Ned Gets Stood Up

Chapter Sixteen

NED

"Hey," Ned said, once they were far away from Santa Land and he could see the hopeful red glow of Target getting closer. Sam had said little, either. Ned plucked Sam from his mind spiral before the silence suffocated him. "Will you text Lena and make sure she got home, okay?"

"Oh, uh, sure."

Ned's stomach was performing acrobatic flips. He tried focusing on the sidewalk and driving to feel better... but he knew this wasn't car sickness (or golf cart sickness either). It was butterflies. Thousands to millions of butterflies going nuts inside his stomach because he almost kissed Sam Hayes again after five years. Because he told Sam how he felt. Finally.

Ned would never be the same.

"What's the damage? Do you think he'll make it, doc?" Ned asked, eyeing Gregor before focusing back on the road. With every decision, Ned was proving the fact he didn't deserve to be The Gregor's caretaker. At every turn, he has endangered its life. This didn't bode well for Ned ever wanting to keep a pet.

Ned reached over and patted the gnome's tall red hat. "I'm really sorry," Ned told The Gregor again. "But it's going to be okay. We're gonna get you fixed up and we'll figure this out. No problem."

"Hmm, well," Sam mumbled and held up The Gregor, who was a little scuffed and without a whole foot. "Glue should do the trick-'' Stopping himself, Sam must've noticed something as he peered closer at the bottom of the little gnome's foot.

He grabbed his phone for the flashlight and read aloud what he saw, "Hines. 2010. Hey, Ned, does the name Hines ring a bell?"

"No..."

But Ned was retracing his steps in his memory, searching for a time that name might've come up and if it had to do with The Gregor. He had few precious memories of kids around town owning The Gregor, but Hines didn't stick out at all. That would've been eleven years ago and Ned would've only been five years old.

He never thought about The Gregor's age. In some ways, Ned assumed The Gregor existed since the dawn of time, but Ned never thought past just seeing The Gregor for what it was and not where it came from.

Someone gave it a name.

Someone glued those sunglasses onto its face.

"What about 2010?"

"No, but..." Ned shook his head. "But do you think that could've been the original Gregor owner?"

Sam finished, "Could be the year he graduated, too."

"Or maybe the year he made The Gregor."

"Yes!"

Grinning, Sam grabbed Ned's arm and Ned smiled back. He had finally made a decision and this one, he was going to stick to until the very end... and that decision was letting something else make the decision. It was a perfect plan. "If this Hines' person created The Gregor, then I think that's who should take him. This person should decide what to do. You wouldn't have a Creekside yearbook, would you?"

"No..." Sam said strangely, like how he started any conversation where Ned might not like the ending. Ned's butterflies were now squirming with worry. "But I know who does."

#

Mathew Geller.

Ned had never met Mathew Geller in person. He went to another school and usually, when Sam and he hung out, someone's parents joined, which meant Ned's were not allowed.

"Hi, Matt," Sam said on the phone while they walked through Target.

Matt.

Ned rolled his name. It wasn't a pet name, but not what anyone else called him. He didn't know Sam was still close enough to Mathew that the guy would answer if Sam called. They never spoke on the phone. If Ned called Sam, Sam would send him straight to voicemail and shoot him a text asking if it was a medical emergency.