Peanut Butter Kisses

Chapter 16 - The Confrontation

༻ Kristopher ༺

∘◦ 6 years old ◦∘

"You're Daniel right?" I asked the weird kid sitting near the big tree. "I'm Kristopher."

He looked up from his boring book to look at me and then he went back to his boring reading again. I sighed really really big. I mean, I so didn't wanna talk to him. He was so quiet. He was a weirdo.

He moved in with his daddy last week and he still won't talk to us. Daddy said he was my cousin. Well I didn't believe him.

I saw Anne with her demonic twin cousins. They were friends. But that kid, Daniel. We were not friends.

So that means we were not cousins. Obviously.

I groaned really really loud. He just reads that boring book everyday in our garden and he won't talk to me or Anne.

He was a super mean kid.

I didn't know I was making a lot of annoyed groans until Daniel sighed. I stopped. He looked like he was about to say something.

I watched his mouth in slow motion and braced myself. I was gonna hear his voice for the first time. I wonder what his first words were gonna be...

And then, he finally spoke.

"So loud."

I shut up and stared at him. Oh man. He talked! I mean, I made him talk!

I looked behind me and smiled excitedly at Anne. She was the one who forced me to talk to him. And I did it!

"Go on!" She whispered. She looked pretty happy when she saw him finally not ignore me. I smiled stupidly. She's really pretty.

I nodded and looked at Daniel again. Okay. I gotta make him talk again. And make Anne make that pretty smile again.

"So why are you hanging around here?" I asked. "It's hot out here."

He stopped for a second and looked kinda sad. I dunno.

"Poopy."

I scrunched my nose. "What? You wanna poopy?"

He was quiet. Why was it so hard to talk to him?

"Soo," I mumbled, thinking of what to say next. "Do you like it out here? In our garden?"

He didn't say anything but he nodded. Well, at least we're, ugh, what was the word... commuting? No, it has something to do with Kate. Kate? Huh? Who the heck was Kate?

Ah! I meant communicating. We're communicating. That's right. I'm a genius. Mrs. Jennings would be so proud of me for remembering that word.

"Why?" I asked. "I think flowers are too girly and lame. Why would you like a place like this?"

"Poopy." He said again.

Ehh. He's really a weirdo.

I wanna give up but Anne told me to be friends with him. Ughhhhhhh. So I did what she told me to.

"What 'cha reading?" I asked, trying to get his attention.

He ignored me.

I sat down beside him and peeked at the page he was reading. I made a blech sound.