hand, sympathetically.
"I'm sorry, baby."
"But I swear to God I didn't do it! I didn't take the money!"
"Well, we still have a few hours, maybe we could figure out some way-" Richie started.
"Richie! I got us the DVD Player, but we need to steal another $600 if you want the Surround...Sound," a girl from Reese's work called, running down the stairs.
"You may wanna hang onto that receipt," Richie told her.
"I can't believe you lied! We're calling the cops!" Reese said.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Maybe we could figure out some sort of deal! Whatever you guys want, it's yours!"
"We get to use your place for a party anytime we want!" Reese said.
"Yeah! And we get free burgers for life!" Malcolm agreed.
"And we get...that bean bag chair!" I said, pointing at the purple one in the corner.
It was later that night (around 2 A.M.) and Reese and I were making out in the purple bean bag chair that was now in my room.
He had his hand on my hip and slid it up under my shirt, until he had a firm hold on my breast.
Reese and I had been together for 8 monts, which means that there were a t of things that I may have forgotten to mention. Like how we've had *tons* of fights or that while we haven't gone all the way yet (I'm in the 8th grade, for God's sake!) we had covered all of the other bases.
~you gotta be willing to just take the time and really kiss me 33~
