Me You Us (23 page)

“True love takes time,” Dad says.

This gives me no comfort.

Mom pauses the CD. “You sure everything is all right, honey? You've been moping around for weeks now.”

“Yeah,” I say. “It's just that . . .”

Should I say something? I don't know. It's so embarrassing talking to my parents.

“Girl stuff or whatever,” I mutter. “I just wish I understood what they were thinking.” That's about as much detail as I can bear to provide.

My parents give each other a knowing look.

“I've known your mother for more than two decades,” Dad says. “And I still have no clue what she's thinking. I have no idea what she's thinking right now.”

“It's true,” Mom chimes in.

“Besides,” Dad continues, “why would you
want
to understand women? That's half the fun. I love that your mother is so inscrutable.”

Mom and Dad kiss.

“Avocados, by the way,” Mom says.

“What?” Dad says.

“That's what I was thinking about. I need to buy avocados.”

“See,” Dad says. “Avocados. I never would have guessed that. The key to understanding women is not to try.”

Hmm. Maybe my dad is the real Svengali.

“Are you having gal problems?” he asks.

“Dad, no one calls them
gals
.”

“Yeah, Dad,” my mom says.

“Whatever you call them,” Dad says, “Shane, just remember this: We all put our pants on one leg at a time.”

“I know. Thanks, Dad. I'm not sure that applies here, though.”

It may have taken them a while to figure it out, and they may claim to have no idea what the other is thinking, and the road may be rocky at times, but my parents have achieved the type of relationship that I can only dream of.

It's inspirational, but also depressing to think that I will never experience it myself.

I'VE BEEN FEELING
unsettled about how I left things with Adam. Our little talk outside anime club unleashed a torrent of consequences that he and I never really discussed. I'm a bit uneasy about how it all went down. And since Jak has not returned my affections, I asked Adam if he could meet up so I could figure out how we got to this point in the first place.

The courtyard in front of school is mostly deserted. In order to chat with Adam I had to wait until after ECX (Extracurricular Extreme, which is now officially a thing). All the normal students have long since gone home or are gathering at the baseball field behind the school for today's consequential playoff game against Valley Hills.

When Adam arrives, I notice that he has contacts in and
is no longer wearing the Clark Kent glasses I picked out for him. Perhaps Rebecca, like Jak, thought he looked better au naturel.

“Hey, man,” I say.

“Hey, Shane,” he says as he joins me at one of the cement tables.

“How's Rebecca?” I ask.

“She's good. Really good. She'll actually be out here in a minute.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Numbers one and two in the race for valedictorian, Adam and Rebecca took to each other almost immediately and are now inseparable.

“I guess I better get right to it then,” I say. “When I told you that I thought I was having feelings for Jak . . .”

“Yeah?” he says.

“I never said you should stop seeing her.”

“You didn't have to. I knew what you meant.”

“But how could you have known what I meant if
I
didn't even know what I meant?”

“Wait,” Adam says, “so you're not in love with her?”

I pause.

“How do you know I'm in love with Jak?”

“Well, at first I didn't. Because I knew you guys were just friends and had never hooked up. Otherwise I never would have tried to flirt with her in the first place. But after
we talked at anime club, I knew. That's why I backed off.”

“But
I
didn't even know I was in love with her then!”

“It didn't really matter. If you were interested, I couldn't get in your way. You've done so much for me. I could never do that to you.”

“What about Jak?” I ask.

“Listen, Jak is great. We had an awesome time together. But it was really, really short. Like a couple of dates. And then Rebecca came along. I felt bad about Jak, but to be honest, she didn't really seem all that upset when we stopped hanging out, so I thought everything was cool between us. Why? Is she mad?”

“No, not at you. More like confused. But I think that's water under the bridge.”

“And what about you two?” he says. “You're in love with her. That's awesome!”

“Well, we're kinda in a holding pattern.”

“Not so awesome.”

“There's one more thing, Adam.”

“Yeah?”

“I knew that Rebecca and Harrison used to date and I didn't tell you. I should have said something. I feel like I left you hanging out to dry.”

“Hey, listen, if you had said something, I probably never would have even
talked
to Rebecca. Harrison terrifies me.”

“But you and Rebecca are good?”

“We're great. I can't believe everyone got all upset about the Galgorithm. It really works! And Rebecca couldn't care less about the whole scandal thing. Basically, I owe you everything, Shane.”

I spot Rebecca exiting the school and heading toward us.

“I was happy to help,” I say. “But she's coming.”

Adam turns around and waves to his girlfriend. I'm glad we cleared the air. When Rebecca reaches the table, pretty in pink seersucker shorts and a white polo shirt, I can't help but beam with pride at how well that doofus has made out.

“Hey, babe,” she says to Adam. He gives her a kiss without standing up because he's almost already at her eye level anyway. She says hi to me and then sits down.

“What are you two doing?”

“Oh, you know, just guy talk,” I say.

“Did you know that Shane is in love with Jak?” Adam says.

Rebecca gasps. “You are?”

“Adam, what the hell, man?”

“Was that supposed to be a secret?”

“I mean, I guess not.” I'm surprised Rebecca doesn't already know. Seems like the rest of the planet does.

“So what's going on with you guys?” Rebecca asks.

“Nothing right now.”

“I could totally see you together,” she adds.

“Yeah,” I say. “I know.”

I observe Rebecca and Adam nuzzle and smile at each
other for a few moments. Another reminder of what I
don't
have. I'm about to leave and give them a little privacy when I look up, and my stomach sinks.

“Crap.”

“What?” Adam says.

I motion to the side of the courtyard. Harrison is stomping toward our table. He's only wearing the top half of his baseball uniform, boxers, and untied cleats. The latter
click-clack
against the courtyard floor.

