Summer Thunder

Chapter 3

The slam of the screen door saved me from the rest of the memory--at least for now.

"Ry!" Ken called.  He'd shut off the lawnmower, leaving a thick and deafening silence in its absence.

"In here," I said.  A moment later, there came the sound of sneakers slapping against the kitchen tile, followed by the whisper of shoes on carpet.  A shadow fell over me from behind the couch, and I found myself staring up at Ken's familiar fanged grin. 

"Takin' a nap?"

I managed a thin smile.  "Not exactly."  Groaning a little, I latched onto the armrest of the couch and hauled myself into a sitting position, then patted at the cushion beside me. 

Ken gave a little nod and vaulted over the back of the couch, landing with a jarring bounce just beside me.  I didn't think about the fact that he was covered in grass clippings until he'd already spread half of them over the cushions.  Ah, well.  A white couch was just asking for trouble, anyway.

"So," he said, brushing at his fiery hair with his fingers, "you ready to tell me what was goin' on with you last night, or do I hafta play @#($*&@$ twenty questions?"

My lips quirked upwards.  "Twenty questions might be fun."

Ken let out a sigh in a huff of air, rolled his eyes at the ceiling.  "All right, all right.  Have it your way, Ryan."  He grumbled under his breath for a few seconds, then he turned to me.  A frown creased his brow.  "What happened last night?"

"They have to be yes or no questions, Ken."

"Yes or no?  What the @(*$&!?  How am I supposed to @(*$&$ guess when they're only @(*$&@$ yes or no questions!?!"

I smiled despite myself.  "That's what makes it challenging."

"Challenging," he scoffed.  "Fine, then, here's a @(#$*&$ yes or no question for ya.  Are you gonna tell me what happened last night?"

"Hmmm.  I think...no."

"Whaaa?  Why not?!"

"That's not a yes or no question, Ken."

"@(*$&@#($*&@#(*$&@#$*(@&#$!"

I grinned. "That's not one, either."  Noticing that Ken's face was starting to darken towards the shade of his hair, I decided to give him a break.  "Sorry.  Nothing really happened.  I just felt like going home."

Ken raised a doubtful eyebrow.  "Right.  I don't believe that for a @$(*&$ minute, Ry.  C'mon, man. I'm your friend, right?  It's not like I'm gonna go tell everybody what happened or somethin'.  I'm only askin' 'cause--"  His gaze suddenly shifted to the floor.  "Well, 'cause I...well..."  He mumbled something incoherent.

I smiled.  "What was that, Ken?"

"Because...uhh...because rmmhmm-mmrmm-mm."

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?"

Ken scowled.  "'Cause I @$(*&$ care about you, okay? Geez."

And, just like that, I knew that I was going to tell him.  I was going to sit here and share with this boy every detail of what had happened to me, regardless of what he might think of me aftewards or how it might change our friendship.  I was going to tell him.  And, all because he told me that he cared.

Starved for attention much?

"It's a long story," I said quietly.  "And, it doesn't really start with just last night."

Ken shrugged--he'd propped his sneakers up on the coffee table, now sat with hands clasped in his lap and his head resting against the back of the couch.  His neck twisted towards me.  "That's okay, I got time.  Twenty minute lemonade break, remember?"

I grimaced.  "This, ah, might take a little longer than twenty minutes."

"Why?  You gonna tell me your @$#(*&$ life story or somethin'?"

"Not exactly...but, the story starts around third grade."

"THIRD @#$&*$ GRADE!  Daaaaaamn!  In that case, gimme a minute."

"For what?"

He planted his feet on the carpet, stood up, and started towards the kitchen.  "I gotta get some lemonade now, y'know?  If this starts in third grade, I'm gonna need somethin' to drink by the end."

*****

So many memories go hazy after enough time has passed.  They start to get shadowy; uncertain.  You start to wonder if maybe things really did happen the way you remember them happening, or if maybe the years and the changes in your life have colored your memories just like they've colored your future.  But, there are some memories, regardless of importance or time, that stay with you, crystal and perfect and untouched by age.  I had a few of those during my eighteen years--one was a time when I was about four years old, around Christmas time, when Mom and Dad took us all to the KinderPhoto place in the mall to have our pictures taken for the Christmas cards.  Another, a little clearer, is my first day of school, when I walked up to the lunch counter and realized that I couldn't just have more pudding if I wanted to; it cost money.

And, then, there was third grade.  

It was late summer, leaning into September and the first day of school, and we'd just moved into town from Altoona.  Kory was terrified of the prospect of going to a new school, trying to make new friends, so I took her to the park down the street to calm her down, maybe let her meet some of the kids before we had to see them in classes...and, I don't know.  As there isn't terribly much physical development present in third grade, and as our hair was about the same length, all the kids we ran into there thought we were sisters--twins, even.  And, even though I guess, in retrospect, it was a dumb thing to do, we just went along with it, because it was funny.  We had that great sense of beating the system, or of having some vast inside joke that nobody else got. 

If I'd known, then, just how much trouble I was going to cause for myself so many years later, I'd never have gone along with it for so long.  I'd have said, "Actually, I'm a boy," and ended it all right at the start--but, I didn't, and so in a strange way, I suppose I deserved every bit of misery that one little lie caused me.

We'd been at the park for maybe an hour and a half, hanging out with a bunch of second and third graders and taking turns pushing each other on the swings, when somebody got the bright idea that we should all play a game. 

Great, I thought.  A game!

