Yellow (editing)

Paint Me a Maroon Me

"Is school as terrible as Barry?" Egan said, mouth full of granola. I heard him unscrew his bottle cap and take a sip of water.

"Worse," I said, my mouth full of granola as well. I finished and stuffed the wrapper in my hoodie pocket.

"Oh. Have you talked to Orenda lately?"

"No. Why?"

"Aren't you guys, like, a thing?"

I scoffed. "You mean dating? No, I don't think so. Honestly, she's really confusing. It's like she doesn't like me but she feels like I'm the last choice."

"Dang. And you like her?"

"You think!?"

"Sorry." Egan said sorry a whole lot.

"Okay, let's run!" I suggested, so that the conversation would end quickly and hopefully be erased from my memory.

We ran around the block a few times for my sake, because I knew the path so I wouldn't need to be helped around corners by Egan. The whole time we ran Egan reminded me to take small sips of water to avoid cramps, which I responded to with, "yeah okay! Okay! Okay (x10)!" I started to get a little bit hot so I took off my hoodie and Egan threw it onto my driveway when we passed our house, hopefully. It seemed a little strange to me to be up so early, and especially because a lot of people were already bustling around and mowing the lawn, driving their cars, and shouting at their children - with their children responding back in cries. 

We slowed down to a jog after about ten or a hundred laps around the block, and I felt pretty much dead. Egan actually had to take more breaks than me because he was having a hard time breathing because of his asthma. He also claiming that was because his pollen allergy pills weren't 'working like the box said' and I just agreed with him to save his masculinity or whatever.

"What time is it?" I asked, breathless. I sat down and Egan told me it's better to walk around after a run, so I stood up again, my legs burning.

"7:11," he panted.

"Good."

"I'm going to go home before I faint. I think I need my inhaler."

"You going to be okay?" I asked. He had already started walking away.

"Yeah! Good luck with the Orenda May Castellano!" He shouted.

"She's just Orenda!" I called over. I heard him laugh and the door shut.

It took me only 30 seconds to walk back to my house, and I knew I had gotten there because my foot had gotten caught on a very dirt covered hoodie that felt quite familiar.

My mom woke up around an hour after I came back, and she appeared to be completely oblivious about me waking up early and actually doing something good like going for a run. She made me a really good breakfast I can't remember and my dad joked about how the eggs my mom had fried looked like, well, boobs. I don't think my dad's jokes ever ran out of juice.

We talked about how Barry had been discharged from the hospital in ding dang diddly shape and was going to come over on Sunday for dinner, and my dad repeatedly made heart puns (such as, "do you think he'll have the heart to take Finny back for tutoring?" and "my heart goes out to him" and "well, I sure am glad that his heart will be beating 'heart'er now!") 

After that I hopped on the car with my mom and we drove to an old little barber shop on Main Street where a very old lady with a very thick accent complimented me on the "luscious hair on you head!!!!" And my mom was basically on her knees begging the very old lady with a very thick accent to cut it all off.