Hoax (4 page)

             
“Oh, ok.  I’ll have to do that.” I poured the rest of my snowball down the sink.  It was entirely too sweet. 

             
I still had my back turned to him when he next spoke up.

             
“I’m going to Monroe this weekend to see the new zombie movie.  It’s on Saturday.  You wanna go with me?”  I smiled as I watched the last drops of snowball go down the drain.

             
Assume nothing.  Assume nothing.  Assume nothing.

             
“Um, ok, yeah, sure.  That sounds fun.”  I smiled but didn’t want to smile too wide and give myself away.

             
He looked like he didn’t expect me to say ‘yes’.  He looked surprised. 

             
“Oh, good.  I mean great.  We can go out to eat too, if you want and then see the movie.”

             
“Sure.” I tried to be so cool. 

             
“Well, I need to get back to work and I think I just heard a truck in the driveway.  Mr. Lambert must be here.” He got up and started towards the back door. 

             
“See ya.”  Aloof did not fit me at all.

Abel

             
“Hey googly eyes.  Are you paying any attention to me?” Mr. Lambert snapped his fingers in front of my face.

             
“Yeah, yeah, sorry.  No, no, sorry, I’m not.”  I finally admitted.

             
“Oh good grief boy.  Get your mind outta them windows and off of that girl and on the task at hand.  Oh nevermind.  Get outta here.  Ain’t you supposed to be paintin’ or mowin’ grass or somethin’?” He pushed me out of the way and went back to mixing pool chemicals.

             
Crap, I still had to mow the grass.

             
I walked to the garage still in a daze.  She said yes.  She said it instantly.  I didn’t have to text her for a week or buy her things until she relented.  And to a zombie movie no less.  A girl who liked zombie movies?  She had my heart already.

             
I opened the storage building and started up the zero-turn lawn mower.  Mowing the grass wasn’t a chore when you had one of those things.  I drove it out and started on the back yard.  I had made about four passes around in a square when I saw Corinne waving her arms.  I rode over to her and I thought she needed something or was going somewhere.  I was wrong.

             
As soon as I stopped she hopped onto the front of the lawnmower and patted one of my legs.

             
“Go!” She screamed over the roaring engine.  I laughed at her and then did her bidding.  She squealed and grabbed onto my legs when I turned.  And after we finished the backyard I stopped and let her off per her request and I moved onto the front yard.  Mr. Lambert had finished the pool and shook his head at me before he got back into his truck and drove off. 

             
Nosy old man.

             
I finished the front yard and drove the lawnmower back into its home.  I decided to do the trimming and blowing off the sidewalk and the driveway in the morning.  Corinne sat on the back steps with two bottles of water in her hands and the biggest brightest smile I had seen on her yet.

             
“What’s that smile for beautiful?”
Beautiful?  Since when do I call her that?

             
“This smile,” she pointed to her own face, “is because I’ve never ridden on a lawnmower.  That was so fun!”  She handed me one of the bottles, unscrewing the cap first.

             
“Well, if I’d known you were going to get that big of a kick out of it, I would have let you drive it too.” I sat next to her, closer than I’d intended but not nearly close enough. 

             
“Holy crap, I’d probably wreck it.  But that was seriously a blast.  And you said there’s not much to do around here.”  She play slapped me in the leg.

             
“I had no idea that you’d get all giddy about something that most people consider a chore.” I chuckled at her. 

             
She stared at the pool. “How long before we can swim?” She asked.

             
“Oh, I think he said it has to sit for twenty four hours.  So, tomorrow about this time.”  Suddenly I had a picture of Corinne and her long sand colored waves touching her bare back as she dove into the pool.  I had a front seat reserved in hell, because for a split second I was with her in the water and we weren’t swimming.

             
I cleared my throat and intended to go home for the evening. 

             
“Hey, I, um, I cooked dinner.  So if you want to, you can stay.  I mean you don’t have to, just if you want to, ah hell, nevermind.”   She smiled and covered her face with her hands as if she wasn’t the kind of girl that could get a guy to stay for dinner.  From out of nowhere I put my arm around her and whispered into her ear.  “I’d love to stay for dinner.”

             
She turned her face sideways to look at me.

             
“Really?” She said as she smiled. 

             
“Yeah really.  I’ve got some extra clothes in the truck.  I’m gonna change in the pool-house and then I’ll be back. Ok?”  My hand had moved to her lower back and as I spoke I ran circles with my palm trying to assure her.

             
“Ok” She said and went inside and I went to the truck to get my clothes. 

             
I changed and washed my arms and face in the pool-house bathroom.  I went inside and I had never smelled something so amazing in all my life.

             
“Wow, what did you cook?” My stomach rumbled and agreed with my assessment.

             
“It’s just pasta Abel, jeez.” She laughed it off.

             
“Did your Mom teach you to cook,” I asked her.

