The Art of Being MX

5

I was in my room, sitting at my desk when my sister came in. "Um, have you heard of knocking?"

She rolls her eyes. "Olly," that's when I noticed the two dresses she held to her stomach. But, now she holds them up and away from her body. "Which one?"

I look at them, one was purple light on the touch, and the other one was green as a leaf. Both of them looked good. Green was my favorite color, but she liked pink so purple will suit her. "Purple."

She looks down between them. "Are you sure?" I give her a look. She nods. "Okay, okay thanks."

She leaves my room but leaves my door open. I groan and go to close it. When it's closed, and I'm back at the desk. That's when I realize, I haven't picked out an outfit for the talent show. The song is done, I just need to practice it. But I couldn't do it in here. So I thought that maybe, I could ask Andrew for a favor so I can practice in his break room.

I grabbed my lyrics, and my coat then ran down the stairs. "Where are you going?" Riley asked from the top of the stairs. I look up at her.

"To take a walk." I look at her dress, the purple one. "Told you it'd look good on you."

She glances down. "I'm going on a date with Nate, he asked me out." I bite my lower lip and nod.

"Have fun." I slip my sneakers on and walk out the door. I was happy for her, but I felt a deep feeling in my chest and I just needed to hurry up and practice to distract myself before I burst. As I'm walking down the block to the thrift shop, a car slows down beside me going the other way. The window goes down, and I see the blonde guy from the other day.

"Hey." I stop and look at him. "I'm Brody from the other day, I never introduced myself, and you are?"

"Olly." He nods and licks his lips.

"Where are you going, Olly?" I look down the block to where the thrift shop was, and then at him.

"On a walk." He nods. Then he opens his passenger door.

"Get in, I have a better idea." I look back at the thrift shop. The talent show is next week, I could practice tomorrow. I nod and get in. He drives off. "Have you eaten at Tommy's Diner?"

I nod. That's where I grew up going with my dad before he passed away. I stopped going after he did, it felt wrong to go without him, but I think this was his way of saying that it was okay.

"They have the best burgers in town." He says as the diner comes into view when we stop at a red light.

"They do, and their milkshakes." He smirks over at me. The light turns green and now we were turning into their parking lot.

We step out of his car and walk into the diner, he opens the door for me. I mumble a small thanks and we slide into a booth near the window.

"You're Riley's sister right?" Here we go. Every guy that likes my sister always comes to me and asks me a bunch of questions about her before they go and ask her out. I sit back and open my menu.

"Yes."

I already knew what I wanted, but I spot a new addition to the menu, chocolate chip pancakes. That sounded good right about now.

"Ah, so it's true. I've been meaning to talk to you, but you seem sort of distant. I want to get to know you." I look up from the menu. This was new. It could all be part of his game though. I wasn't much of a truster. "Is that okay with you?"

Before I could give him an answer, the waiter came with a notepad and pen. "Hello, what can I get for you today?" I give her my order, and then he did.

"I'll have chocolate chip pancakes, with a vanilla milkshake, thanks."

We hand her our menus and then she was on her way. I loosen my ponytail a bit to avoid getting a headache and look at him. "Maybe."

He smiles at me and then nods. "That's good enough." And so we talked, he told me about his little brother, his dad, and mom, and how much he loved them. Their traditions, how he picks his brother up right before his basketball practice. And how sometimes he brings his brother along.

"You don't ever go to parties do you?" We were halfway done with our pancakes. I shake my head. "I thought so, I never see you in any of them."

Did he look for me? It was getting hard not to trust him, he seemed genuine. But it was harder to put my guard down, I haven't done that in forever, it'll take a lot for those walls to come falling.

"I'm not a partier." He nods. "I prefer to stay in to read or watch a good movie. Either that or I go to the thrift shop and make myself useful. I help the owner out sometimes. He pays me with clothes." I look down at my plate as I move my pancake bits around with my fork. I was full, and I finished my chocolate milkshake.

"Do you usually want to feel useful?" I looked up at him, he was genuinely curious. I shrugged, placed my fork down, and lean back.

"I don't know, I guess you can say I don't do much so helping out, comes easy to me." He hums.

"That's understandable." He puts his hand up, and the waiter comes up. "Can I get the check?" She nods and leaves to fetch it.

"Thanks for the food," I say, I give him a small smile.

He nods with a big smile. "Anytime, we should go to the bakery by your school one of these days, if you'd like?" He squints his eye a bit, trying to figure out if I'd agree. I didn't see anything bad about him, seemed nice.

"Sure."

He pulls out his phone. The waiter comes and puts the check beside him, as she does this he passes me his phone. "Put your number in." I take it and he pays.

I hesitantly place my number in, just as he gives the waiter the check I give him his phone back. He lifts it to my face. "Say cheese."