Teenage Dream

Chapter Four

The Final Secret

Ian’s POV

Something soft moved under me quickly before something hit the top of my head. “Hey, butt-munch. Get up. Me and mom are going shopping and you gotta come with.” It was my older sister rudely waking me up. I didn’t have time to talk back before she hit my head with my pillow again. “We’re leaving in five minutes. Get your lazy butt out of bed.” When I heard her leave my room, I sat up nearly growling in anger. “I don’t want to go shopping. Why the fuck do I need to go?” My day was seriously off to a bad start and it was barely 9AM. I changed into a black t-shirt that was on my floor and wrinkled grey jeans as an outfit. “You’re just jealous I’m awesome…and you’re freakin stupid.” I cussed out my dumb sister a few times while tying my shoes, skipping brushing my teeth when I was hurried by my mom. “I’m coming!” I shouted in the bathroom, flinching when brushing my hair too hard. My left hand clenched my cell phone as I headed out the door and into the car with my mom and sister. I was slumped in the backseat while they talk constantly about stupid things on the way to Target.

I played Tetris on my crappy flip phone and tried to drown out their noise. I was still thirty bucks short of buying an MP3 player. Then I could block out any distraction with good music I could take anywhere. “So Lonnie took me out to dinner last night, paid for all the expensive food, then we walked in the park at sunset where he showed me this.” From the front seat I heard my mom gasp and get all excited over some bracelet Melissa’s boyfriend bought her. I wasn’t paying attention to their chatter until my sister brought my name up. “Maybe Ian can be a true gentleman when he gets a girlfriend.” I looked up from my phone to see her turned in her seat and smirking at me. She could have been insulting me by saying I’d never get a girlfriend or I really could be nice to a girlfriend when I managed to get one. And her smirk could have been sly or mean; either way I didn’t say anything and went back to my game. Psh, she’s nineteen and thinks she knows everything. I’ll get a girlfriend one d- “Anthony, do you really want me to be your boyfriend?” The words I said to him the day before rung out in my head and stunned me. I had been so angry and tired that morning, it kept me distracted from thinking about the biggest thing going on in my life. Anthony and mine’s friendship was getting weird. The day before when we decided to move on and just be friends, I could tell Anthony was distracted the whole time we hung out. I tried to keep his mind focused on the dumb fun we were having at the playground but he kept trailing off and going into deep thought. We agreed to move on but it was the last thing we were doing.

The constant shock of Anthony possibly having a deep crush on me that not even he knew about wore me out emotionally. Since the time he kissed me a few days before, Anthony was always on my mind. The only time when he wasn’t was when I was asleep or had just woken up. Other than that, Anthony’s face was in my mind morning, noon, and night. He made me question my looks. I looked at my average body in the mirror, trying to figure out what made me seem attractive. My mom said I had a young and innocent face but I wasn’t a tough and masculine guy. And Anthony wasn’t attracted to that. But I didn’t have a slender and girly figure either. So could he have only been drawn to my personality? I was loveable enough. It was getting too tiresome to worry about what Anthony felt for me. When the three of us got to Target, I followed them around while they had the most boring conversations and looked at the dumbest stuff. They gossiped while looking at clothes, paying no attention to me since I was basically invisible. And they knew I wasn’t in the mood to talk; they probably believed it was because Melissa pissed me off with the rude wake up. Part of it was, but my anger mixed with tiredness turned to frustration. If they tried talking to me I would probably snap at them.

We passed the electronics section and my mom asked nicely: “Ian, do you want to go look at CDs and movies?” She looked surprised when I shook my head. “No. It’s a waste of time.” I said slowly with a big frown. Damn how I wished I was home. Melissa snickered at me. “Mom, I think it’s that time of month for him.” They both laughed from saying I was grumpy because I was on my period which I didn’t even have since I wasn’t a girl. Melissa got serious when I glared at them. “It’s a joke, Ian. Chill out.” They went back to ignoring me when I scoffed and got even more annoyed. The shopping trip was a total waste of time for me since I didn’t buy anything and just followed them around for an hour. They talked about the couple of items they bought while I sat in the backseat bored again. My eyes gazed out the window and threatened to close for a nap, my early wake up making me tired. I’m fucking going back to bed. And I was allowed to when we got home. My mom and sister didn’t bother to socialize with me while I was in such a bad mood. So I locked my bedroom door, kicked off my shoes, and crawled into bed and under my covers, ignoring the daylight that was supposed to keep me awake. Stop. Don’t love me Anthony. I don’t feel the same way. Let’s go back…to the way we used to be…