             
“My mom doesn’t cook.  But at Wellsley, they make us take three years of Home Management.  Cooking, cleaning, trophy wife skills, you know.” She laughed at it and I couldn’t imagine that she’d ever be someone’s trophy wife.  Not that she didn’t physically fit the part; but I had a feeling that no one could keep this girl from saying what she wanted.

             
“Ahh, so you lived there.  Musta been lonely.”
Good job Abel, way to make the conversation really depressing.

             
She stopped stirring and I knew I had hit a nerve without really meaning to. 

             
“I had friends.  People to get into mischief with but they came and went from year to year, sometimes month to month.  It was like I was one of the bricks in the building.  I was part of that school, other people were students and guests.  It was weird.  But it was better than home.  My mom and dad give robots a whole new meaning.”

             
She turned around and gave me a smile and I felt honored that she trusted me enough already to tell me something so personal. 

             
“What about you?  Tell me about your parents.”  There wasn’t much to tell but I felt like I should reciprocate.

             
“My Dad and mom are in their own world really.  They’re good parents, don’t’ get me wrong.  But sometimes they are so wrapped up in their own romance that they forget I’m around.  But it’s no big deal.  Better than robots I guess.” I shrugged not knowing what else to say. 

             
She filled two plates with pasta and salad and then put them both on the island.  I put the first bite in my mouth and it was the best thing I had ever eaten. 

             
“Wow, either you had a great teacher, or you were a great student.  Either way this is really good.” 

             
She smiled and finished chewing before answering. “Both.  We had a teacher who trained in Europe and when I started I couldn’t even boil an egg. I’m glad you like it.”

             
There was that blush again.  Apparently compliments brought it out.  And since I wanted to see much more of it, compliments it would be.

             
We talked more about her school and she asked me about mine but there wasn’t much to tell.  I went to a typical public high school.  I played Varsity soccer and had bastards for friends.  My mouth just ran of its own accord when I was around her.  Things I didn’t know I felt or knew just flew out.  We shared a love of all things zombie.  She loved the old movies and the new movies, cheesy and well-made and everything in between.  And didn’t that just make her perfect.

Corinne

              The greatest and weirdest thing was—I could talk to him for hours and hours.  That night before he went home, we exchanged phone numbers.  I didn’t know if talking on the phone to a guy was something that was normally done or not but it was his idea, so I went with it. 

             
I finished cleaning up the house after dinner.  Abel offered but he looked exhausted.  I shooed him out and went to the bathroom and drew a hot bath.  I soaked in that white claw foot tub for at least an hour and then I heard my phone ringing from my shorts on the floor.  I scrambled to lean over the tub and dry my hands before swiping the screen and answering. 

             
“Hello?” I tried my best to stay still so that the person on the other end couldn’t hear the water sloshing. 

             
“Corinne?” To hear his voice over the phone was entirely different than talking to him in person. 

             
“Yeah.  Hey, can I call you back in a minute?”  I slipped a bit and the water made swishing sounds around me.

             
“Are you swimming?  You’re not supposed to get in there so soon.”  He sounded concerned and I silently begged him not to pursue the fact that I was in some kind of body of water.

             
“No, not swimming.  Let me call you back in a few.”

             
“Um, yeah, ok.” He sounded confused.

             
I hung up the phone and busted out laughing.  I let the water out and tried to take my time drying off and getting dressed.  I didn’t want him to think I was desperate to talk to him but at the same time I didn’t want to seem aloof and take a long time.

             
Way to overanalyze it until it doesn’t exist Corinne.

             
Finally settled I went to the call log and pressed send to dial his number back.  It rang twice and then he answered.

             
“Hey” He said, sounding—excited?

             
“Hi, sorry I took so long.”  I sat in what was now my favorite plush chair by the window.

             
“It’s ok.  I still think you were swimming.  I heard the water.” He chuckled. 

             
“There are other places with water Abel.” Please let us not have a conversation about me being in the bathtub.  I mean, really?

             
“Like what? A lake?  A river?”  He was really going to make me spell it out for him.

             
“Abel, I was in the bathtub—ok?  Jeez.”  I was full on laughing now.  Did he really think I went to a lake and answered my phone while swimming in said lake? 

             
“Oh” That’s all he said and then he got really, really quiet.

             
“You had to know I bathed.  Unless I stink?” I goaded him into saying something other than ‘oh’. 

             
“Yeah, you always smell like—well you always smell like pears.  Can we talk about something else other than you naked in a bathtub?”

             
I laughed even harder at that. 
Boys.

             
“I tried to avoid the subject but you were so sure I was swimming.  What do you want to talk about, pick something.”

             
“OK, you know what you want to do after high school?” 

             
Easy peasy.
“Yeah, I want to be a chef.  What about you?”

             
“A Chef?  That’s fitting.  I want to be a doctor.  A pediatrician.”

             
“Wow.” Abel in scrubs?  Yeah, imagine that.

             
We talked like that for hours until I heard him yawn.  It was downright contagious and before I knew it, I yawned too.

             
“Get some sleep Corinne.  I’ll see you in the morning.”

             
“OK.”