WANTED: Love advice

5. Grandpa

“Hey grandpa…”

The stocky old man didn’t look up from his car. The hood was propped up and he was fixing something inside the vehicle.

“Grandpa?”

The old man was still looking down.

“Grandpa!”

He finally looked up and got startled when he saw Ash by his side.

“Ash! My son!”

Ash almost forgot; his grandfather had hearing problems. He watched him as he took out his hearing aid from his pants’ pocket and put it on. He seemed happier once he wore it. “Good to see you! How’s school been?”

Something serious was running. Did his mom say anything about those F’s he got in French? He wasn’t French, so he wasn’t supposed to get a good grade in French. It’s called logic.

“It’s good.”

“Wonderful! Did you see your grandmother? She’s home!” Grandpa Ketchum checked something in the vehicle again. He then looked up.

Ash cleared his throat. “Yeah… I did.”

“Your dad is in town too. Did you see him?”

“Yeah…” Ash hated to think about the sex conversation again. It was disturbing. He really wished his father didn’t get his way of thinking from Grandpa.

“Good! It’s nice to see you now and then, Ash! You should come more often!”

If you were just a bit sane, I would… Ash smiled nervously and nodded his head.

“I came today because I wanted to talk about something.”

“Oh, something? What is it?”

“It’s about a girl—and it’s not sex, I’m not scared of dating her and I don’t want to wait until I’m thirty so I can ask her out!”

Grandpa kept staring. Ash realized he snapped at him. “I’m—I’m sorry. That came out just like that…”

“Hey, it’s alright, son. Who is this girl anyway?”

Grandpa was probably the first one to ask a good question, after all. Ash knew he could count on him then.

“Dad didn’t tell you about her? Her name is Misty, and we have two classes together—I met her last year and she’s really fun—then we got really close and we started hanging out with each other, studying together and—you have to hear her sing, Grandpa! She’s really good!—and we wrote this song together and it’s so complicated I didn’t know if it meant something or not and I started getting this weird feeling when I’m around her and I just turn as red as a tomato when she’s so close to me! I feel so weird around her and I can’t wait to hang out with her!  Then at the same time I hate her because I don’t know I’m not sure! I like her and I hate her at the same time! I don’t know if she feels like this when she’s around me and I really want to know!”

Ash finished it with a heavy sigh. His grandfather was still staring at him.

“I don’t get it.”

“Get what, grandpa?”

“If you don’t want to sleep with this girl, and you are not scared of dating her—and you don’t want to wait so you can ask her out… what do you want do with her then?”

Ash’s jaw dropped. He felt his chest tighten a bit.

It was official;

His family members were insane.

“You’re okay, Ashton? Is everything alright? You look pale—hey! Where are you going? Come back here!”