The Book Boyfriend

Fifteen.

I stood outside Johns door while Sparky continued to be my hero and went and told John what had happened. Sadly he had refused to come home with me and John was actually mellow about the whole thing. Maybe if I had started off with, 'hey brother, I punched Beau from that band', he would have been more accepting of my relationship with Beau?

I know he only acted like it didn't matter because I was still crying over it and he hated Rosa too. He had come to my rescue a million times during her high school reign, generally making sure pranks and things never actually happened thanks to his contacts amongst the seniors who had idolized him when they were juniors.

I should have punched her back then too.

Getting home Jess had cooked and I knew I was in trouble. Sure give her some dried pasta and she could dye it and turn into something that would rival Picasso, but give her some pasta to then make into something edible? Not so easy.

"Hey, how was your day?" I tried not to laugh when I saw the bright blue tiny handprint on her ass, but when she looked at me my laughter died. "Jess, what’s wrong?"

"I don’t think I can be a teacher!" Turning to face me, it wasn't just her rear that got painted and the beige pants were splattered with a rainbow of colors and tiny handprints. "They're monsters!"

This wasn't making me suffer cooking; this was her doing some therapy. 

"Oh hunny, I'm sure every teacher has that moment, it's only been a couple of weeks!" I gave her a hug and she burst into tears. That’s when I saw the weird white clumps in her hair and realized it was glue.

"We were painting, it was fun then this shitty little monster threw paint at this little girl. So I told him off and sent him to the corner like the teacher told me to do and then, they all just lost it. They probably don’t even want me going back to there tomorrow! I'm fired before I begin!" I sat her down and grabbed a glass of wine. 

"Oh and you! I heard about what you did today!" I froze, realizing I wasn't off the hook that easily. "I'm so proud of you!"

Now she was hugging me and a splash her wine landed on my shoulder as she threw her arms around me.

"Proud? I thought you liked her?"

"Please, I tolerated her. We all did and yes she has her good moments, but even their fake! I'm surprised you didn't kill her when she said she slept with Beau. I would have. When she told me I laughed and then told her not to speak to us again and hung up!"

"Sparky was a champ, he saved my day!" I grabbed what was left of her wine and skulled it, looking towards the stove the pot of brown goop started to pour over the edge and I ran to turn it off. "What is this?"

"Dunno, I just threw a bunch of sauces together. I was going to add mince, but we didn't have any so I used up some of that tofu when I was trying to be vegetarian." She shrugged and shaking my head I poured into the bin.

"We're not eating that. I wish John was here, he'd cook and make sure we had groceries!"

"I know, never thought I'd miss having him around."

"Thai?" I suggested.

"You read my mind!" And with her covered in paint and me covered in wine, we went out for dinner.

-

Friday was a big improvement for both of us. Jess didn't get fired from her work placement and I didn't punch anyone else. I was about to head home when John called me back into his office and I prayed he wasn't about to throw me more work to do because all I wanted was to go home and eat junk food in front of the TV all night.