The Fifteenth Year

January: Part 11

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Dear Friend,

To my relief, when I went outside to take out the trash to the curb for my mom, Jason was just stepping out on his porch and waved me over. I waited at his curb for him to approach me. I smiled when I saw he had his puppy on his leash.

"Hey," he said, smiling. "I was about to take Chester for a walk. I'm so glad I bumped into you. I was going to ask if you wanted to join me, and I was relieved I didn't have to ring your doorbell. I can't look your parents directly in the eye."

I giggled. "You're paranoid. They don't suspect a thing."

He rolled his eyes. "Well, mine do. They think I already have a new girlfriend. My inability to be nonchalant must be giving me away."

I looked back over at my house and said, "We'll just need to be more careful. My mom thinks I just met a nice guy in class and he walked me to lunch hour once. No big deal. We'll just keep up the charade until it feels right." I backed towards my yard. "Let me get a jacket and let my mom know where I'll be. Be right back."

When I returned, we smiled giddily at each other and slowly strolled the block with a happy Chester skipping in front of us.

"I have a confession to make," I murmured, grimacing.

He chucked. "Uh-oh. You're just a woman of several secrets, aren't you?"

"I may or may not have let it slip on accident that we're...whatever we're."

He smiled. "Can I confess something too? I may have said something to Chris. But he's under oath to keep it locked down. None of the guys on the team know. It won't get out at school."

"My friends are trustworthy too. What can I say They know me better than my parents do."

As soon as we rounded the corner from the block out of sight of our house. Jason looked over his shoulder to make sure, and then linked his fingers with mine. I smiled at the pavement from ear to ear.

"So...whatever we're...what do you think we should call this then? Secret relationship?"

I snorted. "I'm plenty good at secrets, trust me. It's whatever you want it to be, I guess."

He stopped and looked at me. "I don't ever want you to think I'm embarrassed by you. I don't care if the entire school knows. I'm dating you. I'm not ashamed by this recent change at all."

It was a relief to hear that. "We agreed we wouldn't say anything because of our parents. You said it right. We do have things to explore here first."

"And in the spirit of exploring, I was wondering if...you'd...want to..."

I looked at him hopefully.

"Go out with me? On Saturday night?"

I smiled like an idiot and then my face fell. "Jason, we can't. Where would we go? People will see us..."

He shook his head. "We can go to Florin. I'll take you to dinner. It'd be great."

Florin was in the next county over from Lakota. It wasn't exactly a party scene for students to go gallivanting about. It would work.

I smiled. "I'd like that."

He beamed. "Great. I'll just tell my mom I'm driving you there to research something for a paper. That's believable, right?"

I laughed. "I'm sure we can think of something."

Chester stopped to sniff a flowerbed, so Jason tugged on his leash gently to direct him back to the street. He was looking at Chester, a breeze gently brushing his hair, when he asked, "You said you were the queen of secrets. Anything else I should know?"