How Boys Think

Lesson #12: Apparently, I Have a Harem

"You look happy."

I looked up from the script in my hands and glanced over at Caiden. I was perched on the edge of the stage, swinging my legs like a little kid and Caiden leaned against the side of the stage next to me. He was flipping through his own battered copy of his script, scrawling in side-notes every now and then.

"Do I?" I asked him.

He didn't look up. "You're humming."

I paused as I realized he was right. I had been humming, sometimes singing, a song from a Disney movie that had just come out called Frozen. I had been murmuring the words to 'Let it Go' without even realizing it.

I laughed. "I am. So what?"

"So something's happened." He replied. "What was it?"

"Does something have to happen for me to be happy?"

He gave me a dry look and I giggled unintentionally.

He poked my cheek. "See? That right there. What's that all about?"

I sighed and shrugged. "I guess I'm in a good mood because I got an old friend back."

He looked up at that and raised an eyebrow. "An old friend?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. We were really close back in middle school and freshmen year. Then he moved out of state, and went to go live with his dad."

His brow creased and his eyes narrowed slightly. "He?" His voice held a dangerous note in it and for some reason I blushed.

I chuckled nervously. "Ha ha...uh, yeah? Um, why are you looking like that?"

His expression went blank and rearranged itself into a carefully neutral look. "So, he's back, huh? Well that's..." He seemed to struggle for a moment to get the word out. "Good, I suppose." It came out sounding half-strangled.

I frowned at him in concern. "Cay? You okay?

He smiled, but it was more like a grimace. "Just peachy." He looked back down at his script and flipped through it casually, but I could tell he wasn't paying any attention to it. It was upside down. "So," He said conversationally. "Anybody I might have known back in the day?"

I crossed my arms over my chest and tilted my head to the side. "Jay Randle?"

He frowned and looked up at me. "That short kid who people used to pic on when we were younger?"

"Yeah,"

He brightened considerably and gave me a genuine smile. "Oh. Well why didn't you say so?"

I threw up my hands in exasperation. 

Boys, I thought, shaking my head. "Oh, Caiden. You're so..."

He looked at me angelically, his pretty brown eyes wide and innocent. "Yes?"

"Interesting." I finished, for lack of a better word. 

He pouted adorably. "Interesting? I'm not a science experiment, Mina."

"Oh, yes you are," I said, chucking him under the chin. "I'm studying the inside of the male mind via exteral stimuli and recording the results mentally."

"So that's why you keep me around."

"Yup," I said cheerfully. "For the sake of science."

He laughed. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Who's doing what to who?" A new voice rang out and I jumped and looked up to see Jay striding towards us across the stage.

A giant grin broke out across my face and I rolled to my feet to give him a hug. "Jay! What are you doing here?"