We all stand up as he approaches, a weird move by us that's equal parts fear and deference.

“I'm about to play the biggest game of my life,” Harrison says, “and I have to hear about you guys hanging out out here?”

It's unclear if the “you guys” he's referring to is Adam and Rebecca or me and Rebecca or just anyone with a pulse.

I, for one, am sick of this nonsense.

“How did you even know where we were?” I say pointedly. “We've been here for like five minutes.”

“You know what, Chambliss,” Harrison says, “I never got to congratulate you on that little write-up in the
Chronicle.
Good job, Romeo.”

“I think you mean Cupid.”

“Shut up,” Harrison snarls. Then he turns to Rebecca: “Rebecca, why are you doing this to me?”

I find myself actually feeling bad for Harrison. Sure, he's got a funny way of showing it, but obviously he has strong
feelings for Rebecca. Why else would he be out here half-naked? Meatheads get lovesick too.

“Harrison,” Rebecca says, “we've been over this a million times.”

Adam steps in front of Rebecca, like a boss. “Leave her alone,” he says. I'm pretty impressed.

Harrison is undeterred. “Rebecca, you
know
why we had to be a secret. You can't blame me for that.”

“Well,
we
don't know why,” I say. “Why don't you tell us what the hell is going on?”

Harrison starts to crack his knuckles. Rebecca turns to me.

“My dad works for Pacifica Oil.”

“Um,” I say. “Okay. I don't know what that is.”

“It's a giant, horrible oil company that pollutes the air,” Harrison says. “My moms have been protesting them for years.”

I remember spying on Harrison and Rebecca at the house party.
This
is what they were arguing about.

“It's an
energy
company, Harrison,” Rebecca says. “And I'm sorry your moms don't like it, but I bet they like computers and air-conditioning and gas for their cars.”

“I couldn't have them find out about us,” he says. “They would have killed me. It's like dating the enemy's daughter. And you know we drive electric cars.”

Adam isn't quite sure what to make of all this, so he
stays silent.

“Harrison, don't you think you're taking this a little too far?” I say.

“What? You think I'm some dumb jock? You think just 'cause I play baseball I don't care about Mother Earth? What do you think the field is made of?”

“Um . . . earth?” I stammer.

“Grass, you idiot!”

I recoil. I really have no idea what to do at this point.

“Everything was fine until I started seeing you around,” Harrison says to me.

“Harrison, I had nothing to do with any of this. Are you still carrying a grudge from seventh grade? Because I didn't even see the girl you were talking about. Ask the rabbi! I'm sure he remembers. It's probably the only time he's ever had to eject someone from the synagogue.”

Harrison evaluates the situation in front of him. There's no logical way out. If anything he should be mad at Adam, but instead he's just mad at the world.

“You all think you're better than me, don't you?” he steams. “You all think you're better than me! But you're not! Especially not you!”

He shoves his finger in Rebecca's face.

Adam pushes Harrison's arm away.

Harrison shoves Adam.

Rebecca pleads, “Leave him alone!”

Adam's adrenaline surges, and I can't believe it . . . but he throws a punch!

Unfortunately, it's a wild haymaker that Harrison easily sidesteps.

Now Adam is off-balance, and Harrison effortlessly pushes him to the ground.

Then Harrison turns his attention to me.

“This is
your
fault, Shane! You did this! You think you're better than me!”

He's screaming at me in his underwear and the whole thing is just insane. I try to reason with him with the only advice I can think of that seems tailor-made for this situation.

“Listen, Harrison. Relax. I don't think I'm better than you. We all put our pants on one leg at a time.”

And that's when he winds up and punches me in the face.

GETTING CLOBBERED IN THE
face is not as dramatic as it looks in the movies. I didn't heroically absorb the blow like Liam Neeson. No, I immediately crumpled to the ground in a heap. I bled. I whimpered. Harrison fled the scene immediately. I later found out that he hurt his hand on my skull, couldn't pitch, and we lost the playoff game. So, good times had by all.

Adam and Rebecca helped me get home, but I got the feeling they couldn't wait to be alone together. Adam stood up for Rebecca and threw the first punch. Even though he missed by a long shot and got shoved to the pavement instead, he scored major points. I expect him and Rebecca to have a long and happy relationship.

I'm not so fortunate. I'm lying on the floor of my bedroom
with an ice pack on my eye. I'm trying to keep the swelling down as much as possible. If I'm lucky, it won't look so bad by the time my parents come home from work. The last thing I need is for them to make a big deal out of it or call the school. I'll just tell them I fell. I was never the most coordinated kid anyway.

There's a crack in my ceiling that I've never noticed before, probably because I don't usually lie on the floor. It starts off pretty small and then forks into a bunch of secondary cracks. It gets worse the farther you go. Kind of like my high school career and my life in general.

My phone rings, and I see that it's a FaceTime request from Jak. I hold the ice pack on my eye with one hand, hold up my phone with the other, and accept the request. She gasps when she sees me on-screen.

“Oh my God! I just heard. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I say. “It looks worse than it is.”

“Take the ice pack off so I can see your eye.”

I do.

She gasps again.

“Is it bad?” I ask. It's hard to tell on the tiny image of myself in the corner of the screen.

“Well,” Jak says, “that depends on your definition of bad.”

“Wonderful.”

“The good news is that you can't get any uglier.”

“That's a relief.”

I put the ice pack back on.

An outside observer might not sense anything amiss in this conversation. But I can tell that things are not the same. In the week since our encounter in the street, Jak and I have pretended to go about things like normal. But Jak is faced with the twin burdens of still being annoyed with me about the Galgorithm
and
knowing that I'm in love with her. Yes, we're joking around on the phone. But it's not as fluid and familiar as it once was.

“Do you need anything?” Jak asks. “Do you want me to come over?”