I was thinking we were going to play tag or hide and seek or jail break or something like that, but nooooo.  We were going to play wedding.

"All the boys go stand over there," a girl with the blond ponytail said, jabbing a finger at the jungle gym, "and all the girls come stand by me."

For maybe a half a second, my feet were ahead of my brain, and I started walking for the jungle gym, but luckily, Kory snagged my arm in time and pulled me over to stand with the girls.  I was getting a dark, kind of sick feeling in my stomach, like I knew that something bad was about to happen, but I couldn't focus on it well enough to do anything about it.  And then, before I knew it, the blond girl was counting us up and grinning and announcing that, just like in musical chairs or something, the boys and girls would have to find each other, "get married," and find a place to live before they were all taken up. 

"Whaddya do when you get married?" some kid asked.

The girl gave a big smile, took a long step away from us, and started moving towards the boys.  "I'll show you," she said.  And then, she walked up to a boy, grabbed onto the collar of his shirt, and pulled him along with her.  They stopped in the center of the sand box, which was the desert separating the boys from the girls, and the girl took the boy's hand in hers.  "I do!" she announced.  Then, in a harsh whisper:  "Say, 'I do!'"

The boy, who was looking kind of confused and more than a little afraid, opened his mouth.  "I-I...I do," he managed.

The girl grinned.  And then, she put her hands on his shoulders, drew him close, and...kissed him on the mouth.

I must've given a little shriek, because Kory elbowed me in the stomach...but, I couldn't get my mouth to close.  She...she wanted...she wanted us to...to...?

Dammmmmit.

The blond girl started going through the rest of the rules (both people had to say, "I do," no sharing houses with other couples, no settling in the sandbox, no stealing wives or husbands away from other people unless they wanted to go), but I wasn't paying all that much attention, as I was struggling frantically to come up with some excuse to leave.  Kory, for some reason, didn't seem to realize that me playing this game meant me kissing a boy, because every time I tried to catch her eye to motion that we leave, she gave me a glare that clearly said, "Shh.  Pay attention."

It wasn't until the blond girl said, "GO!" that I realized my salvation.

It's a game, right?  So, I'll just...I'll just *lose*.  Hehehehehee...Ryan, you're a genius.  A *moron*...but, a genius.

Unfortunately, Stephan Manes had other ideas.

As soon as that girl set things off, there was a mad dash across the sand box--girls slipping, pushing each other out of the way, ducking and dodging while the boys stood there like deer in headlights and waited and ohhh, it was crazy.  And, like a good loser, I stayed right where I was, watched the chaos, and waited for an opportunity to slip away. 

Before I could, though, there was a little rustling sound off my right shoulder, and just as I was turning to dash off and hide in the ice cream parlor across the street, there was something warm on my arm.  I spun around, startled, and came face to face with...

"Hi."  It was a boy, a few inches taller than I was, with short silvery hair and eyes that glittered like gold in the sun.  And, even though every muscle in my body was screaming, GO GO GO RUNNNNNNN!!!! there was just something about the way he was looking at me that froze me in my tracks, something about that slight twist to his lips that just...wouldn't let me leave. 

"Hi," I managed. 

This is dumb.  This is dumb this is dumb this is wronnnnngggg.  Ryan!  Snap out of it!

"So," the boy said--he was still smiling at me, and it was such a weirdly-shy smile that it made me smile, too.  "You, um...wanna marry me?"

No.  Of COURSE not.  I am a BOY.  You are a BOY.  So... 

"Sure," I said.

His smile widened, showed a line of straight white teeth.  "Cool.  I'm Stephan."

"I'm Ry--"  I broke off, flushed.  "I'm Riley," I amended quickly, almost stumbling over the unfamiliar name. "But...but, everybody just calls me 'Ry.'"

"Ry," he murmured. 

It was really strange, hearing him say my name--I don't know why exactly, but there was just something about hearing it...I don't know.  I didn't have long to think about it, though, because before I knew it, something I really wasn't prepared for happened.

We were supposed to say our I do's, I knew we were...but, somehow, we skipped that part, and before I knew what was going on, there were hands on my shoulders and he was leaning in and

Oh my GOD, he's gonna--!!!!!

Something warm pressed against my lips.

And...it didn't feel wrong.  It didn't feel bad.  It felt...

I closed my eyes, feeling suddenly warm all over, but kind of dizzy, too, and tried vainly to focus on just what was happening to me.  It was...it was so weird, because I'd never been kissed before in my life except on the cheek or on the forehead, and now there were lips on my lips, and they were warm and soft and...agggghhhhh...!!  It felt good, I found myself thinking miserably.  I liked it.  I mean, it wasn't anything disgusting like I'd seen older kids doing, with tongues and...eww.  No. It was just...just his lips against mine.  And, even before I started to think about the fact that it wasn't supposed to feel good when you were a boy and you kissed another boy, I knew that it did feel good, and that it was something I wanted to do again.  Maybe...maybe more than once.

But, then, he was pulling back, and suddenly my lips were cool and alone again.

"C'mon," Stephan said, taking my hand and pulling me with him, "let's go find a house before they're all taken."

As I stumbled along behind him, I couldn't help but notice that Kory was standing with her own "husband" by the monkey bars, staring at me with her mouth hanging open and shock in her eyes.

Well?? I glared at her, what did you THINK was gonna happen if I played this stupid game??

But, then, Stephan was tugging me over to the swingset, and there was no more time for sending telepathic glares to my sister. 

~*~