Small Towns

Chapter 3

Dinner was, interesting to put it lightly. Johnny was entertaining and funny according to my family. Blaire adored him, Brendan and Benji had a grand time talking about football and other sports, my parents talked about what he wanted to do in college, even the cat liked him. I was the only person in my family who despised the little turd that was now creeping into my life. At around seven, he said he had to go home before his mom got worried. As soon as he was out of earshot my mom immediately asked, "How did you meet him?"

I was confused. "Who?"

"Your boyfriend silly!"

Water shot out of my mouth in a spit take. "B-boyfriend?"

"Yes! Johnny was delightful. When did you guys get together?"

"We aren't together mom, he just got to California today."

"Then why did you spend all afternoon with him?"

"Believe me, I didn't want to. I have to show him around town for the next month or so."

"Oh." And then I walked to my room. I waded through the trash and found my bed and cleared the junk off of it. How does one person screw up a room this much in a week? I shudder to think of what the room he's lived in his whole life looks like. I didn't even bother to take off my clothes before I drifted into a dreamless sleep.

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"BLAIRE JUST LET ME USE IT FOR 5 MINUTES!"

"NO! I HAVE TO FINISH GETTING READY!

"YOU HAVE BEEN IN THERE FOR MORE THAN 20 MINUTES!"

My routine wake up call. Benji has probably been up since the crack of dawn to get ready for his job at Starbucks, so he's gone already. Blaire and Brendan do this practically everyday. I smiled to myself as I walked into the bathroom connected to my room. 45 minutes later, I'm eating a toaster waffle in the kitchen waiting for Brendan and Blaire so I can take them to school. "If you guys don't get down here in 5 minutes, you can forget about me giving you a ride!" In less than 30 seconds, they were downstairs, eating their toaster waffles quickly. 

Blaire and Brendan began to fight over who got shotgun. This is futile everyday. Neither of them get to sit shotgun unless it's their birthday. "Once again I say, neither of you get shotgun." They grumbled and climbed into the backseat of my car. They were at school, finally. At least the car ride was quiet. I began to drive to my high school when I saw Johnny on the sidewalk, struggling to carry all of his books.

I rolled down the passenger window and said. "Johnny, do you want a ride?"

"Yes! Thank you Brea Mae!" He got in and buckled his seat belt.

"It's not a big deal."

"Yesterday you said you hated me and now you're giving me a ride to school. Huge improvement to being threatened."

"Eh. I'm just being nice to my peers."

"Oh. I thought it was because you could get enough of this." He gestured to his body. I punched him in the shoulder. 

"Do you want to walk the rest of the way to school?"

"No, sorry." He looked down at his books. Blank Space by Taylor Swift came on the radio. I no longer cared who Johnny was. I was singing Blank Space at the top of my lungs. 

So it's gonna be forever
Or it's gonna go down in flames
You can tell me when it's over
If the high was worth the pain
Got a long list of ex-lovers
They'll tell you I'm insane
Cause you know I love the players
And you love the game